I love this. Takes the classic Medivo theme and has a little fun, while staying true to the original. It sounds, simply, glorious.
Meh is a good noncommital word.
It can either mean, âMeh, this is all right, I guess,â or it can mean, âMeh, Iâve seen better.â
When I checked out this level, I thought, âMeh.â
Itâs not really [I]bad[/I], per seâŠbut at the same time, itâs not really all that impressive.
The level was big, and had a few multiple-choice passages, whereby you could shake off a pesky pursuer. In that respect, itâs good. The Layer 8 fade color, while not terribly original, worked decently enough nonetheless. There was a good amount of weapons, plus a few hidden powerups, so points for that.
HoweverâŠ
Letâs be frank. I was not a fan of the level flow. In fact, I HATED it. There were too many poles sticking down from the ceiling, too many singleplayer-esque pinpoint jump platforms, too many irritating spring traps, and it was rather easy to get stuck at the bottom of the map. I lost track of the number of horizontal pole platforms that wouldâve been [I]much[/I] easier to traverse had they contained One Way events. The overall level itself was too dark. I didnât like the musical selection at all (A better one mightâve been TRAUMATI.xm, or perhaps sunatbox.it). Eyecandy, while present, was nonetheless woefully deficient.
Would I recommend this levelâs download? Letâs see: It has good size and some usable events. It also has horrible congestion-spawning layout problems and so-so atmosphere.
Letâs just say, âmeh,â and leave it at that.
Not much to say here that hasnât already been said. Good layout, smooth flow, nice eyecandy, excellent eventage.
I wasnât too impressed with the sand-colored Layer 8 BG, the campable Seeker powerup or the music (which I felt was a rather poor fit), but overall the level was nice and definitely deserves a DL.
I loved this. Good atmosphere (the music was an excellent choice), smooth gameplay, nice gameplay. Only downside was that I felt the bases were too close, but this may be due to the levelâs size.
I disagree with Redmsr, because the level seemed more somber than spooky.
DL recommended. I wish somebodyâd give this level a good review.
Upon being chided by certain reviewers, I have decided to focus a little less on my fellow posters and a little more on the subject of our postings.
After all, Laro Bâs RoE Episode 2: Spear of Darkness may not be my very favorite singleplayer pack in the world, but itâs a good one, nonetheless. It certainly deserves more credit than I gave it initially.
Let me tell you why.
Demonic Mines
RoE 2âs starting level has very solid Layer 3-4-5 eyecandy (although I was less than impressed with the background details) and great gameplay. I liked how the music, lighting events and environmental TnT all significantly contributed to the mood of the level.
On the other hand, I felt that the background layers werenât utilized very effectively. True, DM was supposed to be a dark level, but there was too much darkness for me. Maybe a few more holes punched through to reveal the sky wouldâve helped.
Overall, I was pleased with the first level, although a few minor faults prevented my complete enjoyment of it.
The Dark Castle
Wow. What a level.
For starters, letâs be generous. I havenât seen a level use the Medivo tileset this well in a long time. If EVER. Itâs ridiculous, the amount of detailing Laro B got into TDC, and every bit looks as if it belongs. The gargoyles are perfect, the combination of windows, lava falls, edge-tiles-as-eyecandy and so on is impressive, and the structure is uncommonly good.
This level is freaking HUGE, and itâs very fun to play. Itâs also got a sick music track, one that works exceedingly well for TDC.
Once again, though, I did have some issues.
Thereâs a wall bug behind the carrot barrel in which I got trapped in the wall by bad masking. Thatâs not good. In addition, while most of the level was great, I wasnât a fan of the Layer 8 background at all. Red on red on red on red is only so pretty, and eventually it got kind of boring.
I also found the section cordoned off by trigger blocks to be quite annoying. I mean, really. I spent most of the level trying to find a trigger crate to open the blocks, only to learn that there wasnât actually anything TO open.
Ooh, I felt like hurting somebody real bad after thatâŠ
Also, a few of the Boll platforms over the pits were a little tricky to get onto. Not impossible, just mildly challenging.
So, once again, the second level was good, but a few quirks messed it up.
The Darkness
Aha! A boss level!
This happens to consist of a darkened arena with lava falls and spike traps, as well as aâŠdevilishâŠBilsy boss.
Sigh.
