Why Creek is a Terrible Map and Call of Duty 4 Map Design
Map Design isn’t just giving people a place to frag, it is an art form. In a good map players of all skill levels and play styles can interact and partake in a balanced game of Call of Duty 4, without the map ever getting boring or tedious. Map design is an exceedingly complex part of video game design, and I don’t pretend to be an expert in that area. What pains me though is when a perfectly good map is ruined, not because of the graphic design elements, not because of glitches in the code, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding in how the game play flows in a first person shooter .
The example of this poor map design is Creek. When it first came out with map pack containing three other maps it was greeted warmly, but after playing actually playing it a few times the opinions started to change. People complained that game play on the map was stagnant and the only way to get kills was to camp. Normally this would be discounted as typical gamer whining, but on Creek there was actually some truth to this accusation. The problem with Creek is there are only 3 points of travel, or choke points, noted in the image below (A is the path through the cave, B is the path over the mountain, and C is the wide opening next to the mountain).
Want to try to interact with the opponent via a different path? Tough luck, the way Creek is designed the only way to do that is to drill through a freakin mountain. In some situations having only 3 choke points would be manageable, but Creek is such an open map that a single Sniper on either side of the map can have a clear view of every choke point. Once positioned the Sniper can just sit there and pick off enemies. Players trying to bust through a choke point have virtually no hope of success, and have drastically lower kill death ratios. As a result your typical 30 person TDM Creek has 22 Snipers camping on either end with 8 guys running back and forth getting shot until time runs out. This fails the fun test which is ultimately why Creek is such a flawed map.
So please Infinity Ward/Activision, next time you release a map pack make sure you actually test the map with real players first, it’s sort of important.
That’s what smoke grenades were invented for! I for one like the map, variety is the spice of life and this map encourages smoke & stealth instead of the manic rushing about and shooting like most of the COD 4 maps.
its easy yo i got 23 kill streak bby hiding in the caves and laying the netrance with c4 and using a g3
^^ agreed… smoke nades.. but also, crawling… this is the only map i’ve ever had to crawl on… but worth it…. crawl to a front position on the hillside.. find the targets, stick your head up, kill your target, get back down, crawl alittle more… I find campers get trigger happy and if you have one good clan member willing to run around like an madman… all the other team seem easier to find xD
I agree with source..if ur on creek against a team of skilled snipers and campers..it will be tough, no matter how sneaky or how many smoke grenades u got. its fighting an uphill battle
to much snipers
It was probably designed for those of us on Xbox live - the maximum number of players is 9-a-side if your are playing groundwar. Smoke, stealth and the judicious use of sprinting are all that is needed.
I find that A and C are the easiest points of crossing. B is absolute suicide. I tend to combat my way through the cave, release a smoke, and ambush the disadvantaged snipers with suppressive fire. C is also easier, but takes more time as I tend to crawl all the way to the other side.
Camping is too good here and even storming with smoke grenades fighting versus snipers AND LMGunner spraying bullets into the smoke.
and hoping to be lucky versus claymores.
anyways regardless of which is which this map is too much based on ranged battles and SMG/shotguns may not be effective, using snipers are very lucrative.
At anyone who said that it is a good map you just need smoke grenades.
Here are 5 flaws with your smoke/crawl strategy.
5. Your always going to have a guy with an LMG spray into smoke and quite possibly pick you off.
4. Smoke grenades draw attention, the moment that smoke picks up at least half of the team will be aiming for the smoke to get you when you leave the smoke or when it goes away.
3. There is basically no grass in the middle of the map, so crawling to get to the other side wont work because your bound to be noticed and since your slow you are instantly an easy kill. Even if your lucky enough to get halfway without the grass you are spotted imidiatly in the middle of the map with no cover.
2. Most important for the smoke grenaders is that you only get ONE smoke grenade and that can only get you so far.
1. Most importantly for the crawlers. crawling takes way to long, by the time you get to the other side of the map(if you make it) half of the game is over and by then the sides could of switched plus you might only be able to get a few kills before someone changes their class or you get double teamed by pistols and you have to start all over again.
Overgrown is the right way to have the three choke points. It has cover and well creek has no cover.
Bloc was the right way to have a sniper map because its great for sniping but the sniper spots are very narrow and the back paths are protected from sniping so travel in the sides and then go on a killing sniper spree.
The only good thing about creek is the scenery and lighting.
sorry forgot to put my gamertag on my post.
