Yay, j2o deleted this upload when laro tried to edit something, and now i have to write the whole review all over again. Please fix this issue so this kind of problem doesen’t happen again. Kinda annoying…. Anyway, the review
Eyecandy
Amazing, simply amazing. The way laro used this tileset is very impressive, alltough tileset is rather original, it still looks awesome. Basic theme of the map is a cavern full of plants, pumpkins and carrots, and lets not forget few waterfalls with trees in walls which looks fantastic. Background looks very amazing. Also adding that rain in the foreground was an excellent idea. The only bad part of the eyecandy are those pumpkins at the bases which are hidden behind layer 3 plants. It wouldn’t actually look bad, but every single pumpkin is hidden by mostly the same plant tile, and it kinda looks a bit lame. You should have freed some of the pumpkins. Still, it looks very good, and the eyecandy is definetly the strongest point of the level. Good job.
Overall: 9.5/10
Pickups
Very nicely placed. I don’t have any much complains about pickups. The only complain is the fact that i think its a bit unfair to have given the left side Seeker power up and the right side has bouncy. In most cases Seekers are overpowering bouncy, but in this map that’s rather several anyways. However the most dominant ammo in this map is definetly the toaster, so that somewhat fixes the Seeker-Bouncy issue. Carrot placements are okay. It was a good idea to put a pit because of players shooting the Full NRG carrot down and burying it with toaster, making it fall down trough that grassy tile and unpickable by any player. This way it will now respawn if someone tries to do that. But i think it would have been a better idea to use full masked tiles and then cover them with those grass tiles in layer 3, because, what about players doesen’t have plus? The pit idea might not work for them (or is it just server that needs plus? I dont know, but to be sure, i think my idea would be better). Anyway, there are some fastfires and they are very well placed, not too much of them but not too several either, so thats a good thing.
Overall: 8.5/10
Gameplay
Now this was a bit of a downgrade to the level. It’s not really bad, but you might have a problem playing it if its one of your first times. There are a lot of areas that are rather simillar looking, and at some point you will get the feeling that you are lost. At some points i thought i was in the middle of the map when i was actually in 1/4 of the map. There were even few times when i didn’t know if i’m in upper path of cave or the downer one. But the toaster and blaster powerups might serve as a sign to where you are, alltough its still a problem if they haven’t spawned. The warps you made are very usefull but only once you have learnt the level. The use of the warp ill once again throw you in the land of confusion. It just gives you the feeling “okay where did i end up now?”. If you remember those pumpkins i mentioned above, the ones at bases hidden by layer 3, i find it a bit annoying not to be able to see my footing clearly. It is such a shame laro did this cuz those pumpkins are very very usefull for S/R/D-ing the base, expecially if you have bouncy, come to think of it, i think this is one of the places where bouncy completely overpowers Seeks. As i allready said, the main and most dominant ammo here is toaster, i would strongly reccommend to use it in most of the cases. When going trough cave best ammo to use are RF or toaster but using RF will make you bounce of the ground due to unlinear footing. Oh i cant belive im saying this, but blaster works here pretty well too, hehe. Anyway like i said at start, gameplay isn’t really bad, its just hard to play in the level if your playing for the first times, but after that you will find those warps rather usefull. Be patient, and it will work out.
Overall: 7/10
Music
Music file is still broken for me, and idk how to fix it. If i ever fix it il rate the frickin music too :l.
Overall: N/A
Total rating
Summary: (9.5+8.5+7+N/A) /3 = 25/3 = 8.333333
Rating 8.2 (It still doesen’t let me put 8.3 :l )
Fixed, 8.3 now.
Download Recommendation?
Yeah. It’s an amazing level with fantastic eyecandy, even tough gameplay might be confusing at start. But, after playing it a few more times, you will see that gameplay is also really good.
EDIT
Thanks MS, didnt know it works that way, it would be better if this was selected as default… Rating fixed now.