Independent Source: Bespin

Description
"Independent Source: Bespin," by Fingerfood, is a study of contrasts. On the one hand, it's a really well-done [i]map[/i] - and I use this as literally as possible - but on the other hand, it's very unstable and lacking in the gameplay department.

But first, the good. As mentioned above, the map itself is pretty good. It is, by far, the most detailed Bespin map there is (and by the same token, the largest). It's a little mix of Platforms and Cloud City, although it's nothing so humdrum as simply putting the two maps side-by-side. The objects themselves are placed well and used effectively to create the feeling of a single, large, unified environment (although there were a couple alleys that looked pretty sketchy, and I don't mean in the urban sense).

Unfortunately, to the expense of everything good about the map, there are the abovementioned negatives.

As with any large map, it's very tricky to get gameplay that really works, and works well. To be blunt, it doesn't, here. It looks (or feels) like just the standard amount of units on a map easily two times bigger than that unitcount would require. This makes for a [i]lot[/i] of running around looking for enemies or command posts, and despite the fact that a good job has been done on the scenery you're running through, this is still pretty boring.

And of course there are some serious stability issues. I can't say what causes them, but I had at least one CTD and a frozen game while trying to test this out. There's nothing fun about that. I know that this map represents an incomplete project, so take that for what it's worth - but the crashing issues [i]are[/i] still there.

Anyway, I'd say it's a good example of what to shoot for in terms of scenery detail, but a bad example for level of polish. Give it a try if you like.

-Mav