Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Brown brick CTF
Level rating: 6.6
Rating
6.5

What’s with all of the CTF levels all of the sudden. Hmm… I shouldn’t complain too much. At least I get some CTF levels to review after that long void. In any case…

GAMEPLAY:

Let me start by staying this: as far as large goes, this is only medium sized. The main thing that keeps this level from being small or even close to it is its general layout. It has the same layout style as “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t work nearly as good (bricks weren’t meant to be used like this. read more in eye candy section). This level also seems to have a little less flow than the last level and I’m not liking all of the platforms. There are still deadends and unneeded places here and there. And places to get stuck in walls (incline tiles often don’t mix well with walls in certain situations). There are also some balance issues, such as the red base is placed much higher than the blue base (this almost always causes balance issues). And I noticed there was the same single start position for both teams. Team based MP start positions will be needed to make a better CTF level.

EYE CANDY:

I can’t say I like the eye candy much at all. It reminds me of the eye candy in “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t look good at all. The bricks look bad as one-tile high blocks floating in mid-air. Also, the background didn’t need to be mirrored. It tiles horizontally well enough. And the 4th layer background tiles are too sporadic for my liking (and I’m assuming you can figure out what I’m refering to). Work on eye candy more next time.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Well, there’s a full energy carrot in the middle. Nice to know some of my advice was taken. The only problem is it’s way too close to the blue base (which wasn’t even placed well in the first place). Ammo is still scarce and often in the worst places (I forgot to mention this for the last level). And finally, there are powerups. I presume there are three of them. There are 2 bouncer powerups, and in a level like this, that just makes it nearly unplayable. A bouncer powerup is often a bad choice as the only 2 heart damaging powerup—especially in a level like this. Also, one of the bouncer powerups is too close to the electro blaster powerup. But after saying all of this, I don’t think I’ll find anything else which makes this level much worse.

HOST THIS OFTEN

Probably not. Obviously this level isn’t too strategic or much of anything for that matter. This is a 6.5, but keep trying.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Fort2 a JTF bugs fixd
Level rating: 5.6
Rating
6

I hate to have to say this, but if your english isn’t perfect, please please please use a spellcheck or at least have someone else proofread it for you first. Anyway…

GAMEPLAY:

Let’s all make JTF levels now. And with the same exact music and tileset. This level is a lot like Neon’s JTF level except it’s less linear. But this level looks like it works less often (well, it did work a lot less a few minutes ago). “Flag Runer,” “Bese Defender,” and “field Rooster” are the classes and they have similar problems as to the ones in Neon’s level. The only things I can say I actually like more in this level than in Neon’s is that the hooks have events on them, the turrets work a little better (just not perfectly), and the layout isn’t all that linear. The main problem might be the horrible flow, like with what seems to be obstacles in the water. And the turrets seem to get in the way a lot. There are some other problems, but if you bug me on a chat client I may be willing to help.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy here is slightly below average. As I said in Neon’s review, Disguise set the standard, but the level falls short. And the numerous tiling errors don’t help much at all. Please look at the example level carefully before using its tileset.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

There’s a full energy that only the “Bese Defender” can get, and that class isn’t worth staying in forever so the carrot placement is already horrendous. To make matters worse, the ammo placement isn’t spectacular. And to top things off, no powerups? It could be argued that because there are no carrots for the “Flag Runer” that this solves the no powerup issue. But the fact is, it’s better with both powerups and carrots than with neither at hand. So that’s a bad thing.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

No, no, no. Please try harder and test it out more thoroughly next time. No time to proofread my review so a 6.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Neons JTF
Level rating: 7.5
Rating
6

It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a CTF level. This will be fun. I don’t even know if anyone minds if I review this, so here’s my review.

GAMEPLAY:

