Jedi's Home (JL) II

To be honest, when I saw this map in the JKFiles inbox, I was quite shocked (in a good way of course), I wasn’t expecting there to be a v2 of Jedi’s Home. I suppose that thought was pretty stupid really, after all considering what a smash hit the original Jedi’s Home was, it should have occurred to me that there was a good possibility for a v2. Oh well, I always seem to miss the obvious!

Anywayyy…on with the review!

Now, on the whole I liked the original map, it was roomy, good for clans, and had some great secrets. However there were a few things that bugged me quite a bit, one of which was the texturing in one or two areas, like that dark blue carpet in the main hall. It drove me mad trying to duel there, because I could never see my character, or my opponent properly. They just seemed to blend in with the dark carpet! Of course, when I lost because of that, I’m not sure anyone believed me when I said it was all the carpets fault. Surely other people had the same problem though?

One of the main things a v2 should always accomplish is to correct the errors, or not so good bits of its predecessor. The worst case scenario is that a v2 would expand upon the not so good bits of its predecessor and get worse!

I am happy to say that isn’t the case here. If you liked the original Jedi’s Home, your gonna be drooling over this one! :D

Lets move onto the architecture first of all. This is really a map and a half, the architecture looks great all over. Wonderful smooth flowing lines, along with grand staircases and a lot of nice architectural detailing makes this an excellent map visually. It also feels a lot more solidly built than the original, but I guess a Jedi safe house needs to be though right? Some areas which I particularly liked was of course the wonderful main hall, with that great ceiling, but also the kind of modern-Japanese style dojo room thingies. At least that’s what they looked like to me! There is some nice architectural features and texturing in there, and the lights look pretty nifty too. ;)

Now, that brings me onto the texturing, which is also very impressive. Quite a bit of the texturing in the main areas of the map is in relatively plain and simple textures, but nice looking ones nevertheless. Plain or simple textures are certainly not a bad thing if they are used properly however. In this map they are used very well I think, and personally I think they really bring out the wonderful architecture, whereas complicated, cluttered textures would draw your eye away from the architecture and more onto the texturing. There have also been some nice new shiny marble textures added to the map here and there, which i think looked rather posh!

Best of all though (in my opinion at least) is that the carpet in the main area now looks much better, so hopefully I wont keep loosing my duels so much due to the colour of the carpet. I bet you still don’t believe me about that do you! :P

Anyway…

Just like the original, there is sooo much to explore on this map. The map itself is gigantic, and of course, theres plenty of secrets! One of the coolest bits I thought, was a transport ship that’s outside on a landing platform. Step on the boarding ramp undernieth and it brings you up into the bowls of the ship. However, if you move into the cockpit and press the controls, you can fire its laser cannons! Hopefully none of your friends will be standing infront of it…or maybe that was the idea? Mwahaha…

Theres a totally revamped medical room, and also a cool duel room with a glass box that closes around the duelers (sorta like the one in Sith Council). As I said above, there is of course, plenty of secrets here. Theres hidden chambers, as well as come nifty floating dueling platforms in the sky, though I couldn’t figure out how to get there normally…I had to use noclip. Still, I imagine theres a teleporter somewhere for that. One secret that I thought was very cool was this security room that I found. It had a big screen on the wall where you could actually see one of the corridors in the map, and also when people walking through it. Just like a proper security camera!

The only thing that I didn’t really like in the map was the fact that you had to press the use button on some of the doors to open them. Doing that just gets a bit irritating after a while, because I keep walking into doors expecting them to open! Owch…

Besides that though I don’t remember noticing any substantial bugs, or any bugs at all for that matter!

So, lets round up a few pro’s and con’s before we finish up.

Pro’s:

An excellent map for clans. Excellent looking architecture, you gotta love all those curves! Solid and well-made brushwork. Beautiful texturing and lighting. Plenty of secrets to discover!

Con’s:

It is very large, which can lead to you getting a bit lost if you don’t know the map well. You have to press the use button on some of the doors to get them to open, which gets a little irritating after a while.

This really is a superb map, which will be great for clans or RPG folk, or anyone who appreciates a well made and good looking map. An excellent map all round, be sure to give it a download!

Bot Support: Yes New Textures: Yes New Sounds: No New Music: Yes Game Types: FFA, TFFA

~Nozyspy~