| Reviewer's comments |
"Who- or whatever this Kakan may be, the temple dedicated to him, her or it is many things but not dark (the builder has left the lighting at default value throughout and placed only a handful of shadowbulbs is a few spots). It’s the kind of level whose builder thinks nothing of having enemies pop into existence out of thin air; indeed he thinks nothing of having entire rooms pop into existence out of thin air. In such cases reviewers often consider the level’s brevity its primary virtue, but I think this one has its existence justified sufficiently by having elicited Orbit Dream’s lively depiction of his first encounter with it." - Mulf (17-Nov-2019) |
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| "At least it is not dark. Not even 5 minutes of your time
needed for this quickie. Not unpleasant but obviously a
first attempt at building with visual bugs in the design,
no lighting , no camera work either , but it is not missing
as the progression is fairly simple , a secret room that is
not really secret , and you don't really need to kill the
last two enemies before hitting the finish trigger that
sends you back to your desktop." - eRIC (08-Sep-2019) |
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| "Dark? I didn't find anything that dark in this level apart
from some shadows placed in some corridors. Textures are
stretched and repetitive, though the rooms are not always
blocky. A few red ninjas and a crocodile are the enemies
here. The scissor traps have no sound. Raising blocks are
used instead of doors, though that's quite original.
There's a secret room but there's nothing there. It lasts
for less than 10 minutes. You could replay it and try to
beat it in the shortest time, skipping the useless rooms
and pick-ups, enemies. I just did that and finished in 2
minutes 24 seconds. Can you make it better???" - alan (22-Apr-2018) |
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| "Not so dark this temple, many of the outside rooms very bright with flat lighting. Very short this level with few tasks to do, only pick up some items to place in its receptacles, shoot some ninjas and a croc and nothing more; well, a "secret" without pickups. At least the author included a flyby and some musics, but nothing really interesting or remarkable here. Not enjoyable." - Jose (11-Dec-2017) |
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| "My first impressions were: bland, boring
and not much to do. That remained true to
the rest of the level. A weird secret, no
gameplay and disappearing and appearing
textures. Not fun." - Ryan (07-Apr-2016) |
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| "In line with so many of these debut levels from the early days, this is very short (less than 10 minutes), very simple and looks thrown together in a rather slapdash manner. I admire the enthusiasm that drove so many to try their hand at putting together a level in the shortest amount of time, just to see how it turned out, but just don't expect anything much from it. Cheap and cheerful basically." - Jay (19-Mar-2016) |
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| "Just your run-of-the-mill debut level built with standard TRLE assets, that's flawed in practically every category from the generally poor texturing and unremarkable collect-a-thon styled gameplay to nonsensical enemy placement and flat atmosphere, concluding with a ten-minute experience that's essentially forgettable on the whole. Not recommended." - Ceamonks890 (22-Jun-2015) |
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| "Nice climate, created firstly by fine cooperation of camera and sound, and then by the sound itself, made me feel good till the very end of this level. Both gameplay and puzzles are average, but it's sufficient as for a level which is as short as this one. The keys are nice, and placing the Amulet on a pedestal highlighting importance of the artifact makes sense. The only one bad thing is the enemies appearing from nothing. Some textures are missing, but it seems to be intended - obviously the author wanted to make a player feel like in one of those games when you look at a character from above and therefore there is no ceiling. SUMMARY: Nice little level, with its quality fitting its brevity. I can recommend it for someone who needs a short break." - DJ Full (27-Oct-2010) |
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| "This is an exceptionally simple level, or rather a demo. We have to collect Golden Vareus, the Amulet of Horus, and the Guardian key. We get the Shotgun, the Revolver, the Uzi, and the Lasersight too, but there's no need of them, because four ninjas and a crocodile are our enemies, and we only meet three black clothed of them if we go for the only secret of the level. Unfortunately there we can't pick up anything, because it is empty. I suggest to those, who learn about this game just now. You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version), savegames and pictures here:
http://www.treditor.hu/15/the_dark_temple_of_kakan.htm
" - Obig (22-Mar-2005) |
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| "A very simple tut level with very basic rooms and textures and beginners mistakes like the floor beside a redundant pool waving like water. It's more like a walled in yard than a temple and it's during the daytime with no dark corners. Finding a vraeus an amulet and pyramid key to lower gates in front of entrances shoot some ninjas and a crocodile and that's about it. Oh apart from two scissors traps under a reasonable looking roof." - CC (15-Oct-2004) |
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| "It's obviously a first try at making a level. Sometimes textures are stretched sometimes they're compressed. Sometimes they're not even there (nearly the end of the level you can see the game being built across corners that are not textured). Enemies will pop out of thin air... Well you all know what to expect from a first. 5 minutes." - Treeble (20-Sep-2004) |
