Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Very impressed. These levels scream old-school, and I love them both.

=]

Deinspirated Mayhem’s layout reminds me of a mountain. I think that level could’ve worked better with a nature tileset, but that’s just my opinion. Underworld is a small level probably best suited for duels. So nothing much to say really, just two decent levels. Keep it up!

A nice duo of levels that look reasonably enjoyable. A couple of minor flaws keep it from getting an 8, but overall these levels will be worth your time. Downloaded reccommended.

Eigus is back it seems, at least in the JCS-side of the game. Seeing how much he has changed in level design, made me glad, even surprised me a little bit. These two battle levels are truly a big improvement considering his past uploads. Let me introduce each level to you a bit.

Deinspirated Mayhem is a small-medium sized electro station level using IC’s Tubelec Night-set. The level design is so different from all the new battle levels people have posted. It is sort of oldschool design in the way that the level isn’t extremely spacious, but solid and does not contain “random platforms.” I remember somebody else fairly new but inactive player/creator to have a similar level design, and Eigus has found the same way sorta. At least the gameplay in Wrath’s Virtues was very similar to this one which was just neat.

However, there are some bad sides in the level as well. Firstly, the flow isn’t very wise everywhere. The author didn’t use layer 3 when he should have, since some spots where the floor height changes by only one-few tiles, there is no slope, but useless springs or nothing. As well, more one way should have been used(especially the ledge above the blue springs.)

The eyecandy, although somewhat decent, leaves more to be desired. The floor doesn’t use the edge-tiles at all, but has just the middle-tiles at the edges always, which looks a bit irritating. Although the sprite layer has a bit of activity as in the form of the animated tubelec-lights, the atmosphere is just too calm and “dead” compared to the music especially. Basically the tileset just offers much more than this. Also the more oldschool design comes with some annoying camp spots. I suggest not to duel here. Rather you should try this in a 3vs3 TB for instance, also due to the amount of carrots (3 minor ones.)

Underworld, although way smaller than the other level, is my preferred one here. I haven’t yet seen Xargon used for this kind of a theme. The level has a vertical gameplay, far better flow, and that way plays much faster and better for duels than the other one. Also the level visuality and audio match better here. The atmosphere is dismal, mystic, and well…Underworld’ish. I have no real complaints about the eyecandy here, it is decent enough. Although the level has much more heighth than width, there are only two springs. You have to rely on your jumping-skills more, or use the warp in the bottom that takes you back to your spawn position (no, there are no pits, as you may have thought. The other level has them.) That shouldn’t be a problem here, since there are no annoying heighth changes and the level is easy to move in generally.

Duels here should be interesting indeed, since there is only one major Power Up. That is TOASTer right in the so-called center of the level. What you basically have to do is to keep it yourself. But don’t worry. In case you lose your health and ammo, you can run away and heal yourself easily if you have a better endurance than your opponent. There are 3 minor carrots, as were in the another level as well. That weakens the effect of the Power Up practically. There is also an Electro Blaster Power Up, but as you know, that weapon does always the same damage, so don’t bother trying to roast your opponent with it in the first place. I’m not very sure, since I haven’t yet tried out myself, but I think a game with 3 other people might work out here just as well as duels would. I definitely don’t suggest to play this level with a big party. It can get quite crowded and chaotic.

These levels were a nice surprise from the author. The levels are now closer to high-quality levels than before, and they should work out in serious games even. If the author only had put more focus into details and made the levels slightly bigger, these could be a couple of really great levels. I would probably rate Deinspirated Mayhem a bit below 8, and Underworld an exact 8 separately, but since they are together, I think they deserve a bit more. Download and try! Well done Eigus!

SJ

Underworld is more or less the regular Xargon fare. It’s supposed to feel as if it’s underground (the vertical layout helps, granted), but it’s a bit vague and transparent. Okay so there’s a dark background, dim lighting (with the huge crystals being light sources), and the music, but this isn’t the strongest theme out there. Really it feels like a generic Xargon level with some details thrown in, rather than a completely new setting.

Gameplay wise it isn’t anything outstanding either, as it’s pretty small and a little bothersome to navigate. There’s all regular ammo types available here – an odd choice since not all weapons will be effective here (for instance, I can’t really see RFs or Pepper Spray being too useful). Toaster + Fastfire as the only powerup, well, I’m not a huge fan of toaster as a weapon but I figure it can work here. At the bottom there’s two warps that lead back to the top – fair enough. All in all a pretty decent levelThe size suggests that it might be good for duels but I wouldn’t really want to duel here.

