Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I was about to rate, but I see that seems you copied another level. So : a 1 No, I meen no rating.

ThriftY

yeah i know
sorry for that copying that

It is not often that you see a Ground Force / Survivor level that is completely standalone. They usually come in packs, preferably of 20 or so. Ground Force levels, by nature, are fairly easy to make, so I was a bit disappointed by this offering. It is indeed a somewhat functional Ground Force level, but has far too many bugs to be enjoyable or fun. Pound for pound, this level is of inferior quality to a single level from BlurredD’s Survivor pack. Now for the review.

EYECANDY/TILESET USE: It is usually an important thing for Ground Force levels to have good eyecandy. Why? Because, in such a small level, it is difficult to keep the attention of the players for very long. One of the absolute best things about BlurredD’s Lost Gemz levels are that they are immersive. The environment is themed and it is not like BlurredD just uses the tileset in a normal way. In fact, usually, there is a manner in which the tileset has never before been used that is used in those levels. This level, to the other extreme, never ventures far from the basic Wasteland eyecandy. In fact, it never ventures at all. Everything here is just the basic Wasteland eyecandy and nothing more. All of the blocks are simply the basic ground blocks for Wasteland. This would not be as big of a problem if it was not that the walls were the same blocks. Oftentimes, it is difficult to tell where the bottom of the level is. Perhaps if a more diverse arraingements of blocks was used, it would be easier to tell, and therefore the eyecandy score would be improved.
Pros: There are not many tile errors, if that is anything much.
Cons: There is only one type of tile used. The tile looks like the wall, and the wall looks like the tile. See the problem?
Rating: 1.7

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There is not much of ammo at all. In Survivor levels, one generally expects a good arraingement of ammo, ranging from bouncy to flamethrower to ice to TNT. Unfortunately, the only part of that spectrum that is provided is the TNT segment. The level features several groups of fairly fast-respawning TNT and nothing more in the way of ammo. As for the falling crates that create all the pretty explosions, they are completely absent in this level. The only thing even somewhat remescent of that effect is a crate that unleashes one exploding TNT thing. Snore.
Pros: None to speak of, really.
Cons: There is only TNT. No falling crates.
Rating: 1.2

ORIGINALITY: There is nothing original about this level other than the fact this exact level has never been made before. Everything is pretty much ripped out of BlurredD’s Survivor levels, from the somewhat functional anti-Jazz method to the flawed ending area. Nothing here is new by any stretch of the imagination.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.2

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Here is where the level runs into some very major flaws. The first major flaw, as Violet mentioned, is that the level uses a highly mangled version of BlurredD’s anti-Jazz system. The system, which consists of a bridge, wind left, and warps is about 97% effective in BlurredD’s levels. Unfortunately, in this level, the wind right has been removed, and about 40% of the time, the player gets stuck. Not good odds. The second problem I noticed revolved around the ending area. Instead of having the usual system of sucker tubes for players who are not the controller, there is one sucker tube which just lets the player out of the loop, allowing anyone to end the level. In other words, it is not difficult for a player to just accidentally end the level. Beyond those bugs, gameplay is not exactly the picture of perfection, either. It is not really all that enjoyable and the TNT’s annoyingly fast respawn time makes all of the layout decisions that went into this level practically useless. But at least there is no layer 3, so you get to see all of the cool underworkings of the level.
Pros: The level works. Sometimes.
Cons: The level works.
Rating: 1.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This is just one level. Normally, that would be okay. But in this case, it is a little dull. After all, it is uninteresting to play the same Ground Force level over and over again. Not to mention that this is just a bad Ground Force level overall.
Pros: It is kind of a working Ground Force level.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.5

OVERALL (not an average): Labrat and Violet are both completely correct, although I must strongly disagree with Labrat on the rating. This level, despite its flaws, is just not a good level in general. The combonation of this with the huge array of bugs and glitches makes this one a definite level to avoid. Not to mention that it is only one Ground Force level and is a 1.24 level. A good effort, but unfortunately, it falls way too short of its goal.
Pros: It sometimes works.
Cons: It sometimes works.
Rating: 1.5

GAMEPLAY: F
Flow: F
Layout: D -
Creativity: F
Bugs: F

EYECANDY: F
Tileset use: F
Eyecandy look: D -
Creativity: F
Bugs: F

PLACEMENT: F
Weapons: F
Carrots: N/A
Enemies: N/A

THE FINAL GRADE: F

THE FINAL RATING: 1.5

Pros: It sometimes works.
Cons: It sometimes works.