While the eyecandy was excellent as usual, although the music track worked quite well for the fight, despite the fact that the darkness added a new and exciting element to the fight, I was not impressed with the attemped Bilsy prison.
Using wind events to keep Bilsy locked in does not work. It only succeeds in making the area inaccessible to Jazz. Bilsy can teleport around the level, thereby neutralizing almost every form of containment imaginable for it.
Because Bilsy is thus exposed, all one has to do to beat it is buttstomp on its head.
Still, it was a decent enough level, and didnât sink the pack TOO low.
Hell
This was the first level in this pack that I didnât really like.
Donât get me wrong, it had good gameplay and structure, and the song, although not a perfect fit, still fit well.
Thatâs about where the upsides end, however.
Even though the Dam Nation tileset admittedly leaves much to be desired, so does Hellâs eyecandy. The only background eyecandy is lava. The foreground eyecandy is used well, but is often sparse in places (this wouldnât have been so bad if there had been some decent background eyecandy to pick up the slack).
Lighting events were used, but hardly maximized.
The tileset version chosen wasnât the greatest, but to be fair, there isnât much of a selection out there, since the Hot version was already used in Episode 1 (I wouldâve probably used the Day version).
Overall, a so-so level.
Caves
This level features a number of elaborate passageways and rooms, a veritable block of digital Swiss cheese that fully lives up to the levelâs name.
Unfortunately, though the Caves had really good eyecandy and a killer atmosphere, I felt that it still had a number of problems.
What, in particular? For one thing, movement was seriously limited. I lost track of how many times I got hung up on awkward roof angles or trapped in small tunnels (although the One Way Events helped).
I also didnât like the high number of baddies that were placed in dark areas or obscured from sight. There were plenty of carrots in the level, but I never knew if I was about to jump into a darkened room and get killed by something I couldnât see.
Finally, while they worked well enough, I didnât feel that the Sparks were an appropriate baddie choice.
In the end, though it had some shortcomings, I was somewhat satisfied with the level.
Iron Mountains
This was a solid level, but not for the reasons you might think.
Itâs not because of the solid Layer 3-4-5 eyecandy employed, nor is it because of the good level structure and smooth-as-usual gameplay.
Itâs because of the end boss.
It took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to do, but once the Rocket Turtle disappeared, I learned I was supposed to fly up this shaft, all the while dodging some Schwartzenguards placed behind walls. This made the fight challenging, and also more enjoyable than the first boss battle.
Mistake me not, though, there were plenty of problems with Iron Mountains.
It has bland background eyecandy.
The music track is arguably the weakest selection of the whole pack.
The inappropriate Sparks were back.
Parts of the jungle tree swamp hid baddies, which was very annoying.
There was also a 10-coin warp, which took some effort to hunt down the money for and only provided a few mere un-powered-up Seeker missiles.
Overall, yet another so-so level.
Woods of Light
This level is a recycle of an RoE 1 level (like about half of this episode is), played through in a different direction and different tileset. This time, the Rocket Turtle chase does work, and you can engage in a race with it.
Trouble? I beat the Rocket Turtle to the end by at least a full sixty seconds, but I STILL couldnât go to the next level.
The level has some of the best eyecandy in the pack, as well as great gameplay and excellent eventage, but all that means very little if the level canât be completed. I played it fully through two or three times, monitoring closely each time (both passing the Rocket Turtle at the very end AND allowing it to finish before me), and I even looked in the JCS just to be sure, because I couldnât believe it.
As far as I can tell, itâs impossible to beat this level without cheating. I donât understand how everybody else seems to have overlooked this detail (Unless Iâve missed the boat on the proper execution of the Rocket Turtle, which is entirely possible).
Plus, unless I used the uber-cheap upper route (which eventually I did), the level was very easy to get lost in, and it took me forever to figure out I was supposed to use the Lizardâs helipack to get to the end.
Nippius Blizzard
I hate this level. And there may or may not be a level on J2O that I hate more.
Oh, sure, it had some good eyecandy, and once I got used to the brighter-than-usual foreground, it was a nice atmosphere, but letâs be honest. Thereâs no enemies. No ammo or food. No carrots. No nothing.
Just a whole lotta rooms with spike pits, and absolutely no way to replenish your health if you fall when you fall into said spikes.
Oh yeah. And some wierd dressed-up kitties in random places.
Itâs the most markedly empty Jazz 2 level Iâve seen in my life, and unlike in some levels where emptiness is actually a good thing, it drove me insane here.
