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Blacky’s Single Player Catch Up Review #3:
I actually remember playing this before sometime, but neglected to leave a review so here I am experiencing it again! Whoo!
Having only played through The Secret Files campaign once, and a very long time ago, these feel like they should be the official Easter maps to me. They’re both great, my complaints are relatively minor so I’ll get them out of the way quick: There were times when jumping or tactical use of the Float Lizards enabled me to take shortcuts or reach stuff I wasn’t supposed to that way, like gold coins etc. There were a couple of tilebugs in the first level, a foreground bug with the frozen waterfall at 173,5 and a tilebug in the wall at 252, 3. I also got stuck on top of a trigger crate while riding the airboard in the second level and couldn’t get out without cheating.
Now, what I thought of these levels: They can be summarized by 3 S’s – solid, standard, and sexy ;). They’re pretty to look at, use standard jj2 obstacles and challenges without getting too experimental or using angelscript at all, and the layout design and gameplay is generally very polished. Any time something ‘new’ is introduced, you put a text string notifying the player of what is expected of them. I remember the first time I played this I got lost searching for trigger crates for several minutes, but this was my fault as I neglected to heed the sign stating that no Easter basket is empty. On my second playthrough, I paid attention and diligently searched every seemingly empty basket I came across – I was never disappointed. Likewise, signs are placed warning of the hazards of trekking over thin ice, and how to approach various puzzles and even the boss fight. The difficulty was fine, I think I played on Normal on my first experience so I replayed in Hard for this review. It was challenging enough to keep me engaged, but I felt you were awfully generous with the powerups and pickups so that by the end I was an unstoppable tank. I really liked that you gave me several options in how to deal with the boss, even if it was just typical old Schwarzy who cowered under the might of my powered up arsenal.
Some more variation (in enemies in particular) and innovation would have been welcome (and additional maps of course!) but it was a fun journey despite that. Now if you could make some Haunted House & Townhouse maps in this style, my memory of the TSF campaign will slowly be eroded and replaced with your levels :)
~Blacky
Ischa
10 Apr 2013, 09:41 (edited 10 Apr 13, 16:30)
9
Hmm… Literally Frozen Spring! How suitable for an Easter which was remarkably cold (at least: here in the Netherlands where I live). I found this pack like three days ago and I tried to play it.
The two levels are set in an winter version of the Easter tileset from The Secret Files.
When I started to play, the first thing I saw was that… it was cold haha. But especially in the first level this cold was very well shown. There were a couple of extra lives hidden in the walls. And maybe it was not your plan, but you could clearly see where they were. That made it very easy to find them. A bit too easy actually. However, the glow of the lives shined through the walls, like it was ice shining in the sun. And I actually really liked that to see and find it well fitting for the atmosphere of the level.
The difficulty of both levels was pretty high. It took me three days before I finally managed to complete this package with only two levels! I am an experienced JJ2 player, I played these levels on the Easy setting and still found them difficult! However: I missed a boss at the end of the pack…
And there also are the glitchy swing vines in level 2! And the worst thing is: they aren’t even necessary! I think if you would simply remove them, it wouldn’t be such of a miss.
OK, I’ll give you the points for this level.
- Eyecandy gives you 20 out of 20 points, there is nothing to complain about.
- Challenge/difficulty gives you 15 out of 20, that’s a bit lower because of no boss.
- Item placement gives you 7 out of 10, that’s a bit lower because of the easy-to-find extra lives.
- Gameplay gives you 36 out of 40, that’s a bit lower because of the glitching vines in level 2, but for the rest all being great.
That makes it a total score of 78 out of 90.
For the final rating: 78 ÷ 90 × 9 + 1 = 8.8. Download recommendation!
master sven
8 Apr 2013, 08:42 (edited 8 Apr 13, 08:45)
8
I like the name and I also like how this is uploaded at exactly the right time for such a level. I started playing this when hosting it online in sp mode, but something went wrong as there were no enemies and sp only tiles, though I thought this was possible.
The background is set quite low, causing little of it to be seen most of the time. When being at the bottom of the level with ice near, it seems as if you’re on the lowest point possible, though if you look on the background you’ll see that there is still ground below you, which feels a bit strange. The ice was a nice idea though, some spots were too weak to stand on and you would fall through and get hurt.
I like the tips on the signs and also the ammo placement has been well done. Imo there are a bit too many enemies, especially those annoying flying lizards. In the first level I couldn’t find the crate to destroy the blocks on 209,17.
The airboard-only passage was another nice original trick from you, as well as the following fly-up-and-destroy-four-crates-passage, where you had to push the crates down into TNT’s as you couldnt buttstomp because you were on an airboard, although I was only able to find 3 TNTs to destroy them with.
In the end I think this is quite some original level, I would recommend people playing it, especially when they feel like playing something which is not too brain-crushing. Hosting online could be a great option too, though I hope it works well normally, as it didn’t with me.
I think you managed to show the weather that it should warm up now, as it has been easter already. J2O still tries to do the same thing, as I can still see snow on the background of this website.
