Mysteries Zone - Chapter one

Mysteries Zone - Chapter one 1.5

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I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into by downloading this addon, but this was genuinely one of the best maps I've played. To the point of me not even knowing from which point I should start from... :dramahog: (Or I'm maybe just bad at writing reviews, so get ready for unfocused nonsense. :|)

I decided to put all of the first act into spoilers so your eyes won't have to burn from all the whiteness. And so you won't get lost while reading all that.


This stage was pretty difficult for me. In both platforming and... puzzles... -.- It took me 13 minutes to figure out the 3 gargoyles puzzle. -_- But It was the only actually difficult puzzle that I did in this stage, the rest was just a matter of remembering patterns, beating some tricky platforming sections and just throwing stuff at the wall until I realized what I should do.

My main problem with the 3 gargoyles puzzle is that I wasn't sure if you meant the crystals on the ground or behind the bars (Which is actually pretty stupid when writing this...) And then it was just the matter of me understanding which "odd pattern" you meant. And I gotta tell you, I either was in my stupid mode when playing this stage or this was an actually good piece of a puzzle section. But I prefer the second option, it took me a long time to understand it, but I still had fun doing so and it was a really cool felling when I finally managed to complete it. Overall, this was a nice challange.

And you managed to achieve a pretty neat, but probably annoying for others dynamic. Having to manage both the puzzle-solving and the oxygen was a pretty engaging task that made the puzzle sections a bit more, well, engaging. :P

I also realized a bitter-sweet fact. The best experience you will ever have with this stage is only at the first playthrough, the energy just isn't the same on repeated playthroughs. But it doesn't mean that these aren't fun, it just that the challange of puzzles gets shoved to the side, and you instead get the challange of executing the solution in the quickest possible way. (Which is also pretty challenging yet fun with the underwater physics.)


If I had to describe how this stage looks like on repeated playthroughs, then it would be something of working like a clock. Every move has to be perfect and calculated ahead of time, along with your memory because if you mess something up in both departments, then you will lose a lot of time due to the underwater physics, which can place a whole top-pace run at a stake. The best example I can think of is the dreaded... vertical room... You accidentally fell down mid-way through the room? Well... -30 seconds of the run. Along with -15 because the air bubble was lazy.

I personally don't find this water physics annoying because it puts a pretty high emphasis on good play, but I'm sure that others will. But we need more fair yet difficult stages for SRB2. This type of challange that isn't just an exaggerated kaizo works really well if executed correctly, which it kinda was in my opinion.

I never actually played Azure Temple prior to playing this stage, so I never knew that the crystal switches were vanilla objects all along, but I feel that you managed to do a pretty good job on making it the "main" gimmick of this stage and not making them boring. I played Azure Temple after this stage actually, so this stage was that good to me that I decided to play the original stage... which now I remember why I never did in the first place... And If I had to choose between these two, then I would choose your stage. I just find it a easier and more enjoyable than having to jump on a single 64x64 brick after a full-speed jump without any barriers around it.


I didn't realize how much I wrote I already, so I just decided to put here my main points that I strictly want to say, in a bit easier on eyes fashion.

1. This stage has some nice exploration with items and secrets being hidden in plain sight. Which I specifically like. It's just so simple yet so smart.

1,5. My favorite secret in this stage is that a room with a reference to the 3 gargoyles puzzle, it was pretty neat. Kinda shows you how far you came in the stage since that puzzle.

2. The choice to get rid of lifes is a very good one. If you put all the ways you can die in this stage. (Oxygen, pit, damage and other stuff.) Along with the backtracking sections and the pretty high difficulty of this stage. Then it wouldn't make it the best experience if you also added stress of limited life's to the mix. (And I died in the moving squares room way [the one with the Armageddon shield.] more times than I can even remember, mainly when backtracking for the emerald which was extra painful. :oh:)

3. The time emblem for this stage is absolutely brutal... the best time I got to up until this point is a 6:35. I'm glad that I realized that you don't need to specifically be in the record attack mode for the time to save because I would go absolutely insane with the fact that death in a run means instant end of it... (And my first RECORDED time on this stage was 30:31, excluding all the times I died and had to repeat sections. Which may mean that I spent maybe around 2 hours in this stage overall on my first time.)

