Capture the Flag

The Good
Well it's pretty cool for a while. You can't really get a gang of people together to play a game like this outdoors whenever you want to - for one, it might be winter, for, er, two, you might not be boy scout age anymore and your collegues at the office might cast some strange looks if you invite them all "out" for a game of Capture the flag in the forest, with all those stinky branches and unclean animals running about. In this game, you can do it any time. All the strategy, the tactics are here, and it only takes a bit of imagination to make it all come alive. At least until the boring graphics, the somewhat repetitive gameplay and the sort of, well, let's just say it, SAD quality about it all comes to you full force and you basically get bored and tired of chasing about all those little people onscreen.

The Bad
Capture the flag isn't about tactics and strategy. It's about running, adrenaline, tearing clothes, holding your breath as you sit in a dirty ditch and watch your opponent prowling around. OK, so I can't really see how a civilized 20-something (one) like me could enjoy all those things without joining some group of sad hippies who like to go to summer camp a lot, but that doesn't make this game any more attractive to me.

The Bottom Line
The tactical play in this game is quite involving, so a good 5 hours gameplay is yours for free. You'll enjoy it for that short while, and afterwards, well, for people who enjoy that sort of stuff, I guess it has that Solitaire quality of never getting old because it was never that "new" to start with. And this is certainly better than Solitaire. (The original version of this sentence as I originally just wrote it: "And this is certainly bertainly than Solitaire." No comment.)