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| "You know a Level is not going to be very good when at the very start you take a look around and immediately go 'eurrgh'. The culprit this time is a nauseating pool of water where the author forgot to turn off the appropriate toggle and thereby caused the surroundings to move in time with the water. You know full well that if this error was deemed acceptable by the builder there will be plenty of other examples of slapdashery elsewhere. I won't bother listing them all here because I may give myself a headache but I did rather like the idea of activating moveable blocks in order to facilitate progress. For those players who just want to charge through the level in order to up their review count (what an absurd practice ..heh) pick up the Diamond and return the way you came (up the sloping corridor); the encounter with the ninja's and crocodile lurking in the adjacent hallway is irrelevant and pointless to the progression of the level." - Orbit Dream (18-Aug-2003) |
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| "Have I missed something am I playing the right level because this was certainly not a temple nor a dark level. In fact it's terrible five minutes with getting the amulet a guardian key and a vraeus cages lower as you approach and a button to raise another one. The walls are paper thin and nothing behind them it looks very bad they are not walls at all just textures applied badly. I dropped through the floor at one point and there was an empty room so I wonder why Lara said Aha! Maybe that was the secret I found. Anyway some ninjas and a crocodile will attack you but with the revolver and Uzi no problem. I would stay away from this one." - Kristina (23-Dec-2002) |
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| "Nag nag nag! No-one seems to like this and they find many faults in the course of the seven minutes you spend in Kakan. OK they might have a point but I thought the outside area that kind of builds it self as you run over it was a nice effect. So maybe that wasn't intentional and another thing that the author has to eliminate if he wants to get higher ratings but hey it gave me a moment of pleasure." - Dimpfelmoser (13-Nov-2002) |
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| "This should be called 'The Not So Dark Temple of Kakan'. It was almost a waste of a clean copy of the editor to build this 10 minute level. Wander through some poorly textured rooms to find a bunch of artifacts to lower cages (or in one case-raise a cage) to progress. One non-secret and a few ninjas with a crocodile thrown in and you are done." - Momster (13-Aug-2002) |
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| "Looks like someone's first try with the level editor. The 8 minutes it took me to play were spent picking up an object placing it to open a door pick up another object and open another door etc. I was surprised by a small group of ninjas and a croc but I found lots of weapons and ammo so it seemed almost too easy to kill them. I found one secret room but after searching it for two minutes finally decided there was nothing in it. I liked how bright the level was (the dark temple?) but the textures need a lot of work. In some areas you can't see the walls of the room but only the horizon around you. And what was that pool of water for?" - RaiderGirl (22-Jul-2002) |
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| "Is it just me or when you see a level titled dark shouldn't it be at least slightly dark not set outside in the sunshine or when you find a secret room after falling through a false floor there should be something secret in it to collect or the fact that this is supposed to be a full level when it plays for just over 5 minutes.....or is it just me?" - Sash (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "Obviously a first attempt - and a very 'quick and dirty' one. It plays for about 7 minutes (one of which you wonder what you found that secret room for) and has a few Ninjas and a crocodile to kill and a few puzzle pieces to find and place. Had a laugh at those floating blades but the author needs to work first of all on the basics of level designing to make this an interesting piece of a level." - Michael (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "Another ultra short level best kept for the kids. This one will not even stretch you to a full ten minutes. There are a few objects to find to lower some cages a few ninjas to fight off but no puzzles and obviously no imagination used in the construction of this level." - Torry (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "A short and quite linear game. The use of objects sound and lighting are quite correct; textures rooms design and horizon must to be improved." - Josep (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "First level obviously. Found 3 objects that will lower the cages and encountered 4 ninjas and one crocodile. Walls are paper-thin and a big horizon issue. And what is that secret chime for as there is nothing to find in that room. Probably that you fell into it IS the reward :) 23-06-2002" - Gerty (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "Kakan: In Swedish that means 'the cookie'. No cookies in this level though. Not much darkness either. And not many enemies. And of course not much gameplay. Actually not much of anything. The level lasts for three minutes and there's one secret (that I have found). Not much of a secret though since there isn't anything in the secret room." - Magnus (21-Jun-2002) |
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| "There was no excitement at all. The scissors had no sound; the wall textures were awful. It looks just like a racing track in some spots ie it went just straight ahead and I played it in less than 10 minutes." - Henk (21-Jun-2002) |
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