For those of you who have read the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy, you may or may not remember nightmare that Mara Jade had from time to time. Well, now is your chance to end it. Aside from my personal opinion on saber-only levels, this one seems to suffer in more then a few areas. Read on if you want to know more.

Unfortunately, the level design section cannot be properly scored. The reason: nothing in it is original. The architecture and the texturing are from the LEC DM level "Imperial Throne Room." Nothing was changed at all, so I can't very well score this. In fact, I'm going to move on to the next section because there's nothing left to talk about.

There's not much to say here either. There are two enemies, an ally, and you. The placement was substantial. It starts off with Luke and Vader advancing on the emperor, with you directly behind them. A quick slash at their backs turns their attention on to you, and the battle is on. Like the design, the placement of items is exactly the same as in the mp game. There is one difference though: the author took out the all the guns, keeping this a strictly saber-only game. Enhancements were limited to the three characters (I'm excluding Mara because she hasn't changed). Fortunately, all three were well done, and complete with new MAT's and 3DO's. The only exception was the Emperor, who just didn't look decrepit enough. Also, had the author used an original design, he could have expanded the enhancements into it, such as explosions from the dying Death Star. The alarms helped some, but it wasn't enough.

I'm really disappointed in the author saying that this is a new level from scratch. I refuse to believe that he built this himself, and it 'coincidentally' happens to look exactly like a LEC mp level complete with the same placement of items, and use of lighting and shading. In fact, because the lighting and shading aren't even original, I can't give the atmosphere a proper score. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun playing it, regardless of the fact that it only takes about three minutes to play. Fighting against two jedi can result in some different strategies, especially when you have someone to help you. One thing that did annoy me was how easily the Emperor can be killed. The first time I played it, I had done a really good job of keeping the Emperor safe. I had defeated Vader, and was wearing down Luke. Suddenly, as I went for a quick slash at Luke, he Force Jumped clear, and my sword hit the Emperor instead. Keep in mind, I had kept him safe, and he only took a small amount of damage. Nevertheless, he crumpled under my blow, and I had to replay the level. This happened about a dozen other times, because Luke and Vader get right on top of the Emperor, and the Emperor doesn't seem to back away from them. However, that's just a personal annoyance. There are a few errors in the game too. For example you can go after Luke, kill him, receive a congratulatory message, shut off your lightsaber, and the game will end. I think this is because the author intended for you to kill Vader and then Luke not vice-versa. Fortunately, despite being an old level, it never crashed on me or froze up. The framerate was also very good, partly because there's not much to the level. You might want a 3D graphics card so you see the colored lighting, but it's not absolutely essential.

You might want to try this level because of the new features it has. However, don't be fooled: this is not an original level. In fact, the only things that are new are the three characters, and you.