Nal Hutta: Slums

Description
EraofDesann is one of the most respected SWBF mappers currently active. While his projects are generally fairly few and far between in terms of releases, his maps never fail to exhibit several things that make up for this - a high degree of polish, originality, as immersive as you can get in Battlefront, and adherence to the general SWBF design aesthetic. This map, Nal Hutta: Slum, is certainly no exception to any of these.

As the title implies, this map takes place on Nal Hutta. It is based on The Old Republic\'s interpretation and visioning of the planet. Because it is on Nal Hutta, which is the Hutt homeworld, one can expect the design to be very dreary and have lots of earthen, swampy colors. Your expectations are not misplaced, as the map is indeed very earthy, contains lots of garbage, and feels like a swamp. There are eight command points, four for each side. The map is not technically symmetrical, but a lot of the same basic structures and layouts are on each side of the map. It is very easy to get lost and have to take a quick glance at the minimap to figure out exactly where you are.

The construction of this map is quite good- there are a lot of crates, foliage, debris, and general detritus around the map, giving it the appearance of a very backwater and junky planet. This is in keeping with the planet and is a good thing. Objects are well placed, I didn\'t see any collision issues, and everything maintains the same basic color scheme and design. The map is very consistent in what it looks like, which in this case is a good thing, but in other scenarios can be a detriment.

Sides-wise, there\'s nothing new. This is a good thing. In my opinion, it is extremely hard to maintain a good balance between the map and the sides- one turns out really good and the other turns out really bad, or both turn out to be mediocre. The original sides are well balanced and they are rather underused in most recent \'big\' maps. I also really like the limitation of GCW only, as there has been a glut of Clone Wars maps flooding the market. Dark Times era also makes an appearance, which gives you something to play around with if you do not like the default GCW sides.

A couple other things - some menu items are in Huttese, which is pretty cool to see. The one thing about this map that I did not like was the minimap. There is obviously some modification made to it, but it does not really present an overview of the map. One can get lost and so some basic building outlines would be nice to see. This is a very minor gripe, however, and does not really detract all that much from the map.

Overall, this is a very excellent map. I really enjoyed playing it - it brought back a lot of that original Battlefront feel that I really think is missing a lot in SWBF2. As a Battlefront 1 lover, this may not appeal as much to some of you, but I really enjoyed it. It is most definitely worth downloading.

-Jedikiller