Right, here are my MP votes at last for the people who kept nagging about them in IRC. Single Player later (hopefully).
== MATCH ==
Siberian Base Zone by akb778 - 4/10
- There is not really anything particularly interesting here besides the "base", which even then is one crummy little building. I had some amusing shoot-and-cover fights in it, but beyond that the map is...dull
- I laughed when I found boxes with all five shields clustered right next to one another. As bad an idea as that is, I suppose that shoots the replay value up; that is until everybody else figures out where they are...
- That chasm path is terrible, as are just putting dead ends in for no reason. And I can't say i'm a fan of floating platforms that can crush you by suprise for no other purpose than they can
- Rings are spaced too far apart and thus not a simple matter to collect in a hurry
- Non-threatening looking water that inflicts damage is also not cool
SemiRuin Forest Zone by Zipper - 2/10
- One WTF after another. This map is only memorable for how much nonsense it contains, it certainly isn't any fun - well, actually I threw on a pity point for being able to hide in the bush FOFs and suprise people, that was funny. But the map just sucks
- The underground river route is one of the most horribly (and pointlessly) claustrophobic things i've ever seen in SRB2. For anyone else who doesn't know how to escape that crap, just stay underwater and jump out once in a while to see if you've made it out.
Splice Lab Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
- Wait nevermind, this is claustrophobia
- Interesting in a small game, but even having 5-6 people turns it into a chaotic bloodbath. That in itself can be amusing, but only for so long
- The fact that every room (all 4 of them) looks almost the same doesn't help to not disorient during the madness
Storm Stronghold Zone by Spherallic/Errol/RedEnchilada/SpiritCrusher - 8/10
- Now this was a pleasant suprise. It's fun and the layout is great, almost good enough to fit into the vanilla rotation - it just lags a like a mad bitch, but that's the only thing seriously wrong with it
- The least interesting areas are the 2nd floor rooms next to the backyard
Jello Factory Zone by Charybdizs - 6/10
- Still stupid huge. You essentially have to have lots of people and/or everybody trying to pile into one room, or it's H&S Lite
- Maybe work on the layout while you cut the size down, I had a lot of trouble finding my way around here
- The jello blocks are a neat experiment, albeit a buggy one. Going inside of them is...interesting...and most of the time i'm afraid to even step near them. But they are admittedly the most fun part of the map
- You can escape the Cooling Chamber with Knux, but woe be anybody else...
Topanga Lifts Zone by Brawl - 3/10
- I'll admit, it was kind of fun chasing people around this map, but these are still the same random "chuck rubbish at the wall until something sticks" maps you submit every time
Rush Jungle Zone by Scizor300/KO.T.E/Simsmagic - 6/10
- Solid if unremarkable, which is more than can be said for most of the MP maps
- The quicksand doesn't look very dangerous, so naturally it bites when you get caught out/killed by it. Whether it was or wasn't intentional, that bugs me
== CTF ==
Frantic Forest Zone by ThunderNova - 3/10
- The ground level is such a thokfest that the flag can almost be captured twice in the time it takes Tails and Knux to run across the map (unless you have a lot of people). People seem to underestimate how obscenely powerful Sonic is when given any wide open room to run.
- The bases are sort of clever, but since it's hard to fight anywhere else here, people tend to just camp at either end and wait for an enemy to stray into view
- Rather pukish use of textures
Galactic Waterworks Zone by Spherallic - 5/10
- You seem to be already aware of it, but the underwater route accomplishes practically nothing for anybody. I'd just as soon try to hide somewhere that doesn't threaten to kill me instantly all the time, and it's too slow getting from base to base. Why bother? (Addendum: it has occured to me that you can grab an elemental and use that path to drag out loooong stalemates.)
- The dry areas... well, it's a really nice texture job, but without a useful alternate path it's very ordinary
- Speaking for myself, I can't say getting screwed over a lot by falling into those pools in front of the bases is much fun
Molten Canyon Zone by akb778 - 0/10
- Red team can speedrun to victory in 20 seconds due to base exploit and there isn't much blue can do about it. Anybody who knows how to do this probably will, and even if they don't, this little game-breaker can be easily triggered by accident. Fail.
