This level redefines the word “weird.” And I do not necessarily mean that this is a bad thing. Unfortunately, the level tries to live up to expectations that are significantly more lofty than it is capable of living up to. The idea of this being a hotel/battle/treasure hunt/cooperative/single player/capture the flag combonation level is a little out there. Why? Because this level does not really fit very well as any of them. Here is a mode-by-mode look:
HOTEL: This definitely fits as a hotel. There are rooms, a battle room, and a lot of similar things. This is predominately a hotel and nothing more. It should not be called anything else.
BATTLE: This is pretty much a hotel that can be hosted under battle. There is nothing really extraordinary or new about such a concept. There is ammo, and it works decently as a below average battle level.
CAPTURE THE FLAG: No. This level obviously was never intended to be a viable capture the flag level. There is no mask around the outside of the level, and the level flow is horrible. That is, if you can even find the bases (it does take some time.)
TREASURE HUNT: Uh…Sort of. There are gems, and enough to play a somewhat quick treasure hunt game. Still, it should not be billed as a treasure hunt level. It just does not fit that.
SINGLE PLAYER: There are no enemies. This really does not make a very good single player. No ememies and no puzzles. The biggest challenge would be finding the exit.
COOPERATIVE: Pretty much the same things to say as in single player. There are no emeies, so what is the point?
I suppose what I am trying to say is that this is just a hotel with a few other gamemodes quickly thrown in. No thought went into this. As such, I will review it as it is billed – multiple. This will not do horrible things to the score, but it will not work wonders, either.
EYECANDY/TILESET USE: This level would possibly have made for a decent demo level for the tileset, which was uploaded only just a few minutes ago. The eyecandy in this level is quite strange. It is a somewhat realistic-looking tilset from the Rayman series of games. While some parts look really 3D and cool, other parts just look bland. There are plenty of tile errors to go around, and the level seems to be in a state of disrepair eyecandy-wise.
Pros: The 3D effect that it gets from the tileset is pretty cool.
Cons: Tile errors abound.
Rating: 4.2
WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: This is supposed to also be a single player level, but it can not possibly be one. Why? Because there are absolutely no enemies in this level. As weapons go, this level is below average. Most of the level has sporadic bouncy ammo and the like, but there are areas in which fairly hard to accessable powerups are grouped together. No level which has very little basic ammo should have two major powerups sitting next to eachother. Carrot placement did not fare much better, with oddly-placed carrot bumps.
Pros: None to speak of, really.
Cons: Oddly placed ammo and carrots.
Rating: 4.0
ORIGINALITY: If anything, this level is at least somewhat original. In that it is quite odd, though. The eyecandy of the tileset is obviously suited for a level which is anything but a hotel like this. Everything looks odd, and that is not a good thing. There are a few original ideas here, and there is at least some attempt to make it work for multiple gametypes. Unfortunately, all of this is completely watered down with the sheer amount of hotel “cliches” in this level.
Pros: At least some attempt for originality.
Cons: Not original.
Rating: 3.7
GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: It is hard to measure the gameplay for a level which is as good as this. For a hotel, it completely lacks gameplay. Then again, no hotel really has all that much in the way of gameplay. For a single player level, it also lacks gameplay. The same with a co-op level. For a CTF level, it has some decent gameplay, but makes the horrible mistake of lacking masking on the side of the level. For a battle level, it is substandard in the ways of gameplay. All of this add up to a very low score of 2.5 in gameplay.
Pros: At least it works as a hotel, battle, or CTF level.
Cons: It is not even a co-op or single player level at all.
Rating: 2.5
REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: There is very little fun factor in a hotel. After the first few minutes of marveling at the potentially interesting activities like pinball, the entire thing gets boring. Plus, since it is someone else’s hotel, the level host can not even edit it. This is where hotels have always and will always fail. I am going to give this a few points for being a somewhat average battle level, but that is the only thing that keeps it from earning a much, much lower score.
Pros: It can be played as a battle level. Kind of.
Cons: The rest of the level is really dull.
Rating: 3.7
OVERALL (not an average): This is a hotel level that tries to be much more. Unfortunately, it fails at this task, and falls into the sad realm of below average levels that try to be much more. The tileset is worth the download, but is uploaded seperately. Unless you want to see a tileset gone to complete waste as something it should never, ever, ever be used for, this level is probably a good idea to avoid. As ambitious as it may be, this level falls far short of its goals. But that is not all that surprising if you think about it.
Pros: It could have been worse.
Cons: Some really severe bugs definitely get in the way of play. This level has too many flaws to list. It just does not function properly as many of the things that it claims to be.
Rating: 4.2
GAMEPLAY: D
Flow: D -
Layout: D -
Creativity: C -
Bugs: C -
EYECANDY: D+
Tileset use: D
Eyecandy look: D+
Creativity: D+
Bugs: D
PLACEMENT: D+
Weapons: D+
Carrots: D+
Enemies: N/A
THE FINAL GRADE: D+
THE FINAL RATING: 4.2
Pros: It could have been worse.
Cons: Some really severe bugs definitely get in the way of play. This level has too many flaws to list. It just does not function properly as many of the things that it claims to be.
- Trafton
EDIT: Just because it can be hosted under the gamemode does not mean it is that type of level. And it does get boring after playing so many minigames. There are strange-looking parts in the eyecandy.[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]