Cool, Im in the credits =D!
Anyways, lets begin with this long review.
Firstly, all the tilesets have been modified and enhanced in some way so the player can experience full play without running into any tileset bugs.
Now, the review starts:
Lost in Ancient Ruins:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy was real spiffy here. Every part of this level has neat eyecandy in it, for instance you see those backround blocks everywhere and those vines and all. The eyecandy is remarkable and gets a solid 9.6 from me.
Pros: Its basic and great
Cons: None
Rating:9.6
Layout: The layout here was very well done. There were lots of passages and the level wasn’t very straightforward, which is good since the player will have more to explore. There were some nice secrets here, and there were many too, which may have the player carefully searching every wall and floor for hidden passages to hidden secrets.
Pros: Has lots of passages, nice secrets etc etc.
Cons: None that are worth mentioning.
Rating: 9.5
Enemy Placement: This was also nicely done. Enemies were placed nicely and added some difficulty to the level. The choice of enemies was also very logical and nicely done.
Pros: Nicely placed
Cons: No major ones
Rating:8.8
Pickup Placement: It was also very well done. The pickups were well placed and well hidden. Some are very nicely hidden while others are placed well in the open. The food may have been a bit overused(I got 2 rushes), but that can be affected by the large size of this level,Though I dont mind getting sugar rushes (They make the music start playing if it stopped =))some people might mind that the food is a bit overused. The coins were nicely placed, I did manage to find 50 but thats because I was lucky and accidentally found some secrets.
Pros: Nicely placed and hidden.
Cons: Some things may have been a bit overused.
Rating:8.6
Music choice: Logical and good.
Final rating for Lost in Ancient Ruins: 9.125
Final Comments: A great start to the pack! =)
Construction Site:
Eyecandy: Firstly, Im glad you used the night version because I think it tends to look better than the day one. The eyecandy here, just like the previous level, is nicely done. Lots of backround eyecandy and some foreground as well. The eyecandy looks realistic and nice, makes the level great to look at.
Pros: Very well done.
Cons: Lacked some more foreground.
Rating: 8.9
Layout: Just as in the previous level, I enjoyed the layout. Though it doesnt have as many routes and passages as Lost In Ancient Ruins, it will still amuse the player in many ways. The secret placement is also nice too. One problem I spotted was around pos 228, 30, If you go under the spikes to get the pickups, the sucker tubes on the bottom wont let you out, so you’ll be trapped.
Pros: Good layout
Cons: The one around 228,30.
Rating:9
Enemy Placement: The enemy choice here was good too. Lizards, Suckers and Labrats go well with the theme of this level. They are nicely placed and add some difficulty to the level. Not much more to say.
Pros: Good choice, good placement
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 8.9
Pickup placmenet: Lets start with coins: Coins were placed nicely (I was able to get 49) though some were too high up. They were nicely hidden, soem where out in the open but they required skill and strategy to get. Food wansnt as overused (I only got one sugar rush here) and ammo was nicely placed
Pros: Well placed
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.1
Music was nicely chosen.
Final rating for Construction Site: 8.975.
Additional comments: The level was nicely done, not my favorite but still fun to play.
Stomping on the stones:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy was nice. I didn’t seem to mind that the tileset had no layer 6 and 7 eyecandy. The backround grey rock tiles were well placed and were great as the eyecandy. The eyecandy was very simple, but was very nice as well.
Pros: Good looking eyecandy, probably one of the best or the best eyecandy with the rocks tileset.
Cons: No major ones (I dont mind that the set has no backroubnd eyecandy)
Rating:9
Layout: The layout=me likes. The layout was nice and fun, sometimes it took place outside, sometimes it took place in a rock cave. There were many nice secrets and the layout was really nice here, I enjoyed it a lot!
Pros: Great Layout
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.7
Enemy Placment: Enemy placement was nice. The enemies were nicely chosen, though I may be getting tired of seeing those float lizards everywhere. The enemies were nicely placed, and made the level a lot more difficult.
Pros: Nicely placed
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.4
Pickup Placement: The pickups were nicely placed. Though I did get 2 rushes here (mostly because of the high amount of food I got in the previous level). The gems, carrots, food and coins and ammo was nicely placed. Coins were nicely hidden, but it was possible to get enough for the coin warp if you really try and look around.
Pros: Nicely placed
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.2
Music was also good. (The reason I’m not giving out ratings for the music is because it isnt new, Blade has used it for these tilesets before.
Final Rating For Stomping on the stones: 9.325
Additional comments: One of my favorite levels, good job!
