Project Nar Shaddaa - Big City Nights
-------------------------------------
When this says "Demo" it IS short. There are a number of enemies and rooms but you will breeze through them quickly. What is here is well made for the most part, and although enemy placement and architecture has clearly been done with great care, other areas such as story and cog need a little more polish.
The opening area is a very nice Nar Shaddaa-like area, with traffic moving above! He's clearly shooting for the feel of the first level of JK and I'd say he got it, with the exception that Nar Shaddaa is portreyed as cramped in JK but he has lots of large open areas here.
A few things that could have been easily fixed bugged me though. Your camera is forced into third person after a cutscene, which is annoying considering there's no lightsaber so it should have been easy to notice. Some enmies don't drop ammo, although I imagine the author didn't want you to get it. You get a large cache of weapons... right before the level ends, For some reason there is a bar hidden behind an armory. I walked right through a 3do. There is a missing UI string so when you try to open the locked door Kyle says "COG_0101".
There are also obvious places to expose plot that are left empty. The readme is the highest concentration of plot, explaining a cliched bad guy who is building a robot army to take over the universe. I don't have a problem with the plot as much as that that's pretty much all you're told. There is an in-game cutscene with a gran who wants you dead (somehow he knows you're coming) and will kill his henchmen if they let you escape. Other than the fact that you have to bust into his office to get a red key, that's all the plot there is. Even the loading screen and objectives screens, which could convey SOMETHING more, are silent.
Of course a couple things raised my eyebrows as well. When you arrive at the bar a fight has broken out between grans, a nice touch. Crates that exploded in normal JK do work the same here. When you go into the bar's bathroom, a gran spawns outside and can successfully ambush you, also nice.
If the author releases the full thing it will be worth a play through, but hardly more than one. Don't expect any sort of real plot and you will enjoy it, I think.
Gromas Mines
------------
Fun little level but not worth more than one playthrough.
This level lacks polish overall, plus the plot is pretty poor. "Blow up the mine." Can you even DO that? Despite that it is fun for at least one run through and has no game-breaking bugs.
There has been thought put into some nice custom 3dos and architecture, however in some places texture alignment is off, most notably the first tunnel floor. Would not have been hard for the author to fix. Also numerous 3dos occupy multiple sectors, resuilting in 3dos flashing in and out. Easy to spot.
A couple other small problems crop up such as the yellow door can be bypassed by letting the guard open it (easy enough to fix in cog) and one "dead end" has an explosive barrel blocking it. Blow it up and you can squeeze through and see the illusion of a passage behind it shattered. It looks like the obvious way to go too! A forcefield blocks your wa... no wait, you can walk right through it, looks like it was never supposed to block you. Could have used more batteries in the level for the dark section.
Objective #2 is accomplished before #1, which would be OK if there was an explanation to why they were ordered backwards (Kyle expected to find them in an alternate order?). The Objective #2 plays no fanfare on achievement although the others do.
There is not much resemblance to Gromas Mines, apart from drills and "smashers", the latter of which move too slow (if you compare them to DF, IIRC) and will frustrate your attempts to beat the unseen (but hinted) escape timer. There was an opportunity here to use DFMOD textures but it has been wasted, only standard JK textures are used.
Some OK usage of Kyle's lines from the game plus a couple custom ones that work pretty good, and a nice use of the "falling plank" cog.
To be more positive, the level did have discrete, easily discernable areas. You move from the mines into an old, abandoned part of the mine that is no longer functioning, into the final imperial area through a back door to ambush them by surprise. That's the strongest point of the level (plus the nice 3dos) I'd say.
Few final thoughts: Level is pretty short, objectives are terse, and the loading screen invites you to "save the ugnauts", though you end up leaving them to die.
The Dark Tome: Chapter 1 - Time (DEMO!)
---------------------------------------
While this level had some interesting things in it, they were not quite interesting enough to make up for the problems I encountered. And there are many.
First of all, you can't pause the game during a cutscene. Since it is possible to die and respawn during a cutscene leaving the ESC-disabler in place, it becomes very annoying very quickly. A couple cutscenes causes me to take fall damage while once I was killed by a stormie, and then a cutscene played, causing me to have to process kill JKM due to lack of ESC menu when I respawned.
And there are the cutscenes in general. In 1999 a little game called Half-Life came out that revolutionized cutscenes by never taking control away from the player, but instead using cues to get the player to look where the devs wanted him to, so he would see scenes of interest. The author of this level doesn't seem to trust the player with such control and so takes it away frequently... I swear half the game is cutscenes. There is even a cutscene for when you try to open a DOOR. And another when you go up an ELEVATOR.
In addition the path to go next is often confusing (ironicly, the cutscenes fire when the path is obvious). When encoutering a door I had to bypass, I was told I needed to extend a bridge. However the path to get there was on the other side of the level and went a good ways around... through a pitch black area where it is impossible to see the path.
This brings me to my next annoyance: most of the ground is flagged ice, making for difficult movement, especially on slopes.
You have some NPC buddies, but the author must have realized they didn't work right (sometimes they shoot at you instead of enemies, most of the time they don't shoot anything) becuase after 5 enemies and 30 seconds of the level you leave them for good.