For a CTF level it would be bad, but as a JTF level it’s much worse. It’s way too linear for me to ever enjoy it. You basically just run back and forth. The players shooting seekers out of the turrets could be a challenge; however, this alone cannot make the level less dull and unplayable. The classes in this aren’t too good. The Warrior/Brute class is the only class where you can capture the flag; too bad it has no powerups. You are forced to only use RFs poorly placed throughout the level. The Archer/Bowman class keeps you (or at least tries to keep you) stuck in a turret. I rather dislike that. The Wizard/Dark Mage class gives you a weak ability to hide in the ground along with some ice (ICE?) and electro blasters to, by a slight chance, shoot incoming enemies who run over your area. This class is probably the worst of the three, and you would be quite foolish to use this one. This level seems to be the perfect example as to why EvilMike thinks there shouldn’t be classes in JTF that keeps you from capturing the flag. And I must agree; what would happen if everyone chose the turret class? And I have to mention this about the turrets: easy to get stuck in and then unstuck in. In other words, I can go through one side of the turret then come out on the other. This could be useful to get the seeker powerup when in the Warior/Brute, but I truly doubt this was the author’s intention. And the one tile wide border may still allow for a flag bug, and the area above the castle seems only easily accesible to spaz. I should also mention it’s annoying to see hook tiles without hook or vine events on them.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy is right in between average and below average. It uses most of the tiles as they should be used, but it doesn’t use enough tiles to make the eye candy nearly as good as in Disguise’s example level (which is where Disg set the standard). Not to mention some tiling errors here and there.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Perhaps some of the worst carrot placement I’ve ever seen. When I said add carrots, I didn’t mean put a semi-fast regenerating full energy carrot right on top of each base. The +1 carrot, only suppose to be available if you choose the turret class, is almost useful. Too bad it’s really is just something to keep you in that horrible class even longer. The weapon placement also isn’t great (as I started to mention earlier in this review). The seekers and the RF missiles were placed lazily. They were just large clumps of ammo barely placed strategically.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

That’s a trick question, no (to put it harshly). Don’t make your 2nd CTF level a JTF level. Work harder next time. A 6.

PS: You forgot to include the music, which would be fire.s3m.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Just two survivors.
Level rating: N/A
Rating
N/A

Let me just say this:

“I know [my survivor levels] are Ground Force levels (I forgot to credit ET for the concept, too). ‘Survivor’ was originally suppose to be the name of the pack of Ground Force levels I made. But eventually, everyone started to call the concept Survivor and making ‘Survivor levels’. (I can’t help it if ‘Survivor’ is more catchy than ‘Ground Force’). So technically, Survivor is the 20 Ground Force levels I made, not the name of ET’s concept.”

That was an old quote, but it still holds true (althought at the moment it’s now 25 Ground Force levels). So please, stop labeling your GF levels as survivor levels, because I don’t want to hear Violet complaining about it.

On another note, these need work. Did you even try testing these? The Kosmic Destruction level doesn’t even have a usable warp at the bottom of the level (most events on the lowest tile of a level don’t work). And on top of that, the end area isn’t completely masked. There are also some gameplay issues, but I’m not going into that. I’ll save you the trouble and not actually rate this, although you can imagine it wouldn’t be too high.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Medieval CTF (re-upload)
Level rating: 6.8
Rating
6.5

Another CTF level but the same tileset?

GAMEPLAY:

I cannot just say the flow is bad right away. It is decent to the point where players can jump to get where you want to go. But it fails where players have to jump to get where you want to go. There are some small deadends which really could have been avoided altogether, such as the gap between the blaster and the fast fire powerup. If eye candy means sacrificing gameplay then choose gameplay. Some more springs in some places and less in others would have been better. I do not like the base placement at all. The blue base is almost in the bottom left corner while the red base is somewhat near the top center (or at least further to its closest edge than the other buse). I suppose the warps to the left and right of the red base could try to justify this, but it does not, and this probably was not the author’s intention. There are still some moderately empty spaces almost as if Waz was desperately trying to fill up the level with tiles. But it could seem to be like this because of the weak spring placement.

EYE CANDY:

Whatever I said about the last Waz CTF level with the Dark Reign tileset pretty much applies to this one.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The carrot placement is probably better in comparison with the last level, although I cannot easily tell if only one carrot is used or not. If there is only one full energy carrot used, then the placement is not that good. And yet it can somehow work out. Ammo placement seemed too spaced out, possibly because Waz was trying to distribute it evenly throughout the whole huge level. There is TNT, although I do not know what for. Powerup placement is… I’m guessing it is like the way it is mainly so that the level has powerups. It’s nothing special, and I doubt it’s very strategic.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

I can’t say you should. I liked the last one a little more. My best advice is not to make CTF levels out of battle levels generally because of balance issues. It’s not great, it’s not horrible, but it’s a 7.

The Edit: 7? What was I thinking? 6.5 at best. Sorry.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: All Your Base CTF
Level rating: 8.4
Rating
8

Another alright level by CelL.

GAMEPLAY:

Like previous levels, this has a good flow and layout pretty much. It’s not prefect, but what is? Perhaps the only downside is that it seems to be made for 4 players and down instead of 6 (I tend to like 3vs3-sized levels more, even for 2vs2s), but that’s not going to hurt the rating.