The Great Glacier:
Eyecandy: As I looked at the eyecandy, its like WOW. Eyecandy everywhere! This shows how amazing glacier eyecandy can really be!
Pros: Great!
Cons: None to speak of
Rating:9.8
Layout: The layout here reminded me of the one in the Aztec level. Many routes and passages, which is good since there is more exploration involved. Secrets nicely hidden and spikes nicely placed. Overall great layout
Pros: Nice layout
Cons: None to speak of
Rating: 9.5
Enemy Placement: Enemies here nicely chosen and nicely placed. Not much more to say.
Pros: Nicely done
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.1
Pickup Placmenet: Food nicely placed, I did get 2 rushes (One mostly because of the amount of food received in the previous level). Gems and ammo also nicely placed. Coins were a bit more difficult for me to find this time, but they were placed well nonetheless.
Pros: Good placmenet
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.3
Music was my favorite.
Final rating for The Great Glacier: 9.425
Desert Detour:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy in this level was very much like in the Glacier level, due to the similarity of the tilesets. Though I felt Glacier had a bit more eyecandy, the eyecandy here stays realistic, basic, and enjoyable. One small thing I noticed around pos 132, 45, whenever I go on the blue spring I see something blue (presumably another blue spring covered by layer 3) stick out of the wall. This isnt anything major though, but it looks strange.
Pros: Basic eyecandy
Cons: Could of been a bit more, but right now its ok. The pos 132,45 thing.
Rating: 9.0
Layout: The layout is also nicely done. There are many small routes leading away from the main one which usually contain goodies and all. The secrets are still here as well.
Pros: Good layout
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.1
Enemy Placement: The enemy choice is logic here, choosing the enemies which most fit in the desert. Though I can’t say Helmnuts belong in the desert too much, its hard choosing enemies to perfectly fit for such different locations.
Pros:Nice choice and placement
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9
Pickup Placement: The pickup placement was nice here as well. The food wasnt that overused, and coins nicely hidden. Crates and barrels placed in good places, and I like where that extra life was placed near the ending.
Pros: Nice placement
Cons; No major ones
Rating: 9.4
Music was ok, at least it looped.
Final Rating for Desert Detour: 9.125 (whats with the .125 all the time?)
Additional comments: Level was nice to play and looked nice. A good addition to the pack!
Grey Matter Adventure:
Eyecandy: Eyecandy here was ok. The set was also missing a backround, but the pipes and backround metal tiles sort of made up for that. Nice secrets and all used with the eyecandy and it just looked nice.
Pros: Nice looking eyecandy
Cons: No major ones aside that this set is also missing a backround (layer 6&7 eyecandy)
Rating:9
Layout: The layout here is nice and basic, having multiple places to explore. There is also more jazz and spaz routes in this level than any of the previous ones (and maybe the after ones as well). Layout was nice, nothing wrong with it, though you can hack into the jazz or spaz routes using simple TNT.
Pros: Nice layout
Cons: No major ones (The TNT thing goes for all the spaz and jazz routes in any level as long as you have spare TNT).
Rating:9
Enemy Placmenet: The enemy choice here was logical and nice, just likein the other levels. Thankfully, there were no floating lizards here (I was getting tired of seeing them in every level). The enemies were placed well and were difficult to destroy without getting injured at times.
Pros: Nice choice, nice placement, no float lizards =)
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.5
Pickup Placement: The pickup placement here was good. Plenty of spare coins, nicely placed food and ammo and gems etc etc. I had no problem with it
Pros: Nice placement
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.3
Music was nice and fit the tileset.
Final rating for Grey Matter Adventure: 9.2 (No .125, woot!)
Additional comments: One of my favorite levels, fun to play!
A Maze Made out of Wood:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy here was nice. I like how you used the wood tiles in layer 3 to hide some secret passages and stuff. There was bg eyecandy, and it looked nice. The eyecandy here was good, not my favorite but good enough for me to like and give it a high rating.
Pros: Looks nice
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.2
Layout: The layout here was very well done, lots of good hidden secrets and passsages and lots of places to explore.
Pros: great layout
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.6
Enemy Placement: Enemy choice was ok, not as good as in some of the other levels, but it was ok.
Pros: It was ok
Cons: It could of been better
Rating:8.5
Pickup placmenet: The pickups were nicely placed and hidden in secrets. Coin were nicely scattered as well. Food was well placed and so was ammo, and gems.
Pros: Good Placmenet
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.2
Overall rating for A Maze Made Out Of Wood: 9.125
Autumn leaves:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy here was quite basic and meets the standards of blade’s eyecandy quality. It looks nice and pleasing to look at just like the eyecandy in the rest of the levels, but there isnt anything new or amazing about it.
