Imperial Outpost Part 1

Description
Since most people probably skip over reviews and just go to the pretty pictures, I shall put this [b]rather important note about installing the map[/b] right at the top. I wouldn't advise following the installation notes in the readme file, as that would cause conflicts with the base game. Instead, what I'd do, is thus:
1) Paste the 'Imperial Outpost' folder in gamedata.
2) Rename it to 'ImperialOutpost', 'iop', or whatever - just something without spaces. I did 'ImperialOutpost'.
3) Open Notepad. Paste in the following text:
[quote]jasp +set sv_pure 0 +set fs_game ImperialOutpost[/quote]
4) Still in Notepad, go to File->Save As, change the filetype drop-down box to say 'All Files'.
5) Type [b]iop.bat[/b] in the Filename box, and click Save.
6) Run that .bat file, once JA has loaded, simply click on New Game to load the map.

One spoiler-free review coming right up. Now, onto the map itself. Simple mission, you got caught, a lot of people are coming to stop your ship. And blast you. You start armed with nothing but your trusty lightsaber. Your mission, which you accept whether you choose to or not given that you don't have much of a choice, is to battle through the base, disable security and get the hell out, I assume. It's not specified via cutscenes or dialogue, so.

Visually this is a well-built map. No two ways about it, it's well-built. Aside from one missing texture I saw, I have no real beefs about how the map is built, architecturally or texture-wise. Were this an original creation, I'd probably have one or two things to mention disliking, but in a comparison with the Byss, Doomgiver, Kejim and Death Star levels from JK2/JA, this map is fitting. There are, however, a couple of entities buried inside solid objects, according to the console. Hardly game-breaking, but if those entities were part of the mission, they won't work while they're wedged inside a brush or other object that's rendered solid by the game.

The crafting of the mission element is smoothly done. Scripted events are at Raven-quality, basically. The NPCs have their tasks and do them, although there are one or two just lurking. The level is based on a cause-and-effect progression model - you progress in a linear manner, fighting through, but before advancing to the next segment you have to find and activate the trigger to allow you to proceed. It's a guarantee you'll get confused at least a few times throughout the whole level, since it's not made obvious what you did and what that does, you're left to work it out on your own. Of course, that does make sense, given that Jedi don't seem to be able to use astro-projection to view events occuring outside of their line of sight. Patience is your friend.

A nice addition to your SP mission collection, unfortunately there's no cutscenes or new VA work done, and storyline elements appear to have been kept at a minimal in favour of gameplay elements. Still, it's of a far higher standard than Jedi Academy's base missions, so that counts for something in my book. Can't wait to see the next part.

~ Kouen