At one point in the level you finally extend the bridge, but how do you get to it? It was blocked by a forcefield! I backtracked and found an alternate route, but I was clearly more clever than the author, since it appears the forcefields are supposed to be lowered somehow. Anyway ANOTHER cutscene triggers to show you dying on the bridge, and then you have to respawn and try to trigger the cutscene in the right place so you don't die. Really. At least that's what happened to me.
There are a few small redeeming moments... a fight with a rancor (though the odd cutscene at the end ruins it) and observing fights between a wampa and stormies and later the rancor and stormies, but it's not enough for me to recommend even one playthrough of this level.
Magrucko Daines and the Dark Youth
----------------------------------
I played the first Magrucko before this one just in case there was any continuity. There isn't really, but I did know that this would be good. I was wrong... it was better.
I will say right now this is the best SP level in the pack. Should any of the other judges vote it below any of the other SP levels, they are obviously being bribed. A lot.
One of the strongest points of MacGyver is the plot. It's a pity that Yun and Magrucko don't meet until the second level, since their interactions are easily the highlight of the game. Most of the humorous parts are there, though Magrucko fires off some one liners of his own that are pretty good from time to time. The links with JK the plot has are logical and add to the importance of the story. The plot begins twisting and turning by the second level... you'll think the game is over, but it goes on for another two and doesn't stop until the epilogue ends, and I greatly enjoyed it. I won't spoil any of it, just play it yourself.
Compared to that, the other SP levels in this pack have no chance. Two of them are demos with no plot progression at all, and the other one has no real characters other than the protagonist and his two red shirts who are quickly tasked with a menial mission and left behind.
The only level that comes close is TODOA. Even then it is VERY hard for me to rank the two. Magrucko wins in the plot department for me because of the humor and very well made plot. TODOA has a great plot too but it lacks the humor and style MacGruber has. TODOA wins in graphics and the plot isn't half bad either. But Magrucko wins by a hair. Still, play them both.
Voice acting has some problems with poor quality but they are a small concern Almost everything is right about the game. Level design is excellent, good archi, texture choices, and the levels have frequent vistas into areas you have already been, or areas you will be, and you find yourself back in areas you've been before, but no annoying backtracking or wandering around not knowing where to go next. It will be clear, the game gives great cues. Voices cause characters' mouths to open and close, closest JK can get to lipsync. At least I liked that touch.
Lots of easy puzzles, but they are varied nicely and never get old. You will find yourself doing something new every minute if not more often, and you will just as frequently find something else you like about Magrucko. There are also clever orientations of puzzles. Once you find a locked door you need to open, and go around a way to a ledge outside, looking across... to a switch. Shoot it, and the door, which is over there, opens. It makes sense logically and works as a puzzle.
Enemy placement is very good. Some areas will be repopulated once you go elsewhere and do other things, and have to come back and go through an area later. Keeps things exciting.
I will try to find some things I DIDN'T like in order to be fair, but most of it is nit picking or simply trivial issues:
- The imperials reach the planet's system first it seems, while you're being briefed in another system, yet you land long before they do..- .
- A couple of 3dos flicker, though it's not too noticable so they probably just weren't caught in beta.
- The jump near the end of level 2 is a bit hard and requires knowing where to jump so you can line up even before you see where to jump to... could have been a bit easier.
- Found several "item barrels" that didn't explode! Boo!
- Some stormies go for debriefing... but they are walking toward an air traffic control room with a switch for the hanger door, doesn't make sense logically
- I was called a Jedi several times by enemies, and a stormie called a gran a "rebel".
- The elevator you have to power up does weird things with audio causing it to use up all the sound channels, making everything else noiseless while it runs.
- If you noticed me making fun of the game name, congratulations for paying attention.
[Edit: I have been told many of these problems will be resolved in a re-release. Well except for the name.]
For any of the other games in this contest I could make a list twice as long with far more serious problems on them.
This game is a masterpiece of JK level editing. If you do not download and play this I will ban you.
TODOA
-----
The graphics are stunning, and all the work FGR has put into it shows. From the creative credits all the way to the epilogue, the game is greatly enjoyable from start to finish.
There are a few flow problems though. FGR attempted to make it look more "real" by including lots of "unswitchable" switches, however this can make the real ones a bit difficult to find although I rarely had a problem. Sometimes it is also hard to know what a switch you have activated actually does. Occasionally you have to destroy a door to continue and at least once this wasn't adequately explained and I only figured it out by accident.
Without a healing force it is adventageous to use guns a lot, something I never did in JK and I am glad TODOA forces you to be more varied. I didn't really need to use force powers though, at least until the end where they came in handy at the final fight. There are lots of locked doors, some open, many don't, and it can occasionally be confusing especially with some passages that look the same.
I especially liked the final battle arena, although it would have been nice to see one or two more along a similar theme I am afraid it would have delayed TODOA even more.
Enemy placement is well done, unlike Magrucko enemies that repopulate an empty area never seem to pop out of thin air, instead there is always a side door that opened to reveal where they came from.
