Cavey Forest
DarkSonic, a friend of mine and co-leader of XLM has made another level, this time it it for our won XLM CTF Contest. Yay! Happy Birthday anyway (I think I already said it to you on MSN) Well, let’s check out if this level is worth DarkSonic’s 14th birthday party, and if it has a chance on the XLM CTF Contest. Prepare for a review!
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic used the forest tileset of Blade, a quite good and nice to use tileset, but the eyecandy that is given in this set is a little bit below the average. Anyway, DS did a good job with the eyecandy, however it could be better in some places. The backgrounds are nice and the caves have a Dark Atmosphere. I didn’t see any tile errors, however, the eyecandy could be better. I think it’s more the fault of the tileset then of the creator, but it just doesn’t look so good, unless the author really took the maximum capacity of the tileset. Eyecandy can be a little bit confusing sometimes, if you look to the pathways at the floor or other parts, like when you need to take the carrot (it looks like it is in the ground, but it isn’t) and the part in the middle when you have to jump through two ledges in the foreground. Also, the top corner parts could have more EC, and the walls just look dull in the corners of the level.
AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
New let’s take a look at the ammo placement in this level. DS used a familiar three Powerup strategy (Seeker-Bouncer-RF) which is very unoriginal, but decent. However, the two secondary Powerups could have been placed in a more original way, they are now just flat at the ground. The Seeker PU looks hard to get in the first place, but it’s rather easy when you just run up the hill using Electro Blasters. Some ammo is placed at the ground or in other places, this could have been better, and sometimes the ammo looks a bit chaotic Also there a good points about the ammo, there is plenty of it, and most of the time it is easy to reach.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
The structure of the level this time has it’s good and bad sides. Good side of the structure is the fact that there is a really decent flow, and you can move around not too hard. Bad sides are the flow are the fact that there is too less space sometimes, especially in the middle where you have to run through very narrow corridors. Another bad point of the level is the fact that the placement of the level is not matching with the rest of the level. You better had put the bases in corners of the level, now they are a bit too close to each other, and the worst thing is that’s it’s possible to run from the red base to the blue one and vice versa in a single, non-stop run, with just 1 jump! Could have been better, but the rest is OK. Not much diversity in movement however, but enough.
GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Maybe I was a little bit hard in the first three points of the level, but the gameplay isn’t really that bad. It could have been better though, with a little bit more original eyecandy, more original placement, and a nicer level structure. You told me you tried to make your level a little less “squared-off” (a form of the level when all platforms are huge blocks) and you attempt has partially succeeded, but I still can see that you’re falling back in the same style sometimes, especially in the roofs and the corners of the level. About the flow; it’s quite nice, could have been a little bit better perhaps in some areas but still OK. I like the choice of the music, it’s some kind of dreamy-dark trance/techno, I like the flavour.
RATINGS:
At the end of this review I can say that DarkSonic made a level that is a little bit better then previous ones, but I guess the author ca still do better. It’s a little bit different then other levels of him who looked a lot like each other, but it’s still not different enough to be a complete new experience. Maybe you should get rid of the standard symmetrical structure in your levels, if you make something next time that is asymmetrical I think you could get higher votes (if they have the same quality) And now the answer of the question: is this level good enough to win the XLM CTF Contest? drums Well, I don’t really know it. The level is a bit better then the one of Dx, but I don’t know sure if it’s good enough to win. I guess it will be in the top 3 at least, depends on what Snooz has made. For now, here you have a 7.2.
Score: 2.0+1.75+1.5+2.0 = 7.25 = 7.2
Download: Yes, it is a little style change in DarkSonic’s level and it could be funny to download.
Host: I don’t think so, I think you’ll get too bored of the level when you host it online too often. However, it could be funny for a few times, but not more. I guess that few times are already over now.
Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM
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