EYE CANDY:

Pretty much what is expected. It tries to be a little different and innovative for the tileset. Unfortunately, there’s a problem. The 4th layer BG tiles look similar to the 4th layer solid tiles, which already causes some confusion. In addition, these 4th layer BG tiles were used in the background layers as well, thus more confusion. And even worse, the vines in the level tended to blend in a bit with the BG. But like most confusing things, you’ll get used to it (hopefully).

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

A full energy carrot near the middle along with good ammo and powerup placement. Nothing else to say.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Perhaps. It’s good, but not great. Aside from eye candy, it doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from other levels like it. I’m giving this an 8.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Dark regin ctf
Level rating: 5.3
Rating
5

I will now try to find everything wrong with this level.

GAMEPLAY:

This part of the level is not very good. At all. I don’t think there’s anything in this that would make it different than a battle level. And not a great one at that. In either case, it’s too big (at least IMO). Resizing from the default size would be nice. The bases were placed at the top corners of the level. This makes them both just a few tiles away from the top which could cause a lot of problems. It has horrible flow, too many platforms, deadends, no borders around the level to prevent the flag bug (I advise using at least 2 tiles, although 3 is better), and it is too open in various places. To make things worse, this level uses an annoying amount of poles (there were some poles about 10 tiles wide). And to top things off, there are hurt events. Yes, hurt events. The same things that kill the server but not anyone else. Don’t use hurt events in multiplayer. Ever.

I also forgot to comment on the chatroom. Never, ever, ever put a chatroom in a multiplayer level. There are chat clients for this. If you want players to be chatting instead of playing in your levels, then maybe you should get more experience in JJ2 before making any more levels.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy actually wasn’t too bad at first glance. It’s nothing spectacular (it’s somewhat average) but it does try to be slightly different in some areas. But then there’s the background. Only one layer was used (no mountains, just the sky). It didn’t look that bad, but it was lazy, and laziness is never a good sign. And there was one place where solid 4th layer tiles were used in a BG layer which may be a little confusing. Not the worse thing, but still annoying.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Several +1 carrots near poles. Atrocious. Try using a full energy carrot or two (not too close together) somewhere near the middle of the level instead next time. Ammo was unevenly distributed, mainly because of the giant open spaces with almost nothing in them. Powerup placement wasn’t much better, and some powerups were too close to each other.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Not a chance. I advise working on battle levels a little more before tackling CTF levels. And it’s “Reign” not “Regin” just to let you know. I’m rating this a 5.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Black Thorn CTF
Level rating: 7.1
Rating
7.2

Well, this is almost what I expected…

GAMEPLAY:

Not bad, but not new, interesting, or different. The layout seems more or less average. But it is much better than the previous CTF levels made. There are, however, several things throughout the level which hinder gameplay. The main problem would have to be with several of the one ways, such as near the red springs at 35,24. If you go up where the one way and the normal solid tile meet, you could get stuck. This is often ignored and it is a small bug, but it can become annoying from time to time (I already got stuck at 37,19 twice). It’s easy to fix this by making sure that the one way tile and the regular tile next to it both don’t have the same masking where they meet together (I had to use 3rd layer to make it work out in my Dark Reign example level).

EYE CANDY:

I can’t say it’s above average (I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary since you did make the tileset). The eye candy is good, although somewhat average. I can’t really say much anyway since the tileset doesn’t have the most variety in tiles.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I might be able to live with the carrot placement, although I question it. There are two full energy carrots near the top (which are probably too close together). But major the problem is, the blue base is closer to its nearest carrot than the red base is. That could be another balance problem. And then there’s the ammo. It seemed to be distributed unevenly in several places. As for powerup placement, it’s not the greatest, but it’s all right.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

It’s decent, but I doubt anyone would. If you really like it, yes. If you really don’t, no. I’m giving this a 7.2 (and yes, that rating is somehow higher than Small CTF Pack‘s rating. I tend to give higher ratings to packs—for the extra effort and all).

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: PEPSI vs. COKE (updated!!!!!!)
Level rating: 7.7
Rating
6.5

Pepsi vs Coke? Right…

GAMEPLAY:

In a word, no. The level is a little hard to get around (especially with Jazz) and it has too many platforms in it. There were several small dead ends at the sides of the level. I could live with one or two, but there are just too many. And the coins are another problem. There are too many large clumps of coins, and to make things worse, all you get is some lousy food after going into the coin warp. Also, the thin layer of tiles that border the level in some places could allow for flag bug in laggy servers.

