Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

FS made me play these and I thought they could use a review, so here goes.

The Temple of Suffering (emphasis on Suffering \o/)

Basically, this level is a bunch of elongated large platforms. It’s also extremely large, even for a public server intended level, and I’m getting kinda tired of seeing Windstorm Fortress levels really, especially since there is little difference in the appearance of the levels that use them. But this level still is pretty to look at, though. You also kinda missed a tilebug at around 109,43, but whatever.

You start with several powerups in this level, which is…interesting. I guess it’s meant to speed up the games in here because otherwise it would be impossible to kill people in this level. There’s also a fire shield in this level accesible by the bouncer powerup which gives 40 seconds of shield time, and that fits into the level. The shield is annoying as hell to get though, because bouncer shots tend to be unreliable and such. There’s also like half a dozen carrots in this level, which pretty much limits this level to large numbers of people or really stupid people who don’t know what carrots do, I guess. Public servers or not, this would have to be hosted at peak jj2 times to provide exciting games where people actually die.

Aside from that, this looks like it would be pretty good to play in with crowded servers because of the powerups given to you at the start, so you go straight to the action instead of scurrying around with a wimpy blaster. I know I’d like to see this in a large JDC event or something. That might be the only thing that really stands out in this level though, as otherwise its a typical, extremely large battle level chock full of carrots and nice, but generally done before eyecandy.

An Uninspired Psych Level

I got a great first impression of the level. The eyecandy here features a lot of original (or at least, I haven’t seen it done before) gimmicks such as the mushrooms in the back layer mountains. This level feels really alive because of things like that, and the set being rather underused greately helps that, and the atmosphere in this level is really trippy.

As for the layout, the level again is huge considering the small amount of paths it has, but I can imagine this level being played well enough with smaller amounts of people. There’s some creative things done with the ammo on the far right, which I really like. Most of the level is also…empty. Despite the rather large size, the level is incredibly open in the center and there are very few platforms. There’s also some warps for easier travelling too. In general though, the layout is….weird. It just seems really random or something, I guess.

Currently I envision most people just shooting seekers everywhere, especially into open spaces and hoping they’d hit something when I think of public games here. The 3 powerups included here are extremely useful in this level, so I guess the only real strategy would be to get one of them and just shoot bullets into the wide open space in the level to hit as many people as you can, but then again this is meant for public servers and not duels or anything, so that’s not too bad. I guess this is as good of a time as any to mention that the backround fade is really nice, too ;P.

Anyways, both levels pretty much acheive their goals of being intended for large audiences, except one of them pretty much forces that to be the case while the other would just work better if that was the case. Lots of interesting gimmicks used, and eyecandy is well done in both of them. I don’t LOVE these levels, but I would definately host them before I host Blade’s overhosted Battle Packs ;P.

I guess this is where the rating should come, although I’m not going to rate this yet. I haven’t played these online with very many people (most of them idled anyways) so I’ve yet to play them as they were intended to be so I’m going to wait until I experience them firsthand before rating this. Hopefully that will be soon before I forget I ever wrote this review ;P. From what I’ve seen though, this gets a download reccomendation anyways, first hand experience or not.

~Lol – Source code

Edit: I’ve played these some more times online (and in JDC events) and they worked pretty well. The Temple of Suffering was pretty damn fun with around 16 people or something and these levels proved they can handle serious JDC matches. Therefore, 8.7 >O. These levels win at life (and jj2) gg.