Energy Mine on Parux

Initial Comments

This is another one of those good levels. If you've been following along with us over the past month, you know that the last review was Asteroid by the same author, Eric Pauker. Now, brace yourselves, here, because I'm going to do something I don't normally do: I'm going to COMPARE TWO SEPARATE LEVELS. This is because you, the player, have the right to an honest review, and because Eric deserves to have his good reputation kept up well. Even though this review comes after the review of Asteroid, Energy Mine on Parux came BEFORE Asteroid. This makes Parux look better: if Eric released this level after he did such a great job on Asteroid, people might worry about him and maybe even schedule an intervention. It's not that the level isn't good: it is. It's just not as good as Asteroid, and I just HAD to clear that up. Now let's review this sucker.

Level Design

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

That's the name of this section. Just look.

THE GOOD:

First, a couple of really small things that really make this level nice to play. Eric's famous door jams are here. They're curvy and really refreshing after the normal boxiness of many levels. There was also something included that many try to create but ultimately fail at; a realistic ventilation system. It spans the entire base and gives you access to most every room.

Now onto some bigger items. The first is just the overall layout of the base. There is a main elevator area with catwalks that lead you to different branches of the base. Another design feature that appealed to me was that the energy tap was located in a centralized location and partly underground. This only makes sense: if something goes wrong, who wants this thing blowing up and killing everyone on the planet?

The canyon outside was magnificent. The new sky texture, new rock textures, and realistic lighting make for a happy player. The canyon gives way to the pirate caves. This is one of the best parts of the level. Most caves in most levels have a linear path with just a room off to the side or something. Most caves in real life twist around like a maze: there's about 20 different ways to get where you're going. The latter is the case on the planet Parux. This made for a great experience: some enemies appeared to be ready for your attack, whilst you were able to sneak up on others.

Wow, is that a blaster in your pants or are you just excited about this level? Well, hold your horses, there, my friend...

THE BAD:

Eric built a lot of things into this level that hide their identity. For example, there's a section where you ride a tram. Shouldn't a tram have some kind of a switch? If there were a switch, it would have just screamed, “Press me to GO!” but instead, the player had to simply hit the space bar once in the cab. This wouldn't be any big deal, except that, with the track being dark, the tram just looks like a dead end. There are also some really strange looking areas. I found some textures just kind of thrown in there, and a few pieces of really boxy architecture. In my travels, I also found some REALLY small rooms with a lot of enemies in them. That's usually not a good mix, and, even when Eric Pauker does it, this level is no exception.

THE UGLY:

This is all about texturing. Now, I'm not one to nitpick about little allignment errors, because I can't do any better myself. But even I can solve that little error about the textures abouve the doors, and I found a few of those errors in this level. There were also some repeating textures that got really boring after a bit.

Level Dynamics

There's not much to say on the dynamics front. Not much is going on in this level. Oh, sure, there's a couple ships flying about and that sort of thing, but there's not much in the way of flashy special effects. What really stands out here are the puzzles. But watch out. These puzzles are not for the week minded. Be ready to think and backtrack a lot before you shut down the geothermal energy tap, and don't get lost in the caves, either.

Level Experience

My definition of a truly great level is this: one that allows you to get lost and think you are a part of the Star Wars universe. And that's what this level is. I am making a suggestion here that every website that has this level available for download display a warning label like this one.

**WARNING**
THIS LEVEL HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE MENTALLY DISTRACTING AND DISORIENTING.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE A VOLUNTEER TO BRING YOU OUT OF THE DARK
FORCES WORLD AND BACK INTO REAL LIFE.
**WARNING**

If you aren’t careful, you can get lost in this level. The lighting and just plain cool architecture will make you very happy indeed.

Score

Design Score: 9
Dynamics Score: 5
Experience Score: 10

Total Score: 80%