Deinspirated Mayhem (a really cringeworthy name, IMO) uses Tubelectric – not a tileset you see often anymore. But even though it’s Tubelectric, which I usually like a bunch, this level lacks some sort of spark (hehe). It’s not as interesting or good looking as the tubelectric classic e-Line Circuits, and that came out seven and a half years ago. It doesn’t look like there’s much mayhem going on, or anything going on – it’s a pretty static landscape of bricks. Bricks, and little else than bricks actually. It makes the level look very purple, almost monochrome in fact. There should have been more wooden/green circuit/black parts to break the monotony.

The layout shows that this level was pretty much uninspired – not that I mind a lot to be honest. It’s bigger and more spacious than Underworld, and also more horizontal. RFs and Bouncers work in this layout fairly well, as will Pepper Spray. There’s three carrots, two of which are placed in semi-evil dead ends – not a problem. I did like how the blaster powerup was placed – it reminded me of some older levels. Not sure if being half-secret is the best spot for the weakest powerup out of the three available, but it’s not a huge deal.

This is probably worth a download. Deinspirated Mayhem is the better of the two levels (ironically), but Underworld is not bad either… and then again neither of them are all that spectacular. They’re decent levels, and much better than Eigus’ older works, but still not quite great.

Underworld is a small level with a quite original layout and theme (there are more levels with this theme but this one is a bit different)

Deinspirated Mayhem is a nice level with a layout that looks like it’s uninspired (because the layout can’t be compared to another level’s layout) This level has good eye candy too.

two decent levels. the quality of them is good enough for a 8. lot better then author’s previous work. :)

This is a good battle lvl …
Try it ;)

[REVIEW CHANGED TO QUICK REVIEW () () ~cooba]

Eigus has clearly worked hard on his brand new battle- Hellforge and I feel like I should give a good long review just so that he can recognize how his work has paid off and erm, for people who actually read reviews to first of all:
- See how sad I am when writing long reviews like this
- See how much spare time you actually have on your hands to be bothered to read such a review
- See the various flaws and erm… de-flaws in this fine battle level, or maybe the word would be pro’s or something. Oh who gives a damn.
Anyway, this review might be completely different to the others in terms of rating and stuff but bare with me, that’s either just because my opinion is bitchy as hell or I just want to write a long review to let my spare time pass by when I am actually doing absolutely nothing at all with my spare time. Anyway, no nagging, no removal, no editing (unless you bribe me). And erm, that’s it.

Well just some introductory notes on the level would be that I find it very weird to rate battle levels just because it’s not my thang. Although I really don’t know what my thang is so don’t even ask.

HELLFORGE

Eyecandy
Rating: 7.5

Well, I don’t appreciate the eyecandy in this level so much probably because I’ve seen better done with this set, however this level does contain some differences to your typical windstorm fortress level. First of all, there is no insane pillar overuse (something I often do) and none of that weird floor overuse either. But that does mean the eyecandy is very different to what you would typically expect from this tileset. The background in this level is something that caught my eye because it looked very different to the normal background you get in Windstorm fortress; it had cool fortress things with a nice textured background which really sets the mood of the level. The level does not have much in the foreground as it basically just covers the pit area to add some form of cloudy foggy sort of mood thing person guy dude thing stuff. Strange use of the clouds if you ask me but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Now 4 layers (5, 4, 3 and 2) have all been used at the same speed. Areas in this level such as the top looked very nice in the background as did the crazy jagged wall at [44, 38] which was very attractive in my opinion. However the originality ends there for me. I didn’t find too much special in the eyecandy and it struck me specifically that in the level itself, many of the walls looked completely square and had very little to no personality. I did not like how so many of the platforms felt so square on the ends. I can’t completely say this applies in the whole level as the bottom area and various others are very nicely curved and people would like that in terms of some aspects of game-play. I won’t entirely hammer the rating down because of the reason of life and death and doom and cheese and sponges and paperclips. Yeah. Okay that’s enough rambling and now I’ll move on to the thing I hate most: tilebugs. Happily (as hell) this level has very few, however I still see some across various areas such as [95,34], [97,34], [97, 35], [100,35], [102,34], [104, 35], [121,30]. There are a few more but I won’t bother being more sad than I already have been and I’ll just leave it at that – there are tilebugs and they grind my gears. MY GEARS ARE BEING GROUND I TELL YOU. GROUND.

