UT2k4 Invasion

I had forgotten how much fun the Invasion gametype is in UT2k4.  Relics really add a lot to it.  The odds are stacked tremendously against you, and the relics act as powerups to give you that fighting chance.  Relics don't completely remove the difficulty, you still have to be intelligent to stay alive.

The three relics that I've found to be the most useful are Health, Ammo, and Defense.  The three relics I've mentioned prolong the inevitable in different ways.

But wait, what exactly is Invasion?  You and the other players (or bots) are all on the same team.  When a wave begins (there's a countdown, it's hard to miss) random monster-type enemies with different attacks start spawning.  Your team's job is to kill them.  To aid you in your quest, you have a radar on your HUD that shows blue dots for the other players and yellow dots for enemies.  While trying to kill them, you need to watch your health very carefully because if you die you're out until the end of the wave.  While dead you can view from your teammates' points of view and help them with voice chat.  If everyone dies the round is over and it progresses to the next map.  I don't know if there's an end, with a team consisting of me and two bots that never seem to watch their health I never made it much past the third wave.

Some weapons are much better for Invasion than others.  The Flak cannon is particularly effective, only requiring two or three shots for most of the enemies I've encountered thus far.  Also useful are the Minigun and the Rocket Launcher.  If they're on the map, the Ion Painter and/or Redeemer can turn the tides of the fight when used at the right time.  Invasion uses the Deathmatch maps, and the more confined the map is, the harder it is.  It really helps to have space to move around.  Also, maps with instant kill hazards can be particularly annoying, though helpful if you can lure the monsters into the hazards.

Also useful for Invasion: The UT2004 RPG mutator.  Perhaps I'll post something about that in the future.