My post is number 9(right above this one)
i am for this map.
You have to think why so many snipers use it.
There are alot of maps where sniping is ridiculously hard like vacant, showdown, shipment and district so all snipers are going to jump at the chance of going somewhere where a ghillie suit will work and we can sometimes camp. I seen someone above say about balanced play but snipers are the most uncommon users on the game because of the maps.
Creek is poo though because of the limited pathways.
this map is unbalanced i think because whichever team has the high ground has a big advantage
your observation fails to see that the map was designed to be played on a console with only 16 players. If you can find a server of 16 it is much more enjoyable. (even better is 5 on 5)
its always so quiet on the map in hardcore s&d. The moment you do anything you either get shot or shot at. Thats why i throw a smoke/special grenade in the lower part of the map and wait for the snipers to pop up like gophers to see whats going on… Works most of the time… For team deathmatch i go in the lower left part of the map and wait.
i like this map for train my eyes to see snipers thats all is not the best map but i think call of duty 4 maps R all good
Gaz, I disagree, everytime a game sterts at least half of the players are snipers unless it’s Shipment or Vaccant. I think that snipers are the most if not second most popular class(maybe second to ARs) and Shot Guns are the least.
snd on console is good because the ‘village’ side is the favored side not the little barn sh*t side
in snd pop a smoke at a and wait for the noo to run at it expctin a planter
I think this map is fine, just stay on your side, don’t rush and you should be fine. Obviously doesn’t wok if you are playing an objective-based game. It has a relatively flat relief, except for the mountain, making it fair for both teams. The really bad map is Bog, because the Marines start at the elevated section of the map (the long wall with 2 entryways). That’s why they ALWAYS win.
The maps were designed for a reason, if they wanted this map to be fast paced they would have made it smaller like shipment. this is a good place for getting headshots with eaither a sniper-rifle or a rifle with an ACOG scope
to the person that said bog is unbalanced you are wrong, the marines side has much less usable cover to use, especially for SnD where they have no way at all for predicting what is happening in ‘A’
Good write up. Honestly, the description you give Creek could be applied to almost every map in the game. There just aren’t enough places to go on any of them. Also maps like Bog and Showdown are so simplistic that sometimes I feel like its 1998 all over again. I find Creek somewhat tolerable because at least the overall large size cuts back on the random grenade throwing that plagues mostly all of the other maps. My biggest complaint with the game more than anything is the cramp nature of the multiplayer maps. Especially since this series has seen much better with the incredible Call of Duty: United Offensive. Its like they have been going backwards with the map design since COD2. Graphics get better and the level design gets worse, but thats just my opinion.
How good or bad is Creek ??. It depends on the playing conditions. If you play TDM on Creek, (especially with larg number of players, like 15 players per team), then forget it…..it is far away the worst map of COD4. As somebody noticed above, you will have 80% snipers camping the most of the time and the rest running like rabbits trying to avoid sniper shoots.
HOWEVER if you play Dominate on Creek with 6-8 players per team, then it turns to a great and challenging map.
I believe it is a map choice. The thing is, after awhile of playing, especially S&D, you know where the snipers hide and where the goons are running. You just need to find your spot and strategy(ies) to combat snipers and the other team. The problem is, especially with the xbox is that pick up games are the worst. People do not play together no matter what the map is. People are running everywhere trying to get a kill or plant (defuse) the bomb to get points (You don’t get any bonus points if you didn’t get a kill). So, you find yourself alone because everybody in your team was stupid enough to run like hell to get one kill and the other team was waiting for them. Yes maps make a different in the game but I beleive that team work is even more important than any map in COD4. Build a CLAN
I agree with number 6. I play on XBOX live and love this map. We are limited to usually 12 players (depending on game mode) and therefore a coordinated attack can pin the enemy down. Familiarity with the map and coordinating with your teammates can take down even an entire group of snipers. My only complaint is that you get the occasional stalemate game if you get all camping snipers. Then you just need to motivate your team to take the initiative and embarrass the newbies on the other side.
I concur that a lot of the design of creek tends to lean towards certain game modes.
hmnns hacks owns all for me :S
Creek is a map in which you must know how to snipe. but if you notice on the PC version, after a while people stop sniping, because there are no enemy snipers. Sure, the choke points are bad, but its called covering fire from a team of four m60’s.
Shotguns are quite common too, just depends which map.
Personally, i take Winchester1200 + Foregrip + uav jammer + dead silence.
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