The German 6th Army has approached the outskirts of Stalingrad. One of the most grueling battles in the early days of the siege revolved around several factories in the northern sector of the city. The Tractor Works was the site one of the earliest and most determined struggles that marked the entire battle. The Germans are charged with taking the main administration building, near their front line, and neutralizing Russian/Allied spawns in that are. Russian/Allied troops must fight to maintain possession of as much of the complex as possible and win based on 'time'.
Presentation / Technical
When I first beta tested this map, I told myself, "Boy! Isn't this so detailed!" The whole map seems so detailed that it looked like a battle had just taken place. The author manages to create an atmosphere that makes you feel spooked by the places where the enemy can be.
Basically, the main attraction of this map is the whole factory. It is detailed with ruins of rusty machinery that were probably destroyed during raids. You can hide in the vents and snipe people that come running in the factory. However, some of the rooms are a bit plain.
Outside, there seems to be a different world. Trains are destroyed with debris everywhere. There are panzers that are probably abandoned when the Germans and Allies put up a fierce defence. You may also be surprised to find an overturned train.
Outside, the lighting showed off that this atmosphere is supposed to be somewhat in the dawn, after the battle. However, there's a lensflare effect that shouldn't there if it's supposed to be in the morning or evening. It also proved a disadvantage to the fog surrounding it. On the otherhand, some light was shown shinning through the windows, which made great detail of dawn. I remembered one collasped part of the factory that made light shine through. Wow! How nice it is!
The textures aren't very fantastic. The author uses most of the same textures, and you may find it boring. The debris are normally made up of the same textures, which showed that only one or two main building was destroyed. As the author designed it in Spearhead, some of the textures were good for machinery, which made it look detailed.
Finally, the details. I think that most of the detail is there, but it could be better. The author should use vertex manupilations to make the debris more real-looking. There's also one part of the building that was probably damaged by air raids that made the whole dark room light up because of light shinning in through the destroyed walls.
Playability / Game Flaws
It was sad that I couldn't find a server playing this map. But I know that it will be a fun map to play with especially if you love sniping. As I mentioned, the vents and the dark areas, make it fun to camp in. It can prove to be a very cooperative team match which invovles your whole team, be it Axis or Allies, to storm the front, cover each other, and eliminate oppossing forces. However, there are some flaws, such as no coronas for lamps, and I saw a lamp hanging mid-air! Also there are some metal doors in the vents that make wooden door sound, and a pole that stretches from one end to the other that is so thin that if you were to walk across (that's what I did), people may think you're some cheater that uses "no clip" or tight-rope walker.
Conclusion
Download this map if you want to have hours of fun sniping and cooperating with one another. I really enjoy the details of the map, although some areas are not so well textured. Also the framerate may frustrate you if you're using a computer with a lousy video card. Bear in mind that this is a Spearhead map.
