Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Well, this is not much of an improvement over the author’s previous works, but it does show some effort. Still, it needs quite a bit of work.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The used tileset was “Diamondus”. Not only is Diamondus generally overused, but this level does not use it all that well, and it ends up looking pretty bad. While there are not tons of tile errors, there are a lot of parts that look questionable or generally bad that severely detract from the overall look and feel of the level. Not very good eyecandy.
Pros: Does not have tons of tile errors.
Cons: Boring eyecandy. Questionable tile uses.
Rating: 4.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: There is some good weapon placement, but mostly this level consists of a lot of badly done clumping. The basic ammo placement is good, but definitely good have been better. There are far too many powerups for a CTF level and a small one at that.
Pros: Basic ammo placement was livable.
Cons: Clumping.
Rating: 4.7

ORIGINALITY: This is not very original at all.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay and design is where this level performs worst. The most noticable problem is that there is quite a good deal of flag bug. In order to prevent flag bug, the level must be surrounded by a 3-tile mask on every side of it. Because of the flag bug, this level is everything but unplayable. The rest of the level does not fare well either. There are warps to the start where there should not be, and the “warp center” sort of messes up any strategy that could be planned. Gameplay is possibly the weakest aspect of this level.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 2.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is not enjoyable at all to play, which obviously makes for a poor replay value. Mix that in with the flag bug and you’ve got yourself a 1.7.
Pros: None.
Cons: Not interesting, bad eyecandy, flag bug…
Rating: 1.7

OVERALL (not an average): This level has quite a few problems. It is buggy, has flag bug, and even the values in which it is not flawed greatly it shows very little quality in. This level does show a tad bit of effort, but not much. I would recommend that the author test their levels more thuroughly and next time put more effort and time in JCS into them or they will continue seeing poor scores.
Pros: None really.
Cons: Flag bug. No pros.
Rating: 2.7

GAMEPLAY: D -
Flow: D -
Layout: D -
Creativity: D -
Bugs: F

EYECANDY: D -
Tileset use: D -
Eyecandy look: D -
Creativity: D -
Bugs: D

PLACEMENT: D
Weapons: D

THE FINAL GRADE: D -

THE FINAL RATING: 2.7

+ PROS: None to mention.
- CONS: Flag bug, poor eyecandy, poor gameplay, poor placement. Nothing really good about this level. Spend more time on your levels in the future, please.

- Trafton

The joys of rating a first CTF level. Let’s begin:

GAMEPLAY:

Not good at all. No balance, no borders, lacks flow, and too open at the top. The layout is too wide and wasn’t planned too well, and the only start position at the bottom left reflects it. And on top of that, it manages to include some hurt events (which kill the server and no one else).

My advice: Use borders around the level at least two tiles thick (three tiles recommended). This will prevent the flag bug, and even if you don’t know what it is, that’s ok. It could help raise you ratings for CTF levels in the long run. Secondly, use Multiplayer Level Start events only. And place at least one of them near each of the bases. Of course, you’ll have to set them to be the same with the bases. Team=0 is for blue team and Team=1 is for red, although that’s not too hard to figure out. Also, in my opinion if you make some of the tree branches use one ways (which I recommend), you might as well make them all have it. It’s less annoying this way. And futhermore, poles are also annoying so limit the use of them (or better yet, don’t use them at all).

EYE CANDY:

For a first level (or first CTF level, same difference), it’s rather typical. It misuses the tileset in several places and it overloads on the diamond tiles in the walls. And apparently it only uses layer 4 and 8. I could probably assume that you don’t know how to place tiles on other layers well or what not.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I think I only saw two +1 carrots in the level. Full energy carrots are generally better (preferably one or two spread out), but I’m not going to go into that at the moment. Ammo placement was not that good with some ammo here and there. The powerup placement was worse: just a bunch of powerups placed throughtout the level. And better yet, you placed one of the least useful powerups (the pepper spray one) in a warp. If anything, limit the number of powerups to two or three.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Definitely not. This level needs a lot more work before it can deserve a higher rating. I’m giving this a 3.

My best advice: Read my review for Dapete’s level (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/moreinfo.php?levelid=2008) for some more CTF basics. And play some other CTF levels and see what makes them good. You can use some of their features in your own levels. You also might want make your levels loop in the near future. I loathe levels without next level settings.

BTW, the boss2.j2b file you used overwrites the original boss music. But that’s not entirely your fault since XpandoZ is the one to blame with his “Single-Player Time!” pack.

Well, this turned out exactly the way I expected, especially for a first CTF level. However, this levels gameplay is barely playable and not the slightest bit enjoyable. The layout is mostly straight and totally unbalanced.

They’re no borders so you know what that means… FLAG BUG. Next time you make a CTF level make sure you border the edges with at least 2 or 3 tiles to prevent this.

The flow was ok, but with the straight layout what do you expect? the layout is just too flat and uninteresting for CTF or any gametype for that matter.

Event placement was probably the worst aspect here as the way it’s placed both to unbalance the teams/bases and the evil hurt events (That can kill the server unlike the client)and another problem is that there’re two +1 carrots placed some what in the middle, this would be ok for a full NRG but not this way. Also, you can shoot the +1’s to the bottom of the level below the warps with are in the same area, I haven’t fully tested this, but they may be impossible to reach this way.

No new strategies in this level or hardly any strategy at all, your best bet is to camp at the 2 +1’s (risking them being shot to the ground. Probably out of reach).

The eyecandy is below average since it only uses layer 4 and 8, the tileset use is average. No new interesting uses to talk of. The eyecandy is simply below average and and really nothing new about it, however, i’m glad it’s not in any way ugly (though the gems aren’t very pretty when overused like that).

I feel no need to further explain this level, for a first attempt at CTF all I have to say is good try. Keep making CTF and other levels of any gametype, just take the adivce of the reviewers, practice, and you’ll make decent or even good levels in the future, don’t be afriad to try new concepts with gameplay and eyecandy (If they are good ones ;P).

Sorry, no download reccomendation.

-fs

[This review has been edited by Fire Sword!]

Bad:
Way too straight level.
Too much eyecandy(that’s new. usually there’s not enough).
Bad weapon placement.

Good:
Not too bad for a first try.

I would have given a 2, but I’ve got a habbit to give a little higher ratings to first stuff.

A 3.

This was no good level. I review it the way like blurredD.
Gameplay: The gameplay was boring, the level was too long and too low. There were some vines in it which is a bit average, but there were other things which are no good of this level. There were events in the walls and you cant pick up that events. And there was no border around the level which prevents the flag bug. And the v-poles were unnecessary in that place. And that hurt events are unnecessary too. And the warps were placed somewhere in the level.
Eyecandy: It uses too many diamonds and that gem events were used as eyecandy too, i think. The sprite layer eyecandy was not very bad, though. It was overused a bit. The other layers weren`t used except layer 3 and 8.
Carrot and ammo placement: There was no full energy carrot here, which is needed in a CTF level. The power-up placement and ammo placement was bad. There was too many ammo in this one. It uses 8 chests of ammo + 15 in a place.
Host his often?: No, this is a bad CTF level, you need to practice before you want to get a high rating. My rating is 3,2[This review has been edited by da man]