Also, the layout was so confusing that I had a tough time finding the end.
The music compounds the emptiness and solitude of this level to an unimaginable degree. Itâs impossible to overstate this. Itâs a VERY good level/song pairing.
If this level had had some carrots, it mightâve been one of the best levels in the pack. Instead, itâs one of the hardest levels around, since you have to make it to the end on exactly five hearts, no more, no less.
Summary? Not the best level of the pack, but decent enough.
A Few Overall Thoughts
I was impressed by the level of eyecandy throughout most of the pack. RoE 2 seemed to have a high standard of prettiness, and (usually) ended up hitting said standard consistently.
However, I had some trouble accepting the packâs story. In my mind, it was confusing, poorly grammaticized, and contributed very little to the episode.
The story levels were similarly a little uninteresting for my tastes. They werenât terrible, but they werenât the highlight of the episode, either.
Plus, the only thing I know of keeping this pack from being 1.23-compatible is the C + C tileset, so why not just use a different one?
On a more positive note, I liked the music a lot. It picked up a lot of slack.
In the end, I think that RoE 2 was a missed opportunity. The first part won Singleplayer Level of the Year last year, if Iâm not mistaken. That makes it hard to look at this episode, which I feel takes the RoE saga a small step backwards.
Itâs not quite as good as Episode 1, but Spear of Darkness is still worth a download. After all, letâs look at the positives. These levels have good structure and great eyecandy, as well as some nice music. Just because itâs not the greatest thing out there doesnât mean it isnât a good pack. It is. Download today.
Like most people already said, itâs a solid enough pack.
It has some good eyecandy, some solid design and a story that, if not excellently displayed, at least decently so done.
I wasnât a fan of some of the questionable enemy placages and freaky tile quirks, but itâs still worth a DL.
@Myles,
With practice comes perfection.
Look at my early levels. Heck, look at ANYBODYâS early levels. Nobody starts out with Featured Download material. They have to work at it in order to improve.
Donât give up. Just keep hackinâ at it.
Not too bad of a level. It has some creative eyecandy (Although I didnât like the way the âbeastsâ were handled), decent enough flow, and a good amount of ammo. Worth a download, I guess.
This was a pretty good pack.
The Lost World Episode by Ninja Dodo was a little hard to get used to at first. I mean, admit it. It had decent, but not overly great eyecandy. Most of the music was animal noises and crashing waves (and stuff like that). The story wasnât very original (unless youâve either never seen Jurassic Park, or else never heard of it). The tilesets werenât the greatest in the world. The levels were pretty simple to beat.
Stopping between levels to watch cutscenes was also rather irritating (Although I applaud the creative and successful use of the technology).
However, for some strange reason, I found myself drawn to playing LWE. Why? I couldnât tell you. It was just fun.
Nothing was overly spectacularâŠbut then again, it worked well enough to make the pack enjoyable. It wasnât the most original singleplayer episode out there, but it was decently well executed.
Maybe it was the mood. Despite the aforementioned so-so tilesets and average music, it made up for a lot of shortcomings, since it was actually not bad.
What should this episode be rated? Probably in the 7.5-8 range. I refuse to overrate it just because it has actual video cutscenes (which I actually think detracts from the story, since it slows it down) which tell a story simple enough to be explained in text strings, or at the very least with a âtext and/or picture tilesetâ.
Nonetheless, itâs a solid pack, and itâs worth a download.
Thanks, Blacky. Thanks so much. Makes it awful hard to write a decent review when you point out almost everything I was going to say⊠=(
Oh, well. Guess Iâll try and point out some unique things (If thatâs even gonna be possible here), since my fellow reviewerâs already covered most of the basics.
Like Blackraptor said, there are some upsides and some downsides to Carrotus Lake. The layout is small, but not too much so. The level isnât 100% symmetric, but thereâs enough similarities between each half to avoid giving one player an unfair terrain advantage. Powerups did seem a bit excessive, but I think only one PU really needs to be taken out (The seeker powerup, obviously).
One thing that I DID notice that I donât think Blacky pointed out was that two out of the three powerups were over on the right side of the map, which means that the Blue team can get them much quicker than the Red team. Thereâs a few tall platforms in the middle of the map (Particularly one with a one-tile hole in it) that might be better places to stash stuff, although the limited size of CL does make this pretty gnarly.
