Boc's Survival
Mission Type:
Author:
Post Date:
Download:
Lou Graziani, Sir Gerry, Tom Smallwood
April 2, 1999
Level Review
Basics
Reviewer:
Overall Score:
Date Reviewed:
Matthew Pate
80 / 100
April 11, 1999
Design:
Dynamics:
Experience:
80 / 100
80 / 100
90 / 100
First Impressions
The story seems to be rather imaginative for once, a good sign if you ask me. Firstly, this level was created by a team, including Tom Smallwood and Lou Graziani of Warzone 2 fame. This gave me great expectations, and I don't think I was disappointed.
Review Screenshot 1
Review Screenshot 2
Design / Visuals
Architecture was great, with nearly all rooms having sloped celings, and poles, posts, houses, and other such goodies. The second part of the level, where Kyle has to traverse a frozen wasteland, was especially good, and that was helped by the coloured lighting. Texturing, however, just didn't seem to cut it. The same rock and snow textures seemed to be used throughout, and it just got tiresome to the eye after a while. But, to be fair, I don't think snow changes colour too often.
Dynamics / Interactivity
Enemy and Item placement were extremely well done. I was never near full health and shields, and always a little bit struggling, meaning I couldn't just leap into a fire fight, and I had to think about how to attack. The sniper rifle helped to this end, and so once I got it, near the end, I could slide out from a corner, shoot, and then slide back. There were several enhancements, most notably the 3do's, which were well done, the Imperial Officers were replaced with Twi'lek ones, and the civilians were also changed. There was a transparent Rahn skin, as well as the final enemy, who was pretty good. Best of all was the fact that there was multiple endings: depending on how you dealt with the final character, the ending was different, which I thought was a nice addition. As well, all the characters' voices were spoken as well as written, ala Warzone 2, but as with Warzone, the quality of the voice acting wasn't too great...
Playing Experience / Atmosphere
The level had really nice atmosphere, with a lot of sounds, and quite often, more than one at once. Coloured lighting and Sector tints were used to great effect, making the surface of Ryloth seem to cast a blue glow. The surface sections made me especially tense, as Wampas seemed to jump out at you from everywhere, and a bit where you have to break some ice to get through had me stumped for a while. Attention to detail was great, as the planet Ryloth's rotation is as slow as it's orbit of it's sun, meaning one side is eternally dark and icy, while the other is light and desert, and this level showed that. There were no technical errors that I could see, adding to the level's value. Framerate was high consistently, and it never crashed.
Review Screenshot 3
Review Screenshot 4
Final Thoughts
Overall, I don't think this level will be earth-shattering in any way, but it is still a nice fun level that will probably be played more than once, and stay on your hard drive for quite a while after that.
Design:
Dynamics:
Experience:
80 / 100
80 / 100
90 / 100
Overall:
80