The Proving Grounds

Description
Well, this is quite an unexpected surprise! Here we have a map which is a revamped version of a map that the venerable Amos Magee reviewed many years ago; [file=38128]BWN Faceoff[/file]. Looking back at that map and its review is strangely like touching the past, going back to a time when JKA was brimming with life and I had just started my career here as a reviewer. Of course, things are slower nowadays, but I wouldn’t agree with the authors sentiments that JKA is \'dead\' after all, if it is dead, why submit this map? But maybe I am just being defensive, this community means a great deal to me and I expect it to continue for a long time to come. As I have often said, people still mod the original Jedi Knight game and that is well over 10 years old now! ;)

Anyway, what kind of changes have been made to improve this map? Well the most obvious change is in the texture department and I have to say that the t2_trip texture set looks much nicer with the architecture than the original Korriban textures. As far as the actual structure of the map is concerned there do not appear to have been a great deal of changes, though the lamp stands have been removed. I very much like the new bluer lighting scheme as it goes nicely with the blue hints in the texture set, though personally I preferred if the lights fixed atop the ceiling supports had stayed as they framed the edge of the ceiling opening quite nicely. But as always that\'s just my opinion! I did like the new positioning of the lights around the spiral columns however! The addition of some music would have added greatly to the atmosphere of the map, though as is often the case with duel maps, the players duelling will quite likely have their own music playing to get them pumped.

Its nice to see an author return after many years, though there hasn’t been the kind of drastic changes one might have expected from someone going back to an older map of theirs and re-releasing it. That said, there really isn’t anything wrong with that in this case as the original map was very good to start with and I think this is more of a refinement on that solid formula than an entirely new or reworked map.

All in all; good work here! As I said I believe the JKA community has many years left in it yet, and I hope the author will perhaps release more maps in future as he obviously has the talent!

If you are looking for a clean, simple, yet professional and nice looking map for a duel or small FFA/Team FFA than you might like this map!

[b]Bot Support:[/b] No
[b]New Textures:[/b] No
[b]New Sounds:[/b] No
[b]New Music:[/b] No
[b]Game Types:[/b] FFA, TFFA, Duel

~Nozyspy~

The Proving Grounds - Screenshots Screenshots: