Facing Worlds

Last updated
Facing Worlds
Unreal Tournament location
Facing Worlds (Unreal Tournament).png
Facing Worlds in Unreal Tournament (1999).
First appearance Unreal Tournament
Created byCedric Fiorentino
Genre First-person shooter

Facing Worlds, also known by its filename CTF-Face, is a multiplayer map for the first-person shooter video games Unreal Tournament (1999), Unreal Tournament 2003 , Unreal Tournament 2004 , Unreal Tournament 3 , and Unreal Tournament (2014). Consisting of two identical towers separated by a bridge, each team must fight their way into the opposing team's tower and capture their flag. The original Unreal Tournament version of Facing Worlds received critical acclaim, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest first-person shooter maps of all time.

Contents

Design

Facing Worlds originally appeared in Unreal Tournament (1999). The map is set in space on a small asteroid in orbit over Earth. As a Capture the Flag map, players are divided into two teams, with each team spawning near a tower containing their team's flag. The towers are connected by a two-lane bridge, with a large gap separating the lanes. The goal of the map is for each team to retrieve the opposing team's flag and deliver it to their own team's tower.

Facing Worlds' creator, Cedric Fiorentino, referred to the map's architecture as "vaguely Mayan but not too recognizable". [1]

Development

Facing Worlds was created by Fiorentino as a test of the Unreal Engine's capabilities. According to Fiorentino, typical Unreal Tournament maps had a limit of 160 polygons visible at the same time, which were split evenly between the landscape and map structures. By contrast, Facing Worlds' development began with Fiorentino allocating all 160 polygons to buildings and leaving the landscape for later. After building the initial tower, Fiorentino duplicated it, linked the towers by a bridge, and began gameplay testing.

As a result of Facing World's polygon budget being exhausted on its dual towers, a traditional landscape was omitted in favor of having the map take place in space, with Fiorentino employing an animated skybox to give the impression that the map is "in a chaotic orbit above the Earth." [1]

"Foregone Destruction", the song that plays ingame within Facing Worlds, was written with minimal collaboration between Fiorentino and the co-composer of Unreal Tournament's soundtrack, Michiel van den Bos. Van den Bos mostly relied on text explanations of Unreal Tournament when composing its soundtrack, as he didn't have appropriate hardware to run the game itself. In explaining the origins of the track, van den Bos said: "I was, and still am, very fond of Drum 'n' Bass [...] and since I hadn't heard it in games before, I thought I'd give it a shot." [1]

Reception

Facing Worlds is frequently listed as one of the greatest multiplayer maps of all time. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] According to Fiorentino, telemetry for Unreal Tournament revealed that Facing Worlds was played more than all other Capture the Flag levels combined. [1]

Andy Kelly of PC Gamer deemed Facing Worlds "the greatest multiplayer map" in a 2020 retrospective, praising the map for its "beautifully simple design". [7] Speaking of his time playing Facing Worlds at LAN parties, Kevin Wong of Kotaku regarded the map as being "so well-designed, so carefully constructed, that every other CTF map paled in comparison." [8] Peter Glagowski of Destructoid commented that "it is hard to understate the mastery of design that is CTF-Face", praising the map for encouraging teamwork and playstyle diversity without sacrificing its simplicity. [6]

Legacy

Facing Worlds has appeared in all subsequent Unreal Tournament games, including Unreal Tournament 2003 , Unreal Tournament 2004 , Unreal Tournament 3 , and Unreal Tournament (2014). Facing Worlds has also been remade as a custom map for other games, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Halo 5: Guardians . [9] [1] A map from Splitgate , called "Foregone Destruction", is a direct homage to Facing Worlds. [10]

Posters featuring the map can be found inside houses on the island in the later Epic Games release Fortnite Battle Royale , alongside other posters for their titles Jazz Jackrabbit and One Must Fall 2097 .

