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Level: LB Advent Calendar 2004 - Ice Palace back home search
Author(s): Tifa Nazah
total rating:7.52 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Akcy 6 8 7 6
Anurag 8 9 8 8
CC 8 7 10 8
Danja 7 7 6 6
Gerty 7 8 8 7
Jay 8 7 10 9
Jose 8 7 6 5
Kristina 7 8 8 8
MichaelP 7 8 9 7
Obig 8 8 10 8
Rose Raider 7 4 6 8
Sash 8 6 8 7
Treeble 7 8 9 8
category averages
(13 reviews)		 7.38 7.31 8.08 7.31

Reviewer's comments

"The game is really good and i like the winter atmosphere. BUT that song is very very very bad. miss tifa really should have left it out cause it took part nice experience away BUT all in all it is a good game. sooo she did a very good jod .ROSE RAIDER" - Rose Raider (05-Dec-2008)

"There were some very memorable moments, the snowboard, the slide room, interesting story, nice objects and Lara's outfit. But the palace is too white in some rooms, and there are untextured places. Some fly-by cameras gone through walls and too many buttons in the cells, pointlessly repetitive. But not a bad level after all." - Akcy (05-Jan-2007)

"Well, I've played this level. At the beginning after using a skateboard it seems very interesting to play. But not for a long time. The puzzles aren't real puzzles, especially the prisons. You don't have to solve it, just run a lot from one room to another and look which buttons you have to push. But never mind you don't go straight forward all the way. The best puzzle is those slopes. I still can't understand how that works. Really well done. If all the puzzles were that 'mystic' my score would be much higher. There were no enemies. I found it great, because such a level isn't good to place the enemies. Without enemies it's a very good level. The objects are all original, I've never seen something like that before. The flyby cameras were simple, some just went through the walls. The lightning is almost everywhere the same, but never mind. Textures could be done much better! Oh yeah, one last thing. That archer puzzle was incredible!" - Danja (29-Oct-2006)

"Another great level, you have to stop the fight between good and evil. It consists of some very good objects especially Lara’s wardrobe. The secrets are hidden quite nicely. And you can’t finish the last puzzle until you have enough brain or you have played Drakan. A great work by Tifa Nazah." - Anurag (24-Jul-2005)

"As opposite from Tifa's previous level, Xmas Race, this one shows what a creative mind can do and I really hope Tifa can pull out another level as good as this one in the future. Right at the beginning you ride a snowboard across the cliff to reach the palace and boy was it interesting. The level does make justice to its name. There was maybe too many buttons to push in the dungeons, but I guess that's ok. When you trigger open the ice doors a flame appears to "melt" them down, which I found to be a nice touch. Speaking of nice touches, LOVED the peculiar outfit, too bad it has to be rock hard, but it was really one damn fine piece of work. Your objective is to free Shiva, the queen of Ice, currently frozen in her own palace. Don't want to spoil things, but if you played Zelda Ocarina Of Time you'll have an idea on how to free her. The slide-through maze was great, too! Definitely a must play! I know March ain't Christmas time, but I really needed to play something and I decided to have a go at these levels, heard wonders of them and now I know why. 30 minutes, 4 secrets. 03/05" - Treeble (13-Mar-2005)

"Does the author know what is a background music? I think no. At the very beginning, near the skateboard, the solid floor is under the ground line and Lara's legs disappear under the snow. Was it a bug or the author made it so? The textures in the canyon (and most areas of the level) are very badly put. The author doesn't divide the wall panels and the textures are very elongated. This gives a bad look. Sometimes you can go to the end of an outside room and the wall is not textured, you only see the void. This also gives a bad look. Is not good that necessary items are lost somewhere so you can lose it easily (Arokh's soul crystal). Near the first secret, there is a wafer thin wall. The second secret is not hidden, you only have to pick it up. Enemies, guns and weapons simply don't exist. In the prison area, it's boring to have to push too much buttons to open too many doors. Could be a camera to show the second prison area opening so you won’t lose much time looking for the next task. In the rooms with many switches, if you pull all switches the wall lowers too, you don't have to look for the textures. Rooms are too many squared, geometry is not good. At the end, once you have light the torch, you haven't any clue of where to put the archer statue. Only puzzles and new objects and animations are good things in this level too much unreal." - José (04-Feb-2005)

“Is this Tomb Raider or the X Games. Lara’s first action in this frosty world of snowy cliffs ice laden bridges and intriguing looking chilly palace is to hop aboard a snowboard and jump a ravine though she just falls short of this task but luckily for a firmgrip she doesn’t turn into mashed potato at the ravine’s base. Once inside the palace a place where Mr. Freeze from the Batman movie would easily call home there are some great little puzzles to master the most fun being a large room with slippery walkways Lara must cross and the most unique puzzle being one that includes a movable four armed archer where you must tempt him into releasing the Goddess Shiva bedecked with long thick dreadlocks and what oddly looked like a goatee with one of his arrows. At only 40 minutes this was a fairly short level but I felt involved through the whole thing which is all you want in a level. There is an odd bug I found which neither hurts gameplay or hinders progression but was quite cool there are two blocks that you must lower with a lever puzzle but I could squeeze between both and make it to the other side and back again with them still raised you even get a funny shaking of the screen as Lara pushes through but as I said it doesn’t interfere with the level in any way and for me actually added a nice little surprise for me. As a xmas level one with no allusion to this there are no enemies but like other xmas levels that don’t have them they aren’t missed I would have liked the 5 secrets to have been slightly harder to find however but the first at least had me searching for a bit. For me this was a very good level in pretty much all aspects and I was very glad I had the chance to play it.” – Sash (26-Jan-2005)