- Trafton

First, I’d like to mention the disappearing bullets is a JJ2 bug, and only happens in SP.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Ugh. Pretty much all the walls are the single 1×1 block Wasteland (the used tileset) provides. This means all the walls, all the trigger scenery, and all the destructable blocks. There is nothing to let you really know where the edges of the arena are, or where the bottom is, for that matter. There is nothing to speak of in the way of background eyecandy. Also, there is no layer 3, so some things end up looking kind of weird to those of us used to BlurredD’s levels.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 2.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Bad. There’s some really fast generating TNT ammo in the top right corner, and that’s basically it. As for the falling crates, there are none – just a single TNT crate somewhere in the arena.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

ORIGINALITY: There is nothing to speak of in the way of originality. The whole level system is from BlurredD’s levels, which I wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t so mangled (more on that later). The arena itself has nothing interesting, nor does the tileset use.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Well, the arena itself is a bunch of semi-randomly placed blocks, all fairly thick. They seem designed so you can get down to the bottom without using the TNT, but why would you want to? It generates fast enough, you shouldn’t run out of it any time soon. However, the biggest problem is the start of the level. The author uses BlurredD’s improved (I think it’s the improved version) Spaz detector – but without the wind left, causing you to usually get stuck, unless you know of the problem and move left into the area yourself beforehand.
Pros: Brief flickerings of design.
Cons: Low gameplay.
Rating: 1.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: There is nothing paticularly entertaining about this level. And then there’s the fact that it’s only one level. This is not usually a ground for complaint, but when it comes to Ground Force, it kind of is, as they go best in packs.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.5

OVERALL (not an average): This level does not have much of anything going for it. Although I distrusted labrat’s review upon first reading it, it is actually kind of accurate, though I find the rating a bit high.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.5

Edit: Fixed italics.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Look, man, as much as I think survivor is cool, this is really, really plagurism in a way. You are copying just about EVERYTHING from the original survivor levels, and it’s unfair to the author. Also, sometimes you can’t shoot straight and the bullets dissapear right as you shoot them. Plus, there is NO eyecandy, and NO layer 3, so you can see EVERYTHING. Originality, if I could go lower than 0 or 1, I would make it negative 1000000000.[This review has been edited by labratkid][This review has been edited by labratkid]

Also, Survivor is BlurredD’s name. It’s called GroundForce. You even copied the name of BlurredD’s pack.[This review has been edited by labratkid]

Please do everyone a favor, and make a better name and description for this level. Sorry, but no one will know what they are downloading if you do not explain what your level is about.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The level uses (I think) some variation of Waz’s Weirdus. The level is, for the most part, strictly orange and green, which makes for an interesting effect. There is nothing in the way of background eyecandy, and one or two tile bugs could be found in the level.
Pros: It comes off as interesting.
Cons: Nothing to speak of for eyecandy, the blocks get boring after a while.
Rating: 5.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Basically, there are no weapons other then some fast spawning powerups here and there in the level. The top left corner has some fastfires, too. However, my main complaint in the placement area is the extreme biasedness of the level – towards the author. In one place, if you go in the right combination of warps, you get every single powerup and the bubble shield. Pick a wrong one, and you are doomed to ages and ages of going around in a spiral sucker tube. I can not say I approve of this in a simple battle level.
Pros: Some parts ok.
Cons: Everything regenerates too fast, the secret place, l didn’t notice any carrots.
Rating: 3.7

ORIGINALITY: Nothing much in the way of originality. I’ve seen basically everything here done before.
Rating: 2.0

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Hmmm. The level consists of two areas, which can be travelled between by a few green (turquoise?) sucker tubes. The design is nothing incredible, but it’s not that bad. Gameplay’s ok, too, but it would be better with weapons instead of just powerups. And, of course, no author area.
Pros: Actually decent design.
Cons: The author area, you can get stuck easily at one place, a few other problems.
Rating: 6.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: You can actually get a fairly enjoyable play here. Yes, anyone who gets into the coin tube is probably going to leave the server (which makes sense, seeing as rejoining is muchmuchmuch faster), but other then that you could hold a few people in here for a while.
Rating: 6.5

OVERALL (an average it is not): This is an ok level with a not too inspired design, and a few nasty quirks. The weapons in paticular could use some work.
Pros: Decent.
Cons: A few problems, gets boring after extended play (or looking at it).
Rating: 6.0

hi hi hi hi hi (Hotel Expansion)

---

The level name is disturbing and the description doesn’t make sence either. Let’s see if this level’s good though. The actual level name is grazz kid dc’s hotel.

ZIP FILE:
The zip file contains 2 (!) music files, the author appears to not know which files he used. Clever. It also contains the level and a tileset.

GENERAL:
This level starts somewhere where you can choose different parts of the hotel: Casino, Vlinders and Food. The main navigation is by using warps, you can’t really walk freely through the level.

GRAMMAR:
It makes use of the orbitus remix track, so weirdpersonalities shouldn’t have to be included. The author appears to have a problem with spelling (“WELKOM”). A lot of other text signs are in Dutch, or a mixture of Dutch-English.

EYECANDY:
None to speak of. Background is flawless, but I suspect it’s ripped.

AMMO PLACEMENT:
Extremely bad. At some areas it’s really overused, while in others there is none.

CONCEPT:
Just a plain hotel. No original ideas involved, except for the Idols show maybe.

RATING:
2.0.

[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

The first thing I noticed when I loaded the level was that it had no name… Untitled. Unjustifiable. The level itself is quite simple: both graphically and in its structure.

Graphical aspects: everything is fairly poor simplist and gaudy (well, the background is not gaudy – there are only gray brickets).

Organization: this level is very small, but it was not done randomly. That is what made me give the positive rating. There are already some problems: the powerups are regenerated almost instantly, it’s easy to get stuck in a corner near the toaster powerup, two long straight lines (quite significant owing to size of the level). And I couldn’t figure out how to get to a place where there is ammo (perhaps I’m just a little stupid).

[This review has been edited by Cataphract PT]