Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

CTF – Madmirrow
Well, another CTF level by Olsen. I feel that I like to write some reviews for levels again, so I don’t hesitate to create a nice review for this Mez (argh! Again!) CTF level by Olsen. Anyway, here’s my review.

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
The level has a good start. The eyecandy is quite decent, especially the good backgrounds. I did not notice any errors in this level, not in the background, not in the foreground. The eye candy is further not really special, it looks a lot like the Mez level by SabaSpaz uploaded a few days ago (I wonder if the graphics in this level are copied from that level by the way…) Anyway, reasonable eye candy, keep up the good work.

AMMO: 0.5 out of 2.5
While the eyecandy was good, the ammo placement really sucks. About 5 types of ammo are placed in this level, in very small portions. Only Pepperspray, TNT, FastFire, Toast and Bouncie are placed around (just single pickups) and they are far from enough for a decent duel. The two best ammo kinds are not in the level, I mean Seeker and RF. And where the heck do you need TNT for? A really bad point is that there are no PU’s in the whole level, which sucks a lot. Two carrots are placed on both sides of the level, but they are not really necessary. Overall for ammo: bad, lousy weapon types, no powerups, unneeded carrots.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 0.5 out of 2.0
The structure of this level reminded me a lot of a very bad CTF level that was uploaded a few months ago, a level with the Ice Heck tileset wherein you only could run around between the two bases, it took an hour to reach them, and there was only one boring way. This level is almost the same deal. Only one path leads form the first base two the second, fortunately splitted into two paths at the bottom, so there is a little diversity. In short words: this level is too boring and not funny to play.

GAMEPLAY: 0.75 out of 3.0
This level is simply not funny to play, and after I made it from the blue to the red base, I was bored enough to shut down the game. The only thing that makes the level still funny to play is the decent eyecandy, the other things just are bad. The level really doesn’t have a bad flow, but it’s just so boring and some places are a little hard to reach for Jazz users. About the music; I can’t say like it, but it’s not bad either.

RATINGS:
Another prove of a plan dthat doens;t work out. For another time: GOOD EYECANDY DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD LEVEL! And this especially goes for this level, which is really a cramp to play and boring. You still have a lot to learn as a level creator, but try to listen to ideas of reviewers and you might learn something ;) For now, a 3.5 is my final rating.

Score: 1.75+0.5+0.5+0.75 = 3.5
Download: No.
Host: No.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Green plant, please stop being an face. ;)

I get to review two Mez levels in a row. Life is good.

GAMEPLAY:

At least the level is symmetrical so at least I don’t have to complain about the balance. The routes from base to base aren’t good at all. Players would just run back and forth up and back and forth down. Nothing strategical about it. The layout is pretty empty—just a few springs and several other events. I wouldn’t know how anyone could enjoy a level like this. I can’t really complain about a layout that has nothing in it, so I’ll just leave it at that.

EYE CANDY:

Not particularly good, especially compared to all of the other levels I’ve seen using this tileset. At least there aren’t many tiling errors, but something more creative could’ve been done.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The +1 carrots actually can be pretty useful here, since there aren’t any powerups. However, there barely is any ammo in this level. As for the little ammo that is there, it was poorly chosen. TNT and ice? How are those suppose to be useful? At least there’s toasters and bouncers, but it’s not enough for the entire level. The ammo needs to be distributed better. The pepper spray doesn’t regenerate by the way.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

No. Feel free to guess why. 5.5 is my rating.

The Edit: The new layout is a little better, although the flow needs some work. The ammo placement isn’t great, but at least there is some ammo. The one way events seem to have been placed in excess, and the carrots are oddly placed. I don’t like how far up the RF powerup was placed, either. Furthermore, the RF powerup doesn’t respawn, the ice ammo is nearly useless, and the start positions aren’t team based. In fact, red team wouldn’t even be able to join the game at all. Overall, the new version of this level is better, but not by much. 5.7 would’ve been my new rating, but it’s now a 4.5 because the bad start positions make this level unplayable.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]