trle.net ::: Level Reviews

Level:	Aspide's 1st Level
Author(s):	Aspide

total rating:	3.97	Gameplay & Puzzles	Enemies, Objects & Secrets	Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras	Lighting & Textures
	Anurag	4	3	5	3
	bERT	5	4	4	4
	CC	4	4	4	4
	Dimpfelmoser	2	3	4	3
	DJ Full	6	3	6	4
	Gerty	2	3	2	4
	Jbc21	5	4	5	4
	Kristina	6	6	6	6
	MichaelP	3	4	2	3
	Obig	3	5	5	3
	RaiderGirl	4	4	4	4
	Sash	6	6	5	6
	Scott	3	2	4	6
	Treeble	4	4	4	4
	TrueRaider	2	2	2	2
	category averages (15 reviews)	3.93	3.80	4.13	4.00

Reviewer's comments

"Everytime You look at a level like this, try to imagine something worse. This is always possible. For example: this level includes three of the most stressful things that we players simply hate: 1. A jumpswitch in the dark is probably the most annoying of them. Unless it is an invisible jumpswitch in the dark, but - as far as I am concerned - fortunately, no-one has ever decided to put such thing ingame. So there is no problem. 2. Also, what about an extremely long maze with lots of SASes in it? The more we explore its various parts, each one having its unique theme, the more obvious it becomes they were all painted in "texture floor/texture ceiling/texture walls" manner. It may seem there is no simplier way of texturing, but it's not true - don't forget Aspide put some effort in choosing DIFFERENT tiles for each maze sector. If he was really, REALLY lazy - he'd just put the same texture everywhere, without bothering to make any difference in theme. And he could of course turn the light off in such case - if there is no texture variety, why to show them at all? So go on, imagine this labyrinth without any light at all, or with pistols only. Or both. If You do, You will admire the one which can be explored in this level. Always, always a project can be released which will beat the actual annoyment record. This phenomenon evolves just like life does - even if there are great extinctions, life goes on, improving everything that can be described with a "bio" prefix. So why did I rate this game so high? What is the difference between this level and another annoying shooters? In this case, we can see evolution in a single project, and occuring in the opposite direction. Everything bad I told You about fills only the first 1/3 of the game. Next, things get better and better, beginning when Lara finds a bike, opens the door and proceeds to make You realize there will be NO backtrack through the maze. Then, cameras turn on and give as many hints as necessary when You explore a surreal castle full of enemies. The building is horrendously ugly, but it doesn't matter - I can still feel a kind of art here, because no-one who can't build levels creates so many paper-thin walls in such small area. This application was definitely intended, as well as shaping the staircase irregularly, what can be seen in works of the greatest painters of this work. Then, You take a leap into the water and find Yourself in front of the exit. The exploration does the full turn and the level ends - as it was suspected - without any backtracking. SUMMARY: Begins like a level from the top bottom. Ends like a little gem. Recommended for anyone who wanna behold this epic contrast." - DJ Full (17-Feb-2011)

"Its a very old level & all the repeated textures in the starting area gave me a headache, still I decided to carry on, there is a room after a swim in the pool which is pitch black & I had to use 4 flares there to find a sneaky jumpswitch. Then there is other instance where u have to open 3-4 cieling hatches & activate the jumpswitch high up there just to open a door in the pool. there are plenty of medpacks & ammunitions scattered throughout the level, not to mention the enemies though. All you have to do is Collect pickups open a way to a maze & then backtrack to the starting area to finish the level. The lightening effects are pretty good. you can also spot many (what are known as) Waffer thin walls (in TRLE). But in my personal opinion I wouldn't want anyone to download this level." - Anurag (08-Feb-2006)

�Almost at the start is a complicated maze find switches to open doors to more parts of the maze and finally find a bike. The next part in the 'house' building for me was even more confusing than the maze because you have to open doors on different levels and shoot guards that sometimes appear out of nowhere. After a while I realised shooting the guards actually opens some doors so there's no point in running away from them. All doors are on different levels and there's a peculiar setup of blue doors in front of push doors. Outside and into a river! to an underwater maze again to find switches. I was never so relieved to finish a level before it was really tedious. If there was some goal some tremendous finale then perhaps it would have been worth it.� � CC (10-Oct-2003)

