Quick Review by FawFul

Posted:
17 Sep 2011, 11:34
For: Episode 4: Gene Machine
Level rating: 7.9
Rating
5.2

Copying directly from jj1 is sometimes hard because of the different events jj2 has, but it is nowhere near to putting your creativity in your own, self made levels.

RecommendedReview by FawFul

Posted:
20 Jul 2011, 12:01 (edited 20 Jul 11, 12:11)
For: Magically Abnormal Playground
Level rating: 7.8
Rating
7.5

I promised jake to review this. (even though i almost forgot exactly what I had in mind).

I wanted to clear this up first:

I’ve received some backstabbing lately because of the harsh way I gave my opinion on this. No, I am not trying to bring this level down to the ground. No, I am not trying to claim i’m a better levelmaker. No, I am not trying to act pro here. But this review will not be entirely positive. All levels have their downsides. Most of it is said in the quick reviews already. I will try to expand this review a lot more compared to the quick reviews and bring it in different ways.

Flashback: This reminds me a bit of what happened to me in the past, Planetary pack. I think talking about this might help you since it also helped me after that.

While this is a lot better than the eyecandy or layouts from my levels back than (or both in some cases). I feel it has the same gimmick problem, and this is not coming out of nowhere. The rest of the reviewers seem to share the same opinion. The idea’s are interesting but the question is, is it a good idea to mix it all together? This level is intended to be a serious duel level. But you should ask yourself if it adds anything great to the gameplay. I know some parts will sound a bit harsh but I’m only trying to be helpfull with this review.

Getting someone stuck in the pit with the crate can be fun, but remember it can be used against you aswell. And then it’s not that fun anymore. In fact, i don’t think people like to take that into account, same for the rest. It’s like you play a game with obstacles while you don’t want to focus on obstacles, I think this is what people frustrates as soon they lose their focus on gimmicks and Die or get hit because of that. This is the same for hor-springs and copters. If they accidentaly hit a hor spring you can’t stop running, It’s fun if you see someone else making a mistake like this, but the other player probably feels like this shouldn’t have happened if “that stupid thing would not be in his way”. Copters are kind of the same, you can be very depended on the copter but you can be unlucky with the spawn. If you need it fast and die while waiting the killer probably feels good because he was fast enough, and the other player feels like “why the hell couldn’t that fucking copter spawn on the right moment”. And then they will eat their clothes and shoe’s etc.. you know the drill :).

I think the advice I can give is that the player shouldn’t be too depended on the map but the map should be depended on the player. Gimmicks only lose the players focuse, if you have to jump around pits than your focus goes partly for not falling in a pit. Of course you can tell those players to concentrate better and it’s their fault for not having a good focus. But if you give players the choice of focusing on stragety and playing itself or doing this while paying attention to gimmicks like not falling in the pit or accidentaly miss the copter. Then they go for the more clean maps. I personally think the more idea’s you make in a level the more attention needs to go to these and the less focus stays on playing. That’s why I think that excessive usage of idea’s isn’t a good plan. Because the more means the less they can handle it. (keep in mind that they also need to learn it). A player also feels more bad by getting killed by the level than by the player -> he can blame the level. The player is not easy to avoid because players are the reason to stay online, but maps are easily avoidable by picking another level.

Imo since it’s duel related I won’t say anything here about the tubes with bases, since in duels that can work. But I think it’s less liked for teamgames -> because you can miss timing because of that. But since it’s duel related and that you don’t need to time RTS I think this is a good idea for a duel level. The music in this level is good and the eyecandy is pretty good aswell, Sorry i keep the good parts short but when there is nothing to blame then there is nothing to tell either :). The layout is simple but good. After all you did these parts very well.

All in all I can conclude the good parts outweight the bad parts, and it’s not a very bad level at all. But it probably starts to frustrates people after a while. Even without the gimmicks and the map being completely gimmick-empty I don’t know for sure if the layout makes the level spicy enough by itself.

