Custom / Concept, by 
Theming and Eyecandy – 4 out of 5
This level uses the somewhat unpopular and overlooked Hocus Pocus EP1 tileset. Not many levels use this set, but for some reason all the levels using this set wind up looking good or at least moderately good. This level certainly falls under the first category – some of the eyecandy is pretty and creative, for example the translucent “signs” on brick background walls. However, that’s about the only one kind of decoration you may find on the layer 4 background – the rest of the brick walls are somewhat bland. So are bland the masked tiles on the layer 4 – there’s barely any different kinds of bricks used there rather than just the typically used 2×1 light brown brick from the ep1 forest levels. The background layers are a different story though, the color the background fades in looks natural and nice, and the background layers also look good enough. One thing bugging me is that layers 5 and 6 remain unused. So much could be done with those! Like changing the layer 7’s tile colors into something else with some translucency tricks. Too bad D=
Gameplay – 5 out of 5
The gameplay was done well. The flow was decent (aside from one place in the level where there was a lot of springs). The level was actually quite smallish, but it used its space well for the most part and wasn’t cramped. Actually, most of the level was rather open, and that allowed to easily dodge the available weapons. Also, both teams should be rather balanced overall in a match. Not much else to say here.
Eventing – 3 out of 5
This is where this level falls prey. First of all, why is it the defending team who has access to the control room? I’d say that’s what the host has to do, not some random players. Also, one thing I also didn’t quite like is carrots in the playable area. Carrots by themselves are okay, but this time they seemed to be just scattered. If you’re going to put in carrots, put them in a team’s spawning place. Speaking of the spawning places, the attacker’s spawn spot seemed unnatural. If the level is about breaking into a dungeon, why do they warp in the middle of the dungeon itself? There’s the roof of the castle where BN resides, that could have been a good spawning place for the attackers. Also the powerups seem to be also quite randomly scattered. You could have made it so that both teams spawn with a few PU’s on their own and don’t get anymore ammo from that point.
Summary
- Pleasant eyecandy
- Decent gameplay and flow
- A logical layout
- Somewhat illogical carrot placement
- Mildly scarce ammo
Overall
This is a pretty decent Assault. Aside from some placement problems, it’s a level worth an occasional hosting. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it used in a JDC event either… so go download.