EYE CANDY:

I was forced to use Hardware Acceleration (already a bad sign). It may be a good idea to make tiles transparent, but when you make entire layers transparent, it’s never a good thing. Other than that, the eye candy is more or less average. And overall, I’m not too fond of it. I would blame the tileset if I were you.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

From what I can tell, there are three carrots that are accessible (one +1 carrot near each base and one near the top). There could be one more, but that certainly wouldn’t help. Then there are the full energy carrots near the top (which I’m assuming are unreachable) which are there either for eye candy or for taunting players. Either way, I dislike it. As for ammo placement, that wasn’t horrible, but not too good. What I disliked the most was the ice on the platform at 82,7 (I never really liked ammo touching solid tiles). The powerup placement is the most questionable, although it could be much worse.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Probably not this lifetime. I’m giving this level a 6.

The Edit: While the updates were for the better, it doesn’t improve everything that needs improvement. And the transparent layers could have been a nuisance to many, but it’s not the biggest problem ever encountered. So in all, my new rating is only half a point higher.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Doomy Warzone
Level rating: 7
Rating
N/A

Just to clear things up…

1.24 levels only work with the TSF Jazz2.exe and thus it does not matter which tileset is being used. No matter what, levels made in 1.24 cannot be played in 1.23, but it is true (as you probably already know) that 1.23 levels can be played in 1.24. So there.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Armageddon Survivor
Level rating: N/A
Rating
N/A

Great…

I should have mentioned that no one should use the survivor.j2l format for filename. In the event that I ever make some more survivor levels (although not anytime soon) it will get overwritten.

It’s also nice to know that this level goes along with the 27-level survivor pack (the one in which I didn’t make several of the levels and only works for TSF). Joy.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Jazz 1 Warzone v3.0
Level rating: 7
Rating
7

Laziness stricks back again…

skips half of the review

Overall review: The eye candy is a little better, I suppose. But the flag bug thing has only been partial fixed. There’s still a slight masking problem where you can stand on part of the wall (although the tileset is partly at fault). And some other stuff (which I’m not exactly sure of). 7 since I’m nice.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Mega Megatropolis
Level rating: 9.5
Rating
9.2

Argh. I don’t know why I have to be the one to give this tileset it’s current highest rating. But anyway…

With this being the huge tileset that it is, it shows that Disguise put much much much much effort into it. And with this, I’m making a rare exception of using a TSF tileset (just to prove Wisety wrong). But it’s going to take an awful lot of work to misuse the entire tileset. I sorta have a theme in mind, but it’ll probably get warped the more and more I work on my level.

I don’t know if I’m crazy, but I’m giving this 9.2 just because. Now make a night version.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Dark Reign
Level rating: 7.9
Rating
N/A

Seeing that the level has been reuploaded, you can forget what I said and just re-download the zip file if the example level you have only works for TSF.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Defence of the Homelands.
Level rating: 7.5
Rating
7.5

Interesting, a story line. That might have raised my expectations too much, though. Let’s see what I truly think.

GAMEPLAY:

This level wasn’t what I expected. That could be a good thing. Or not. The level is a little different for a CTF level. But it takes the idea from the assassination concept (mainly with the spy ability thing). But that’s alright since the whole idea hasn’t really been used in CTF (the closest was the JTF thing or whatever it was called). The ammo place at the start wasn’t covered with third layer, but I can live with it (I suppose). But after getting to the actually playing area, that was when I was truly disappointed. The level wa much smaller than I expected it would be. The flow wasn’t terrible, but the general narrowness, the hidden pole, and some of the springs surely didn’t help. And there may be a flag bug issue with this level.

EYE CANDY:

I suppose it’s good for the tileset, although I’m not too crazy about it. Some tiles in the tileset I’m not too fond of (for example the leaves), but that’s OK since I shouldn’t be rating the tileset. But the tileset you choose to use is an important factor in the end. I would also like to add that the level is a little bit too dark for my taste, though I won’t take off too much for that.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I saw a +1 carrot and that was enough for me. I’ll just move on to the ammo placement, which is really more complicated than you think. This level has a JAIL mentality that the weapons for each team are balanced. I can’t just tell if they actually are right away, although more problems arise with the fact that players can sometimes shoot through triggers (and I don’t just mean with bouncers and electro blasters) and other spy ability issues. So ammo distribution is a giant question mark. Choose your team at your own risk.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

If you’re bored enough or if you like seeing stuff that’s almost new then maybe host this once. It’s different, sort of, but not necessarily in a good way. I’m rating this a 7.

And some advice: use the @ at least three times in your text strings so that the text it isn’t covered up by the flag count in the top left corner.