“This is a very beautiful Christmas-present from the creator. Only the textures are too dazzlingly white a bit and on the icy snowy lands it is hard to find some Crystals needed for getting on. We have to collect Keys and Crystals in the meantime we have the opportunity to slither a little bit until we can finally smelter the statue. Long ago one of my favourites was Drakan and there was this challenge to smelter the ice this way. I found 5 secrets on the level. There are no enemies the only difficulty was in the slithery-room. Well I had to reload there many times until I could finally slide toward the right path and often I had to change the direction with jumps. The added sounds are (with one exception) speeches but that exception gives a really good festive feeling for the level. I can only advice it to everyone. :) You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version) savegames and pictures here: http://www.treditor.hu/15/icepalast.htm ” – Obig (18-Jan-2005)

“This is a charming story full of custom made objects. But what sticks to my mind after playing this game is the lever galore you have with those prison cells. And running around trying to figure out what to do next I found out that some of those cells can't be entered again after you went down the stairs. The statue at the end you had to move twice on the same tile threw me off big time. The slide one has to do is great never saw this sort of action in any level as of yet. The map provided in the Stuck Thread made it a bit easier at least you knew which way you had to jump. How Lara could jump in the dress she was wearing is beyond me but hey this is a cyber babe do not forget that. 14-12-2004” – Gerty (28-Dec-2004)

“The people over at LB have done a wonderful job for this year’s Advent Calendar. The level you’re about to play is unique as all of the Calendar’s levels. There’s an ice palace to explore but not before you use a snowboard which was brilliant. I have to admit the puzzles aren’t very complicated or challenging but enjoyable nonetheless. The custom objects and nice music create a wonderful atmosphere with even Lara reading the story of the level within the level. She’s wearing a white outfit that has a small problem but it’s nothing to worry about. I wasn’t able to open a gate which I believe holds the fourth rose so I only found three of them and four secrets totally. Don’t miss any of the Christmas levels.” – Kristina (22-Dec-2004)

“I am rather in two minds about this 35 minute long fantasy adventure. On the one hand it is positively charming and brilliant and has very memorable moments like the short snowboard ride at the very start (cool) the eclectic music (which I turned off later as it became a little too tiring to the ears) all the wonderful objects for example the unicorn and the archer figure and it has a truly fun room with the slides and jumps which was challenging and yet entertaining and five not too hard to find secrets. On the other hand though it has an unnecessarily tedious button push frenzy in the dungeon a few rather badly designed flybys through walls areas that are entirely untextured (outside left of the palace) and the disappearing horizon problem shows up pretty badly in the outside area which also has plenty of very stretched textures. Still the positive elements truly prevail and make this a fun seasonal offering that should not be missed.” – Michael (18-Dec-2004)

“What a superb start there is to this level with Lara snowboarding across a ravine. She’s also wearing a pretty spectacular albeit wildly impractical outfit all in white like a snow queen. The atmosphere and scenery are amazing and the gameplay quite intriguing. There is a simply wonderful series of ice slides and jumps in one room quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. I wouldn’t call this a Christmas level exactly but there is certainly enough snow and ice to conjure up the right winter spirit and you really shouldn’t miss it. It’s beautiful.” – Jay (18-Dec-2004)

“Right from the start this level stands out as different. What an imagination the author has. It’s wintertime not necessarily Christmas even though there are snow covered trees and a magical atmosphere. The haunting music starts and continues right through the level and adds to the atmosphere. Lara looks like a snow princess herself all in white. Not sure about that long front part to her dress though the rest is very pretty. I like the animation at the start when she steps onto a skateboard to jump across a deep canyon. Then across an snow bridge to the ice palace. Here is where I was stuck for a while not knowing what to do. The solution is to get way down below and find a couple of essential items. The retextured objects are great like the sword (crowbar). This palace has a prison area where Lara has to open up each cell and this involves a lot of running back and forth but not tedious. The exciting part for me was the huge room where Lara has to skate/slide her way across icy columns to the other side the only control you have of these slippery surfaces is to jump and twist and grab so I’d recommend a lot of saving as you go. Eventually a new room is revealed with the princess frozen inside an ice block and a four armed archer statue. Great idea here of getting the statue to light a fire and shoot an arrow into the ice block to release the princess. I was sad in the end to leave this level. It’s one that will stay in my memory. We can look forward to great things in the future if this is an introduction to the imagination and skill of this builder.” – CC (17-Dec-2004)
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