Trade Federation Droid Control Ship

of four (also 7/10) and above means that I recommend it; anything below means that it's just another file in the database, from my point of view. CommanderKEEN's well-constructed Trade Federation Droid Control Ship recreates the essential scenes from the opening sequences of "Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace." Rooms include the docking bay where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn land, the gassy Conference Room in which they sit for the "short" negotiations, the corridors where they fought battle droids, the bridge where the nemoidians schemed, and something of the author's imagination—a dock control station. Before I get to what I like, I'll tell you the thing that was missing: a good, solid framerate. I can't bring up it's score even though the low framerate is excusable: all big maps like this are bound by the laws of the engine to have low framerate in order for everything to be the way that it's supposed to be, unless you use some handy mapping tricks. Also, the lighting/shadowing was explained by the author to be bad due to his lowly PC (he hopes to upgrade). He's mostly right, but I tend to be really leniant about lighting and shadowing and that whole league of mapping perfection, unless it's so obvious that [i]anyone[/i] will notice or care. The first thing that I noticed when I entered the map was the music, which was fittingly exciting for this map. I spawned in the conference room, where I saw cups near the end chairs of the table, out of which Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn drank during their treasonously short negotiations. I also liked the blockade scene outside windows. Exploring the map, I found that textures (credited to Breath and Leaving Dead Jedi) consistently worked for where they were—except maybe the dock control station, where at least the floor had some blocky, repetitive textures—the elevators had no problems, and the doors opened with a seemingly familiar sound that I hadn't before heard used for opening doors (I liked it, obviously). The rooms were all thoroughly detailed to look the way that they should, and I just happen to like dock control stations (there's something fun about looking down on things from a heightened point of view, even in games). The docking bay should be a great place for dueling and other fun activities, but maps like this are usually reserved for the role-player. It might not be as delightfully feature-rich as some other role-play maps, but imagination tends to make them more fun anyway. I really enjoyed exploring this map—even if the framerate needed improvement—it's a well-tried and mostly successful effort to recreate those [i]Star Wars[/i] moments. I actually thought that it was just the right size for what it is—but if the author wants to make it bigger when he gets a better computer (good luck!), I am in full support. —Ra-Kom
Map rating: * * * (out of four) — 7/10 New Textures: Yes New Sounds: Yes Bot Support: Yes I'm happy to say that this is my first map review where I get to recommend the map! Three stars out