I beta tested this quite a bit, and I must say that this is fairly impressive for a first Capture the Flag level. Regardless of this fact, it lacks the polish that comes with experience, and this brings down the quality of this relatively small Capture the Flag level significantly. Regardless, it shows a lot of promise and I hope that Ninja will keep making more levels.
GAMEPLAY: Gameplay was more or less standard. The flow had quite a few hiccups. The one ways help this mariginally, but not enough to improve the gameplay to good levels. The layout of this level is interesting, and more resembles what you would think of as a battle level than anything else. THIS LEVEL IS SMALL. When I say small, I mean really small. This level is probably smaller than Distopia, which is a fairly tiny level in itself. The miniscule size of this level is somewhat of a pitful, too.
EYECANDY: Eyecandy was pretty good. There was not anything that you would not expect in a Swamps of the Sleeping Jaguar level, but it still left me wanting more. There just was not extremely creative use of eyecandy here, though it was by no means an ugly level. Since there were not many open areas, there was not any eyecandy-drained places, but for a level of this size, that is not a huge accomplishment.
LAYOUT: Layout was really small. The entire level is probably no larger than half of Battle2. This translated as a problem in many respects, as the passages between bases were way, way, way too small. This caused definite flow problems. There were several dead ends, which is not so bad in CTF levels if they are used well, but the dead ends in this level just are not done well.
TILE PLACEMENT: Tileset placement was good, but again, nothing special. It looks like most Swamps of the Sleeping Jaguar levels. Eyecandy was not anything special mainly because not much creativity was used in placing eyecandy in this level. Not much to say here that I have not already expressed in the “eyecandy” section. Not amazing, but good enough.
PICKUP PLACEMENT: Pickup placement was below average. There were several powerups, too many for most Capture the Flag levels and definitely too many for a level of this size. There were few carrots for the ammount of powerups, and they all came out as more or less useless since you would just lose the life the moment you left the area in which they were. Pickup placement was badly coordinated to the rest of the level.
OVERALL STATEMENT: This level definitely shows promise. However, in its current state, all I can say is that it is way too small with way too narrow passages to make for a good play. More or less good in eyecandy, this level suffers from a bad sense of scale that causes the passages to be far too hard to get around in. So many powerups should not be used in a level of such small size without enough carrots to make up for it. This level reminds me of a battle level, except it is way too small. Spend some time on making your levels larger and I am sure that your rating will improve vastly.
+ PROS: Looks good. Definitely shows promise.
- CONS: Bad flow. Too many powerups. WAY TOO SMALL.
VERDICT: A so-so Capture the Flag level in general. By no means is this great, but CTF freaks might find it worth the download. If this level were to be larger, the rating would be significantly higher. However, for now, I have to give it a 6.5 and a download recommendation only for Capture the Flag fans. Though this level definitely has some good sides, it has far too many pitfalls.