Xyzzy

  • Rating: 8.2

Reviews and comments

    cooba 10 Nov 2011, 22:41 (edited 10 Nov 11, 23:19)

    8

    I had some trouble with reviewing this one. Though it’s two years old at this point, I’ve never really played any serious games in it (and I certainly don’t remember testing it, unlike the credits field says?), and every time it appeared in a JDC event, I never lasted more than a couple minutes because an RF would usually explode in my face. But seeing how this does get played every now and then (and nobody complains about it ever!), there’s no reason to assume it’s broken, so I decided to just give this a run in LAN mode and say what I like about this and what I don’t.

    While obviously SJ put effort into the visuals, as the tileset’s creator I’m biased here. The eyecandy is largely a mix of organized and unorganized, some places have so much detail that they look busy (especially when exposed to the intricate background) while some have big swathes of gradients or black backgrounds. Some things feel repetitive, and some look rather tacky, like the animated lights, or the dust(?) at the sides.

    Also, while WTF is pretty much a “do whatever you want” type of tileset, some things bother me because they were never meant to go together: the green [X] tiles don’t look good when combined with the brown stone tiles! It feels like SJ used the tileset as if was a nature set, which gives a rather strange result. The only thing I can compare this to is Atom Heart 243.5, which is another SJ level which I didn’t find too good looking. Maybe SJ should just keep using nature sets? I definitely prefer SJ’s nature levels to SJ’s tech levels.

    Xyzzy has a rather impressive size of 200×70, though it uses it space differently than other large levels – the layout is a standard three floor fare, and the corridors are spacious and open. Still, it’s not suited for a 3vs3 or anything of that size (a quick check reveals that this level was played in a whopping zero 3vs3 games in the past three JDC seasons). RFs and Seekers will largely dominate this level, and we all know how that ends :P. And while it’s not as enclosed as Sanguinary Sanctuary, the route from base to base takes longer in this level somehow. The bottom path helps a bit (it puzzles me why wasn’t it there from the beginning) but I’m not sure if the wind events were all that necessary.

    To sum it up, this is a good level objectively speaking, but I can’t really enjoy it for a bunch of reasons? To quote the legendary Trafton’s reviews on Atom Heart:

    a fundamentally good level tinkered with until it just doesn’t quite “work.” That isn’t to say that it is a bad level.

    My rating may seem low, but that’s simply because there’s no way to give a 7.99 rating. Please make more levels like Conflux and Mt. Helens SJ! ;)

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    FireSworD 4 Nov 2009, 08:30 (edited 17 Aug 15, 08:03)

    8Recommended:

    The main appeal for me here is the crazy theme, with the bg layers and some layer 4 eyecandy making the level feel busy, but not so much that they’re distracting or annoying; in particular, the moving white dots and scrolling bg. The layout seems very solid and playable, if not much variation.

    This is a short review. It has less impact on the upload's score.

    St. Louis 4 Nov 2009, 20:41

    8Recommended:

    Another solid, but not spectacular level by SJ.
    SJ’s levels are always fun to play, and they manage to be ‘good’ or better in every single aspect almost always.
    This symmetric one ain’t any different.
    Just as SJ said, this plays well with at least 6 players. It isn’t a huge level, but the layout definitely makes it feel bigger.
    Thumbs up.

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    snzspeed 16 Nov 2009, 14:32

    8Recommended:

    Its a good level with WTF set. when i first saw this, i didnt know what to think of the moving white dots and the huge waterfalls, so glad you fixed them. the level still feels weird, probably because of the name, layout and music choice.

    I would say its not sj’s best level overall, but its still very high quality.

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