Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This level is almost entirely symetrical, but still, i ended up hitting constant hiccups preventing a fluid motion from area to area. Weapon placement is pretty good, but the knowledge house is slightly unbalanced. There is a warp to a seeker powerup on there side, while the house of power has nothing. The carrot is in perfect center so thats balanced.

Good:
Good Weapon placement
Level looks nice

Bad:
Semi unbalanced sides
Minor hiccups in moving

Ugly:
None

Conclusion: A good level. Just needs a bit more refinement. 7.5

This level is definitely a good effort. It shows that there was some hard work put into making it, and it did translate fairly well. Still, this level just lacks the polish of more refined levels, which brings the score down. If the level was to be edited and improved just slightly in a few ways, it would make for a really, really, really good Capture the Flag level. Reviewing time.

GAMEPLAY: Gameplay is where this level seems to run into problems. While the layout is more or less good, the flow needs work. I found myself often hitting into the walls and sides, which is OK in a battle level, but just does not cut it in a Capture the Flag level. If this flow was to be improved even marginally, my score would be higher. Gameplay was fairly enjoyable, save for the flow quirks. This is definitely the level’s weakpoint, as bumping into things in Capture the Flag is frustrating and should not happen often by level design fault.

EYECANDY: The eyecandy in this level actually looked pretty good. Heaven is used a lot (especially lately, it seems) and the eyecandy in it looks simply astounding. Of the Heaven levels that I have reviewed lately, I have to say that this was the weakest in eyecandy, but then again this was also the weakest overall. Still, some more could be done with the Heaven tileset to make it look a little tiny bit more spiffy. Eyecandy was still more or less good, though.

LAYOUT: Layout was alright. There are not a huge amount of complaints here, though the level layout should have been adjusted slightly to improve the flow. The symetrical quality of this level did not translate into balanced sides, though; one team definitely had a small advantage over the other, which was moderately noticable during play.

TILE PLACEMENT: Tileset placement was good, but again, nothing special. This is a fairly simple and classic Heaven tileset-based level tile placement-wise, and there is little that makes this level different from the others in the eyecandy field. Still, the tileset was not used badly, and that definitely is worth something. It shows that this level does in fact have some time put into it, which is nice to see.

PICKUP PLACEMENT: Pickup placement was alright. The carrot was in the middle of the level, which balanced it slightly. The “House of Knowledge” as it seems to be called was indeed a bit unbalanced (whatever it actually is. I’m not sure). The creative story line was interesting, though did not make sense beyond it being a “ancient battle of knowledge (blue team) versus power (red team).”

OVERALL STATEMENT: Despite the flow quarks, this is a pretty good Capture the Flag level. This would have made a good submission for BlurredD’s Capture the Flag level contest, in fact. It is good to see that levelmakers are not just resting while this contest happens and are still making other Capture the Flag levels. For the brief pause there is during the contest in Capture the Flag level making, I was expecting to see very few quality levels. Fortunately, this is one. Download recommendation for Capture the Flag fans.

+ PROS: Good-looking Capture the Flag level. Good weapon placement.

- CONS: Slightly unbalanced. The flow has a few kinks that could have been worked out before release.

VERDICT: This is not a bad Capture the Flag level at all. Overall, I give it a 7.2 and a download recommendation for Capture the Flag fans. Nice work, Fireball.

Not a bad level. A little simple, but ok.

GAMEPLAY:

I can’t say I hate it. It’s a little simplistic and balanced for the most part, but the flow could use some work. There’s nothing horribly wrong with the layout except for a few empty spaces around the level. Like in the top corners, I know you were probably just using that area for eye candy but you could have put some ammo there, too. The gameplay is nothing extraordinary, but decent nonetheless.

EYE CANDY:

I would say it’s alright. A little innovative but not too spectacular. It’s a tad plain in some places, but that just might be the tileset. Let me just say I’m glad that the clouds aren’t transparent, because it sometimes creates lag when played online, especially with the lighting (yeah, I know I could just turn it off, but I generally play with Hardware Acceleration off).

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The full energy carrot is placed in the bottom middle of the level and there’s nothing wrong with that. The ammo, on the otherhandm is placed scarcely around the level; it could be placed in some other places. As for the powerup placement, I can’t say there’s anything wrong with it, but I probably would have made two warps to the seeker powerup on each side and the toaster powerup somewhat in the middle or something like that. Overall, the placement of everything isn’t bad.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

I wouldn’t say so, but you can host it once in a while. A 7.2 is what I’ll give this.