Tripwire Interactive is proud to introduce the following user-made maps and mods to RISING STORM 2: VIETNAM with subsequent cash prizes for each winning creator. Please find below brief summaries about what makes these winning entries special from the judges, starting with the maps:
Ninh Phu
1st Place Map Prize: $5,000
The lighting is great, and there's lots of use of existing assets in a clever way -- like the water tower, or the pipe run-off -- that creates a strong, believable setting where it's clear what every building or place is meant to "be". The whole map makes logical sense as a real place. We also appreciated the effort to match the style elements, like the overhead map, to the base game, which makes the whole thing feel like it has a ton of polish. As a side note, the coordinates on the map to the real reference location were a nice touch.
Gameplay has nice variety and progression between the first two open objectives to the tight-knit town action, and every objective is identifiable and different. The whole thing escalates very well. Overall, hard to find fault with the execution here. This is deserving of high praise.
Highway 14
2nd Place Map Prize: $2,500
The whole town section is really well constructed with good gameplay and some lovely detailing in the tall objective building and spots like the haphazard "movie theatre" next to the car park. The map has a nice sense of verticality and uses height in a more interesting way than just placing hills at random. Positioning the whole map along a wide river that isn't part of the play space was a really nice way to add character and help with orientation. Overall, this was a fantastic map which probably took an awful lot of work to pull off, so well done!
Firebase Georgina
3rd Place Map Prize: $1,000
This map definitely takes a different approach to map design and that's not a bad thing. There's a noticeable lack of hard cover at several points, and the battle feels almost more like "pitched warfare" than "guerilla". But again, that's not a bad thing, and at moments -- like when you come up towards objective E and you see the Firebase looming on the hill in front of you -- this map can feel truly epic in a way that impressed us a lot.
Honorable Mentions in the Best Map category: Jungle Raid, Dead and Buried, Operation Valkrie.
And now the prize-winning mods:
Green Army Men
Prize: $3,000
We're always going to love a big conversion mod – and a lot of work has gone into this one. The concept is always a fun one and is a great use of the base game. We're really interested to see how this one progresses!
King of the Hill
Prize: $1,000
We were really hoping someone would try out new and/or variant game modes, so were really happy to see this one appear. More, please!
Players interested in participating can still submit entries for consideration in the second and final round of the RISING STORM 2: VIETNAM modding contest. For more information, official rules, and full details on the $27,000 cash prize pool for round two, please head here.