SK Arena v3

Description
Well now, this is a somewhat odd situation I find myself in! This here map is the first of a couple of maps made for the Shadow Knights clan. 'But what is odd about that?' I hear you say. Well I just happen to be in the Shadow Knights clan, only... not[i] this [/i]Shadow Knights clan! It looks like the old timer clan I am in isn’t the only SK clan around any more, though I have to say our SK being 15 years old, was here first. Muahaha! :P

Clan pride aside, I personally think this is an excellent map! It is based off of the 'Lockdown' map from Republic Commando, and considering this is for JK2 I think the author has done an excellent job of recreating a map from a game which is both newer and has significantly better graphical capabilities than good old JK2. I very much enjoyed Republic Commando, despite the fact that it was very short and I remember the Lockdown level well, thus I can say that this is a very accurate reproduction of that level. The architecture is well done (the railings look great and are a nice touch of detail) and the texturing is also excellent considering that mostly JK2 Base textures have been used.

This map would be perfect for CTF games, since it has one side for the red team and one side for the blue team, with a central battleground in the middle, as you would expect of a traditional CTF or Team FFA map.

However, I do have one major complaint with this map, and that is the music. I can understand that since this map is aimed at the clan it was made for the music will probably reflect the taste of its members, but when you are releasing it to the public, especially when it is a map that doesn’t have any clan insignia in it and is otherwise very well made and useful, you have to be mindful of how useful it will be to other people. The music featured in this map is rap style music and in my opinion at least is completely unsuited to the map and its purpose, the 'Clones' track by Ash from the Republic Commando soundtrack would have been a more appropriate choice considering the map is based on a map from that game. However I don’t usually like it when maps have music which features vocals anyway, as it no longer creates ambience and atmosphere, but rather can be quite distracting.

But that’s just me, obviously being a clan map, the choice of music is probably aimed more at the tastes of the clan members, but as I said, when you are releasing something to the public you have to be mindful of what will be appropriate for the more general tastes of the public and the practicality of the map.

Anyway, all in all this is an excellent map, and its great to see people still mapping for JK2! :D While I think that the music detracts from the usability of this map on your average server, people often listen to their own music whilst duelling or playing anyway, so that mitigates that somewhat.

Keep up the good work mate, I look forward to seeing more (hopefully JK2!) maps from you!

[b]Bot Support:[/b] Yes
[b]New Textures:[/b] Yes
[b]New Sounds:[/b] No
[b]New Music:[/b] Yes
[b]Game Types:[/b] FFA, TFFA, CTF, Holocron, Jedi Master

~Nozyspy~