| Reviewer's comments |
"I don't recall much from the previous installment in this series as I've played a plethora of other games and levels since then, but that had no impact on my enjoyment of this level on its own. I quite liked how the author touched up pretty much every texture, so despite its age it still felt fresh enough (although, truth be told, the greenery overtaking everything towards the end was a bit too much, leaning a bit too much into darkness which got a bit tiresome for my eyes). Gameplay mostly revolves around either pushblocks or shatterable targets but it's not too difficult an affair. There were a few moments I found myself running around in circles (mostly in the final room, with the several side corridors), and at the end I had had my fill of pushblock puzzles for the whole week, but all in all this was good fun. 60 minutes, 3 secrets. 03/21" - Treeble (14-Mar-2021) |
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| "Another entertaining level by Debbie. I may be
starting to become a fan of this builder.
Anyway, onwards to this review. You need to be
alert and agile to avoid being squashed by
rolling boulders as well as perform a back
flip/twist manoeuvre. The rest of the level
revolves around shooting breakable objects
(nice retextured ones, fun colour coded
pushable objects and avoiding skeletons and
giant scorpions. The surroundings were
beautifully rendered. It may seem garish, but
it gives off its own flair. Thanks for an
enjoyable level, Debbie." - Ryan (13-Nov-2016) |
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| "As usual in this author, a level with a good appearance, easy moveables puzzles, some retextured objets and new shatterables. If you don't get the secret crossbow (like me) you'll have problems with the skeletons further on. Several times, when you complete a puzzle, the lowered blocks are not near and there's not a camera to show you where they are. Another times you can get out of ammo for the revolver and have to shoot a small object in the floor :( Anyway the level is nice to play and you can take a good time with it." - Jose (09-Aug-2012) |
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| "I really liked playing the 1st episode of Sand Castle, and I think the sequel is even better. I really liked the atmosphere , the modified or new textures and objects , and the variety of puzzles. Especially the textures give the feeling of a mysterious place to discover. The movable objects puzzle are quite good. I like the gameplay in general too with a few traps a bit of action and some surprises. I noticed that the shooting of some objects to turn off some of the fire burners was not necessary as there was a way to outsmart them. The only thing that annoyed me was when I entered this room with 6 skeletons and did not had a clue where the crossbow was. It was not possible to continue in these conditions and had to look at the walkthrough to know where it could be : at the beginning of the level ! Aside from this unfortunate placement of object, I had a great time playing this excellent level." - eRIC (02-Jun-2008) |
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| "I'm pretty much with Michael and Phil here. The one main room in this level where most action takes place from was a little bit overused in a repetitive feeling and was extremely hard to see in as all the greenery on the walls made the room dark so it slightly irritated me after a while. There are also a fair few movable object puzzles but the solutions started to become obvious as they relied on pretty much the same formula and not much thinking seemed to be necessary after about the second. Just one more little niggle cameras weren't used enough or they were slightly vague sometimes and this led to the feeling of what just happened but I guess this wasn't the biggest thing to care about so I think I'll take that niggle back! All in all this is probably not one of Debbie's best but still if you are in need of a nice medium level to play in between all the mammoth serial levels then you could do much worse than taking a look at this one." - Sash (11-Nov-2004) |
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| "Another great work from the author. That's why I love her levels. Sometimes the places are very dark but that's right in an underground castle. In my 1st walkthrough I missed the Crossbow at the beginning of the level so I had to use a Medi Pack at the skeletons. I found 3 Secrets on the level. You can get the Crossbow the Revolver the LaserSight and the Shotgun. You must shoot glass vases spheres and small boxes on the pedestals. Don't forget getting the Cartouche Piece #1 in the huge room with sand because it's hard to get back later. You can push statues on the level. There are no too much enemies: bats ninjas scorpions huge scorpions and skeletons. On my second walkthrough when I had the Crossbow I didn't need any Medi Packs - the emphasis is on the puzzles. If you push the statues on wrong places Lara can even get burned. Your objective is to find the Ba Cartouche 2 Eye Pieces The Timeless Sand and the Sacred Sands in the end so you will able to teleport yourself. The textures and added sounds are great. I recommend this level to all of you. You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version) savegames and pictures here: http://www.freeweb.hu/treditor/12/sand_castle_sequel.htm " - Obig (11-Jun-2004) |
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| "What a nice start with the boulders and right away the textures are very impressive and make you feel right at home for a nice adventure of about 1:30 hours. I really enjoyed the level in the first half of it. Cool new objects nice variety in gameplay with zip lines lots of things to shoot pushable object puzzles (all fairly obvious and not too exhausting) burners and plenty of puzzle pieces to find. Also enemies in small doses like wraiths dogs bats locusts ninjas and skeletons and giant scorpions towards the end. And then there is nice flyby of the water/greenery area and also a great mirror floor room. But that is also when the game began to end up being a bit tiring for me. The course through and around the greenery room somehow felt very tedious with yet another opening appearing and another and another -changing sides a few times too often. But maybe that was just me or the fact that I played this rather late and wanted to finish. So - find out for yourself. Definitely a level not to miss." - Michael (04-Jun-2004) |
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| "I am amazed at the quality of setting the author has created with the TR4 engine. The color sense and textures are gorgeous while consistently and thoughtfully used. There are some cool objects for the many push-pull puzzles and the enemies are the regulars. Most of the action takes place in a large room with fountains that is as fine a setting as ever devised for this game. A visual delight and fun to play." - Duncan (01-Jun-2004) |