The reason I compared this with planetary levels is that in the past i liked gimmicks too, and I still have a soft spot for gimmicks honestly. I think you and some other jj2 players have no problem with this either. I am not saying that excessive amoun of idea’s and gimmicks are bad out of nowhere. They are bad because they drive most people on jj2 in a negative feeling. And I think you got to understand where that negative feeling exactly comes from to understand what makes a lot of gimmicks in one level bad. I think you for example need to understand where Purplejazz and CelL are talking about, why it’s hectic and so on. That’s the whole points of this review and I hope you get it.
You show impressive skill and I look forward to see more levels of yours!

Cheers,
young boy nr.2 =d

Review by FawFul

Posted:
4 Jun 2011, 22:36
For: Virtuosity
Level rating: 8.4
Rating
N/A

The power ups in the tubes are mainly blaster power ups, so it wasn’t really intended to camp under it. It was mainly to use the tileset back as theme in the level.

Yes, it’s campy although i don’t see the problem, it’s not like you sit anywhere for ages. And there are a lot of famous campy levels. I can’t help that the jj2 commnunity has a taboo on camping.

The music can’t be converted to a jj2 supported type, the program won’t allow you either way because the pattern data is much more advanced. Something regular mod files can’t handle and play. Nevertheless i wouldn’t be able to convert it anyway myself because it has been made with the latest version, which i don’t have myself. the only way to play xrns is with the tracker and the only format it can convert to is .wav.

The music choice is simple, the samples are ‘spacy’ and toxic. The main reason is that the music is kind of colourful and so is the level. No sir, i might get why you don’t like the gameplay all that much, but the music choice is just fine. The wide collection of choice doesn’t only exists of heavy metal songs in my levels (y).

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
7 Mar 2011, 16:08 (edited 7 Mar 11, 16:14)
For: Town of Fear
Level rating: 7.6
Rating
6

There are a lot of tilebugs / one of the most generic layouts i’ve seen. Eyecandy based you shouldn’t have picked such a hard-to-use set if you can’t work with it properly. I came across this because it was set in the tournament. But stop the ego and let’s face this level is not even near as good as the rest of the tournament levels, no offense

Review by FawFul

Posted:
16 Feb 2011, 15:47 (edited 16 Feb 11, 15:49)
For: Waterlines Shores
Level rating: 6.8
Rating
N/A

@jimbob: why don’t improve your level when you notice it has flaws? Are you actually saying you don’t want to ‘optimize’ the quality of your level?

Review by FawFul

Posted:
4 Jan 2011, 12:52 (edited 4 Jan 11, 12:53)
For: Stalactite Labratory
Level rating: 8.4
Rating
N/A

I know that about the crate. And no, it wasn’t my full intention to make it 1 player proof. Whenever 2 people doublecross each other there is something i don’t mind. That wasn’t the main point of the concept either :P. This crate concept works perfect as i wanted.

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
19 Nov 2010, 19:02
For: Electric Glass
Level rating: 7.3
Rating
6

I start to get sick of levels that feel like JCS platform-mass-spam instead of an area or arena that actually feels like a level.

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
4 Sep 2010, 09:36
For: Castle 1 W&B
Level rating: 3.6
Rating
1

This takes time, no skill, no creativity, nothing.
This takes max 5 minutes to be exact. Kind of worthless..

Review by FawFul

Posted:
11 Jul 2010, 12:37
For: Wicked Wood
Level rating: 8.9
Rating
N/A

Redmser, don’t you have to sum up bad aspects of the level instead of the tileset? When i post a level i’d like to have some real feedback for the level. Not something like “i can’t see eva’s feet”. Seriously, who cares about this, does anyone care that eva is standing in air in semi, i guess not. Without the foreground the base would look more stupid, believe me. At seeker pu there are no wrong tiles, there are more places where the cave background connects to bricks. Same for the left part.