The edit: After thinking about it for a little while, a 7.0 does seem a little low. Overall, the good stuff cancels out the bad stuff and the bad stuff cancels out the good stuff, which somehow makes the level average (I wonder if that made any sense). So anyway, 7.5 is my new revised rating, just because I’m nice.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: PLASMIC LEVELS
Level rating: 5.7
Rating
6

Joy.

Crystal Struggle

GAMEPLAY: Lacks flow and I got lost. And slow tubes.
EYE CANDY: Somewhere between average and slightly below it.
CARROT PLACEMENT: Too lazy to find (assuming there are any).
AMMO PLACEMENT: Too many barrels. Some ammo out of the way. A Shield?
HOST THIS OFTEN? Nope.

Flagtopia

GAMEPLAY: Narrow. Lacks flow. Doesn’t look too balanced.
EYE CANDY: If anything, annoying.
CARROT PLACEMENT: A +1 carrot near each base. Argh.
AMMO PLACEMENT: Unevenly distributed.
HOST THIS OFTEN? Probably not.

Overall review: After seeing these two levels, I noticed you have a long way to go. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. Like in Crystal Struggle: don’t use so many barrels, add tiles to indicate warps, avoid using a shield, use faster tubes (20 is a good speed), and work on the flow (i.e. with more springs and inclined tiles). Also, think twice before putting airboards in your levels. As for the Flagtopia level, avoid using quick-flashing animations, like the one in the middle, since it will annoy a lot of people. Try not to make it so cramped in places and avoid using ammo crates too often. You should also balance each side more and spread the ammo out more evenly. And most importantly, make a border of at least 2 (recommended 3) tiles around the level so that players don’t receive the flag bug. In general, avoid dead ends and be more careful of what ammo you use and where up place it. I probably didn’t mention everything. Anyway, I would’ve given this a lower rating, but I did see you put some effort into the levels so I’m giving this a 6. But try harder next time.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: J1: Warzone v2.0
Level rating: 6.7
Rating
6.7

I don’t really know how to rate this, plus I haven’t rated a CTF level in some while so I’ll just make a shortened review.

J1: Warzone v2.0

GAMEPLAY: Not yours.
EYE CANDY: More or less average.
CARROT PLACEMENT: Not yours.
AMMO PLACEMENT: Not yours.
HOST THIS OFTEN? Probably not. Maybe like once.

Overall review: It’s a standard remake and nothing too special. The (few) bug fixes may have been a good idea, but it’s still Diamondus Warzone and thus I still wouldn’t want to play in it. If you like DW a lot, you might want to see this. But if you’re like most older players, then save a few kilobytes and download something else. I’m giving this a 6.7 because I’m feeling a little nice today.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Lost Gemz, Volume II: Survivor SE
Level rating: 9.2
Rating
N/A

Seeing that many more people aren’t going to review this, I’ll just use my only comment now.

Trafton: Most of the original levels have not changed a great deal, but I did drastically change some levels like “Waste Drain” and “Heaven Sent” which you conveniently ignored. That’s OK, I forgive you (at least for the time being).

Blackraptor: You’ve pointed out something that has been fixed a long long time ago with the original survivor version. First of all, you should have noticed (which you may have completely missed, from what I could tell from your outdated review) that there are lasers that occasional shoot right above the springs. You could get hit by these lasers so you can fall through the springs. Unfortunately, that could take a while, so I created an alternative method. On each side of the level there is a spring with a delay on it. With this, you can jump on it then stomp quickly so you can fall into the warp. Don’t worry; those two springs won’t affect gameplay much at all, which is obvious since you and most others probably didn’t even notice it in the first place.

Violet: I’m surprised you haven’t reviewed this yet. That’s alright. As long as you don’t review it the same way Trafton and Blackraptor did (that is by simply posting your old, unmodified review with the new review of the five latest levels).

I should also point out there is more than you think there is in 4 of the 5 new levels. So you could either waste time opening up JCS and trying to figure it out yourself or you could bug me and I might be nice enough to tell you of it’s secrets (which I did put much effort into making).

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: JCS Extra Stuff
Level rating: 6.4
Rating
N/A

I enjoy being sorta credited for something I didn’t really find. I just took the SCE’s from Overlord’s site (http://geocities.com/atlastsome/jj2/guns.htm) and stuff, so there.

Review by blurredd

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: My football (soccer) level
Level rating: 2.6
Rating
N/A

For the record, I didn’t say it wasn’t possible, just that it wouldn’t work completely. But I might be jumping to conclusions considering my past experiences with the concept. So yes, I have heard of it and I have seen several versions of it some while ago. I’ve even made a trigger filled, automated version myself back in 2k1. I recall my level didn’t work completely—probably because of lag.

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