Levels listed...
TR5 - 31
TR4 - 3141
TR3 - 177
TR2 - 133
TR1 - 61
72376 reviews (20.4/level)
3532 (99.7%) walkthroughs
445 Hall of Fame levels
1221 levels rated >= 8
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release date: |
07-Feb-2007 |
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# of downloads: |
110 |
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average rating: |
8.82 |
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review count: |
25 |
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review this level |
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file size: |
248.59 MB |
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file type: |
TR4 |
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class: |
Castle |
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| Reviewer's comments |
"The first of these two levels seem to use the Maria Doria as basis, as the structure and layout is massively the same, and coupled with the background audio chosen it's impossible not to notice. There are a few changes here and there, obviously, so it's not a remake or a mere reskin. I have two grievances here which aren't entirely on the author but still. The underwater timed runs were very tight, and by default Lara's underwater collision is awful, often getting stuck around corners etc. It became a problem in the underwater maze, where not only air was scarce but the rooms were filled with diagonal wall objects and plants with massive collision boxes, so if you find Lara swimming into air for half a split second (and it will happen, a lot), the double timed run is failed. Double timed run, indeed, because we can't ever make things simple now, can we? Quick save and quick load to your hearts content to make it across. Then there was one flame emitter you had to cross while shimmying on a ledge. The original, slow shimmy animation. It's the sort of thing you just can't get across without quicksaving because the emitters seem to work on a whim, this many years later I still have no idea whatever reloading does that it causes the emitter to change its intervals (often times working in favor of the player, but not always), but I'm glad it does. The massive cave where the boat with the key used to be in TR2 is now entirely underwater, which also made it rather annoying to navigate as the only water pocket was the 1-tile opening hidden in the craggy ceiling, and yes you're also faced with underwater timed levers and doors in this area. 60 minutes, 4 secrets. 06/23" - Treeble (18-Jun-2023) |
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| "These two levels are interlinked and you travel
between each a couple of times while acquiring
the necessary Priest Artefacts. I have mixed
feelings about the gameplay in this one. The
multi-level block puzzle was fun as were some
of the timed runs. But those mazes and lengthy
swimming exercises were the pits. Less
experienced players would understandably be
turned off by them. I also didn't like
searching for an underwater lever in a huge
body of water. Nevertheless - onwards to the
next!" - Ryan (19-Sep-2016) |
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| "Like always for linear plots, I rate all levels equally yet with different score combos to highlight ups and downs of each part, links to which are embedded in common text. We begin in Thierry's Parisian Streets and how not to repeat the con remarks for this builder. Why not to take a bike if the streets are so wide? Why not to return Lara with a rapid sewer current? Or maybe why not to put her on the back of a city pigeon for faster travel? Ideas to kill redundancy are numerous and would also work for atmosphere... but no, again we have backtracking, lack of shortcuts and passage repetition. Thankfully as imperfect as in path design, Thierry is brilliant in isolation craft so I didn't mind the extra travel that much. So far. Then we go into Church which sustains the mood despite of dropping the scale, and makes it spookier in return. But this is an exercise in bad combat. Riding a bike under sentry fire. Pulling up onto an edge with a running dog. Getting perforated by a SAS while wading through the water... Of course you want to be smart to avoid health loss but the author made sure to prevent that. Think about it: there's a group of dogs and a bike. It rings a bell to run over the beasts, but the vehicle gets impaled with spikes blocking the passage to break your plan. Then you want to fight these dogs from the entrance corridor but a rollingball forces you into the room. So you escape on the nearby ledge to shoot them from above, but an invisible collision panel feels just like deliberately applied to make that attempt futile as well. The only combat the author approves is direct encounter what instead of challenging is horribly annoying. All this time you only have the pistols and don't even tell me about that red herring revolver. When finishing this part I was absolutely infuriated so it was great to embrace delightful chillout of the following Airport. Again we have a red herring, this time a medikit, and the breakable walls are way too hidden, especially if one of them is secret and the other one isnt, but we can relax among realistic bars, pass through check-in gates, enter metro wagons, climb escalators and explore a secret hotel. In the end I felt ashamed I never tried Leeloo's levels before, and I will soon repair that mistake with The Hangar. But before that we leave France and pass into Egypt, to the plot core. The Temple feels convincingly buried, has neat layout and local visual gems. It's another one of Thierry, but the path design is incomparably