Related Research Articles

<i>Quake</i> (video game) 1996 video game

Quake is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive. The first game in the Quake series, it was originally released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux in 1996, followed by Mac OS and Sega Saturn in 1997 and Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, players must find their way through various maze-like, medieval environments while battling monsters using an array of weaponry. Quake takes inspiration from gothic fiction and the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill the other players' characters as many times as possible. The deathmatch may end on a frag limit or a time limit, and the winner is the player that accumulated the greatest number of frags.

<i>Unreal Tournament</i> 1999 first-person shooter video game

Unreal Tournament is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the Unreal series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Windows, and later released on the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast by Infogrames in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Players compete in a series of matches of various types, with the general aim of out-killing opponents. The PC and Dreamcast versions support multiplayer online or over a local area network. Free expansion packs were released, some of which were bundled with a 2000 re-release: Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition.

<i>Unreal Tournament 2003</i> 2002 video game

Unreal Tournament 2003 is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes, and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand name. The game is part of the Unreal franchise, and is a sequel to 1999's Unreal Tournament. Like its predecessor, the game is designed mainly for multiplayer gaming.

<i>Unreal Tournament 2004</i> 2004 first-person shooter video game

Unreal Tournament 2004 is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. Part of the Unreal franchise, it is the third game in the Unreal Tournament series and the sequel to Unreal Tournament 2003.

<i>Starsiege: Tribes</i> 1998 video game

Starsiege: Tribes is a first-person shooter video game. It is the first of the Tribes video game series and follows the story from Metaltech: Earthsiege and Starsiege. It was developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 1998. An expansion pack, Tribes Extreme, was cancelled; it was supposed to add single-player missions, multiplayer maps, and bot AI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood Gulch</span> Video game multiplayer map

Blood Gulch is a multiplayer map in the first-person shooter Halo video game series. It first appeared in Halo: Combat Evolved, and was remade for Halo 2 as "Coagulation", as well as for Halo: Reach as "Hemorrhage" and Halo: The Master Chief Collection as "Bloodline". It also had spiritual successors in Halo 3's "Valhalla", in Halo 4 and Halo Wars as "Ragnarok", and in Halo 5's "Basin". Taking place in a canyon on the Halo ringworld that resembles the American Southwest, it was designed for the capture the flag game mode but can also be used for other modes, such as deathmatch. Blood Gulch was one of Halo's most critically acclaimed and influential multiplayer maps, and played a significant role in the machinima series Red vs. Blue.

A first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters. Shooter refers to games which revolve primarily around wielding firearms and killing other entities in the game world, either non-player characters or other players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Extremes</span> Canadian video game developer

Digital Extremes Ltd. is a Canadian video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creating Warframe, a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creating Epic Games' Unreal series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered in London, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, now Leyou, for $73 million. On May 22, 2016 Leyou exercised a call option and increased their stake to 97% of Digital Extremes for a total consideration of $138.2 million US. On December 23, 2020, Tencent bought Leyou for 1.3 billion dollars, which included the majority stake in Digital Extremes that Leyou held.

<i>Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict</i> 2005 video game

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is a first- and third-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Midway Games. It was released in April 2005 for Xbox. The game is part of the Unreal franchise, and is a direct sequel to 2002's Unreal Championship. Unreal Championship 2 was designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the Xbox Live gaming service.

<i>Unreal Tournament 3</i> 2007 first-person shooter video game

Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Midway Games. Part of the Unreal franchise, it is the fourth game in the Unreal Tournament series, and the eighth game overall; its name is in reflection of the game being the first in the franchise to use Unreal Engine 3. It was released on November 19, 2007, for Microsoft Windows, December 10 for the PlayStation 3, and on July 3, 2008, for the Xbox 360. OS X and Linux ports were planned, but they were eventually cancelled. A free-to-play version, entitled Unreal Tournament 3 X, was announced by Epic Games in late 2022 and cancelled in 2023.