Eyecandy: 7
Gameplay: 7,5
Originality: 8
Final Grade: 7,5
Well, as I see Hungary wasn’t the only place with a cold Easter. This way the level was quite fitting here as well. Luckily we’ve got normal weather now. But enough of that, let’s see the level. I noticed at once before downloading it, that the level itself is well constructed so I was really hoping to like it a lot. I actually downloaded it the day it was uploaded, but only had time to play it today. Thankfully 2 reviewers already motivated me to play it as they liked the levels. I must say I won’t be the one who will say that they overrated it. As you mentioned in the description, you didn’t want it to be original but enjoyable. Well these levels are a perfect example how it looks when it works well. I like looking for crates anyway if they aren’t hidden in impossible places. Actually they reminded me of the original levels (the way the levels looked). If you like finding secrets this pack won’t disappoint. They aren’t that hard to find. The difficulty on hard is quite ok for me. I didn’t die but had some hard times as well. Items aren’t overused but you’ll find quite a few of them, as well as several weapon types. I think the only complaint I can have is the music. It’s ok and all, but after 10 minutes it becomes boring (my opinion only, depends on how much you like the Easter level music).
I recommend this to everyone who want’s to have a little fun in levels. It won’t be very easy or very hard, just fine.
My rating is 8.5
Bloody_Body
4 Apr 2017, 17:08 (edited 6 Apr 17, 19:01)
10
I really enjoyed playing these levels. As for me it is one of the best non-scripted packs. I’ve played both early and fixed versions of it and now it’s time to write a review.
PROS
A lot of single player level creators try to make their levels as challenging as possible, which often turns level into a puzzle where you can’t even understand what are you supposed to do, and this ruins the gameplay.
Slaz managed to make a couple of well-balanced levels. In one hand, the levels are challenging enough, you have to find certain ammo/trigger crates/warp zones in order to proceed. However you won’t feel bored as it’s not just a tedious search for gazillions of hidden crates, but every time there’s a new gameplay element- like labyrinth, airboard, jumping crates, respawning TNTs, pinball bumps, strong winds or freezers. In the other hand, the pace of the game is still rather fast, so the gameplay is very similar to original JJ2 gameplay- run, jump and shoot. But here you have to use your brain a little more often.
I liked secret placement very much. The trigger crate in the end of the first level made me look up in JCS to find it. I found 49 of 50 coins in that level (even JCS couldn’t help me) but next time I managed to find all of them honestly. Extra lives were given out by shining through the walls, but I didn’t notice that at a first time due to the great amount of flicker light events around. I should add that enemies and baddies are placed strategically as well.
The Tuff boss added in the fixed version is situated in a very small room and is able to unpunishedly throw a flail at you one or two times before you jump into his room and burn him to death within few seconds.
What about an eyecandy, frankly speaking I don’t like Easter tileset much, but I highly appreciate succesfull modifications of original tilesets. This one is definetly succesful. Those cold colours combined with snow and lake covered with melting ice create the atmosphere of the late February- early March (in my homeland, nothern Russia, even late April often looks like that, lol). Probably that BG layer with the opposite bank of the river/lake should be recoloured as well.
CONS
There is a couple of small drawbacks, however. As I’ve already mentioned, the secret placement is nice, but the majority of pickups that are situated high above your head and probably are supposed to be captured in some ingenious way actually can be shot down by bouncers or especially PU-bouncers. Idk, whether it was intended by Slaz or not.
If it wasn’t for Primpty’s review I wouldn’t even pay attention to that, but… What made you change the music? As for me original tune sounds much better.
If I were you, I’d make the night version of the tileset for the second level. (And I’ve made a night recolour for my pleasure) It would bring a slight twist to your levelpack. But don’t mind, it’s just a nitpick of a moron who is obsessed with making recolours to everything he sees. The pack is awesome!
CONCLUSION
There are just two levels, but, as I’ve mentioned, it’s one of the best non-scripted SP packs out there. The author is obviously a great JCSer. I think that every fan of single player mode must download this small episode.
10
I finished playing this level, and I have to be honest, I really enjoyed it a lot.
The main Jazz Jackrabbit 2 game isn’t challenging at all. In fact the main levels are very easy. That’s not the case with this level. It’s actually very challenging. It took me a long time to know what I was supposed to do, and find the right crates etc. They weren’t hard to find, but it still required some thinking.
I also love the placement of the items in this level. I get to use variety of weapons. A lot of places requires the flamethrower, which is why I’m glad I knew where to find flamethrowers.
As for the scenery, I love how the level looked. It looks absolutely fantastic.
As for the coins, I can’t say what I think of the areas that require a coin. Because finding each coin is hard, some of them are hidden that’s not a bad thing.
Overall, this was a challenging and a very fun level. Well done. I’m rating it 9.7. Yeah, it is very high, but I believe this level deserves it.
There isn’t much to say about it. It’s simply nice, but the music sounds like satan remixed the original theme. The map is a little bit confusing, too many annoying lizards… There are no other enemies than the reptilian foes, which is sad. The tileset looks nice. Something scares me when I play the level, I don’t know why. Playing it with Lori is almost impossible. Anyway, I think 9.2/10 is a fair review.
Single player, by 