better, just like if not his. What may confuse beginners is a quadruple slot which looks like a multi-item combo but in fact requires progressive filling, and the treasure pool challenge which may cause you to save the game just before you die. Next TC enters the stage with his Lava section, as we proceed deeper into the Earth crust to get literally overflown with magma. It's one of these levels where you can feel the heat and play with fire while utilizing loads of cracks, crevices and ladders like this author got us used to. The design is a bit subpar and cramped in comparison to the author's flagship projects, but still very good and enjoyable, however since that moment the project gets confusing as the opportunity to miss or do something wrong appears - for instance I could only solve the statue pushable after multiple corrections and I had to repeat half of the level when the zipline didn't retrigger. But the most serious and easily evitable mistake was the door cube pushable. Once raised, the portals shouldn't close because using the block every time to unlock them makes no sense especially in a level where it's so easy to commit a mistake and try again. What I particularly liked was a nice touch of the barriers surrounding the rocks sticking out of the lava stream, what made that part of platforming much easier. Then we descend even deeper to cool down in the Underground Lake, but I unfortunately recognized the retextured ship level of TR2, and instead of lukewarm depths of volcanic cavern I kept imagining an overturned rusty vessel no matter how fine TimJ's rendition was. But at least the map was familiar, and tasking got ambitious with the multilevel pushable, though it went too ambitious with the underwater lever. Since the place is huge and the lights draw attention away, I couldn't locate that spot even with the walkthrough in hand, and only thanks to TRGamer's let's play video I could get enough help to breach the gates of sunken Castle of Corpus Fatalis, likely a pun of "over my dead body". This map is made from scratch, outstandingly atmospheric and the most suitable word would be "epic" despite of not so big size and darkness. One nice trick to strenghten its grandeur is the lack of ceiling substituted with progressive fadeout, so we can imagine the central hall much higher than it really is. Then we unlock the City of the Priests, another element of TC's dense world, even more lava-soaked than his other bit made for this game was. Here I noticed external cooperation of the French forum, with MagPlus's Apophis warriors really making this part feel like a sequel to The Rescue. If I missed something in this level and the entire volcanic episode, it was the sound of flowing lava - while we get the Xian ambience for mystery mood, the river of molten rocks is absolutely silent. Eventually, we enter the underworld Kingdom to get some Swedish vibes, for either this has been inspired with QRS's Limbo or vice versa. The part is really open but not confusing at all, and platforming over the floating islands was pure pleasure. This is possibly also the moment of the adventure where the greatest amount of customized objects dwell, including the Obole puzzle making for a serious closure hitpoint and perfect for transition, however in the final scene I missed some music, waves on the river and actually showing Charon's boat sail the waters into the Farplane. Very soon it appears this one holds a very tightly embedded realm of Lost Spirits, filled with randomly arranged floating islands, multiple intersections, start positions and sometimes even requiring the right choice for correct progress, while not even mentioning you are in such situation - seriously, the thunder plain and the final fight of the chapter might remain in my heart forever, but learning fluent French would be less confusing than solving this whole chapter. Often I had no idea what to do, some doors never open, some levers are never pulled, certain things are hard to guess like the monkey swing because no other texture of the kind is grabbable, or the cross puzzle hole because no other object like this is interactive, or the water corridor secret triggered with an invisible shatter - however the last one may be discussable as well as the requirement to grab an uraeus from the active spike trap. As a result I failed multiple times to proceed without a walkthrough and only after a whole day, what is as much time as the whole preceding content took me, I grabbed the key to the Osiris's Pyramid. Here's Thierry again, even better than his previous bit, and possibly in his greatest solo map. Despite of structural simplicity and intense combat, the place feels incredibly calm and relieving while offering total immersion, rewarding tasks and both casual and unusual geometry. Only the crawling part could be shorter but I liked the exploration very much - in the end every square in sight appears accessible. The bike part is really unexpected in such place, and the final teleport flyby is properly satisfying as we teleport into space... or at least I thought we should, but before that we unexpectedly visit an extra pyramid level which is fully unlike the ordinary pyramid design, with each corridor intricate and attractive, and transparent enemies making us sure we're really deep already. The gate to let us out from the first slot with the White Stone is another one which should remain open once open, otherwise it forces passage repetition if we visit the place too early. The transition to alien scenery is made very well but just like in case of the Kingdom boat cutscene, we should really see the shuttle fly as we get ourselves abducted