Cube 2: Sauerbraten is a cross-platform, Quake-like first-person shooter that runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X using OpenGL and SDL.

Tripwire Interactive LLC is an American video game developer and publisher based in Roswell, Georgia.

Unreal Tournament was a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games. It is the ninth game in the Unreal franchise, the fifth game in the Unreal Tournament series, and the first entry to be released since 2007's Unreal Tournament 3. The game utilizes Epic's Unreal Engine 4 and was released for free on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. The game was released as an alpha in 2014, but was never completed due to Epic Games' focus on Fortnite Battle Royale.

<i>Dusk</i> (video game) 2018 video game

Dusk is a 2018 first person shooter created by American developer David Szymanski and published by New Blood Interactive for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Nintendo Switch. The game is produced by Dave Oshry, who previously co-directed the 2013 remake of Rise of the Triad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2Fort</span> Video game map in the Team Fortress series

"2Fort" is a multiplayer map for the first-person shooter games Quake Team Fortress, Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2, and for the multiplayer total conversion modification Fortress Forever. Consisting of two similar buildings separated by a short bridge and a moat, each team must fight their way into the opposing team's building and capture their flag/intelligence from an underground base concealed beneath. A launch map for Team Fortress 2, 2Fort was critically praised as an iconic map for the series and one of the best first-person shooter maps of all time.

<i>Splitgate</i> 2021 video game

Splitgate is a free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by 1047 Games. It was released in early access on May 24, 2019, for Linux and Microsoft Windows on Steam, and on Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on July 27, 2021. A PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S version came in 2022. On August 25, 2021, the developers announced that the game would stay in beta indefinitely and at the same time released Season Zero. The game revolves around Halo-inspired sci-fi combat in battle arenas where players can create wormhole portals between two points on the map that have been compared to those of the Portal series, and fire weapons or travel through those portals.

An arena shooter is a subgenre of shooter games and multiplayer games that cover both the first-person shooter and third-person shooter genres. These games emphasize fast-paced movement in enclosed map designs that foster engagement between players.

<i>Overwatch</i> Multimedia franchise

Overwatch is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: Overwatch was released in 2016, and Overwatch 2 was released in 2022. Both games feature hero-based combat between two teams of players vying over various objectives, along with other traditional gameplay modes. With the launch of Overwatch 2, the roster of selectable heroes has grown to 35.

No Players Online is a short horror game released on Itch.io, a website for distributing indie games. It was created by Belgian university students Adam Pype and Ward D'Heer and sound designer Viktor Kraus as part of the Haunted PS1 Jam in November 2019. Initially intended to be a twenty-minute horror game, the developers continued to expand the game into an alternate reality game (ARG) involving cryptic messages and secret passcodes. Players quickly solved the ARG on a dedicated Discord server.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "The making of Facing Worlds, Unreal Tournament's most popular map". rockpapershotgun.com. November 28, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  2. "The 10 greatest FPS multiplayer levels of all time". redbull.com. January 14, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  3. "Here's Some Of The Best Multiplayer Maps Of All Time". www.kotaku.com.au. July 9, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  4. "The 11 Best FPS Multiplayer Maps That We All Spent Hours Playing". gamebyte.com. June 4, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  5. "15 Best Multiplayer Maps In Gaming History Ranked". whatculture.com. May 16, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "What is your favorite multiplayer map?". destructoid.com. February 19, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  7. "The simple genius of Unreal Tournament map Facing Worlds". pcgamer.com. May 7, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  8. "Unreal Tournament's 'Facing Worlds' Is Still The Best Multiplayer Map". kotaku.com. November 24, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  9. "Renowned Unreal Tournament map Facing Worlds gets modded into CS:GO". pcgamer.com. March 21, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  10. Park, Morgan (2021-07-08). "Splitgate's newest map is an homage to the Unreal Tournament classic Facing Worlds". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2021-10-25.