Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

InterDimensional Khaos ]DOM[ Custom / Concept, by plunK, requires version 1.23 with JJ2+

• Rating: 7.7

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• desolation
• dom
• domination

Description

The Shellion army has constructed “Gateways” around major planets in the galaxy to help their attempt of total universal conquest. The rabbits have discovered this, and now are planning on using these portals to try and claim the planets before the shellions can.

May the ultimate domination victor win.

The planets that have had portals constructed are:

Starshine Valley: A remote Valley on the planet Florius, overlook a great sea of stars in a region with little light, so they are around all day

Bridge of Fates: A great metal bridge spanning over an evacuated city, after a villian threatened destruction.

Temple of the Ambient Moon: Inside the ruins of a once great civilization of an underground temple overlooking a great moon

Gnome Hyper Station Core: On a world ruled by the great gnomes, gateways have been built into the very power core of the region, and the gnomes have been forced out

Random Pipery: The location is unknown, but the presumably underwater station is a completely sealed value on a seemingly uselesss planet

Also accessable:
Shellion Vortex: The shell army’s command station, but the gates here are still in progress, the only escape is through the widnwo in hopes that you will land back on a planet….

NOTE: Lighting and 16-bit are needed for full gamplay visual effects and eyecandy

Credits & Acknowledgements

All of my Many Many Testers

Contains 3 Files

IDK.j2l	InterDimensional Khaos	28.16 kB
Desolation02.j2t	Desolation 02	148.69 kB
Dusk.s3m	Dusk Horizon	575.73 kB

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Reviews and comments

cooba 27 Apr 2009, 21:01 (edited 13 Jul 11, 16:53)

Featured

7

Now I can rest assured that my claim about Desolation being very flexible turned out to be true…

This level is plain insane. The idea of having gateways leading to different planets is very impressive, and manages to be pulled off fairly well in most instances—Starshine Valley being probably my favorite. The music choice is also contributing to the feel, using the same track as Unreal’s NyLeve Falls is a cheeky reference to how that level and this are very much about exploration.

However, there are some mistakes that break the immersion – the fact that players are apparently able to travel between one area and another without using the gateways, and that most “planets” feature the same white colored background, which which wrongly implies that all the places are located close to eachother rather than light years apart.

Some planets don’t look very appealing either – the Temple of the Ambient Moon, while a well done concept, it falls short in terms of eyecandy, by being rather bland and too open. The hyperstation core one, while it features extreme amounts of detail, overall it looks too cartoony with the red/blue/counter tiles used seemingly randomly.

Now onto the gameplay… I can’t say I’ll be sure to play this level in a game. Six control points is a /lot/, I honestly advise people to treat 3 points as a standard maximum. Anyway, I’m not going to get into all six into detail – what I noticed in general is that they appear in rather cramped spots (Gnome Hyperstation being a bad example), which will cause a bunch of “khaos” in-game.

Some design ideas were just not good: secret powerup stashes, scarce and randomly scattered ammo, ricochets (prone to cause fake health), the water shield (not the best idea in Domination), no carrots (?), a control point that’s randomly accessed (???). I can understand that the powerup stashes were there to put even more emphasis on exploration, but I advise you to fix everything else I listed ;)

Overall, this is a highly inventive level, which unfortunately went further with the idea than with the execution. My final advice is: don’t make more content than is needed, and focus on what you already have — in this case I’d have preferred less planets but connected in more intuitive ways. And don’t stop making crazily themed levels like this!

EDIT: In hindsight, I overrated this a slight bit. A 7 should be okay. Sorry ):



CrimiClown 27 Apr 2009, 15:54

8

Whadda we have here? A new Domination level? Sounds good, let’s download this.

Gameplay: Very original
I can’t figure out where to start explaining. The concept… wow, it’s just a really good concept! There are six different areas that you can go to, and in every are there’s a control point and a distinctive ammo type. Kind of like a ‘native fruit’ to the area. (Does that mean trading these ammo with other areas will make you money?… never mind…) The six areas are connected by big, red warp zones, which will confuse you a LOT at first. It’s really hard to learn a clear route, which will make a lot of games in this map frustrating, confusing and chaotic. Maybe you should draw a map… Yeah, just a simple Paint or Photoshop job would do the trick, I guess.

