When I started this level for the first time, I just thought: “wow, this looks so nice”. Lately not many levels give me such an impression, so I was optimistic for this one since the very start. And this impression is still keeping up.
Fire Sword has been a levelmaker of quality for quite a while now. The ones that I played already are Higher Fragging Rate and High Volume CTF – both were very good and I always have fun playing them. This level does not only look good, but it’s also great to play.
Carrots around us
The level is medium-sized, yet it features 3 carrots to pick up. You may think that’s a bit too much for duels, but their positioning makes such thinking wrong. It took me a lot time until I found out how to get the lowest-positioned carrot!
Falling
On the right of level, there is a shaft closed with destruct blocks. It’s perfect for escaping from a seeker shooting enemy, if you manage to destroy the blocks fast enough. You can either get out on the way down or fall all the way to the bottom and warp to the top. The problem is, if you’re jumping in from the top, you’ll need to shoot the block before you get out (if you didn’t do that earlier) or you’ll end up in the same place. And your enemy may be prepared for such an occasion.
The getaway
If you look at all those springs in the level, it looks much like CTF at this point. “Speed-tracks” are pretty much everywhere, so there’s no need to stop. Just jump, stomp or shoot when you need to. There are also some pinball bumps. Only a fool would tell they’re randomly placed – for real they help in manouvering in the level. Very well done on that, FS.
k get ammo
I like the ammo placement. It’s a battle level, so you can be armed to teeth in seconds, but you need to jump a bit for that. My only complaint is that there’s too much bouncer ammo in one place. Power-ups are placed well, too. Maybe 3 of them is one too much for such level size, especially they are seeker, bouncer and toaster – if a duel is played and both players have all power-ups, that can result in quite heavy-arms battle. Oh, the seeker power-up can be archieved only by shooting, so getting full ammo for it doesn’t include kicking/uppercutting the PU.
Beautiful beta
Like others, I’m wondering why didn’t Epic leave the tileset the way it was on the two early beta screenshots. Of course, Pyromanus made it a mix between that, final Diamondus and diamonds from 1.20 version, but still it’s just so much better than final version. Fire Sword did great job on eyecandy, so even if you’re alone on the server you’ll probably want to look at everything around while you still can. The point of view on the background layer gives a feel that the level is positioned on a hill. Don’t forget the leafs – they’re an oldie, but the way FS placed them and the direction in which they are moving is much better than what I usually see in this case. The music fits very well and it’s very good as standalone, too.
Ya gotta have it!
Overall, this is a very good level. Basically I would recommend it for duels, but you can also have some great fun with public gameplay. Just don’t use InstaGib – I think that’s a bad style for this one. And you won’t have time to look at eyecandy and listen to the music. ;)
@White Rabbit – I said you’ll have to destroy them if you didn’t do that earlier. Not that it’s impossible in that moment. It can be even done without special moves.
Battle, by 
