Battle, by 
Eigus has clearly worked hard on his brand new battle- Hellforge and I feel like I should give a good long review just so that he can recognize how his work has paid off and erm, for people who actually read reviews to first of all:
- See how sad I am when writing long reviews like this
- See how much spare time you actually have on your hands to be bothered to read such a review
- See the various flaws and erm… de-flaws in this fine battle level, or maybe the word would be pro’s or something. Oh who gives a damn.
Anyway, this review might be completely different to the others in terms of rating and stuff but bare with me, that’s either just because my opinion is bitchy as hell or I just want to write a long review to let my spare time pass by when I am actually doing absolutely nothing at all with my spare time. Anyway, no nagging, no removal, no editing (unless you bribe me). And erm, that’s it.
Well just some introductory notes on the level would be that I find it very weird to rate battle levels just because it’s not my thang. Although I really don’t know what my thang is so don’t even ask.
HELLFORGE
Eyecandy
Rating: 7.5
Well, I don’t appreciate the eyecandy in this level so much probably because I’ve seen better done with this set, however this level does contain some differences to your typical windstorm fortress level. First of all, there is no insane pillar overuse (something I often do) and none of that weird floor overuse either. But that does mean the eyecandy is very different to what you would typically expect from this tileset. The background in this level is something that caught my eye because it looked very different to the normal background you get in Windstorm fortress; it had cool fortress things with a nice textured background which really sets the mood of the level. The level does not have much in the foreground as it basically just covers the pit area to add some form of cloudy foggy sort of mood thing person guy dude thing stuff. Strange use of the clouds if you ask me but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Now 4 layers (5, 4, 3 and 2) have all been used at the same speed. Areas in this level such as the top looked very nice in the background as did the crazy jagged wall at [44, 38] which was very attractive in my opinion. However the originality ends there for me. I didn’t find too much special in the eyecandy and it struck me specifically that in the level itself, many of the walls looked completely square and had very little to no personality. I did not like how so many of the platforms felt so square on the ends. I can’t completely say this applies in the whole level as the bottom area and various others are very nicely curved and people would like that in terms of some aspects of game-play. I won’t entirely hammer the rating down because of the reason of life and death and doom and cheese and sponges and paperclips. Yeah. Okay that’s enough rambling and now I’ll move on to the thing I hate most: tilebugs. Happily (as hell) this level has very few, however I still see some across various areas such as [95,34], [97,34], [97, 35], [100,35], [102,34], [104, 35], [121,30]. There are a few more but I won’t bother being more sad than I already have been and I’ll just leave it at that – there are tilebugs and they grind my gears. MY GEARS ARE BEING GROUND I TELL YOU. GROUND.
Game-play
Rating: 7.7
As with all of the reviews I do, I usually do the game-play part of the review like this… It’s set out accordingly: Bias [teams], Bias [rabbits], Strategy, Layout, Flow, Defense/Offense and how fun it is to play.
Seeing as this is a battle, I’m going to skip the bias for teams and go right into the bias between the rabbits. I don’t really notice anything too annoying for Spaz (which is regular because it’s very easy to make it flow for Spaz in any level, unless you’re just some crazy demented sheep person guy) but however I did realize that Jazz has some annoying things in this level, one thing that particularly struck me is that the jump to [108, 32] is very easy to execute for Spaz from beneath, which gives him a substantial speed boost over Jazz (unless he makes the jump) while Jazz has to actually go towards the spring. I would move the spring back or something, or make it easier to jump. Also, the pit is extremely annoying to get out of with Jazz, while it is possible, it’s very annoying. Jazz nor Spaz can easily uppercut or side-kick the PU to get 50 ammo, which might be a good thing but it might just disrupt gameplay. Anyway, Spaz can get out of that pit much easier than Jazz can. =P Evil bias.
There isn’t too much strategy in the level, especially as the level has a pit but lacks freezers to make them just that bit more funny/fun. The tactics or strategies included in levels are usually what make me like them more but this level has very few. One I did notice however is that the middle carrot at the location [61, 30] can be much easier to obtain without the hassle of having to get the copter if you own the bouncer power-up. You can simply shoot it down from beneath it which can be a quick and interesting strategy to make game-play a bit more interesting. I can proudly say there aren’t any major camp spots inside the level but one at [35, 28]. You can easily camp the carrot at this spot and just keep shooting Seekers at oncoming targets which can only come from one direction; the right. This might not be too big an issue however as you can easily get him with bouncers if you use them cleverly. Good fun. =D
This level is quite solid and doesn’t have too many platforms, which makes it generally easier to learn which is very good for the newer levels. However the layout does not prove too many tactical traits for me, apart from probably gaining higher ground to shoot bouncers down in areas such as [26, 58] or [82, 38] which can easily be bombarded (a good thing). The layout is very nice in my honest yet humble yet biased yet evil yet demented yet Raggish opinion. Oh yeah I also forgot to mention this level doesn’t have any dead ends. They almost grind my gears as much as tile-bugs do, probably not as much but still, they’re very annoying. The layout is quite good for many reasons as the powerups are well placed as are the carrots. I just do not like the pit near the seeker powerup at all as I think it is far too evil even for a seeker powerup. Everything is good other than that. Bwehehe =D
The level does flow quite well as you do not need to do double jumps in certain areas with the exception of the pit to get to certain areas. The movement is very simple around this level as you won’t bump into many walls or annoying walls and stuff. Also, the springs and everything with the exception of one are placed very nicely and are convenient to use for whatever reason.
The defense/offense is pretty much for other concepts and not really battle, so I guess I’ll do the smart thing and skip to the fun-factor of the level. I like the level and it seems as if it would be very good in events or crowded servers. This level cannot be controlled like other small battles, but it is still very fun to play in as the variety of powerups and routes allows for interesting gameplay. It is very easy to get from one carrot to the other, which can make it a bit fun if you get to them on time. Again, major complaint about the pit as the winds just makes it too evil. Nonetheless, good fun. =]
General Placement
Rating: 8.0
I guess you can’t have perfectly original placement in any level unless it comes up with new uses for different types of ammunition, which hasn’t been done in a very long time. Anyway, the power-ups and the carrots are very fairly dispersed and it gives me a fit use to go to any section of this level. I would probably camp around the top if anything though if I was playing in a crowded server. The power-ups aren’t campy at the least which is very good and they are all very suitable to the level’s style. I like the spring placement a lot and I did have a complaint for one or two places. To get in the strand higher than 9.0 from me, you’d probably need something very fresh for the ammo placement or something, but it’s still close anyway. My only real complaint is that there is too much ammo at the top area. =S
Originality
I didn’t find too much in the level fresh, other than the palette and the background. One point! I just dislike the seeker power-up and it reminds me of a certain level o.0. Heehee. More than just a certain level =P.
Overall
7.7
I like the level a lot and it would probably play a lot better than I’m giving it credit for. I think it’s very good for a second battle level (technically, I recall reading that somewhere). Gah. That review took ages. Nice lev. I like it. =] Whew. That took a while. I recommend you to download it and play it and enjoy it. It’s not bad at all. =D. Hellforge4Bash2009. =].
~*Rag*