- Aside from the gaping loophole, the map is okay, but the lava in the center area is ineffective at slowing anyone down, flags do not return in lava, and again, floating platforms that can kill are awful
Lethal Filibuster Zone by Fawfulfan - 4/10
- Cute, but (sensing a theme here?) an average map that I am scoring below average because it's just not fun
== CIRCUIT ==
Girder Detour Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
- The bottomless holes are simpler to avoid falling into than they look, so once you remove that from the equation, there's not much else to this course
== EDIT: SINGLE PLAYER ==
Been pressed for time lately, just going to get these in with relatively minimal comment and maybe update later. Needless to say, it was one particular map that prompted me to even vote this division...
Red House Zone by Ice - 7/10
Interesting theme changes, I like the abundance of paths. The opening/ending areas seem slightly longer than they need to be. Your spinning bookcases look quite broken
Pipe Towers Zone by Fawfulfan - 8/10
Impressive, at least within the limits of what Mario mode is currently. Kick ass texture work. I jumped for the flagpole at the end and nothing happened :(
Aquatic Temple by Kuba11 - 6/10
Besides the somewhat obnoxious gargoyle puzzle (having to redo it entirely from scratch after death sucks), something about this level that I can't quite place puts me off. It's pretty, but it wasn't as fun as the others somehow
Sonic Dumbventure - Volume 1: Donkey Kracken's Disasterous [sic] Quest by D00D64 - 9/10
Incredible SOCs and polish. Hilarious level all-round. Stuff is stashed practically everywhere; it's refreshing for a change when investigating the nooks and crannies turns up something interesting 90% of the time. What keeps this from being 10 material is there's only one path, which does not do nice things for the replay value, and I can't help but feel Corrupted Donkey Kong Land could've used one or two more maps (I know one got cut). But this rocks. Make the goddamn sequel. And figure out how to tame the retarded save system (note that its' brokenness is not being counted against you in my score).
Midnight Pass Zone, Act 2 by KO.T.E - 6/10
It's solid, but i'm seriously tired of these mostly cookie-cutter GFZ imitation maps. Desperately could've used more enemies than Crawlas and a couple of Buzzes. The rising water climax mostly works, it's just that you need to wall off that stupid fork in the road that leads only to death, remove elemental shields from the level entirely so that it's threatening, and get rid of the random rising instant kill FOF (which I can't imagine there's any need for).
== MATCH ==
Siberian Base Zone by akb778 - 4/10
- There is not really anything particularly interesting here besides the "base", which even then is one crummy little building. I had some amusing shoot-and-cover fights in it, but beyond that the map is...dull
- I laughed when I found boxes with all five shields clustered right next to one another. As bad an idea as that is, I suppose that shoots the replay value up; that is until everybody else figures out where they are...
- That chasm path is terrible, as are just putting dead ends in for no reason. And I can't say i'm a fan of floating platforms that can crush you by suprise for no other purpose than they can
- Rings are spaced too far apart and thus not a simple matter to collect in a hurry
- Non-threatening looking water that inflicts damage is also not cool
SemiRuin Forest Zone by Zipper - 2/10
- One WTF after another. This map is only memorable for how much nonsense it contains, it certainly isn't any fun - well, actually I threw on a pity point for being able to hide in the bush FOFs and suprise people, that was funny. But the map just sucks
- The underground river route is one of the most horribly (and pointlessly) claustrophobic things i've ever seen in SRB2. For anyone else who doesn't know how to escape that crap, just stay underwater and jump out once in a while to see if you've made it out.
Splice Lab Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
- Wait nevermind, this is claustrophobia
- Interesting in a small game, but even having 5-6 people turns it into a chaotic bloodbath. That in itself can be amusing, but only for so long
- The fact that every room (all 4 of them) looks almost the same doesn't help to not disorient during the madness
Storm Stronghold Zone by Spherallic/Errol/RedEnchilada/SpiritCrusher - 8/10
- Now this was a pleasant suprise. It's fun and the layout is great, almost good enough to fit into the vanilla rotation - it just lags a like a mad bitch, but that's the only thing seriously wrong with it
- The least interesting areas are the 2nd floor rooms next to the backyard
Jello Factory Zone by Charybdizs - 6/10
- Still stupid huge. You essentially have to have lots of people and/or everybody trying to pile into one room, or it's H&S Lite
- Maybe work on the layout while you cut the size down, I had a lot of trouble finding my way around here
- The jello blocks are a neat experiment, albeit a buggy one. Going inside of them is...interesting...and most of the time i'm afraid to even step near them. But they are admittedly the most fun part of the map
- You can escape the Cooling Chamber with Knux, but woe be anybody else...