Game-play
Rating: 7.7

As with all of the reviews I do, I usually do the game-play part of the review like this… It’s set out accordingly: Bias [teams], Bias [rabbits], Strategy, Layout, Flow, Defense/Offense and how fun it is to play.

Seeing as this is a battle, I’m going to skip the bias for teams and go right into the bias between the rabbits. I don’t really notice anything too annoying for Spaz (which is regular because it’s very easy to make it flow for Spaz in any level, unless you’re just some crazy demented sheep person guy) but however I did realize that Jazz has some annoying things in this level, one thing that particularly struck me is that the jump to [108, 32] is very easy to execute for Spaz from beneath, which gives him a substantial speed boost over Jazz (unless he makes the jump) while Jazz has to actually go towards the spring. I would move the spring back or something, or make it easier to jump. Also, the pit is extremely annoying to get out of with Jazz, while it is possible, it’s very annoying. Jazz nor Spaz can easily uppercut or side-kick the PU to get 50 ammo, which might be a good thing but it might just disrupt gameplay. Anyway, Spaz can get out of that pit much easier than Jazz can. =P Evil bias.

There isn’t too much strategy in the level, especially as the level has a pit but lacks freezers to make them just that bit more funny/fun. The tactics or strategies included in levels are usually what make me like them more but this level has very few. One I did notice however is that the middle carrot at the location [61, 30] can be much easier to obtain without the hassle of having to get the copter if you own the bouncer power-up. You can simply shoot it down from beneath it which can be a quick and interesting strategy to make game-play a bit more interesting. I can proudly say there aren’t any major camp spots inside the level but one at [35, 28]. You can easily camp the carrot at this spot and just keep shooting Seekers at oncoming targets which can only come from one direction; the right. This might not be too big an issue however as you can easily get him with bouncers if you use them cleverly. Good fun. =D

This level is quite solid and doesn’t have too many platforms, which makes it generally easier to learn which is very good for the newer levels. However the layout does not prove too many tactical traits for me, apart from probably gaining higher ground to shoot bouncers down in areas such as [26, 58] or [82, 38] which can easily be bombarded (a good thing). The layout is very nice in my honest yet humble yet biased yet evil yet demented yet Raggish opinion. Oh yeah I also forgot to mention this level doesn’t have any dead ends. They almost grind my gears as much as tile-bugs do, probably not as much but still, they’re very annoying. The layout is quite good for many reasons as the powerups are well placed as are the carrots. I just do not like the pit near the seeker powerup at all as I think it is far too evil even for a seeker powerup. Everything is good other than that. Bwehehe =D

The level does flow quite well as you do not need to do double jumps in certain areas with the exception of the pit to get to certain areas. The movement is very simple around this level as you won’t bump into many walls or annoying walls and stuff. Also, the springs and everything with the exception of one are placed very nicely and are convenient to use for whatever reason.

The defense/offense is pretty much for other concepts and not really battle, so I guess I’ll do the smart thing and skip to the fun-factor of the level. I like the level and it seems as if it would be very good in events or crowded servers. This level cannot be controlled like other small battles, but it is still very fun to play in as the variety of powerups and routes allows for interesting gameplay. It is very easy to get from one carrot to the other, which can make it a bit fun if you get to them on time. Again, major complaint about the pit as the winds just makes it too evil. Nonetheless, good fun. =]

General Placement
Rating: 8.0

I guess you can’t have perfectly original placement in any level unless it comes up with new uses for different types of ammunition, which hasn’t been done in a very long time. Anyway, the power-ups and the carrots are very fairly dispersed and it gives me a fit use to go to any section of this level. I would probably camp around the top if anything though if I was playing in a crowded server. The power-ups aren’t campy at the least which is very good and they are all very suitable to the level’s style. I like the spring placement a lot and I did have a complaint for one or two places. To get in the strand higher than 9.0 from me, you’d probably need something very fresh for the ammo placement or something, but it’s still close anyway. My only real complaint is that there is too much ammo at the top area. =S

Originality
I didn’t find too much in the level fresh, other than the palette and the background. One point! I just dislike the seeker power-up and it reminds me of a certain level o.0. Heehee. More than just a certain level =P.

Overall

7.7

I like the level a lot and it would probably play a lot better than I’m giving it credit for. I think it’s very good for a second battle level (technically, I recall reading that somewhere). Gah. That review took ages. Nice lev. I like it. =] Whew. That took a while. I recommend you to download it and play it and enjoy it. It’s not bad at all. =D. Hellforge4Bash2009. =].