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| "As long as Debbie Overstreet continues to pamper us with eye-pleasing levels that offer a challenging blend of enemies and puzzles I'll continue to reward her with high ratings. Most of the action takes place from a central water room where door by door the gamer accesses the many radiating corridors to be found on either side. Debbie unfailingly provides walkthroughs for her levels and in this case the going would have been quite difficult without one. Since so much time is spent in the central water room I would have preferred a more scenic and a much better lit backdrop than what was provided. And even though having a walkthrough made this less of an issue there were insufficient cut scenes to let the gamer know what door was opened and where by the throwing of a given switch. Come to think of it there weren't many visual or aural clues to reinforce the successful completion of a moving piece puzzle either. These are minor objections however. There's action galore for the most intrepid among us. A varied assortment of enemies (including I believe half a dozen skeletons that pop out at one time) keeps Lara constantly on her toes and you need to get used to the idea of shooting every box and similar container you happen to come across. For the reasons stated above this effort doesn't quite attain the level of perfection that I saw in Debbie's previous release but this is by no means to say that she's slipping. I had a grand time playing this level and I look forward eagerly to her next one." - Phil (27-May-2004) |
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| "Lara starts sliding down over slopes rolling balls are following her. In this level there are many riddles to solve and you need a lot of time to do them. Lara has to crawl in crawlspaces use zip-lines. Also some objects can be shot into pieces. Traps are spikes and breakable floor plates where Lara should not stand for a long time. In the game she finds the mechanical scarab the eye of horus and the Ba-cartouche. Dogs are easy to kill and ghosts die in the water. There are switches to find objects to push and Lara is able to walk thru some walls. Look closely around the riddles are easy. Look for the timeless sand. When Lara enters the jungle room the player can enjoy the beautiful camera animation. Lara needs two ropes to go on in this room. After opening all doors I realised I missed the other half of the cartouche. But luckily it was not far away. Opponents are dangerous but you can kill them from the distance. Weapons are enough to finish the bad guys off and Lara is always safe. The level ends soon after opening the door with the Eye of Horus. Kill the big scorpion and run to the electric discharge." - Avmaster (23-May-2004) |
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| "How lovely - Sand Castle was always one of my favourites of Debbie's levels so another visit is a real treat. Beautiful surroundings as usual. I particularly love that 'sand in the moonlight' texture it's so atmospheric. It's a nice length of level too - we've had a lot of very large ones just recently and it really is good to play one that lasts for about an hour for a change. If you've never played one of Debbie's levels you really should start now and if you do know her work then you are already well aware what to expect- always fun never too frustratingly difficult in any aspect and always good to look at. You simply can't go wrong." - Jay (01-May-2004) |
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| "Great level much fun a bit strenuous for my eyes as Debbie does use a lot of dark colours. Nice textures and re-textured items and not that many enemies and unless you didn't find the crossbow and even the shotgun those skeletons can be a pain in the butt. I encountered also some very pesky bats and some crocs. Those ninjas scared the beejeeves out of me as they sort of jumped at Lara. Also some small and big scorpions but with the revolver raiding is rather easy. Most of the raiding takes place in a huge room with lots of different openings on the side. Lots of artifact to gather to finally open up the door with the Eye. Most spooky thing for me is wading through the water that is covered I always expect some animal lurking there. Well known is the colour of sand Debbie uses and also her underwater wraith beautiful. Keep on building Debbie. 22-04-2004" - Gerty (30-Apr-2004) |
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| "Oh Debs Debs! I really wanted to rate this level highly as it's (as usual) impeccably designed and textured but despite your best efforts to prevent the player from getting stuck I can quite successfully say that I must have fallen foul of just about every bug in the gameplay and psychologically suffered as a result. I will give you just a few examples: there's a fall-through floor at the entrance to one of the green passageways containing nothing but an un-textured room which is impossible to get out of; the puzzle squares that supposedly burn her (if she places the objects incorrectly) didn't; (which made me think I'd done the correct thing and consequently meant I became hopelessly stuck); some of the objects shattered and some of them didn't (and it took me a while before I even realised that some them were meant to be shatterable) and one set were lying on the floor and were nigh on impossible to shatter as I'd used up all my Revolver and Shotgun ammo and the Pistols had no effect on them; and because of my constant retreating to earlier savegames (in order to get myself out of the 'irreversibly stuck' situations) I often found that items (such as the Timeless Sands) which I'd previously possessed (and which were needed for progression) were no longer in my inventory and I had to go and acquire them all over again. Perhaps it's just me and my fumbled method of playing but nevertheless these sorts of things shouldn't happen (irregardless of the circumstances... there will always be dunces such as me out there!) and ruin the experience. Technically this level was superb as always; but it really needed a good independent Beta Tester to sort it all out. If you ever need one..." - Orbit Dream (30-Apr-2004) |
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| "Well it's the level number.. wait a minute... level 13 of Debbie and like the last levels this looks cool wonderful textures many puzzles and good gameplay. I enjoyed to play Thanks." - Yoav (30-Apr-2004) |
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| "One more nice level is released from Debbie. I think that woman is spoiling us at least once a month or every two months we have the opportunity to wander in a wonderful colourful setting with custom objects and more. I always have fun with her levels and this was no exception. The hour I spent was a nice break which makes me want to thank her for that. There are some Egyptian textures with cat eyes beautiful indeed but most of them are colourful and you can see again the great golden sand which I like very much. The player is searching for a Sand Castle artifact along with the Timeless Sands and has to pass spikes and be careful where the available objects are being pushed. The enemies though aren't many a few skeletons near the end and big scorpions apart from the occasional bats. I urge everyone to play this level as well as Debbie's other levels and hope this series will not end soon." - Kristina (22-Apr-2004) |
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