Review: Crazy For Fight III

Crazy For Fight III, this time available only for Unreal Tournament is the largest of the series - seven complete playable maps and three smaller ones to connect them make it obvious that CFF3 dwarfs the previous installments easily. Made by the Japanese author Tatuyuki a.k.a. TA19, nowadays known under the moniker 'TA20' in 2001 it did see a limited release on his website, however as time progressed the file was lost and I had to contact the author himself to gain access. Now as you can see from the presence of this very text as well as the download link below it, the response was positive.

Crazy For Fight III is the finale of the series and it can clearly be seen that the author has improved a whole lot. I was expecting something similar to the final map of CFF2, however this came to me as a real surprise - the author has improved a lot. Everything, the visuals, the sound layer, the very concept, all of this shows how much TA20 has learned in the editor. It is a shame that we find out about the existence of this pack now, but better late than never.

The visuals are no longer simplistic this time around. While the architecture is certainly of the oldschool sort, it's less regular and the places themselves have a sense of concept and purpose which while nothing really big, is very well implemented and gives an idea of what's going on in there. While there is no written story for the pack, many things can be figured out from the locations themselves if nothing else. The levels are quite varied - a village, an ancient aquaduct below it, a town, a canyon of sorts (or a valley?), then a tech-rich outpost - all of this is clearly both inspired and inspiring in its own right.

While the levels mostly use Unreal Tournament tracks, they fit the CFF series' trademark arcade gameplay as well as the settings in which they are used. It's normally quite difficult to make typical fragfest music fit a single player adventure but TA20 has pulled it off successfully. Also, the ambience is there - finally - and it fits the locales quite well.

The gameplay formula hasn't changed drastically from the original CFF - it's still an arcade romp. At times a cutscene may appear and there's some adventure elements that mostly consist of exploring the locations to find the right switch or dealing with a blocked door to the jail cell the player's in - but all in all this is the same cheerful arcade carnage fest TA20 has made us used to, but enhanced, evolved.

As for the pack's flaws - sometimes certain events might not trigger if you're not in the exact spot, possibly due to small collision hulls of the relevant actors - but that doesn't happen very often. Construction bugs? I saw... like one? Not a big one though. And the scene where the player gets captured by the Skaarj - why the fresh hell did they allow me to keep my weapons with me in the jail cell, that's the question of the day. But aside from these flaws which are really nothing big - not even the last one, given that almost immediately the player gains access to the weapons they shouldn't have until that wall breaks, so the balance of the gameplay isn't changed by the bug, it's just an... oddity, nothing more... At any rate, the pack that has as many bugs as I have fingers on my right hand can be considered pretty polished.