Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

As I’ve promised yesterday, I’ll do a review for this interesting new CTF level as soon as it find it’s way to J2O. So ehh, here it is! And yeah, I’ve heard the pretty damn cool music file now :P. Makes me enjoy summer even with the bad weather outside hmm.. But enough of this, let’s begin reviewing!

GAMEPLAY
It think when people look at the screenshots, the first impression they’ll get from this level is the huge amont of paths crossing each other. Well, after some of Faw’s instruction and a little test run on this level, the gameplay indeed proves to be the strongest part. I’ve already played this level in an early testing state and even at that time many interesting spring, tube, and secret paths were done and working well. Although I don’t mind death ends in CTF levels that much, in this level there always is a way to go, thus some exploring is recommended before playing duels/clanwars in this! Overally seen, the gamplay is not as over-the-top as in levels like Nightfall in Noobland, but the many minor and major tricks and pathways (especially the ‘secret’ paths involving the pillars) makes this level interesting to explore, game, and master!

EYECANDY
It has been long ago since I’ve played a new level using the Persian Paradise tileset. I do remember some great classics using this Disguise set though. The set has a good bunch of eyecandy tiles, including some stuff not to be used too often. But ey, it’s about how the level makes use of it, and that’s pretty much alright. I haven’t seen any tilebugs or layer3 errors and whatever. And probably because of the months of work spend on this, every area in this level looks clean to the eye (well NOT including Mario’s face :P)!

EVENT PLACEMENT
Let’s begin with the weapons, as stated in the level description, there are 5 powerups. With the Seeker and Bouncer probably being the strongest (Seeker is always strong and bouncers are handy in the smaller tunnels in this level). Normal weapon pickups are alright aswell, as I’ve never experienced a moment without any usefull weapon. Another interesting pickup is the Full Carrot placed somewhere near the middle of the level, with more pathways leading to it, try to keep that one safe for your damaged teammate in busy games :P. Envoirement events are just as they should, I don’t really give much for lightning effects lol. But generally, I don’t see any factor of events that has to be changed.

RATING
With Sultans GunPalace (still a weird name but I guess that makes it original), you have a huge, balanced, hardcore styled level, in my opinion best played with 2v2 or especially 3v3 games. Duels should be fun aswell if you don’t mind the size. You should first explore some pathways or even open it with JCS if you’re lazy :P. And at last, I recommend download and give a 9.0 for a challenging CTF experience without any gameplay crap that’s trying to be original. See ya in JJ2! ;)

EDIT: The 9 I gave for this level wasn’t meant to be a ‘overrated’, how could it be, cause it’s based on my personal opinion on your level.. I could have given it a much lower score if things like eyecandy or text strings bothered me aswell, but it didn’t. Yeah I’m no expert at level creation, but my score and opinion remains, this level is one of the few I’ve ‘tested’ this year, and it gave me that awesome ‘CTF’ feeling again. :p ;)

Yeah, I’d have to agree with cooba there, it’s not all it’s mocked up to be…

Quality was allright, in that it was a decently playable ctf level, but while playability wasn’t the issue, eyecandy was…
My eyes were severly abused by your eyecandy. It wasn’t innately bad, in that it wasn’t inappropriate, but you used it [the eye candy] very poorly, lashing the user with too many bright colors and useless junk. Definitely some work needed.
Music did not fit with the level at all, it should’ve had an Arabian feel to it, not this “new discovery” idea.
Like cooba said, the level is structured with baselike concepts, which would take a while to get down pat. What’s with the off-limits areas? That’s just stupid. Could you maybe just not have put them there at all? But, I will comment on how good the concept was, on how funny the scrolls were [Kill the chickens! KILL THE CHICKENS!!!], on how well overtly structured the level was, so there were positive things here.
To sum up, I think you could’ve done better. You are very skilled at this, it’s just not the best it could be. I’m tempted to say I understand how you feel, but I say that to everyone so it gets old fast. Just keep a’hacking away at it, and it’ll be even better then before!
Readers, you decide if you want to download. It’s a good level, but the bad factors cancel out the good.