�If you're not into mazes then certainly obstain. A lot of them here first a whole bunch on dry land where at least you get some hint where to go either because of the different textures each maze section has (though some reoccurring sometimes) either because of some ammunition you find and therefore know you haven't been there or either because you meet some new guards. If you keep at it you'll get there in the end. Then you reach a section with a big building (wafer thin wall alert!) with a kazillion doors and guards which is pretty tedious also because the rooms are as empty as they can be. After that you end with a big underwater maze that is repetitive and not so difficult. All in all not a bad level though because of the rather well done maze application in the beginning but the rest is very mediocre.� � bERT (22-Sep-2003)

�Well I know this is an old level but I think it was way too boring! The beginning was just ok but once you get into the mazes area you won't exit it until almost the end of the level! There is this huge maze and then later one underwater to get back to the beginning to finish the level... but they make this level boring... The house setting was well done but well it might be a new house because there isn't anything inside it. Nor outside actually except for a few ammo. There are hundreds of SAS soldiers and some tricky jumps to do in the end of the level. 45 minutes. By the way the house bit is totally avoidable. You can jump with your bike through the fences on the bridge. If you make your way through the house you will open the wooden door in the middle of that bridge.� � Treeble (08-Mar-2003)

�You should take my rating with some caution as I actually did not finish this level! It starts out with some good but a little repetitive texturing a few thin walls no water textures and rooms that are largely empty. Some soldiers to kill along the way and then you hit the maze or rather a few mazes with doors and levers but no hint whatsoever which lever just opened which door. I made it through three or four doors and then simply gave up because I personally found it too annoying to continue the pointless searching and running around and I just did not have the patience to draw a map � so you may want to try it and see whether the end of the level holds more promise that would deserve a better rating than mine� � � Michael �Well I don't like too dark places nor too big mazes and this level contains both of them. You have to fight hard with the soldiers although you don't need to open every door. In the end you can jump into the water with a long running bigwig. This is a bit hard level but a good challenge for those people who like bottles and wandering around in big mazes.� � Obig (07-Feb-2003)

�Just minutes after starting this level you find the first maze and it's actually made up of three or so mazes that are right beside each other - the only way to tell the difference is by the different wallpaper. Finally I found the bike which was at the start of a very short maze. Now you don't really need the bike but with the long distance you have to go on it you might be glad you kept it. It takes you to a red brick building with doors and jump switches all over that eventually get you into the river and onto the next maze (underwater this time). If you make it this far you'll eventually make it to a huge lava filled pit and then finally back to the very beginning for the slide down to the end. Admittedly I almost gave up on this one a few times but I still kept hoping it would have a spectacular ending to make up for all the mazes. Unfortunately it didn't.� � RaiderGirl (19-Jan-2003)

�Truth to be told I used at a certain point the fly cheat as I was not in the mood for those mazes yes plural. Running around like a chicken without its head is no way to entertain me as you never knew what opened where. This a level where you need to travel from point A to point B with no story whatsoever and to make things really worse throw in a couple of mazes and forget about the camera work. I can do that (I think). 11-01-2003� � Gerty (18-Jan-2003)

�Oh well I've seen worse mazes and not bright as these but dark as hell. No I don't know how dark hell is but I am guessing. Back to the level now it's easy enough until you get to the part with the mazes I believe four of them with two or more having the same textures the rest are different so it's easier to navigate and you have to find the levers to open the doors and proceed. I was so glad when I got out after going in circles for god knows how long until I find my way to the motorcycle. Then another problem appeared I couldn't open the iron gates so I used DOZY to get pass them the crack didn't work as Lara can't shimmy inside doors doh! From that point I got many SAS guards coming at me luckily I had the revolver and what a surprise more levers and more doors with jump switches as well. The underwater maze was much easier and easy to navigate. You get back to the start and enter the newly opened door to take a dive while lava is all around and SAS guards above. After some swimming and while Lara slides down the level ends. If you don't hate mazes play it.� � Kristina (20-Dec-2002)

