Levels set in mines are few and far between, but if you download this thinking you'll be fighting your way out through a mine, think again. This is set primarily in an Imperial prison facility, and although it's an average level, its location makes it so nothing stands out as being much different from the mass of other "Imperial base" type levels.

The quality of architecture in Escape from Mera Himbgie varied greatly, but seemed to consist mainly of medium to large sized rooms with pretty good architecture and boxy, featureless corridors joining them all up. Some of the larger rooms, especially the one with the red particles in the screenshot, were interesting and multi-levelled, but they were totally let down by the smaller rooms and corridors, some of which were really just empty boxes. To make things worse, a lot of these corridors were also unnecessarily long, and in one place there were several carbon copies of the same blank hallway, each with about 20 locked doors. Now, the level is supposed to be set in a prison, which may not be the most exciting place imaginable, but I still think there could have been a Death Star type prison corridor, or one with several floors joined by catwalks. However, there were a couple of areas where you could access small parts of the mine, and the natural architecture here was quite a bit better, with rocks, pipes and a mine-type elevator, but there really weren't enough of these to relieve the boredom of the prison facility. Likewise, texturing was dull in the corridors, with heavy use of the plain grey textures and a couple of light chains to break it up. Although it was slightly more interesting in the larger rooms, grey seemed to dominate the entire level, and the coloured pipes in one mine area wouldn't look out of place in a children's play area. Fortunately, misalignments were not too frequent, but unfortunately, most of the ones I did see were on the best parts architecturally. If the author can improve his corridors though, his next level it should score better in this section.

Enemies were a major problem in this level. Although they were placed realistically to give a good challenge (for example, four stormtroopers were guarding the main lift), the entire Imperial population of the prison consisted of stormtroopers and erm... stormtroopers. There were some other miners standing around in the corridors, but that was it. No officers, no commandos and no droids. If you like stormtroopers, this is the level for you. You'll be seeing plenty of them before it's over. Despite this, the level was quite a good challenge, and I had to use the five bacta tanks you get at the start. The powerups seemed a little excessive at the start, but you really do need them when you see them. It's just a pity you don't get anything more interesting to use than... you guessed it... the stormtrooper rifle. It's a mining facility, so there should really be some explosives and interesting stuff lying around for you to use. In fact, as far as extra features go, there's really not much to write home about. A forcefield, some doors, and a lift or two, and that's just about all you get. There's a ladder in there too, but some mining machinery wouldn't have gone amiss. As a plus, there was also a nice little cutscene at the beginning showing you working in the mines and getting injured and the Star Wars classic scrolling text was all present and correct. Really though, just the addition of a few more different enemies would have helped a lot.

Escape from Mera Himbgie certainly felt like it was set in a prison facility and the rocky areas still remind you that you're near a mine. At one time I was madly dashing from four or five troops and it really did feel like an escape. However, the atmosphere of the prison was let down by the "one level of lighting" plague, in this case fully lit, but the few rocky areas were appropriately dark and spooky. Some little lights in them would have been more realistic, but the darkness was still a welcome change from the bright prison. The use of sounds was very similar, the base being totally quiet, and the rocky parts having a low, ominous hum in the background. The stormtroopers even had some new sounds, which were well done and filtered. Even with the boring corridors and enemies, hearing things like "This guy just doesn't give up" made it much more realistic. In fact, additions like this were this level's strongest point. It comes with an install program that actually works for once, some new menu backgrounds, a cutscene and a new skin, detailed down to the prisoner number in aurabesh and the wound on the player's face. This shows what the author is capable of, and this level could have been so much better if as much effort was put into the architecture and dynamics. Also, there were no crashes or framerate problems, but there was just one wafer-thin wall.

This could have been so much more. The good architecture in some parts shows what the author is capable of, and the additions are interesting too. We're yet to see a fully-fledged mine level with working machinery and explosives, and if that's what you expect from this you'll be disappointed. If you've got some time to spare though, download this. It's not great, but it provides half an hour or so of play if you're bored of other levels.