The individual areas all seem like a part of a single player campaign. The areas are rugged, not smooth like multiplayer maps. This can lead to getting distracted and losing your run speed in block-y obstacles, straight end walls and warp zones. Especially the Moon zone, where everything is made of brick and slopes are Only used on the upper level of the cave. Holding the jump button will get you across slopes, but it will still be sloppy and when you don’t start at the bottom, players will find themselves climbing brick after brick after brick.

Ammo is dispersed in distinct areas (for example, for RF ammo you should go to the Starshine Valley). This is fun, since you will be able to tell where someone has been, and… yeah you go for the control points anyway… Sorry, my bad.

An odd thing I found about the ammo placement is a little… well, I think ‘secret’ by the designer, plunK. There’s a certain place where the heroes of RF-climbing gather and steal all power-ups… Muhahaha… Luckily, none of them have any regenerators on them, so it’s a one-time job. May the fastest RF-climber take thy price.

Another odd thing is that plunK actually put a shield in this level. I mean, come on, this isn’t 1998. Shields are considered overpowered, and this one is available with the Electro Blaster and with TNT. The delay is even set to 31, which is, in my opinion, way too little concerning the latest JJ2+ update, if you even ponder to use a shield at all. In my opinion, it should be removed, but hey, who am I?

That sums up the gameplay, I guess. It could use a few flow-upgrades and stuff, but otherwise, pretty massive concept. Chapeau!

Atmosphere: insert some joyful statement here
Okay, let me state this really simple. plunK took one tileset, made six different areas and put them all in one level. All of the areas look good, some look amazing, but most of them just look damn fine.

The way he linked all the worlds without a main hub was really good. It felt as if I was traversing enormous lengths of space, since the environment changes drastically every time you warp. Take, for instance, the ‘Random Pipery’ area. This looks like a part from a submarine (or a Dubbed Marine…? Okay never mind) that has been left on the ocean floor to decay with the flow of time. Entering a warp, only a second later you find yourself in a grassy patch with a beautiful skyline, only to see, seconds later, a bridge swinging over a high-tech city in the background. The feel for each area is distinct, clean and well considered. Chocs to you!

The music fits.

Yeah, the music isn’t really anything special, because it’s hard finding music to fit 6 different areas. plunK went for the ambient approach, which I often use myself too. Nice song, goes with the theme a bit (if not exactly) and does the job.

Overall: Good
An overall good level with a high confusion factor, which can be helped by making a map. The DOM points are well distributed over the level, each having advantages, whether it be easy to take or easy to defend. A few flow issues and a shield to spice things up a bit, if not to an unfair level.

Download Recommendation: Yes
Even if you don’t like DOM levels (or just don’t like this level), it’s worth taking a look at. It’s interesting how everything in this level fits.

Score: 8.2
A really well laid out level with a really well concept. This is just fun to play. Chapeau.



PT32 27 Apr 2009, 21:11

8

I have not time for a longer review, but I just wanted to say good job, most of the fixables were addressed in Crimi and Cooba’s respective reviews. But great concept, fairly nice execution and dl rec!



Arclite288 12 Apr 2011, 21:43

This level is nothing short of amazing, as is often the case when a skilled JCS’er picks a good tileset like Desolation.

The extreme level of detail proves what the Desolation tileset is capable of in the right hands, and this is just hammered into the player’s mind the longer you play the level.

The ONLY thing I don’t like about this level is that it’s passworded. That is always a mistake, and in this case, limits the level to a maximum of 9.0, but it would get 9.7 from me otherwise.

I’m quite heavy-handed with bad tilesets and stupid acts (passwording levels is a stupid act), but thankfully, this isn’t too much of a problem this time.

[Please rate levels for what they are, not if they’re passworded or not. ~cooba]