Tales of a Mercenary 1 (ToaM1) is a great level and a worthy sequel to the brilliant Birth of a Mercenary series by the same author. However, you need a powerful computer to enjoy it to its full potential, as it suffers from the same problem as most city levels- the framerate is drastically reduced in some of the detailed areas with lots of buildings, even on fast computers. If you can put up with some slowdown though, I advise you to start downloading this level now.

The architecture in ToaM1 was fairly decent throughout, with a few very good parts, but also a fair amount of more boxy areas. Basically, the level was split between underground caves and the city above them. Unfortunately, the former suffered the most from being boxy, and although they were shaped irregularly they didn't really look very natural, mainly because some large walls were left flat and featureless. The highlight of the underground caves was spectacular though- a large temple with cylindrical columns, blazing torches and a giant statue of two people dancing, which unfortunately looked rather like the man was trying to steal something from the woman (see the second screenshot). The city was actually quite detailed, but it seemed to consist almost exclusively of houses and cantinas, but each building was quite different and well done, with windows, doors, sloping parts and steps adding to the realism (see screenshot 1). The damaged section of the city was realistic too, complete with broken walls and boarded up archways. Texturing was also varied and interesting, with correct textures being used in both the city and the caves. The red sky and rocky terrain aided the already brilliant atmosphere and the buildings of the city were textured differently, offering welcome variation. One building even had a flashing chain of lights and the cantinas contained the ever-present neon signs, along with "wanted" posters for Kyle. The use of "eye-candy" was good too. Dustbins and skips littered the streets and each building contained numerous utensils and items of furniture such as tables, chairs, beds and bottles. Overall, a good effort on design and if the author could make more parts like the underground temple in his next level the design should be first class.

The enemies in ToaM1 were generally placed appropriately according to the environment, with gangsters, pirates and bounty hunters in the city and primitive creatures in the caves. One thing that did strike me as being strange though was that some of the pirates were standing in the caves, with a few of them just placed on isolated pillars of rock with no obvious explanation of how they got there. However, virtually all the enemies were new ones, and all the skins were done to a high standard, although most enemies were just retextured original ones with new weapons or body features. The player had a great new skin with a clawed hand and protective armour, which kept me interested all the way through, and there were even several boss type characters that offered more of a challenge, but I won't spoil the surprises by telling you about them all. The actual enemy placement was also cleverly done, with enemies arranged logically in groups, although many areas were totally devoid of enemies. To the author's credit they did have puzzles such as sinking rocks in lava and other features of interest to keep me busy, as seen on the third screenshot, but the lack of enemies made it seemingly empty and strange. Powerups were obviously lacking in the caves, but there were enough in the city to keep me going and the balance was perfect. I was constantly on quite low health and ammo, but not low enough to be annoying. The only problem was with batteries, which I soon ran out of in the dark caves and I had to start stumbling around with the map on. With some more batteries dispersed around the city the powerup placement would have been superb. The enhancements were just as good, if not better, with all kinds of little details such as breaking windows and signs, a collapsing ship, destructible scenery, ladders, a new HUD display and the level's crowning glory, an erupting volcano (see screenshot 4). Puzzles were also used to good effect, but some were less obvious than I would have liked and the ladders also looked rather stupid because the player just floated up them, not actually using his hands to climb. If the author had made a new animation for the climbing it would have been a great feature, but as it was a simple lift would have been better. Finally, as we've come to expect from Anthony's levels, the story unfolded as the level progressed through cinematic cutscenes with the highest quality voice acting in any level, all good stuff.

Boasting new sounds and visual effects, ToaM1's atmosphere was also admirable. Nearly all of the level was accompanied by ambient sounds, such as bubbling lava and crackling torches, and there were random background sounds too, including flying ships, seismic rumbles and thunder. The screen also shook with each rumble, making it all the more authentic, and the soundtrack filled in when there was no other noise. Lighting was more unbalanced, with very good lighting effects in the caves, but more bland lighting in the city, although the cantinas did have brightly coloured lights coming from signs. The lighting in the caves more than made up for this, with flashing, changing light coming from blazing torches and faintly coloured light spreading subtly around the lava, making it look as if creatures were moving in the caves. Few things took away from this carefully planned atmosphere, but there were a couple of HOMs from the high detail, a door that opened downwards and looked strange, and the aforementioned low framerate in the more complex areas of the level, which forced me to lower the experience score considerably from what it should be. Although not a major problem on faster computers, the level would probably be mostly unplayable on slower machines, so the amount of enjoyment you'll get out of this depends greatly on what sort of computer you have. The author could have reduced this problem by making less open areas and making more curved streets so fewer buildings are visible at the same time.

All in all, ToaM1 is a fabulous level and if you have a good enough computer to handle detailed outside areas there's no reason why you shouldn't download it now. If you can overlook the slowness though, this one should stay on your hard drive indefinitely.