Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 622
Registered: 07-06-2004
IP: Logged
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Re: L M N O (+2)
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this hold; I've found Overground and Mirage to be quite a bit more interesting than the other two levels, so I'm not sure how to rate it overall. My rating falls somewhere between 7 and 8, with 6 brains of difficulty (several challenging rooms in there).
Some specific comments below; somehow, I was wordier with Lullabye than with the three other levels put together.
Lullabye started out very well, with a pretty interesting Entrance room, but most of the rooms on this level didn't really grasp me. I've felt they mostly involved cutting through mud and tar without any other significant threat, so the "cleaning" part was too involved. Even in rooms with unreachable spawn points , like 1N 1E, it is often possible to use the tar/mud for hiding, and thereby be save from the spawns.
The two rooms I found the weakest are 1S 1E (quite long, but the only real danger comes from the occasional tar/mud baby) and 3E (the mud is tedious to clean, but that's the sole problem raised by that room). I also wonder about 1N 3E: is the orb supposed to be reached prior to having cleared most of the mud/tar? I went that way and got rid of the four roach queens while most roaches were still stuck in the middle, but the design of the room doesn't seem to match that solution. On the brighter side of the coin, I liked the idea behind 1N 2E, and found 4E to be quite interested; the spawns are much more than a nuisance in this room, with mud cleverly used as an obstacle.
As an aside, I feel pretty much the same about level 20 of Rooted Hold as I do about Lullabye. I can't say I cared much for most of the rooms in level 20, whereas I absolutely loved the tar/mud room on level 18. Perhaps it is the combination of these two elements that doesn't strike a code in me.
Next comes Mirage; I quite enjoy that one, and it may be my favourite of the hold. I like the global design of the level, and I've found most of the rooms to be solid and interesting. The first four rooms made good use of the looming tar element, and the next four ones were even better (1S shines in particular). The last four ones were a bit weaker in my opinion, chiefly 2N 1E, but they did not distract from the rest of the level.
Not Forgotten is close to Lullabye in so far as I only really enjoyed a few rooms of the level. The Entrance room makes a very clever use of golems, 3E with the black gate worked much better than the original design from Impossible Cubes, and 3S still has that sheer "all in one package" value. Most of the other rooms were much closer to average, and often did not change much compared to the original rooms.
I enjoyed Overground quite a lot, and I don't have any specific complaint against any of the rooms in that level; 2W did feel a bit tedious in the end, but that particular design requires this many queens, so it seems to be unavoidable. I actually liked the secret rooms, and found them fair enough (blessed be Undo, though). 1S 1W features a pretty crafty trick, and 2S was another well-made room, with an interesting brained roaches problem without being too tough (it's not Lone Soldier after all).
[Last edited by Alneyan at 06-27-2006 09:40 PM]
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