~*Rag*

The eyecandy is excellent. I do love what you have done and fixed in the background.
The textures have been done nicely. The gameplay is excellent when I hosted it everyone seemed to enjoy it. The music doesn’t really fit but theres not reason to down the score becuase of that.

Floating island pwns !. I reccomend for download it is indeed fun

As promised after playing your beta version, I’ll write a review for this level though a little later than expected. After playing the final, and updated (as it seems) version of your level, my thoughts remain as they were..

GAMEPLAY
First thing I noticed when playing the beta days ago, was the gameplay being comparable to classic concepts, thus meaning that this level won’t give you an original experience, though no fun is wasted. The pit in the down-middle area of the level is most likely the most ‘original’ part to be found. Players have to get the powerup without any major trouble around or else they’ll be sucked down into the pit by the surrounding winds. Overall gameplay is practically linair and involves running/jumping in corridor styled areas finding/killing each other.

EYECANDY
Nothing too special, except for the background, as it will probably receive different feedback. Personally, I kind of like the ‘towers with transparent windows’ except for the downside (I suppose it’s the ground holding the towers). Walls include animated tube sort of things we know from levels like E-Prime, still looks good even for this level style. Other eyecandy is pretty minor, but nothing hurts the eye and that’s generally the best thing for my eyecandy score. ;)

EVENT PLACEMENT
It’s practically hard to run out of weapons in this level, as weapon pickups are spread all over the place and you’re likely to run into an powerup which is easy to get (not including the Seeker PU in the pit). And it looks like this level is meant for some fast fragging, as you’re likely to run into easy to get carrots as well.. Envoirement events are as it should, and the palette (not really part of the level though) gave me a good feeling with the style.

RATING
Hellforge is an average small-sized battle level involving ordinary gameplay aspects. It does however create and specialize the tileset’s possible atmosphere. I don’t recommend this for duels, as the amount of pickups won’t fit for that. And for the background, you’ll love it or hate it.. I still recommend downloading as this will add a good level for your ‘public hosting’ collection. A 7.5 for the ‘alrightness’ of the level!

Overall, a small, simple level. with a average eyecandy that is not perfect yet. (even with a english dictionary i can’t explain exactly how), the buildings are looking odd.. the 1 colored translucent tile shaped in the building looks a bit unrealistic and weird to me.. further things, the level is very simple to learn. nothing really sucks about the gameplay, it’s actually pretty good. and i like the original parts like the seeker power up with wind speeds that let u fall in pits.
some bad things what i think could be better.. that’s the placement and the amount off it. i think 4 carrots is to much for a pretty small level like this, so i also think about the power ups. 4 power ups is to much for a level like this size. and 3 off the 4 pu’s can be sidekicked, which gives you full ammo. which is imo to much.

the + and – points i give this level download recommendation, because after all it’s really average, and fun playing.

(pj did a good job on the pallette)

whats music name because i cant open file:S

This is a very good song!
Thank you! :D

nice Eigus!

No animated titles, no triggers.:(

Gameplay

When I started playing this level it looked very nice and of high quality. However, when I went to the top of the level, I saw that there was a huge space, in which can be jumped with springs. This space is way too big, you should have put a lot more titles there. Your level has one big platform at the bottom and a lot of little one’s floating above it. You should try to make less and bigger platforms, otherwise it’s just jumping from island to island when not standing on the lowest ground.

Eyecandy

You’ve got rain, great! You also filled up the big space in the top of your level with background titles. Though it still looks very empty and boring. You used some foreground in your level, it’s not much but, at least, it is some. There are houses and mountains in the background which have a nice movement.

Orginiality

I couldn’t find anything original here, except for the music which fits quite to the level. You should really try to make more varity in your level. Also make something other levels don’t have. Like DW got it’s 2 warps to the carrot.

Gameplay: 5
Eyecandy: 6
Originality: 4

Final Grade: 5

Seriously 7.8? Well I don’t say this level is bad but its not very good either. Level is linear and there are lot of empty space. Also platforms are way too big. Ammo placement is ok. Background is nice but overall eyecandy is too boring.

(BTW welcome to the XLM)

Seriously, guys, a 5? I really think 5 is underrating. Anyways, this is a really cool level with beautiful eyecandy. I think it deserves a download recommendation.

d

[Rating (1.0) clearance. Please provide more support for your rating. For more information on writing a proper review, see \Review Rules\. – Violet CLM]