What’s with all of the CTF levels all of the sudden. Hmm… I shouldn’t complain too much. At least I get some CTF levels to review after that long void. In any case…
GAMEPLAY:
Let me start by staying this: as far as large goes, this is only medium sized. The main thing that keeps this level from being small or even close to it is its general layout. It has the same layout style as “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t work nearly as good (bricks weren’t meant to be used like this. read more in eye candy section). This level also seems to have a little less flow than the last level and I’m not liking all of the platforms. There are still deadends and unneeded places here and there. And places to get stuck in walls (incline tiles often don’t mix well with walls in certain situations). There are also some balance issues, such as the red base is placed much higher than the blue base (this almost always causes balance issues). And I noticed there was the same single start position for both teams. Team based MP start positions will be needed to make a better CTF level.
EYE CANDY:
I can’t say I like the eye candy much at all. It reminds me of the eye candy in “Snooz’s strange universe” except it doesn’t look good at all. The bricks look bad as one-tile high blocks floating in mid-air. Also, the background didn’t need to be mirrored. It tiles horizontally well enough. And the 4th layer background tiles are too sporadic for my liking (and I’m assuming you can figure out what I’m refering to). Work on eye candy more next time.
CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:
Well, there’s a full energy carrot in the middle. Nice to know some of my advice was taken. The only problem is it’s way too close to the blue base (which wasn’t even placed well in the first place). Ammo is still scarce and often in the worst places (I forgot to mention this for the last level). And finally, there are powerups. I presume there are three of them. There are 2 bouncer powerups, and in a level like this, that just makes it nearly unplayable. A bouncer powerup is often a bad choice as the only 2 heart damaging powerup—especially in a level like this. Also, one of the bouncer powerups is too close to the electro blaster powerup. But after saying all of this, I don’t think I’ll find anything else which makes this level much worse.
HOST THIS OFTEN
Probably not. Obviously this level isn’t too strategic or much of anything for that matter. This is a 6.5, but keep trying.