therfiles

Inspired by the classic movie series, this map's likeness is amazing. The detail poured into the map is extraordinary! But let's start from the beginning. One thing I noticed right off the bat was the lack of an arena file. This file adds the map to the map list when creating a game. Instead, the player has to use the console to /map the map, which is a minor inconvenience, but the fix would have been extremely simple. The first thing I noticed upon map startup was the reflections on the floor. The mirror-sheen they had was just awesome, and it was pulled off really well. Even the windows have a distorted environments placed upon them, creating anatmosphere around the outside of the map. Immediately, the first thing I did was to try to smash the lobby's pillars, which get shot up in the movie. To my delight, you can smash the heck out of those things, until only a little rock and dirt remain. This effect was pulled of very well, and added a really cool bonus to the map. Imagine if you are fighting with guns a stray bullet slams into the wall and shatters the marble. Awesome. Moving on, the security check points, furniture, and doors were just stupendously molded and custom textured. One thing that pleased me was how many custom textures there were, and not just a constant recycling of base JA ones. The lighting was also superb, and the author took advantage of the glowing, bright atmosphere of the Matrix’s surreal environments. Overall, the lobby was magnificent, but the fun doesn't end there. The author also scripted (rather beautifully, I might add) an elevator that lets the player visit two additional floors of the building. One is an office, which is plastered with the Matrix posters and swinging doors. This area is very cool, and there are lots of elements that were added, like a telephone, desk, and furniture that really detailed the room and sold the location. The next level available to the player is the roof. The first thing I noticed was an amazing skybox, which was so well done, in fact I just stared at it for several moments in awe. The roof itself was superb! It even had a helicopter with a mounted gun, like the movie! Once again, hats off to the excellent mapping here. There are so much details and nooks for the player to explore, that you just have to download and play it to truly get a feel about what I am talking about. It was difficult to find any flaws for the map, but a couple I did find was that the player can jump off the roof without falling to their death. I think that a trigger could have been made kills the player after falling for a certain amount of time, because when you reach the bottom, you can look up into the map's caulked areas. But generally, this map passed with flying colors. The game modes included are FFA and TFFA, and unfortunately there is no bot support for the map. The author also included the source files for the map, which is always a cool thing for them to do. I highly recommend this map; you will enjoy it very much. Well done, Szico!

This is a very well made mini-mission made by Mercenary. I was very impressed by the quality of this mod, and it was very enjoyable and fun to play through. In this mission, you are a student from the Jedi Academy, sent to investigate an imperial shuttle crash. The shuttle turns out to be much more valuable than previously thought, and sooner or later some reborn thugs show up to thwart your efforts. While this little mission is short, the author gives us plenty of action and adventure to play through. With that, let me start with some technical aspects. One thing that impressed me right off the bat was that the author modified the new game menus, so it launched the mission from there, instead of making the player /map it, which is very professional. Next up, we are greeted with a well-made text crawl and something very surprising: a space cutscene. Cutscenes in space are always a little tricky to pull off, but when they are done right, they really add that polish to the mod. The cutscenes on this level were simply phenomenal! The camera movement and angles were stunning and the voice acting really wasn't half-bad. As the player progresses through the level, the author implements one of the most under-used elements of JA: the swoop. Mercenary has beautifully crafted a canyon for the player to ride through, slicing through pursuing thugs as you go. From there, the player encounters most of the action, including an angry attack from the local Tusken Raiders, and an intense duel with reborn warriors. I recommend saving your game frequently, because the reborn can be very difficult to beat. The author also includes custom briefings and checkpoints, which is something nearly every SP author forgets. To wrap it all up, the mapping was great and a custom credit roll ends this well-made mission. This mod was very fun to play, and was surprisingly challenging, a nice break from my god-mode enabled duels. Some minor things I didn't like were the lame quips of dialogue and a couple ui/gfx bugs, but really nothing to take away from the overall mod. Once again, this mod was made very well, and is almost on par with some of the original SP campaign missions. Excellent work!

Scerendo has crafted an elegant shadow trooper skin for us. While this file is old, it is still a good one nonetheless. One of things that really caught my eye was the animated icon for the skin, which is a rare thing for a modder to do, but when done properly, it looks really good. This is one of those times. It really sells the skin. On to the skin itself. Simply amazing glow shaders have been added, producing an amazing effect. The entire armor has been reworked, with artistic streaks of glowing light and awesome subtle designs. Another thing that was done was adding reflective shaders, which made it look grungy and metallic. While a simple thing to do, it took the skin to the next level. Many different colors were included with this release: blue, red, cyan, and green. Red was my favorite, it really looked stunning. And red is my favorite color, so no bias there...Anyway, bot support was also included, which is always a plus. Some other features the mod boasts is JK2 support, which is a nice extra for the author to include. One thing that surprised me a little is that it has no sounds at all. I mean, new sounds really aren't necessary, linking it to the old shadow trooper sounds or even the stormtrooper sounds would have been fine. Unfortunately, all we get are the annoying generic male sounds. Not that big, but it would have been a simple fix. The author recommends enabling dynamicGlow to get the best appearance of the skin, which is definitelya good idea for this skin. Using "r_dynamicglow 1" or the setup menu option will greatly improve the 'glowiness'. Overall, a very well made skin that looks simply amazing.