Cold war is a Siege map set in a snowy StarWolf world. It sports one of the longest runs of objectives I've seen.
The layout consists of 4 seperate bunkers, plus the main base housing the switch. Of the 4 bunkers, one of these is the "ForceField" bunker: there are forcefields around every other area until these generators are taken down. It is also worth noting that the only repairable generators are the final two which protect the switch: once the rest are down, they stay down.
The defense starts high up in the mountains and aims for their first objectives, the ForceField generators. To get there, they have to cross the highlight of the map (for me): the ice. The ice was made with your usual water block, with some character tweaks to make it "floating" and whatnot, but what really sets this water apart from any other tweaked block is the ForceFields set just below the surface. These Forcefields are custom, and with them under there holding you up, the "water" acts just like "ice". One of the best ways to get up speed is to just hold down your run key.. your player will start to increase his speed until he's walking at about Mach 5.. at which point you shoot waay past the point you're aiming for, if you're anything like me.
The ForceField bunker is likely to be one of the most hotly contested spots on the map. If a Defense can hold these for even a little longer than the other team does, it's likely they will win. After the ForceField generators go down, the Defense must spread over three seperate areas (not counting the switch base), making it much harder to defend.
The offence can, at any time, go to repair their "remote spawn base". This is a small tower with two inventories, protected by ForceFields, and positioned quite close to the switch base. The spawnsphere here will also be automatically activated once all four bunkers go down.
After most bunkers are down, one will notice one of my minor complaints about this map. There are Diamond Sword bases used. Yes, I know many will say this doesn't affect the gameplay, and that's right. However, it will take a few points off of the "feel". And one base causes major frustration if you don't know the way out: once I destroyed the generators, I was physically trapped it became so dark. I could not find my way out, and had to end up committing suicide. Now, this may be my own stupidity.. but don't say I didn't warn you, if you've never seen this particular bunker.
The switch base is from Thin Ice, and if the Defense were wise, they'd make a last ditch stand at the gates. The entry way is small, but once in, the two generators are in very accessible/spammable places, and will soon fall. The switch is just a short jaunt from there, and approachable from two directions.
Playability is given to the defense: What with 4 preliminary objectives, and two chokepoints (actually, most of the bunkers are fairly well defendable) the offense will really have to work for a takeover at each and every bunker. The saving grace here is that the generators are non-repairable, which really is the only way the concept could work. Attention to Detail is fair, with nothing "Standing Out", excepting the Diamond Sword bases. However, I didn't count them as "detail", instead concentrating on the overall atmosphere. Balance is good, especially the way the Offense is moved closer when they only have the switch base to work on: it makes no sense to have them trek the distance if they have nothing to do from point A to point B. The remote offensive spawn tower concept was carried out to perfection: no glitches that I could discern. Item Placement only suffers in the Diamond Sword bases, and in a lack of eye-candy. Mechanics is wonderful, namely due to the "ice" in the map: I absolutely loved that part!
Overall, a solid Siege map. If you're the player who enjoys long battles, ala Trident, then this is a map for you. This also serves to diffuse the "quick scores" that some Siege maps are notorious for, and therefore may be useful in determining how good a team really is, at both Offense and Defense.