Battle, by 
Finally! A brand new level from Cmdr Dats! It really has been a while since he released his last level but he has certainly not lost his skills and Golradir, though not one of his best creations, is a level you must take a closer look at.
Golradir (it’s a weird name – no idea what it means) is quite large with many open areas as well as some tight and closed tunnels to explore and battle in. The layout consists of loads of platforms that take up most of the level and a smaller area consisting of a tunnel-like place at the bottom. This is nothing new as otside and inside levels have been done over and over and over and over again…etc, etc. The platforms are nicely arranged so you will always be a rabbit hop away from each one and springs are in the right places to reach places quickly and easily. The level has a lot of places you can bump into if you’re not careful, but it is very open, as mentioned earlier, and Golradir lets you navigate through it with the minumum of pain. For even faster movement, easily reached suckertubes are placed all over the level, which gives you an advantage over those on foot. I think that the suckertubes will be vital for pursuit and escape. The bad things about these tubes are that they take up a lot of space and it seems to me that you tend to take the tube rather than travel by foot, much like today’s commuters :). Since you can’t really control your movement while in the tube, these suckertubes spoil the fun of running around and shooting, but not by much.
Weapons placement is good and you don’t have to take huge detours just to get some ammo and most stuff can be reached by spring or by one jump, which smoothens the flow of the level. One complaint I have, however, is that ammo is so widely distributed. There are no large concentrations of ammo in one sinle place, which forces you to scavenge the level for ammo, which is bad news for campers or those who tend to hang around in the same area. Some crates would be really helpful but I guess anti-campers would probably see the lack of ammo as a positive thing.
The eyecandy is, like the weapons placement, very good but, like ammo, is widely distributed. Cmdr Dats have puts a little of this and a little of that here and there but he hasn’t used much of the tiles of the excellent Odyssey tileset, which is disappointing. A big window showing Earth, some lightning effects or more use of foreground layers would be great. And by the way, those great-looking teleport tiles are not used, most likely because there are no warps in Golradir. It’s acceptable when a level does not have warps, but at least use all tiles for eyecandy or you won’t be fully exploiting the tileset.
Despite the sparse ammo and equally sparse eyecandy, Golradir is a battle level worth having, and more importantly, playing. Battle freaks should definitely download this and those that are reluctant to mindlessly blow stuff up should still download and play this because of its great gameplay.
Cmdr Dats has done it again. Download recommendation and a nice 8.2 rating from me.
