Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Fragile Existance – By Fawriel
Time Started to play level: 3:14 pm (15:14) – Time Finished Level: 3:50pm (15:50).

Over half an hour it took me to beat it O.o.

To start the review:

Firstly, I’ve enjoyed this level from the point where I betatested and gave suggestions upon it during the active times of Project Alpha, and I still enjoy it now. This is undoubtedly one of the hardest levels I’ve played – not only in the fact that I’ve died/been near death so many times I’ve lost count, but also the mind-boggling puzzles. This level not only testes your quick reactions and awareness, but also your ability to solve puzzles and think.

The eyecandy in this level is for the most part, beautiful. The atmosphere is good (it does look like a deep cave). There is eyecandy everywhere. There are a bunch of eyecandy bugs, but they’re barely noticable unless you go hunting for them. The level is fairly long and difficult, but also fun. Lots of pickups and secrets nearly everywhere. The only annoyances where that bees and dragons got too annoying and hard to kill with the bumpy terrain, as with the bats hidden behind or near layer 3 that you can barely spot. Music choice was great. Overall, this is a really awesome single player level. You’ll definately have to spend effort and time beating it. It’s too bad that Faw doesn’t make many other levels, though =\. Lots of original and fun effects in this level too, so its definately worth a check!

Rating:
Layout/Gameplay: 8.2 (long and challenging, but often confusing and prone to get you stuck in the ceiling sometimes)
Eyecandy: 8.5 (some places could’ve used more, but it was generally good).
Placement: 8 (enemies got annoying when they were placed in unavoidable areas)
Originality: 8.5 (lots of cool stuff, despite the level being several years old)
Overall (not average): 8.5 (Imho this is a really good and challenging level. Needs some things to get fixed though).

Final Rating: 8.34 ~ 8.3 (would be 8.2 if it weren’t for textbox ratings).

This is a great level Faw, too bad you don’t make much more levels anymore. This gets a download reccomendation and a pat on the back from me =P.

Starting Comments:

It’s been a while since I played this, but it seems I forgot to write a review. So I played again, and here goes:

Played with: Spaz
On difficulty: Medium
Playing time: 45 minutes

Playability:

The level is very claustrophobical, you wander around in a maze of caves with lots of evilish enemies, and some very cool puzzle elements. After getting deeper into what I think is supposed to be an abandoned mining shaft you need to find a code. There are two signs telling you what the code is, but both are hardly readable, and so you have to find both and form a proper sentence out of them. After you got it out, you need to enter it in the security area. What happens after that I don’t know, because I lost my last life while trying to find the way back, and gave up on it. Yes, this level is very difficult, and can get pretty much frustrating. More on that in the following section.

Score: 8.0

Balance:

This level is very difficult, with lots of enemies in strategic locations, and a bunch of puzzle elements. I often found myself trying to find my way through a maze of corridors. The level begins not too hard, while still not being too easy. Once you’ve found the first check point it gets really difficult. I love the difficulty of this level, very well done.

Score: 9.0

Creativity:

Very creative. I like the layout, which is different than from most levels I’ve seen. The several puzzle areas are very original too, very well done. I don’t know about the story, so no points for that.

Score: 8.5

Eyecandy:

Nice eyecandy. It looks very good, and gives a nice atmosphere. No tilebugs, and some cool effects, make me give this an 8.5 again.

Score: 8.5

Fun Factor:

Players that like difficult levels with lots of maze and puzzle elements, will love this. However, the ones which like lots of ammo and not too hard levels will probably not as much. I enjoyed playing though, and will definately try to finish it in the near future.

Score: 8.0

Overall:

Very cool level. It has great layout, cool and original puzzles, and well placed enemies. People who liked Tomb Rabbit, will love this.

Note: I probably overrated this, as Nobody gave it only a 7, but I think this deserves more than a tiny 7.0.

Overall Score: 8.7

Download Reccommendation: Yes

I just played through this level, and I have to so that while some parts were fairly enjoyable, others were simply too annoying or confusing. Two areas in particular that bothered me were the sort of “bind maze” area in the start, and then the area where it tells you to “input code” or whatever which didn’t make much sense at all.

Enemies are somewhat sparse, but so are carrots. Because of this the level is somewhat challenging. One problem though is a lack of save points, which means that if you want to avoid frustration you have to save a lot. I don’t really like to use the save feature in the middle of levels, but I found I was forced to here.

The level starts out quite atmospheric, with a nice look to it and lots of layer 3 everywhere. It really makes you feel closed in. Unfortunately, the entire level pretty much looks the same, and it is quite large. The tileset doesn’t offer much, but I’ve always thought that large levels should use more versatile tilesets.

Despite the drawbacks of this level, it does have its merits. The level doesn’t really make you feel like you are on any sort of contrived “path”. The level is still quite linear, but areas branch out enough to make it seem more natural. I also liked the music choise, becuase it successfuly transformed a hellish tileset into something that feels more cold and empty.

I’m giving this level a 7. It’s a decent effort, but the annoyances that can be found in it prevent me from rating it an 8.

I give you a 7 because the level itself was fairly large and took a while to finish. You can’t say that he didn’t spend effort on this level cause good layout, good eyecandy ang good gameplay. There were no tileset errors.

DOWNLOAD RECOMENDATION: YES