Pros: Nice eyecandy
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9
Layout: THe layout is ok, some things I found a bit surprising or strange, and sometimes I didn’t notice the pits of spikes, but its nice.
Pros: Good layout
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9
Enemy Placement: The enemy placement here was alright. It was a difficult level to play (mostly due to the many spikes but also having to do with the enemies) and difficult levels are good to play (as long as they aren’t too difficult). The enemies fit alright, though I expected to see some insects or maybe even a ‘witch’ enemy in this level.
Pros: Nice difficulty, nice choice
Cons: I expected some other enemies which werent used yet.
Rating:8.8
Pickup Placement: Pickups were placed nicely. Some stuff I had no idea how to reach, but other things were nicely placed. Coins were nicely placed etc etc.
Pros: Nice placement
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.2
Final rating for Autumn leaves: 9
A Base in Outer Space:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy was really good here. I’ve used this set and its a good set for eyecandy, though difficult to use. Blade mastered this tileset and has shown us what it is capable of, and how nice it can look. I really liked the eyecandy here.
Pros: Great eyecandy
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.6
Layout: The layout here was among my favorites. Quite complicated and multi routed in many places and fun to explore. Some trigger crates and jazz-spaz routes and stuff. Even in the chasm of spaz Blade made sure if you were jazz and accidentally (or purposely) fell in you were able to get out. Anyways, great layout!
Pros: Great layout
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 9.6
Enemy Placement: Enemies were ok chosen (saddsdsdf, more lizards!!) and they were ok placed. They did make the level more fun to play, and stuff.
Pros: Nice enemies etc.
Cons: No major ones.
Ratung:9
Pickup Placement: Pickups were ok placed (though they were overused again). They were nicely hidden and nicely placed. I didnt have much problems in this category.
Pros: Nicely done
COns: No major ones (the overusion thing goes for all the levels)
Rating: 9.2
Final Rating for A base In outer Space: 9.35.
Arabian Oasis Ambush:
Eyecandy: The eyecandy here was also among my favorites,great use of layers and the tileset tiles. Nice stuff and all, really great use of the Oasis tileset!
Pros: Great eyecandy
Cons: NO major ones
Rating:9.7
Layout: Wow, a colossal level! Anyways, it turned out to be a bit shorter trhan I thought, but still long, fun and enjoyable. Lots of nice secrets and mulitple routes to have you exploring every inch of this gigantic level. Also, there were some very interesting secrets (One that I found had spike balls which you had to jump on and climb up to an extra life and ammo, the other which was categorized as impossible, and some others)
Pros: Nicely done
Cons: No major ones
Rating:9.4
Enemy Placement: Enemies chosen ok (Though I thought there would be some Fencers and Fatchicks because of the village like appearance). I would of hoped for some differently chosen enemies, but its ok with the ones it has currently. They were nicely placed etc etc etc.
Pros: Nicely placed, chosen ok
Cons: Choice of enemies could of been better
Rating:8.6
Pickup Placement: Lots of goodies and stuff here, and they were nicely placed. Though I think there were a bit too much powerups in the coin warp place(I couldnt get enough coins anyways, I was 10 coins short). Anyways, good placement
Pros: Good placement
COns: No major ones
Rating:9.1
Final Rating for Arabian Oasis Ambush: 9.2
Well, this is a great pack, with some cons which I will mention later. Great level design and amazing eyecandy here. Blade has produced a great and satisfying pack for us to have a fun time playing. This is exactly why I supported the progress of this pack in the first place, because I knew it had potential, and Blade used that potential into making a bunch of great SP levels. There are downsides, such as I got stuck 3 times in this pack (Once in Construction Site in that place that needs fixing, once accidentally in Autumn leaves and once in Arabian Oasis Ambush). The enemies are also repetetive and there isnt a great variety. The pickups are all slightly overused, though it doesnt disturb me it may be a dislike to some other players.
Finally, the final moment when I announce the final rating of this pack. Lost in Ancient Ruins: 9.125 Construction Site: 8.975 Stomping on the Stones: 9.325 The Great Glacier: 9.425 Desert Detour: 9.125 Grey Matter Adventure: 9.2 A maze Made out of wood: 9.125 Autumn Leaves: 9 A base In outer space: 9.35 Arabian Oasis Ambush: 9.2 FINAL RATING: 9.185, upgraded to a 9.2! Great Pack Blade! My review is finally finished! =) ~Blackraptor[This review has been edited by Blackraptor]