Sunshine Atoll Act 1 - 2/10
I like the sky you chose, although it doesn't blend in very well with the LWATER1 flat.
This level suffers from lots of bland gameplay and generic to ugly graphics. For starters, there's a lot of flat ground, and there aren't many jumps needed. Second, it's easy to get lost in this stage. The only things that guided me in any way were the Crawlas. Seriously, make it less easy to go in circles and remove the springs that are used for backtracking. Third, there are too many 'secrets' hidden behind bustable walls. This would not have been a problem, wasn't it for the fact that there are 3 shields at the start, and 1 shield in the rest of the stage, and the 1-up at the first inside area is too easy to find. Basically, use more original ways of hiding secrets.
The graphics, like I said before, aren't very good. First, GFZROCK is overused. Badly. CLIFF textures and related look very good if used properly: use them instead. Also, WEEDWALL doesn't with with JNGGRS04. Just use the small jungle grass edges, and lower them by 32-40 pixels with texture aligning. The underwater areas also lack visually and they mostly don't have anything.
Sunshine Atoll Act 2 - 1/10
This mainly suffers from the problems of the first act, it's just too similar. However, some parts have even worse flaws. For example, the beginning is bland as hell. The tree hopping is bland, and the path below is entirely passable by running and jumping twice if you land on the grass. It also looks ugly, but I liked the rustling sound.
There are also too many caves in this level, and they don't look good or play well. Finally, the coastal path at the end is extremely flat and bland, in both ways (visually and gameplay-wise).
Eruption Conduit Act 1 - 2/10
Another ugly stage, this time with a combination of lava which lacks consistency and a deranged THZ-like factory. Why did I call the themes that way? Because the lava
is inconsistent. Sometimes it's liquid, Sometimes it's solid, and near the '1-up cave' it's a death pit for no reason. And regarding that '1-up cave': it's exploitable. You can just get infinite lives there, in the vein of the Disco Room of ERZ2, and even quicker than that. The factory looks boring and is even more boring to play.
The gameplay this time is not only bland (but more vertical, and that's a plus), but it's also cramped at points! And like SAZ, the layout may cause you to go in circles, but it's a bit better than in SAZ. The factory (entrance) looks dull, and the fences in there beg to be solid, because it's easy to run into the
slimelava there. And the pipeline shortcut hurts my ears, my eyes, and my brain. It's too loud, too bright, and too horrible for me to know why you put it in. There also is a HOM in the scenery right next to the exit hallway.
It's a short stage, but I dunno if that's positive or negative.
Eruption Conduit Act 2 - 3/10
Well, this looks a bit better visually, but I still don't like the lava being liquid. This is quite an average stage, brought down by some flaws. Firstly, it's way too short. I completed it on my first playthrough in 1:16 seconds. The polyobject at the start is pointless and feels misplaced, and the 'alarm room' is annoying. It hurts my eyes, and the path is less clear if the screen's flickering black and red rapidly. I liked the huge rooms though.
_________ALL LEVELS AFTER THIS SUFFER FROM A LACK OF MULTIPLE PATHS_________
Drowned Downtown Act 1 - 2/10
This stage is very dark. As in, 'I had to turn up the gamma level to see
anything' dark. It also consists of mazes, slooo
oooooow underwater parts, ugly textures, and a 'way too easy watersliding' section. Nothing more to say, other than that I dislike this stage.
Drowned Downtown Act 2 - 1/10
Wow, this is even worse than act 1. It suffers from the first level's flaws (sans watersliding), but it also adds a whole heap of them.
For example, this level features even more slooooooooo
oooooooowness than the first act, due to puzzles. This wouldn't have been a problem if it was used as much as in DSZ, but it happens a lot more. Two rising water level rooms, and a very long and boring gargoyle section which is on the only path in this level. The water wave room is also annoying, and the subway section (on the other hand) is too easy and too slow.
Lastly, the lift at the end has improper side textures.
Snowcap Nimbus Act 1 - 3/10
Wow, this is surprisingly generic for a 4th zone. It's just platform hopping and some rope pulleys (which are pointless at some parts). However, I liked the music and the sky, and the mirror effect was quite nice too. I didn't like the sudden overuse of deathpits though, and the oil clashes, visually. The texturing is also quite bad, and I don't like the THZ version of the XMAS texture being used on the largest outside walls. The cloud hopping is overused, and looks ugly.
Snowcap Nimbus Act 2 - 4/10
Look, now we're getting somewhere. The polyobjects at the start are kinda pointless, and the visual complaints from act 1 still apply, but the level is a bit more varied and looks a bit nicer. The rope pulleys now have more use, and the cloud hopping is less overused now. However, I don't like the amount of narrow hallways in this stage.
