Capture the flag, by 
Space Station: Milaria
DarkSonic frequently asked me to review this level of him (mainly because I reviewed nearly all of his better levels so far) Anyway, it’s one of my rare reviews these days cause I’m too lazy to write any others and I’ve got better things to do with my precious time, but I promised DS to pull another one off for his latest level: Space Station Milaria (I’ll refer to it as Milaria for the rest of this review) Let’s see if I’m still able to review.
EYECANDY: 1.8 out of 2.5
In one of the textstrings around the level, DarkSonic mentioned that he was inspired by Zaitox for this level. Once you start the level you’ll indeed see a large similarity between the two levels: both use the same tileset. The eyecandy itself is different from Zaitox: DarkSonic did use other backgrounds are there are actually some original things, like the yellow bars in the background and such. After a few minutes of playing however, you can get the idea that the eyecandy is a bit boring. Some tiles don’t seem to match, but I guess that’s more a fault of the tileset maker than DarkSonic’s. Overall, I can say the eye candy is pretty good but not really one of the best.
PLACEMENT: 2.1 out of 2.5
Maybe some more original things inside the placement stuff? Who knows. At least there’s some originality in the Power-up placement: Instead of the ordinary Seeker/RF-Bouncie-Toaster Power-up system, DarkSonic used a Blaster powerup as central PU. The usual Full NRG carrot is placed just a few tiles above the central PU, which could make the tiny place a good spot for camping. The other smaller ammo is placed quite nice and in original shapes, mostly in vertical shape (along the walls and the central pillar) I don’t have any major negative comments about the placement, ammo is nicely placed however the carrot near the main PU is a bit nasty and asking for campers.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.4 out of 5.0
On with the major point of this level: structure and gameplay! Well, the level is about 95% symmetrical, and the red and blue half are divided by a large on-tile-thick pillar in the middle. This pillar has two open spots, one with the carrot and main PU (middle of level) and one on the bottom, which can be heavily guarded by two turrets, a nice position for a camping defender. The level is more open than other levels of DarkSonic, and he even managed to make it more original by giving all the platforms in the level “a purpose” (there aren’t floating objects in the sky anymore, but they seem to have a function in the space station. So far the good points. Not everything is good about the structure, and I will start with the very annoying springs in the lower corners of the level, which actually make me want to lower the rating of the level with one full point. The problem is: you approach these springs with high speed and once you hit them, you bump into a wall. You have to break if you want to take them correctly and then quickly move in the other direction. I know this is kinda original but it just kills a lot of the flow. As Ragnarok pointed out earlier, some parts of the level are a bit unneeded and the roof is still a bit Squared-Off. Overall, the flow is decent, but not quite good, and some parts are questionable. I like the music which is used here, but I don’t really think it fits to the level.
RATINGS:
DarkSonic did a brave job by releasing a new level which is slightly different from earlier levels he produced. However, all new designs have a difficult start and so does DarkSonic’s. The level would/could have been a lot better if the nasty spring situation would have been improved, and some other parts too (read review) I think I’ll give this around a…. 7.3. Yeah.
Score: 1.8 + 2.1 + 3.4 = 7.3
Download: Yeah, it’s a quite nice new-style level by DarkSonic.
Host: Maybe a few times.
Greetings,
- ChippieBW
EDIT: I see that you re-uploaded the level, which you really didn’t have to do for me alone =P. Anyway, now it’s been improved, I need to recheck it. Some factors in the level could raise the rating a lot, the placement of the springs is one of these things. The situation as it is after the change is really A LOT better, and after re-playing it, it enjoyed me more. There are still some small flaws in the level, but it’s truly a lot better now. Rating has been raised with 0.5 points. Good job.
