Dark Times II: Rising Son

Description
Maveritchell's The Dark Times II: Rising Son is to Battlefront modding what Beethoven is to writing symphonies. It is the culmination of months and years of work, constant diligence, and lots of experience. This is pretty much the pinnacle of modding achievement, and I've never seen a mod that comes anywhere close to what this one brings to the table.

This mod essentially includes sixteen new maps, a total of 105 distinct missions, lots of new units, new weapons, new heroes and Force powers, and a brand new Galactic Conquest mode that serves as a campaign. While this alone may seem like a lot, it also includes a few brand-new game modes, a full campaign on par with the shipped Battlefront II one, and the entirety of the original Dark Times mod. This is to say, you do not need the original to play this edition.

Due to the fact that this mod is much too big to cover every facet of it in a single review, I will do my best to break it down into categories and review each of those with a paragraph or two.

[b]MAPS[/b]

The Dark Times II includes sixteen new maps. These include Raxus Prime, Taris, Dantooine, Nar Shaddaa, and a bunch more. The maps are all very good- they have all the hallmarks of a well-polished map, like planning, even terrain, and it is obvious that large amounts of work were put into them. They are all well done, and the multitude of different ones assures that you will have no shortage of fun maps to play if you are just looking to play Conquest. I noticed nothing bad about any of the maps.

[b]CAMPAIGN[/b]

The Dark Times II features a campaign mode of sorts- in actuality, it is just Galactic Conquest with objective maps. This is not to say that it isn't fun- on the contrary, it is very fun. The storyline focuses on a unit of Rebel forces led by Luke Skywalker in their fight against the Empire. There are ten primary missions with a few side missions that you can branch out on should you elect to do so. The campaign is fairly linear, but the side missions offer a bit of a break from the normal progression. The campaign maps themselves are rather fun, though somewhat challenging. While the missions themselves encompass the normal objectives- go here, capture this, bring this here, kill this unit, et cetera- they aren't boring and in fact are something that you look forward to playing.

[b]NEW GAME MODES[/b]

The original Dark Times had a new mode called Wave. This mode makes an appearance here as well, and it is essentially a one vs. all battle. You are a hero unit and must defend against waves of common enemies and some hero units in order to win the battle. There are both space and land editions. In addition, there is a new mode called V.I.P. In this mode, you are placed on a side to fight against enemies. Each side has a hero unit, or VIP, to kill in order to recieve points. You must keep your VIP alive in order to have a better chance against the opposition. The final new mode is called Control Mode, where there are several secondary control points to capture in order to recieve bonuses upon your team. You don't have to capture them to control the entire map, but you should do so in order to recieve the benefits that they offer. All of these modes are quite fun to play and offer a lot of variety in your gameplay. I personally enjoyed Wave mode the best, as it's essentially just an opportunity to kill a lot of AI without any teamkilling possible.

[b]NEW LIGHTSABER COMBAT SYSTEM[/b]

Gone is the old saber system of the past. In is the new. In the Dark Times, you don't have the standard three-move combo and block move. Now, you have two types of attacks: light or heavy. Light attacks are done by tapping the block key, and serve both as a means of causing damage and blocking incoming attacks. However, they drain energy, so you have to use them sparingly. Heavy attacks are done by clicking as normal and cause damage- more than the light attacks, but they lose the ability to block incoming attacks. Heavy attacks can also do a Force Finisher, which is essentially a powerful attack done by right-clicking after the third attack with a full energy bar. Each type of attack can be chained together infinitely. This type of combo system is nice, but it does have some minor drawbacks. I prefer it to the standard combo system though.

[b]OVERALL ASSESSMENT[/b]

As I stated in my introductory paragraph, this mod is essentially the pinnacle of modding achievement. The amount of content it adds to a game that didn't have enough of it to begin with is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Much like the Conversion Pack, this mod is one of those that should be installed on every single computer running Battlefront 2. It's really that good. Don't believe me? Well, I strongly suggest you download and play it for yourself. I doubt you'll be able to stop.

-Jedikiller