Gritty Columns Act 1 - 5/10
Finally, a stage that's average. The visuals are decent, sans for the cacti grouped up in clumps (they should be more spread), and the gameplay is more varied and quite enjoyable. However, I don't like a few rooms, such as the rising quicksand room. It looks very bland, and you can just spam jump in the quicksand and still survive. The cavern part is too maze like and too bland. You can tell it's bad if I accidentaly stumble on a 1-up and a Force Shield. The end is also a bit lacking in visuals. But overall, an average stage.
Gritty Columns Act 2 - 5/10
Blandvisuals are the prime problem in this stage, along with some crushers that are too easily passable. I mean, there are only 4(?) different wall textures in this stage, and the architecture suffers from pillars near the end. The gargoyle 'puzzle' and the button 'puzzle' break the flow, and the torches look too bright. Finally, there's a severe overuse of hallways.
I did like the polyobjects though, and the gameplay was actually
good.
Fume Shaft Act 1 - 4/10
...and the visuals got bad again. A random mishmash of rock textures, combined with goop and slime, which looks very ugly to be quite honest.
And the difficulty curve took a sharp turn upwards in this stage, with a lot of platforming above bottomless pits/goop, slightly annoying gimmicks, and lots of rock spawners. However, the gameplay was good at points, and below-average at worst. However, this level suffers the worst of lag issues. My computer doesn't even lag in
any official SRB2 level or Oceanic Cove, so that proves it's really bad. The fans are also quite pointless at points.
Fume Shaft Act 2 - 3/10
Argh, this is even harder than the first act! But wait, there is some fake difficulty thrown in there, in the form of lame deaths. The gimmicks in this level are way more prone to that, especially the rising goop room. It lags badly, one tiny misstep results in death, so that leaded to many lost lives for me. The music choice is also bad, but that's mainly because of my bias against the guitar overuse in tsome SRB2 music tracks. Lastly, there is an overusage of rock spawners. It's really bad, and it's very annoying.
Liftoff Gantry Act 1 - 7/10
I'm speechless. You managed to actually create a good level, after all the previous ones! First things first, this is the only zone which looks
good, due to nice texturing, a nice theme, and good lighting usage at points. I don't like the dark hallways though, it's way too easy to get hurt in those, especially with the laser beams, which aren't even visible until you're already hurt by them. The sky's a bit too colorful, and the beginning is a bit dark and cramped.
I also don't like the copypasta, it's just not good to rip off other people's maps.
The overall stage has decent gameplay and nice gimmicks though, and this map is the absolute standout of this pack. Good job.
Liftoff Gantry Act 2 - 6/10
This is a bit worse than act 1: the visuals look a little less good, the gameplay is a little less good...
However, it's still above average, but again, stop the copypasta.
This stage has two large 2d parts, with the first one being fun, and the second one being less fun, due to lame deaths. For the rest, it's more of the same, just a bit worse.
Spacewalk Act 1 - 0/10
...and then we went from the best zone in this mod to the worst one. This level is a clusterfuck of FOFs, astronomically ugly visuals, ridiculously bad gameplay, unfitting music, and gravity changes for the heck of it. There is nothing good about this zone, except for the machine that gives you invincibilty. However, that just wastes time, so it's not a real plus. Finally, I eventually ragequitted due to the huge amount of lame deaths in this stage. Also, why is there water in here?
Spacewalk Act 2 - 0/10
This is just as bad as act 1. It looks a bit better, but it overuses rock spawners and there are even more lame deaths. The red/blue floor gimmick for example, and the gravity at the start helps this too. The other gimmicks are a
little better, but it's still an astronomically horrible stage. I also ragequitted on this stage.
Alien Armageddon Act 1 - 2/10
This stage is the best possible example of the word 'mess'. You seemingly couldn't think of anything original on an alien planet, so you just combined a castle, ugly caves, black outside areas, and more weird stuff to come up with the horrible visuals of this stage. The gameplay is also ridiculously bad.
However, the worst problem in this stage is the overuse of
everything. I couldn't name a single enemy that was
not used, and I couldn't find a single hazard that you
didn't use. I mean, there is a huge overuse of maces, rock spawners, flamethrowers, and lethal liquids. The stage also drags on for too long, and it's just a huge
mess.
Alien Armageddon Act 2 - 2/10
Same problems as the first act, except for the fact that it all takes place in a castle now. I also like the 2d areas (sans for the visuals), but again, it's a
mess. Again all enemies have been used, and all hazards from the first act return, but now they're even lamer! There are even more lame deaths in this stage, which resulted me ragequitting after getting 8:30 minutes on the timer. In other words, this stage is
way too long.