The Rock - Gandolo IV

Author: Clayton Cameron

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My initial reaction to the title of the level was that the authors had enjoyed last summer's "The Rock" movie so much that they wanted to name their mission after it. Unfotunately it appears that the authors have gone far beyond just using the name: they've appropriated the entire plot. Have we seen this before? This level shares more than a name with a certain movie. To be fair, the story is modified for Star Wars use, pulling in elements from Timothy Zahn's novels(however much destroyed and rewritten; a major discretion in my opinion) and it's not a complete ripoff. But there are so many elements in here that are derived directly from the movie that it borders on disgusting: the way you enter the base, the missile system C'Baoth has, and several other happenings in there level are pulled from "The Rock and dropped in here. There are times in this mission when your heart begins to race and you wonder if you'll ever manage to make your way out again. But that's mostly due to the authors' use of the story, rather than their own work. The texturing is borderline, in places looking very nice and in others rather slipshop; to the level's detriment the entire area is made up of boring gray with low lighting, nothing that particularly excites you. The architecture isn't completely made up of 90 degree angles but it still fails to provoke any real interest. The city that surrounds the Imperial installation is bustling, with civilians, beggars, landspeeders crowding the streets, but I gathered the feeling that it was all for show, inserted to add something that people could talk about after the level was finished. It played no pivotal role in the mission and I quickly found myself tiring of it. The water sequence at the beginning seems to have been built off the similar area in Archangel II, but here it isn't nearly as interesting. The lighting is all the same and you merely run through straight corridors where it's obvious what's been done. There's nothing to catch your attention!

This certainly isn't a poor level. Despite the author's misguided decision to pattern the level after existing material, it supplies you with a fairly satisfying experience. But lacking the creativity we've seen put into other missions this one tastes flat. Review by: Steve Noall

This was an excellent level. Right after I played this level, I was just so excited that I had to play it again and again. Not many people can successfully create an imperial city, but this author did a spectacular job of it in this level. Landspeeders help populate the city in this mission; too bad you can't take one for a spin. When I entered the city in this level, it felt different from other cities in other levels. It actually felt like I was in a city. This was by far the best city I've ever seen in a Dark Forces level. I really hate it when authors just give you all the weapons in the very beginning of a level, without any effort at all. In one part of the city you enter a local weapon shop where you can just steal all the guy's weapons. I think that this is an excellent way for the author to give you some weapons to live on, and have it still make sense. The owner of the store even gets mad when you take his guns. Another highlight of the city is that you can actually enter people's homes, and there's even some landspeeders cruising through the streets. The texturing was good, and there's a good deal of enemies to keep you company. There weren't any new cutscenes, but the new briefing makes up for it. The level wasn't very difficult, although I wasn't able to play it on HARD because it crashed. Also, Windows users beware, you must run this under DOS, or there's a good chance it will crash on you in the middle of gameplay.

Don't waste time deciding on weather or not to download this, and just click the download link below. After playing this level you'll have a smile on your face for the rest of the day, so don't pass this one by.

Level(s) replaced:	SECBASE
Difficulty Settings:	Yes

New BMs:	Yes
New FMEs:	Yes
New WAXs:	Yes
New 3DOs:	Yes
New VOCs:	Yes
New GMDs:	No
New LFDs:	Yes
New VUEs:	Yes

Base:	New level created from scratch.
Editor(s) used:	WDFUSE 2.00/2.50
Known Bugs:	Some bad HOMing problems in large areas and long hallways. Author also mentions that it periodically crashes under Win95.
Download The Rock - Gandolo IV (rock.zip, 1.2M)

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These pages originally created and maintained by Geoffrey Elliott, c. 1997.
Last Updated February 13, 2004