�This features the toughest maze I've ever been to as the well tested formula of always keeping to the wall on the right hand side doesn't work here. You have four different textures that give you some kind of orientation but then again it's very misleading as some areas have the same textures and there were many times when I thought I just give up and start something else. But then I rounded another corner and got shot at by a SAS guard and knew I had managed to find some new corridor. Some other reviewers demanded cutscenes to give you a hint which door has opened when you push one of the numerous levers. Well that would be utterly useless cause all the doors and their immediate surroundings look very much the same most of the time. The maze seems so big and unmanageable that you're bound to experience a moment of eternal bliss when you finally spot the motorcycle. You then ride and ride until you reach a closed gate and you get a flyby that shows a red brick building that lies behind said gate. I reckon you're supposed to open the gate and venture into the building but before I could do that I had squeezed past a nearby fence and found myself in the dreaded underwater maze. That was fifty minutes into the level and I was getting a bit bored so I thought I try and see if I can get away with taking a shortcut. The under water labyrinth is quite easy compared to the other maze and it eventually brings you back to where you started out from. There a new door has opened that gives way to the big lava pit. That's quite impressive. You have to perform the running swan dive and swim towards the exit. It's not a very entertaining adventure in fact most of the time I hated being there. Only when I reached the end I felt incredibly happy that I'd made it.� � Dimpfelmoser (18-Aug-2002)

�This nearly hour long level is broken up into very different areas firstly there�s the huge almost endless maze filled with SAS men switches gates and many pick ups then you come to the end where a bike awaits taking you to a 3 storied building full of more SAS loads of doors with nothing but men behind them and some more switches and levers and finally you come to a series of water tunnels where you again need to find switches to open gates which then takes you to a lava pit another short swim and the end. Apart for some thin walls and floors a fairly empty feel to the environments and a few too many men to deal with my only real concern was that the game play was overly repeated in each section and had there been a little more diversity then I wouldn�t have worried about those other minor aspects.� - Sash (21-Jun-2002)

�You should take my rating with some caution as I actually did not finish this level! It starts out with some good but a little repetitive texturing, a few thin walls, no water textures and rooms that are largely empty. Some soldiers to kill along the way and then you hit the maze or rather a few mazes with doors and levers but no hint whatsoever which lever just opened which door. I made it through three or four doors and then simply gave up because I personally found it too annoying to continue the pointless searching and running around and I just did not have the patience to draw a map � so you may want to try it and see whether the end of the level holds more promise that would deserve a better rating than mine� � � Michael (21-Jun-2002)

�Take a room put an almost uniform texture on its walls copy it (at least) three times and stack them together or arrange them into a maze. This is basically the idea of this game. Some ideas are great like the house style building. However some serious problems reside in texturing paper-thin walls (have you ever seen a brick wall just 1 mm thin?) triggering of enemies... and more. To tell the truth this level lacks interest and puzzles. And to me it seemed pointless. It was just a series of mazes some underwater but most of them in this Egyptian-like decoration (irritating but nice effect though) to eventually get the motorcycle and ride to this huge but empty house (well not quite empty... some bad guys are there waiting) cross a bridge and end up in this unexpected lava room... Maybe with a read-me file and a little story this would have made sense?� � Jbc21 (21-Jun-2002)

�This level is a bit of a disappointment. The rooms are blocky mono-textured and shadingless. It is littered with paper-thin walls ceilings and floors a simple error to correct. So dull really not very exciting graphically or gameplay wise. More camera aids could help as you push a lever and you haven't a clue what it did. Included is an annoying maze and it is VERY VERY boring going backwards and forwards all the time! As this is obviously the author's first level I forgive him/her for this. Avoid!� - TrueRaider (21-Jun-2002)

�There is only one thing I can say about this level: "Relentless". It is easily a 1.5 � 2.5 hour level. It has many flaws major lack of pickups only one enemy cloned a hundred times paper-thin walls non-textured water and worst of all no point. The only redeeming factor that I could find was a really cool volcano at the end. Tips I would offer for the future: Offer a more clearly defined goal more pickups more diverse enemies more diverse textures more camera cut aways and at least a 50% shorter level. I would say that this level is a great start but a poor level.� � Scott (21-Jun-2002)