4. I'm really surprised how accurate this stage looks to the original visually, I may even say that it's on the level of STJR. (If we exclude the sections that are just 1 to 1 recreations of A.T. -3-) I just really like how this stage looks, it's really well made on the visual department.

5. There are cages with fish throughout this stage, and there sometimes are extra life monitors in that small aquariums. And my question is there a way to access these? Or they are just here to taunt you with their presence.

5,5. This stage is actually so open-ended that I probably only experienced maybe 75% of it. I still have to find the emblems and check out what the deal is with the ring monitor replacements and the "almost all doors opened" thingy after beating the mirrored platforms puzzle. (Which also was pretty cool, but confusing at start because I thought it was an invisible maze and just completely ignored the platforms on the other side.) It has a lot of substance which I find neat even if I will never experience the rest of the 25%.

6. I really didn't expect arid canyon of all the stages to randomly appear, but it was a nice break from the omni-present aquaphobia... And in my opinion it wasn't that bad for a intermission section. (But my opinions tend to be weird, so yeah.)

6,5. I hope that if this map-pack will escape the demo purgatory, then it will get more intermission section like the one with arid canyon. (And I like temple themes so another reason I look forward to the uncertain future of this map-pack. I wonder if the next stage would be similar to aerial garden.)

7. With this stage reusing the stage theme and some sections from Azure temple, it makes it feel like sort of a DLC or a different unknown path of the original stage seeing how it ends in the exact same place. Pretty cool concept if this was the intention.

8. But the only single thing that I don't like that much is the backtracking section for the green emerald. You have to go one time for the emerald and a whole other time to get back to where you were, and if you so happen to die (which is pretty easy with the moving stones section.) you have to do all of that again. You maybe could add an opening with a brand new section after you collect the emerald? (or bonk the sector the emerald used to be at. :P)


1. So this stage isn't for everyone, it isn't fast, it has mostly slow paced action and some tough puzzles that don't really fit with the gameplay formula of Sonic games. But I'm open for new ideas and sometimes you just need something new and out-of-place to make a pretty memorable stage, which in my opinion you managed to achieve. :>

2. I don't even know if this could count as a review really, so just see it as me showing my love for this stage. (And maybe as motivation to keep making maps too.) If you asked me how you could improve it, then I would just stare at you in silence because I really don't know what more could be done to make it better, because to me this stage doesn't really need any big changes. It's good as it is.

3. For last, I just want to say that this was a fun experience and I wish that someday you will return to this series. This is a type of map that reminded me how fun it's to other people's play maps too with me being focused so much on making maps myself.

4. And now, don't take this measure of quality like a fact (because I have rather strange opinions on stuff) but I personally would rate this stage a 10/10. Because I developed endurance to "bad" gameplay, and I will find value and fun in pretty much everything I touch. (This is some weird 21st century rewrite of the Midas myth... •_•)


I'm sorry if my writing abilities completely disappeared when writing all of that. I just wanted to write this before I lose my train of thought on that addon. If I had to summarize this whole message then it would sound something like that: Pure peak, 10/10, looking forward to the future of this addon or your other stages. And that's all you need to know if you don't want to read it all.
 
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This funnily enough was the most fun SRB2 speedrun I ever did. I had the most problems with the 5 moving pillars puzzle because I still don't know the sequence of pressing the buttons and it killed my last run with ending time of 5:04. But after that I got lucky and I finally earned the time emblem. But I ran it in the regular gameplay though, I would go insane with the death = end of the run rule of record attack mode... And the checkpoints proved to be very useful seeing how clumsy I can get when under time pressure.

My hands were shaky like 10 minutes after the run ended, but I still loved it. I wish you luck with the remake of this stage, I would love to see it finished one day. I feel like I'm the only person here that got the time emblem though... talk about being 4 years late to the party... :dramahog:
 
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