I dislike how people are confident whenever something is wrong or bad, while it’s just an opinion, just saying.

RecommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
1 Jul 2010, 10:54
For: Frog Force
Level rating: 8.5
Rating
8.7

It’s nice to see that the frog is usable in MP after all. i really enjoyed this and it might be one of the most creative things existed in history.

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
29 Jun 2010, 16:38
For: Weird Pipes
Level rating: 6.5
Rating
5.5

Agreed with coob. hardly any possibilities can be done with this set. it has nothing else but colored pipes, so you can only have variety in color, that is way too boring and minimum for a levelmaker. But i guess a player would recognize a level only for it’s backgrounds fade aswell. No/DR since it looks like you didn’t try too hard. Fastly done.

Quick Review by FawFul

Posted:
25 Jun 2010, 11:34
For: Abandoned Park
Level rating: 8.1
Rating
6

This level is quite overrated. I know people nowadays only want to play simple levels instead of quality levels, because this is really like that. it is way too horizontal and the top is air mania. in the Car position it’s chaos due scenery and bad flow. the tubes force next to C force you to bump over springs, and the bounce power up area = camp.

RecommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
3 May 2010, 21:33
For: TownBTL
Level rating: 6.7
Rating
7

agree with snooze, i enjoyed this. and that thunderwalker mostly copy and pastes his review-layouts in general. furthermore i don’t get all his points of downrating like his taste of music.

Review by FawFul

Posted:
1 May 2010, 22:01 (edited 2 May 10, 12:13)
For: Crysilis Caves
Level rating: N/A
Rating
N/A

Blur for the music? What did you smoke to think that?

I guess that was the advice anyway. and you mentioned it’s a sonic track, which i approve. So it would be an remix/conversion.

Anyway, the music is re-tracked by kipling, as the file preview says.

RecommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
4 Apr 2010, 13:05 (edited 5 Apr 10, 21:06)
For: PlusLLEdit
Level rating: 9.6
Rating
8

Simple but okay. i think you guys overrate it a bit, even overlords useful music patches didn’t get 10 streaks. i can’t select multiple files and i need to select the folder every time again.

Tropicco: make it? no i am not a programmer but i am pretty sure this is easy to make.

Minmay: i meant exactly what you meant. completely agree.

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
27 Mar 2010, 09:39
For: Super Battle
Level rating: 2.1
Rating
1

Hilarious, cool spazz seems to rate from the same connection. and this level has loads of tilebugs. no DR and stop spamming j2o.

Not recommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
21 Feb 2010, 11:02
For: Best level
Level rating: 1.6
Rating
1

we told you not to upload everything you make.. this is pure j2o spam, let me tell you this. you are still a rookie, train more on your jcs skils and then start uploading files. if you want a 9, get better. but i can’t just imagine how you honestly think this is good.

RecommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
13 Feb 2010, 13:38 (edited 13 Feb 10, 13:38)
For: Megairbass Funk
Level rating: 8.8
Rating
8.5

Wow.. nice quality stuff over here. Good sample choice over here, I see you re-used some samples (nothing wrong with that). I disliked some parts of the guitar solo if i am very honest, but the chiptune samples in the end is something i really really liked though. Slightly repetive at times but not that much. Nonetheless, people, this just owns!

Quick Review by FawFul

Posted:
12 Feb 2010, 14:29 (edited 13 Feb 10, 11:15)
For: Ancient Rabbit Forest
Level rating: 7.6
Rating
7

an okay level but quite open in some places.. meaning that it’s way too open. the floors are okay just like the float ups down though they don’t have a really good function in the level so they stay gimmicks from my point of view. i thought the base placement was nice although it looked a lot like golem landscapes. average level. normal eyecandy.

RecommendedQuick Review by FawFul

Posted:
4 Feb 2010, 16:39
For: Sernik Test.
Level rating: 8.5
Rating
7.7

what pj said

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