I liked how the base positions were inverted, with the Blue base on the far right side of the map where 9 out of 10 JCSers would put the red one. Changed things up a little.
I didnât download the music, so I wonât include it in my rating.
Eyecandy was standardized, but decent enough. No real gripes here.
Ammo was distributed well, as were the carrots (although, as somebody else already pointed out, itâs pretty easy to camp the upper left zone).
In the end, I think this is a solid level thatâs good for a 3-4 person match (Dang you, Blackraptor, for stealing my thunder once again!), and itâs worth a download.
Very nice level. Plenty of ammo, awesome layout and mechanics, bugs scrupulously taken care of. I had fun. Download today.
Heh. Got a good laugh outta this one.
Blackraptorâs Race For The Vodka race is a bit tricky to get the hang of, and it can be occasionally frustrating (i.e.-the Pinball bumpers), but itâs definitely a worthwhile endeavor.
RFtV uses the Dreempipes tileset, taking the player through what is apparently a giant vodka production plant (No worries, parents: Rabbits apparently canât hold anything stronger than Epi-Cola, which Blacky has substituted for real vodka). Thereâs a few sequestered Ice powerups, a fancy shortcut or two and some straight-up gameplay traps no race would be complete without. Spring traps (especially used in conjuncture with Float events). A water/caterpillar pit. A vertical Spring trap. These and more are expertly executed, and greatly enhance the quality of Vodka.
On the converse, there were a few things I thought couldâve used improvement. The Freeze Enemy traps, while whimsical and fun, were downright annoying, and greatly disrupted the flow of the race. This consequently ruined the Seeker shortcut, although in my opinion it was already quicker just to take the normal route and bypass the Seeker shortcut altogether. The pinball section irritated me because it was just hard enough to stop me almost every time I came through it, but not quite hard enough for me to label it as unreasonable in its difficulty. The Freezer powerup at the beginning was way too well hidden, and I would probably never have found it if I hadnât looked through the editor after playing the level, to make sure I didnât miss anything.
On another note, the song was hilarious, and fit the level perfectly. Nice find there.
Is Race For The Vodka worth a download? Absolutely. This is a good, quality race by Blackraptor, and once you look past its small number of minorly bothersome flaws, itâs definitely worth playing. Download today.
Wow. Talk about a steal.
I was stunned when I stumbled onto Jgkeâs Cave of Dreams CTF level. Here, I had found a functional, good-looking upload, and absolutely NO ONE ELSE has reviewed it yet!
Oh, yeah. This levelâs good. Everything is painted in dark blue tones, except for the translucent aqua fog at the bottom thatâs apparently supposed to be water. The map is symmetrical, but itâs open and well-designed enough that you hardly even notice.
How often does THAT happen with a symmetrical level?
I liked how the carrots were placed in RF-climb shafts that noobs canât get at. Furthermore, in anticipation of said noobsâ unhappy reactions, Jgke placed a Full NRG in the middle for them to fight over. Classic.
Ammo was distributed well, although I did feel like there wasnât very much for such a wide open level.
Bases were placed well, too.
I didnât download the music, so I wonât include it in my rating. Judging by the file name in the Level Properties window, though, Iâm sure it fit the level quite well.
On the other hand, I wasnât very impressed with the aqua agua (Thatâs turquoise water, to all you uninitiated folks) at the bottom. While it DID contribute positively to the level in terms of functionality, I felt that the colors clashed in a bad way with the rest of the level. Itâs too bad, because the rest of the level looked so pretty.
In the end, then, I was highly pleased with Cave of Dreams. Itâs a quality, satisfaction guaranteed level, and itâs unbelievable just far beneath the radar this level has flown. Download this level. Itâs awesome!
On the one hand, this was certainly an interesting level. Violet CLMâs Midigating Factor is one of the most gimmick-oriented CTFs Iâve seen in a while, utilizing fancy sucker tube and spring sequences to shluffle the player around the level and confuse them to no end. Eyecandy is interesting and cool, and makes the level fun to play.
On the other hand, MF also suffers from the Cramped Hallway Syndrome. It never feels very wide open, and itâs been a while since Iâve played a level that made me feel this enclosed and claustraphobic.
Music worked pretty well for the level. It was a sort of quiet and serene piece, accented every so often by a smooth-as-silk violin. Good choice.
