Note: I based my reviews around playability, though I imagine some levels were purposely designed for more or less playability depending on the author they were emulating.
Also, regarding copy/paste, I don't think that's a big deal as people are making it out to be. I didn't copy/paste in my levels but I can see how people might view it that way and even if I did I wouldn't be too worried. The point is to emulate the author and if the best way to do that is to restructure levels (like Megalodon), then so be it. Megalodon turned out really nice even if 95% of its assets were from my levels so I'm cool with it.
Red White Animals by 'Skybax' (CTF)I am madly in love with the art design though the polarization of sizes is a bit strange. I also really like simple, classic CTF levels like this. We had a bunch of fun playing 3v3. Going forward I would definitely resize the tiger faces to be more aligned with the size of the level, as well as take out some of the items in the middle to make it less of a stalemate.
Megalodon by 'sky_lark' (CTF)I got a good laugh out of this one! Thanks to whomever designed it, you did a great job. The opposing flag points were a nice touch though I spent most of my time just shooting at the asteroids to where it didn't matter. The only slight bother is the game to 1 -- I want to play the level longer, dammit! Though I expect I made a level or two with that feature so I have no island to complain on...
Bottlenecks Ahoy by 'Lone Wolf' (Bitmatch)Decent enough bitmatch. Not much to say here, I liked it but didn't love it. I think that's a fair review.
Circular Movement by 'Little_Apple' (Retrieve)I actually really dug this level, even though in our 3v3 game we got rekt 3-12. It's a bit on the tough side as far as retrieves go, as there aren't many defenses to guard flags with. The broken turrets are irritating but don't really affect gameplay. Otherwise it's a fun level and the speedzones make the level play out nicely.
Saturn V by 'Furbuggy' (Retrieve)Cool level, I like the aspect of starting on the wall though there is an exploit with that so going forward, take that out!! Other than that it's pretty balanced, only thing would be to add some kind of defense as with enough pressure it will be quite difficult to cap.
Haste Hunters by 'Santiago ZAP' (Nexus)Interesting level. It was fun to find a balance between collecting flags and hunting down enemies who were collecting flags. After I passed someone with 100+ flags outnumbering my measly 20+ flags, I definitely went with the latter. The endgame was super cool, we opted to actually hit the nexus about a minute early, get our flag depot teammate inside, then heavily mine the exterior. It would've worked if an enemy hadn't cloaked in! But this is definitely a cool model of level, team nexus where the nexus is heavily bottlenecked so you actually have to go clear it out minutes in advance.
Nautical by 'raptor' (Nexus)Lovely level. Great design and the perfect size for a small game of 3v3 or 4v4. Team nexus was a nice touch though I think it would play fine as FFA nexus. It was interesting to watch players naturally flow toward the middle. I found much more safety in the outer rings than I expected.
HomosexualChipmunk RevengeDating by 'Quartz' (Rabbit)Love the art design, gameplay design is a little rough but it definitely feels Quartz-like! My main beef with the gameplay design is a two-flag rabbit – interesting idea on paper, but in practicality rather frustrating to play with. As soon as one team gets both flags it's pretty much game over unless you can wrangle both flags back and hold them for an extended period of time. I was also disappointed by the fact that players could get outside the ring with the flag – needless to say, it was tricky to track down rabbits on the outside of the ring. However, I absolutely loved the art design, very creative!
Diamond 1.1 by 'amgine' (Zone Control)Cool level, fits amgine and his series of updating stock levels really well haha, for playability it's actually not too bad except the teleporters were irritating. Otherwise I could see this as kind of a fun level breaking up a competitive playlist every 7-8 levels to ensure players keep having fun.
Santiamigo by 'Santiago ZAP' (Core)I like this as a simple core level, a few different routes available and good looking symmetry. The main thing I enjoy about it is there's defense, a lot of core levels suffer from being primarily offense-oriented with not much of an advantage to play defense. But with the bottlenecked entry, close vicinity of cores and lots of turrets, a player can definitely hang back and defend without torching his team. I would say bump of the cores' health a little so it's not crazy easy to destroy but otherwise solid work.
Protofission by 'Little_Apple' (Core)Interesting level, the storyline is definitely intriguing but strange haha. I initially thought the level was pretty unfairly balanced in favor of the blue team (the speedzones allow for nonstop pressure), but when we played it blue actually won so I don't know. Maybe give it a few more playtests to really finetune that balance.
Top 3 Favorite Levels:
1. Megalodon – Dude this is a work of art
2. Red White Animals – Sweet artwork and classic theme
3. Haste Hunters – Bit ridiculous but fun nonetheless
Best design: Nautical
Most fitting: Diamond 1.1
Great work everyone!
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 1:26 am
