Operation Fortra
Mission Type:
Author:
Post Date:
Download:
Jensyx
December 14, 1999
Level Review
Basics
Reviewer:
Overall Score:
Date Reviewed:
Evan Carson
70 / 100
December 18, 1999
Design:
Dynamics:
Experience:
85 / 100
75 / 100
56 / 100
First Impressions
Apart from using boring old Kyle (make fresh new characters editors!) the story was sound and well written. It provides a detailed plot for the level pack. There were 5 small levels. I'll review them all as a whole rather than each level one by one.
Review Screenshot 1
Review Screenshot 2
Design / Visuals
The architecture in these levels was good. Beams were put where they should have been, cliffs and canyons were for the most part natural looking and buildings looked authentic and star-warsy. The second level had some excellent outdoor architecture, along with palm trees and ferns for extra detail. These levels definitely had detailed architecture. Unfortunately, this caused some minor slow-downs in a couple places and this did affect the gameplay. I was getting framerates of 5 in the spaceport level, and I have a 12MB voodoo2. Texturing was average in these levels. Overall it was good but a couple things ruined it. An example of one of these things is that I found a dflt.mat on one of the cliffs. There was also a terrible grass texture used on the jungle level. It did not tile well at all, you could see where one edge of the mat began and where it finished. The result was a whole lot of nasty green square patterns on the ground. It wasn't all bad though, the spaceport level was nicely textured and had a Mos Eisely look and the jungle (apart from the ugly grass) looked good too. Now I will talk about the worst part of these levels: the lighting. It was terrible! There were huge streaks of solid shadow spread across the spaceport level that had no apparent cause. Entire walls in these levels were solid black when they should have been fully lit. A tip I have for the author is this: rather than use a couple big lights in a level you should use a lot of smaller ones to create better shading. This avoids having the big blocks of un-lit areas that these levels have. The lighting really didn't do justice to the great architechture in these levels.
Dynamics / Interactivity
Enemy placement in this level was good. The AI's always seemed to be doing something. There were a couple that were fighting off mailocs, another one was being chased by a kell dragon, and in some levels there were squads of stormtroopers marching around. The item placement in the levels was also ok. The player started each level with 10 health and 10 sheilds and this, along with well placed powerups, meant that the levels were challenging. Unlike the health and shield powerups though, ammo was easily available and I always had plently of shots to spare. It would have been more challenging to have to worry about using too much ammo, but it was still fun as it was.
Playing Experience / Atmosphere
The level atmosphere had its highs and lows. I thought that visually most of the levels were ruined by the bad lighting, but in some places the nice architechture created a realistic atmosphere (even with the not so realistic lighting). Some of the puzzles were good too. In one place you had to do a huge jump into a pool of water, which was fun. Another place you had to charge down a hallway using a crate as protection. Unfortunately, some of the gameplay was not as fun. A few of the levels had puzzles which were basicly the 'hunt around until you find the right passageway' kind. There were some key-hunts as well and these got frustrating because the keys were often very hard to find. I think some were impossible and I have to admit, I had to cheat to get through this pack. Overall, the gameplay did draw the player into the story and was fun (which is what we play SP levels for, right?) and the new voices for Kyle brought the character to life.
Review Screenshot 3
Review Screenshot 4
Final Thoughts
I recomend you play these levels if you want a little bit of fun but just be prepared for a little frustration as well. I guarantee you'll enjoy the levels once through, possibly a second time too, but I doubt they'll stay on your hard drive forever.
Design:
Dynamics:
Experience:
85 / 100
75 / 100
56 / 100
Overall:
70