Levels like these are the ones that scare me. Not because they are inherently bad or anything, but because of the way that they are rated. Back in the good ol’ days, when I rated a lot (which has nothing to do with it), most reviewers would not give this a 7.5, not to mention a score of above 8. And, as much as I try to keep up with the times, I just cannot bring myself to adjust my rating to the new rating field. Therefore, this rating may seem a bit lower, but it is not because I have any personal vendetta against this level. It is just simply that I think it is heavily overrated.
GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: While it is not quite as hard as any of the reviewers previous to this have made it out to be, I would still say that it is difficult. Unfortunately, this first category is where this level seems to fall apart in every way. The first thing that frustrated me is when I tested what exactly the lava pits did by falling into one. While it worked the second time and nearly every single time after that, the first time I went in, instead of dying, I was stuck in the place that is supposed to kill you using the CTF base method. I am not quite sure why this happened, but it was very annoying. On the subject of the difficulty of this level, I must also say that I think it is more difficult than Enigma does. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing, but in this case the level is, as opposed to doing a good job of applying puzzles and whatnot to make the difficulty enjoyable, forcing upon the player many odd ways to die. There is barely a single tile not covered with an enemy, and the lava pits are a bit too common. There is nothing wrong with a difficult level, but unfortunately in this case, the level is trying too hard to be difficult and the strain shows.
PROS: A challenging level, but not impossible. The use of automatic death is not new, but is not seen often.
CONS: The difficulty comes from fairly annoying limitations. If you fall into a lava pit, you have to basically start over.
RATING: 6.0
TILESET/TILESET USE: The first thing I noticed when the level started was the little scenery that occurs at the beginning. This was actually quite nice, and did look as if the character was blasting through a wall to get into the level. The next thing I noticed was the sign noting the tileset’s maker that disappeared. Unfortunately, the disappearing sign is replaced with blocks that do not look the same as the blocks that are behind the sign. This ends up appearing very cheesy and strangely done. The rest of the level had decent eyecandy, although nothing that went all that much beyond the typical Carrotus look. This is a spinoff of Carrotus that features a few more tiles and a different coloring type. Those with 56K connections will be annoyed by this, as really this level could be accomplished with the normal Carrotus tileset. However, even though it may be similar, just seeing something slightly different for once is sometimes enough to make a level enjoyable. There are not many eyecandy bugs, although there are a few questionable tile connections, and the lava sometimes looks a bit weird. However, the eyecandy in this level shows a decent technical composure and some creativity on top of that.
PROS: Nice to see something other than Carrotus 1/2. Not many tile bugs. Some creativity shown.
CONS: The use of a weird Carrotus spinoff wastes bandwidth in the opinions of some. Tile placement is sometimes questionable.
RATING: 6.7
WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: This is another area in which this level runs into a few problems in the realm of gameplay. Weapon placement is okay, as is item placement in general, although it does lack save points where they would be nice. Enemy placement, though, is what really does damage to this score. Enemies are placed nearly every tile in which there is any space for them. The entire level consists mainly of platforms, giving the player a chance to fall into the afforementioned lava pools, leaving little room for placing baddies. Unfortunately, the level author decided that the only way to make this level harder was to put foes with such quantity. I would rather see puzzles, or at least some creative liscence inputted into making the level harder. A challenging level is good, but the ratio of walkable-to-enemy filled tiles is a bit high for my tastes.
PROS: Challenging.
CONS: Few save points. Too many enemies, and too little space.
RATING: 6.0
REPLAY/FUN FACTOR/ORIGINALITY: This is a fairly small single player level, so there is not all that much of a replay value to it. However, it is decent fun. Challenging levels are typically much more fun to play over and over again than levels which are really easy, and this is not an exception. While puzzle levels do tend to suffer in replay since you already know the answers (unless, in very rare cases, they are polymorphic), enemy-filled levels rarely suffer in that way. Still, I would prefer puzzles, and the somewhat unoriginality of this level does subtract from fun factor. However, it also gets a boost in originality from the lava pits. While they do not always work, which can be quite annoying, they are an interesting aspect to gameplay, as weird as it does look to be first warped out from the lava pit and then killed.
PROS: The lava pit is an interesting addition. Challenging, which makes for good replay value.
CONS: Not all that interesting, per se.
RATING: 6.5
OVERALL (not an average): This is an above average level that has a number of flaws which severely detract from play. As previously mentioned, the main problem with this level is that it tries way too hard to be a difficult and challenging play. Part of being a great level is a smooth way of applying difficulty. Cramming the levels with enemies, making it very easy to die by falling into a pit, and reducing save points a lot is not necessarily the best way to accomplish this. It is a good play, but probably one that will not last. I can recommend download for one quick play, but beyond that this level is not extremely lasting. It looks fairly good, plays fairly good, and is fairly fun. Overall, the quintessential fairly good level with a few twists.
PROS: Challenging and with things, such as the lava pit, rarely seen in levels.
CONS: The difficulty of this level comes from a barrage of enemies, which is disappointing.
RATING: 6.2
GAMEPLAY: B -
Flow: C+
Layout: B -
Creativity: B
Bugs: B
EYECANDY: B
Tileset use: B
Eyecandy look: B -
Creativity: B
Bugs: B
PLACEMENT: C
Weapons: C+
Enemies: C -
THE FINAL GRADE: B -
THE FINAL RATING: 6.2
~ Traft