After seeing the screenshots provided with the level, I wasn't expecting an instant classic. However, the level did turn out slightly better than I expected in the beginning. Read on for the full analysis...

Overall, the design of the level was nothing to get excited about. You start aboard a decidedly boxy and plain recreation of the Tantive IV as seen the beginning of A New Hope. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst parts of the level; the numerous corridors are hardly more than elongated rectangles with nothing in the way of eye candy. In fact, the part of the level that's supposed to take place on the corvette doesn't even resemble the layout of the ship in the slightest. Now, I'm not suggesting that level authors need to find blueprints of the ship and model things exactly, but the vast sprawling layout of the hallways in this level would have been better suited for a planetary installation rather than a spacecraft. After getting slightly disoriented in the mazelike network of nearly identical corridors, you eventually find your way onto the Star Destroyer (or sucked suddenly out of an airlock to your death - more on this later). Assuming you do get through the docking collar to the Star Destroyer in one piece, the architecture improves slightly. Instead of the total cubism found on the Tantive IV, you are greeted with a little more variety. The docking areas overlooking the Star Destroyer's main hangar were probably the highlight of the architecture, and there are some nice circular rooms a little while later. The docking bays on the Star Destroyer were probably the high point of the texturing work in the level too. Rather than suffering from whiteout like most of the Tantive IV where the walls, floor, and ceiling of every room were all variations brilliant white, the Imperial ship brought a bit more variety to the table. Even so, the texturing still left a lot to be desired - I noticed several stitching errors in addition to the aforementioned problems. The final segment of the level consisted of miles of boring, square ventillation shafts that must be explored. And I do mean miles (or kilometers!). These are complete with annoying and unsuspected pitfalls (literally), but I'll leave that for a later section of the review. In general the level architecture and texturing of the level were below standard, though a few places did display a small amount of promise.

I hope you like stormtroopers, because you're going to see a boatload of them in this level. When I said that the Tantive IV needed some eye candy, I purposely left out the fact that the whole ship is nicely decorated with several legions of troops. You're going to have to fight for every bit of progress through the ship, and it's not going to be much fun (at least until you find the concussion rifle!). I do give the author credit though - you really do feel overwhelmed while playing as the Rebels must have felt in the movie, though it becomes tiresome after being cut down a dozen times in a row. Things start looking up aboard the Star Destroyer, however. By this time, you have a pretty heavy arsenal and the enemies are more appropriately positioned in more reasonable quantities. As with the enemy placement, item placement could have used some work in a lot of places. I was apalled to see floating powerups (the worst mistake possible), and I thought there were too many revives scattered throughout the level, though they are necessitated by the enemy placement, to some extent. Regarding that last statement, I think it's better to have a more moderate number of enemies and very few 'super' powerups rather than tons of badies with a revive around every corner. You get a more realistic feel that way, and less of a guns-blazing, no-fears attitude by the player. As expected, the ship did have some other Rebel troops aboard, however they are all packed into the small room you start in, making it difficult to get out. Enhancements were relatively limited, with the highlight being a small set of cutscenes. Nothing exotic, but it did show effort on the author's part. Everything else was your regular stock: doors, elevators, force fields, and so on.

As far as atmosphere goes, there wasn't much. A large part of the level was spoiled by repetitive texturing, blocky design, and absolutely no variation in lighting level. Indeed, most of the key factors in building an atmosphere, such as lighting, ambient sound, and interactivity in the playing environment, were absent. Additionally, neither ship really looked quite right either, particularly the Star Destroyer. Here, I was expecting clean, smooth, Imperial engineering; unfortunately, the level comes off looking a bit more roughly built than what we know from the movies. Those things aside, the really frustrating aspect of the level was what I had hinted at before about sudden death. The author frequently sets up situations were you open a door or walk about a corner and die instantly. For example, I found two nondescript doors on the Tantive IV. When I opened one, I was sucked out into space and killed. Now, I have no problems with things like that as long as there is some sort of warning that what you might be doing is dangerous. Like a sign that says "Danger: Airlock", for instance. However, there was none in this case. Later, I was exploring the vents in the latter parts of the level when I walked around a corner in the ductwork, or droped down what looked to be like a survivable fall. As usual, I was instantly killed without warning and without reason. There are several more instances of this curious design throughout the level, so make sure you save often. Traps are fine in a level, however I must stress to authors that unless there is some sort of clue that the player realizes he should have seen before he died, they are going to get irritiated with such things.

All in all, this was a below-average level in most respects. It had the potential to be a good deal better, though the author neglected to put the extra effort in that is needed to create something truly memorable. If you like blasting your way through loads of stormies in a series of interconnected boxes, this is a level for you. However, if you want a level that reproduces the boarding of the Tantive IV from A New Hope, you'll have to look elsewhere.