Jailbreak 2004
Game mod of: Unreal Tournament 2004

Background

The latest incarnation of Jailbreak is a great mod with an ingenius concept and strong support from the mod community. Two opposing teams face off, each with their own base, and in each base is both a jail for holding killed enemy players and a release switch for the opposing team to break their teammates out of jail. Each player that's killed automatically respawns in the enemy teams' jail, and when all of one team's players are jailed, they are executed and the other team scores a point. A new round begins after each glorious execution and the team that scores the most points first wins the match. What makes this mod so fun is the number of excellent features that have been added to it. Players can entertain themselves quite a bit in the slammer while they wait for their teammates to break them out by watching the action outside of jail via survelliance cameras, windows, or live-updating maps, or by picking jail fights and even playing in-jail games to win prizes. Players can also get out of jail themselves rather than wait for a freelancing teammate to risk getting to the enemy team's release switch - at random intervals, one jailed player from each team is sent to the Arena to fight for his or her freedom, with the loser being sent straight back to jail in shame (the other jailed players can watch this action on the Jailbreak ArenaCam, another great touch), and on some levels a dangerous escape route is provided. Other features that standout include an informative HUD showing you the direction of each release switch and the number of jailed and non-jailed players, high quality levels in general (although some are a little confusing to navigate at first), vehicle support on some levels, and full bot support (of which you can adjust the aggression level of your AI teammates on the fly or let the game automatically adjust it for you). I only wish there were more "fortress-style" levels like those in the Quake 2 version of Jailbreak, but this is a minor complaint of which I'm sure will be attended to as more levels and map packs are released. Overall, being a jailbird has never been more fun

Gameplay

In Jailbreak, like in many other game types, your objective is to frag the opposing players — but unlike other game types, fragged players go straight into safe custody in the enemy jail when they're killed. To get them out of there, one of their teammates will have to fight his way into the enemy base and trigger the jail release switch that's hidden there (Jailbreak!). It is your task to defend your prison release switch and to free your own teammates when they're in jail. If your opponents manage to get all members of your team in prison, the opposing team will score a point, and your team will die a horrible death.

Jailbreak strongly focuses on team play and forces players to take on different roles for their team as the game goes on: defending their release switch, going into offense to frag opponents, or attacking the enemy base to release your own team members from prison. You'll have to be a versatile player to survive and win a game of Jailbreak.