While most of the enemies are easy, the melee guys are a bit hard, though they have perfect movement speed in order to attack effectively, they deal too much damage. Overall I'd say the difficulty needs to be turned down a notch or two.
The plot only loosely ties in with Star Wars and not as tightly as Magrucko did, so it doesn't have that element to build on as much, but it was still enjoyable, especially playing as Darth Vader.
TODOA is definitely a game you should play.
Space Noxx II
-------------
Though I didn't have the opportunity to play it with other people, the map is very nice visually (though the skybox does make me a little dizzy) and have jump pads, teleporters, and hazards to mix up the standard JK gameplay and make things interesting. The level is a very open design so there's no problems with dead ends etc in level layout.
Weapon placement could be a little better maybe, I don't know if he was emulating the UT map in that regard but the more powerful weapons seemed a little too easy to get to.
But I can imagine this map being a blast to play, though it's meant for a small group, a large group would be too crowded I think.
A music track completes the experience.
Antille's Fuel Station
----------------------
It's typed "Antilles'". Given that the level name wasn't spelled correctly I was not optimistic about this level.
It wasn't very good, reminded me of my own early attempts. Level is bright without the light sources that would be needed. An incorrectly used 3do caused HOM in one spot, and the texturing was pooring stitched in some spots and too "busy" in others.
It was clear some rooms had been designed around fitting 3dos in certain places rather than designing the areas and then figuring out the best way to implement them. Some of these 3dos are very easily to disappear, the author clearly did not understand why this was happening (3dos must be confined to a single sector) or did not care to fix it.
The level has the share of generic trap cogs all subpar levels do, and these are implemented poorly. Projectiles come from no discernable location (they appear out of thin air), which would leave a new player clueless.
A good chunk of the level has poor flow. You will either find one or two exits from a room, this causes more unavoidable confrontations with other players and forces you into a particular flow through those areas, making the level more predictable and boring. In one spot I reached a dead end with a hole I had to force jump up to, but because of the floor slant I found it quite impossible and had to turn around and backtrack.
The reference to a fuel station only lines up to the palette used in the level, and so the texture set. All the rooms are just random rooms and with the exception of one or two serve no clear purpose. They're just... generic fuel station rooms. Except for the utterly baffling ones. Who would construct a maze of gratings and elevators in a fuel station? The room layout is also very confusing, you will simply wander around aimlessly not remembering which room is next, because the level is quite large.
The location of the concussion rifle is not only a poor one, but INTENTIONALLY poor. It is in a dead end only reachable by riding a very loud elevator up. At the top you will find ammo, shields, health (IIRC), and the conc rifle. There is a sniper deck which opens out onto a large area, with a few spots for cover but not enough to counter the conc rifle. I can see most players avoiding that room entirely for the whole match, assuming they don't end up there accidentally by taking a wrong turn way in.
I have to recommend finding another level to play in.
Ships of Mention: AEG-77 Vigo
-----------------------------
I am surprised to admit it, but Antille's is not the lowest ranked level on my list.
Although this level has much better texturing and architecture, it appears to be a role playing map. I do not approve of role playing maps, unless it is Baron's Hed RPG because there is less role playing and more shooting.
The first time I joined a role playing server, I didn't realize it was role playing and started killing people. Some guy told me to stop because it was role playing, and I had never role played so I did. It was very boring.
This level has some weapons and ammo but it appears that the level is not intended for deathmatch since all paths are dead ends, and so everyone would end up in the small cramped hallways. Despite this the level manages to pack in an easily accessable rail gun and conc rifle, which would be devistating in the cramped hallways.
There are a couple switches which seem to hint that they do something when pressed in tandem but since I was testing the level by myself I could not try.
An elevator in the level does not work like an elevator which surprised me. Instead it works like an MMO elevator, where you are instantly teleported to the destination.
I hate that.
Anyways, avoid this unless you really like role playing on an 11 year old game or something.
Rotunda
-------
A very nice small Duel map made by JM. It was accidentally given to me as a JO level, but of course JA levels don't work very well in JO as I found out.
Anyway, the level has great architecture and detailing, obvious hard work has been put into it and it shows. I don't really care for duel levels myself but visually it's interesting enough.
I do like the separation between upper and lower areas.
JM's Golden Arches has a couple minor flaws though: no bot paths which was surprising since they aren't really that hard to do, and bots don't seem to die right away after they jump over the side though you hear them crunch on the bottom (but yeah, that's related).
Final Rankings:
---------------
Magrucko Daines and the Dark Youth
TODOA
Space Noxx II
Rotunda
Project Nar Shaddaa
Gromas Mines
The Dark Tome: Chapter 1 - Time (DEMO!)
Antille's Fuel Station
Ships of Mention: AEG-77 Vigo
![[http://i46.tinypic.com/2i6pch1.jpg]](http://i46.tinypic.com/2i6pch1.jpg "http://i46.tinypic.com/2i6pch1.jpg")
you always have the option of Eriamjh too - unlike on the first level at the part where you need to jump over the fence, when if you've activated the door and then try to cheat, it doesn't let you. Evil. 
