Review by DrCrypt

Apparently, Jeff's Hell is a bit less sinister than perhaps Beelzebub or Lucifer's would be, or even perhaps Sheri Lewis' would be. At least Sheri has a crazed sock puppet that speaks in a terrifyingly high-falsetto ruling by her side.

Not really a bad level, simply mediocre, and less than scary. On Ultra-Violence, there are 41 monsters, most of which are sargeants and former humans vapidly wandering around dull looking corridors, possibly as bored as I am. I suppose the main problem is that the level is constantly bright, which is not how I envision hell. I always have strongly felt that hell should be dark, or at the very least lit by a 15 watt bulb. Jeff's Hell comes fully installed with fluorescent lighting, which makes it all the easier to see the lone former human walking down the lengthy corrido coming to get you as you sit armed with shotgun and chaingun in tow. This significantly detracts from any mood there may have been. There is no alteration in lighting levels at all.

Another problem is that there is no theme, per se, in the wad. Some textures in one secret room with roots on the walls don't meld well together. Each room has an entirely different motif and are generally pretty delinquent in the detail department. There are 8 secrets in the level, which seems a bit overboard, and alternate from painfully obvious to wall-gruntingly stupid. The only real mean baddy in the level is a Baron of Hell... that might have been fairly challenging if I had only a shotgun, but, due to an invisible room in the hall leading up to the Baron chamber that Jeff had filled with sargeants who took pot shots at me as I passed, I was tipped off to the presence of a rocketlauncher and 12 rounds in said room to mop the floor of the sole baddy. Even though there was no plasma gun or BFG, a shotgun, chainsaw, chaingun, and rocket launcher seemed a bit much in a level this quiescent.

Jeff claims in the text file that it is his first wad. This is believable. However, I think what "Jeff's Hell" is is just an experiment in making a level, playing with different features and with textures and all that jazz. It is a lame level, but not bad. Simply lack luster.