Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Wow. Here’s something very new. If only more levels could be like this.

Eyecandy: Very good
The eyecandy is great. Very interesting. There are birds that fly by, good layer adjustment, nice background… nothing to complain about here.

Gameplay: Good
Gameplay is good. It’s easy to get around the level, but the level is very small… but since it’s meant for 3 on 3’s, it’s okay.

Bugs: N/A
Well, there is a bug. If you are on the red team (the bad guys), and if you select the bouncy bullet warrior guy, than you teleport right to the enemy flag as a starting position. This is a bug, I guess. But this is the only bug I found.

Ammo placement: Very good
Ammo placement is well balanced, and there doesn’t need to be much ammo, because each class starts out with ammo.

Everything else: Very good.
Very good. I don’t wanna write a long review, but this is really good, and I hope Trafton rights one of his super-mega reviews, because this is the kind of level that deserves one.

Interesting, a story line. That might have raised my expectations too much, though. Let’s see what I truly think.

GAMEPLAY:

This level wasn’t what I expected. That could be a good thing. Or not. The level is a little different for a CTF level. But it takes the idea from the assassination concept (mainly with the spy ability thing). But that’s alright since the whole idea hasn’t really been used in CTF (the closest was the JTF thing or whatever it was called). The ammo place at the start wasn’t covered with third layer, but I can live with it (I suppose). But after getting to the actually playing area, that was when I was truly disappointed. The level wa much smaller than I expected it would be. The flow wasn’t terrible, but the general narrowness, the hidden pole, and some of the springs surely didn’t help. And there may be a flag bug issue with this level.

EYE CANDY:

I suppose it’s good for the tileset, although I’m not too crazy about it. Some tiles in the tileset I’m not too fond of (for example the leaves), but that’s OK since I shouldn’t be rating the tileset. But the tileset you choose to use is an important factor in the end. I would also like to add that the level is a little bit too dark for my taste, though I won’t take off too much for that.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I saw a +1 carrot and that was enough for me. I’ll just move on to the ammo placement, which is really more complicated than you think. This level has a JAIL mentality that the weapons for each team are balanced. I can’t just tell if they actually are right away, although more problems arise with the fact that players can sometimes shoot through triggers (and I don’t just mean with bouncers and electro blasters) and other spy ability issues. So ammo distribution is a giant question mark. Choose your team at your own risk.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

If you’re bored enough or if you like seeing stuff that’s almost new then maybe host this once. It’s different, sort of, but not necessarily in a good way. I’m rating this a 7.

And some advice: use the @ at least three times in your text strings so that the text it isn’t covered up by the flag count in the top left corner.

The edit: After thinking about it for a little while, a 7.0 does seem a little low. Overall, the good stuff cancels out the bad stuff and the bad stuff cancels out the good stuff, which somehow makes the level average (I wonder if that made any sense). So anyway, 7.5 is my new revised rating, just because I’m nice.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Interesting. By the way, it’s spelled “defense”, not “defence”. :)
Exit Grammar Nazi

Good Stuff:
- innovative
- well-tested (in 1-player mode, at least)
- custom tileset/music

Bad Stuff:
- constrictive space
- little variety
- unexplained portions (could be confusing in an online game)