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[Matt H]

Dark Prelude: The Early Missions of Kyle Katarn by Randy Greene (* * * *)

Crow's Nest: Level I: 93% Level II: 84%

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[Burning Gundam]

This is a fun level pack and I really enjoyed it.

I thought it was cool that the author did the levels as prequels before DF and it added a creative touch as to how he met up with Jan Ors.

Level 1: The best of the two. The scenery and architecture was pretty good, and getting into the prison complex was a challenge within itself. I don't think there was a single area where the texturing was bad, although some texturing was a little bland (The outside of the complex). But I still have fun with this level every time I play it. 8 of 10

Level 2: The Worst of the two. Although it did have it's strong points, the weakest was the architectural repetativity. Every hall and room looked the same. But I did like the ship that you had to go into. But other than that, that was the only strong point in that level. The author probably had a lack of ideas and went with the boring look, but it was an okay level. A little empty, but okay. 6 of 10.

Over all, 7 of 10 (After taking the average from both scores).

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Nottheking]

It's been a while since I've played these, but the memories are still pretty much all there...

Of all the level packs, this is by far the one one where it deserves two revies, not one.

Level 1: I currently don't remember too much of this level, but I do recall it had a similar beginning (in style, anyway), to Quadriggon. I recall some nicely done puzzles, as well as good arcitecture all arround.

• Quality: 85%
  
• Atmosphere: 89%
  
• Innovation: 90%
  
• Gameplay: 83%
  
• Overall: 87%

Level 2: WTF?! I hope this was his frst levvel. This was considerably worse than the first, and is one of the reason I've avoided this two level pack. The arcitecture may not be all the bad, but the texturing leaves something to be desired, and it's so difficult to tel one area from another: a pet peeve of mine. An endless supply of stormtroopers thrown on top made this only worse. I must admire the attempt, but ugh... I spent like an hour trying to find each objective, running arround those silly hallways.

• Quality: 80%
  
• Atmosphere: 70%
  
• Innovation: 60%
  
• Gameplay: 50%
  
• Overall: 65%

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Wake up, George Lucas... The Matrix has you..

[Fish]

I agree. The second level is not especially impressive, and even more if you play it right after the first one, which is quite good, and therefore you expect at least the same as good. It could be called the "Matrix" effect. (People who buried Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were right because the movies weren't really good, but even worse because we all expected an adequate-quality sequel to the Matrix 1.)

It's a nice level, and although the "release-the-prisoner" mission is already many times overdone, the plot is quite original and deserves and extra plus.

Texturing - fine. Enemy placement - fine. Architecture was generally quite good. Nottheking, you're right, the beginning is quite similar to Quadrigon, but I really didn't notice that before.

One nice detail is finding the "alternate" way out of the cell block once the main door is locked from outside.