In summary, I guess Iâll give this level a 7.0 on the Richter scale. Neutral DL rec, âcause I havenât decided what I think of it all yet.
Quality is surprisingly easy to overlook, and no less so here. Sub-Terrestrial is a well-rounded level, with good eyecandy, smooth flow and a quaint, yet befitting music track. Worth a download.
Geez, people. Youâll probably kill me for saying this, but I honestly think this set is a wee bit overratedâŠ
The Twilight Park is a city tileset, a genre of sets that often gets little to no attention. Itâs too bad, since metropolis/town/city sets are among my very favorites.
Unfortunately, tilesets like Twilight Park, while very good and loads of fun to use, are the reason why city sets are so infrequently done (And done well, too).
TTP has the usual whimsical Blur eyecandy (Random items buried in the ground, a doghouse with accompanying dog bowl, silly posters slapped onto a junky old alley fence, etc.), plus some unexpected surprises (A swimming pool, gardening tools sticking out of the ground as âthornsâ, a small background red brick wall). Well-trimmed trees provoke intriguing visual ideas, while a background dominated by grassy parkland and distant skyscrapers lend Twilight Park a very suburbian feel.
Unfortunately, things started to fizzle out at about this point.
While all of the pluses I mentioned are nice, theyâre really all there is to work with in this tileset. I mean, thereâs a few more tiles than what I mentioned, but the greater extent of the set is devoted to The Average Joeâs Backyard.
The dirt is the only real âgroundâ material available to work with (Although, in its defense, there are two or three different surfaces for the dirt that are perfectly usable). Despite being a suburb-esque pack, thereâs not even any houses or apartment buildings. Only one fencing material is at the JCSerâs disposal (And wooden fences get very old after a while). Thereâs no black tiles. No âcaveâ wall tiles (unless you count the fence, which I donât).
Parks and naturalistic scenery can only go so far, and I have some rather serious concerns about the limitations of this set.
Donât get me wrong, Twilight Parkâs a great set and all. It has bodaciously good eyecandy and truckloads of JCSing potentialâŠbut good is only so good these days. I felt a little let down by the limitations of the set.
Still, Twilight Park IS a sweet tileset, and itâs definitely worth a download.
Well, itâs a Letni conversion, and itâs a working Letni conversion. That much is good.
Beyond that, I was massively underwhelmed by CelLâs JJ1 conversion.
In his defense, Letni is a pain in the donkey to work with. The visuals are limited, the music bland and unappealing, the levels boring and unengaging, the tileset even more so. Letni is one-dimensional and uninspired, and itâs arguably the most unpopular JJ1 planet of ALL time (Matched only by Raneforus, Muckamok and Ceramicus).
However, if one is making a JJ1 conversion, one must gut through the pain and misery and do a good job.
While most if not all of the Jazz 1 tiles appear to be there, not all of them are the right color (Especially the yellow, blue and red pulze lights mounted on the dark blue background). Thereâs no clear background duplicates of the orange and light blue floor tiles, limiting the JCSer to one measly BG choice. Speaking of this, thereâs no fancy backgrounds or anything. No fluff tiles (Which are extraneous tiles that werenât present in the original set, but still add a positive element to the conversion. These are things like sucker tubes, blastâem blocks/buttstomp blocks, vines/hooks, et cetera) of any kind. Grouping was absentminded at best, sloppy at worst.
Thereâs extremely little present here in this tileset to work with.
In short, it looks like CelL just copied all of the tiles from Jazz Jackrabbit 1 over to the conversion and slapped everything together.
I wish he had done a better job with it, because J2O is STILL waiting for a decent true-blue Jazz 1 Letni conversion (Not remake, conversion) to be created.
Neutral DL rec, since itâs not a very good tileset, but itâs the closest thing to an adequate Letni conversion out there at present.
@Blackraptor:
Hold that thought. âWorld of Jazzâ will be coming out later this year.
Nice tileset with awesome palette swaps and someâŠwell, interesting, I supposeâŠblack-tile eyecandy. Definitely worth a DL. Great for building a Credits level for your singleplayer pack (which Iâll be doing with World of Jazz). Download rec.
Wow. I canât believe the things that slip through the cracks of J2O.
Great level, solid eyecandy (although the back layers were a little too standard for me), excellent music and layout. Events were nice, too.
Definitely worth a DL.
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Eat your lima beans, Johnny.