Single player, by 
Sheesh, guys. Who put the 8.5-burger up here?
This level does not deserve that high a rating.
Granted, it WAS a nice level. The gameplay was consistent (not too hard, yet not too easy), the music was good, the tileset used well. There were some things going in Stronghold’s favor.
However, I was much appalled by three things: The wacky lights, the confounding event placement and the quirky nuances. Using darkened lighting is a double-edged sword: If it’s used properly, it can provide a charming ambiance. Used improperly, it will confound and madden the player, leading him/her/it to simply type JJLIGHT or JJINV, and bull his/her/its way through to the end. The lighting events here were frustrating, to say the least.
Consequently, what started out in the upper half of the level as solid enemy placement quickly turned into confused chaos below. I could barely see what I was doing in parts, and it drove me half crazy stumbling around and running into baddies I didn’t even know were there. Particularly irritating were the one-tile holes in the floor, which held invisible baddies and were evidently intended to be some sort of thorn or spike.
These holes lead into the third problem I have, which is that of the intellectually thunderstrucking nuances. Up by the coin warp, I touched a wall and got hurt. I later learned that there was a Schwartzenguard event behind it. When I finally DID access the coin warp, there were regenerating demons, an absurd number of goodies (even for a JJ2 bonus warp), plus a one-way floor that wasn’t properly lined up with the red spring below it. None of the hogshead barrels in the level were one-way events, which caused me to get hung up on them. Similarly, some of the vine/hook conjunction events were a bit buggy, making them hard to use. There were even sucker tube events placed in thin air to prevent the player (me) from accessing certain areas!
And now, since I have totally shattered your self-confidence and destroyed your will to live, let me give you (the author) a few tips to make this promising level even better.
That’s the first piece of advice I have. This is a salvageable level. Believe me when I say that I have reviewed no-hoper levels that were a LOT worse than this. This bodes well for you. Don’t give up on Stronghold, because I’d really like to see an improved version.
Next, clean up the lighting events. This alone will solve half of the level’s problems. Cut the level of darkness in half (in other words, make it 50% brighter than it was before). That way, potential gamers won’t be hit by unwelcome surprises. If you were to gradually decrease the lighting gradient, provide a more gradual transition to semi-darkness, that would be an impressive flourish.
Take out the sucker tube barriers and just build the walls higher (or the floors lower). You don’t have to completely cut an area off, as long as the player can’t get through without cheating.
I didn’t mention this before, but try and tailor the specific baddies to the tileset. Labrats, Skeletons, Demons and Fat Chicks don’t really belong in a castle tileset (There’s very few levels where a Fat Chick does belong, by the way), so replace them with Fencers and Bats. It’s amazing how much sharper a level looks with the proper goons.
Take out a few of the powerups in the warp. Remove two of the three shield events. Seriously, you can only use one shield at a time anyway, so what would you need THREE for? Likewise, don’t regenerate the Demons. It’s hard enough to figure out how to get out of the warp, so don’t make it any tougher. Eradicate the invisible thorns. They’re annoying.
Oh, and take out the funky Jazz Airboard crate. It’s just plain wierd.
On a more positive note, your eyecandy was pleasant, and your music was a smart choice. I’m quoted (or I ought to be) as saying that music alone is worth up to half a level’s score in most cases. A good level with an inappropriate song suddenly becomes a failed level. Likewise, a shoddy level can gain slight recognition if it at least has a fitting track. This level had a good song…with the notable exception of the boss song, which didn’t seem to work very well. Dance music just doesn’t jibe with a castle level. Sorry. I would recommend Warhead.j2b instead. Rename it to Boss1.j2b, and warn downloaders to backup their original Boss1.j2b before extracting. That way, you can have a good boss song (As a couple of my upcoming singleplayer levels will)!
Therefore, in conclusion, I’d like to say that this level, as full of flaws and errors as it may be, is still a quality level. As long as the player liberally adjusts the lighting and uses invincibility in places, Stronghold is a decently fun stage. Look for an even better version in the future, after GreenTechB makes a few strategic changes.
For now, though, I’ll have to give it a 5.8, although I WILL recommend a download simply so that you (the reader) can appreciate its potential.