Topanga Lifts Zone by Brawl - 3/10
- I'll admit, it was kind of fun chasing people around this map, but these are still the same random "chuck rubbish at the wall until something sticks" maps you submit every time
Rush Jungle Zone by Scizor300/KO.T.E/Simsmagic - 6/10
- Solid if unremarkable, which is more than can be said for most of the MP maps
- The quicksand doesn't look very dangerous, so naturally it bites when you get caught out/killed by it. Whether it was or wasn't intentional, that bugs me
== CTF ==
Frantic Forest Zone by ThunderNova - 3/10
- The ground level is such a thokfest that the flag can almost be captured twice in the time it takes Tails and Knux to run across the map (unless you have a lot of people). People seem to underestimate how obscenely powerful Sonic is when given any wide open room to run.
- The bases are sort of clever, but since it's hard to fight anywhere else here, people tend to just camp at either end and wait for an enemy to stray into view
- Rather pukish use of textures
Galactic Waterworks Zone by Spherallic - 5/10
- You seem to be already aware of it, but the underwater route accomplishes practically nothing for anybody. I'd just as soon try to hide somewhere that doesn't threaten to kill me instantly all the time, and it's too slow getting from base to base. Why bother? (Addendum: it has occured to me that you can grab an elemental and use that path to drag out loooong stalemates.)
- The dry areas... well, it's a really nice texture job, but without a useful alternate path it's very ordinary
- Speaking for myself, I can't say getting screwed over a lot by falling into those pools in front of the bases is much fun
Molten Canyon Zone by akb778 - 0/10
- Red team can speedrun to victory in 20 seconds due to base exploit and there isn't much blue can do about it. Anybody who knows how to do this probably will, and even if they don't, this little game-breaker can be easily triggered by accident. Fail.
- Aside from the gaping loophole, the map is okay, but the lava in the center area is ineffective at slowing anyone down, flags do not return in lava, and again, floating platforms that can kill are awful
Lethal Filibuster Zone by Fawfulfan - 4/10
- Cute, but (sensing a theme here?) an average map that I am scoring below average because it's just not fun
== CIRCUIT ==
Girder Detour Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
- The bottomless holes are simpler to avoid falling into than they look, so once you remove that from the equation, there's not much else to this course
== EDIT: SINGLE PLAYER ==
Been pressed for time lately, just going to get these in with relatively minimal comment and maybe update later. Needless to say, it was one particular map that prompted me to even vote this division...
Red House Zone by Ice - 7/10
Interesting theme changes, I like the abundance of paths. The opening/ending areas seem slightly longer than they need to be. Your spinning bookcases look quite broken
Pipe Towers Zone by Fawfulfan - 8/10
Impressive, at least within the limits of what Mario mode is currently. Kick ass texture work. I jumped for the flagpole at the end and nothing happened :(
Aquatic Temple by Kuba11 - 6/10
Besides the somewhat obnoxious gargoyle puzzle (having to redo it entirely from scratch after death sucks), something about this level that I can't quite place puts me off. It's pretty, but it wasn't as fun as the others somehow
Sonic Dumbventure - Volume 1: Donkey Kracken's Disasterous [sic] Quest by D00D64 - 9/10
Incredible SOCs and polish. Hilarious level all-round. Stuff is stashed practically everywhere; it's refreshing for a change when investigating the nooks and crannies turns up something interesting 90% of the time. What keeps this from being 10 material is there's only one path, which does not do nice things for the replay value, and I can't help but feel Corrupted Donkey Kong Land could've used one or two more maps (I know one got cut). But this rocks. Make the goddamn sequel. And figure out how to tame the retarded save system (note that its' brokenness is not being counted against you in my score).
Midnight Pass Zone, Act 2 by KO.T.E - 6/10
It's solid, but i'm seriously tired of these mostly cookie-cutter GFZ imitation maps. Desperately could've used more enemies than Crawlas and a couple of Buzzes. The rising water climax mostly works, it's just that you need to wall off that stupid fork in the road that leads only to death, remove elemental shields from the level entirely so that it's threatening, and get rid of the random rising instant kill FOF (which I can't imagine there's any need for).
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