onboard the Osiris's Spaceship. The surroundings are simply breathtaking: the outer space introduction, the hangar section the control room - I have a feeling the author was under impression of the Cygnus from The Black Hole movie, and if the plot wasn't Egyptian this dystopian, almost a derelict-like ship would be a great host for creepy humanoid workers or an evil robot like Maximilian (yeah you need to watch that if you haven't already). Certain design shouldn't occur like the water tank, another place we can save in, unaware of imminent death. Multiple passing through the could be easy reduced either, and I even had to cheat for shells when it appeared they aren't provided for the Horus fight they're crucial for. I eventually hacked Osiris's security system and defeated the guy Somewhere in the Farplane, where a nicely controlled timed challenge may give us two different endings, producing one of these moments worth to die in. SUMMARY: This is a very solid and seriously coherent team work where every participant cared a lot, with original plot, new graphics and even music tracks. Sometimes you may need a walkthrough to deal with annoying mistakes and properly enjoy unforgettable highlights which make this game obligatory to play at certain moment, so why not now." - DJ Full (25-Jun-2016) |
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| "Very nice textured level with amazing water environment. I
didn't liked the length of water mazes as it made gameplay
really troublesome. The encounter with giant was very
interesting with gun/fire trap. Very, very challenging level
with awesome looks. Recommended for experienced players." - Casual Raider (09-Sep-2013) |
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"The Underground Lake (7-8-10-9): Nearly the whole
level is set around a highly complex block puzzle, and there
are a whole lot of things to do - flooding and draining,
opening trapdoors, lowering blocks, open paths from one area
of the level to the puzzle room. My complaint however is
that even if the general idea is quite nice and innovative,
the execution is rather badly done, the pushes are way too
long and the level doesn't include many other gameplay
elements than finding a few levers (half of them are quite
tightly timed) and a little amount of exploration. The
builder deliberately placed the invincible knight in a side
passage of the block puzzle area; it isn't really hard to
dodge him but his footsteps which you can hear throughout
half of the level drove me nuts. The architecture is more or
less the same as the Deck level of TR 2 which was one of my
favourite original levels, and indeed I found the huge cave
setting to be quite memorable and atmospheric, the texturing
was quite well, whereas the block puzzle room had rather a
rather monochromatic and too dark lighting and not very
coherent texturing. As I stated above, the timed runs were
some of the very few gameplay elements apart from the block
puzzle, and two of them really can cause some players to
give up playing this series unless a savegame for the
following level is provided, as you practically mustn't make
any mistakes during them. Normally I wouldn't complain about
them, but since this is a complete levelset with many nice
levels after this one, I think it would be the best to leave
them out and put some other gameplay elements in instead.
But two other elements I rather found well done in this
level were first of all the diagonal walls taking away the
squaric architecture and secondly the secrets, they were
really well hidden (you can see where at least two of them
are, thus the problem is not"where" but"how", which is
really well done, in one case with brilliant room geometry).
After the castle level you return here for a short interlude
including lots of swimming in another huge cave and it took
me nearly an hour to spot the passage with the UW lever,
even with the help of the walkthrough which isn't very clear
in this part; finding the secret was easy in comparison. And
when finally back at the Lava of the Depths level, you're
still not quite finished with this level as you return to
place the four priest artifacts - if you didn't find this
room before, this can be heavily confusing, so I advise
using the walkthrough therefore. 35+7+1 minutes.
The Castle of Corpus Fatalis (6-8-9-8): If you didn't
like the previous level, you will hate this one. Just when
you think you have beaten the second timed run (swim) and
now have enough air again, you get disabused and notice the
air reserves probably, like in my case, approaching the
zero, what maybe can cause you to redo the timed run from
the last level and this time try even more perfectly to
somehow get to the air pocket in this level. This causes
you, for getting a net gaming time of 20 seconds, to most
likely need as much minutes if you don't want to plunder
your thriftily collected health reserves. And again, just
when you think now everything is getting calm and you can
enjoy exploring the again quite atmospheric castle, you
immediately become acquainted to the host of the castle,
draw your weapons, shoot... and die bursting in flames. Would
have been nice to know this before, but this part of the
level is actually the most decent one; you have to open the
path to a room you can flood and thus are able to use
weapons in, then finally kill the monster (that presumably
was too big and tall to get to its"real" home, Farplane).
The plaque isn't placed very well afterwards, the monster
doesn't drop it but it's hidden somewhere in the dark room.
Some climbing sessions to get to the top and then back down
also had a certain feeling of needlessness, but they were
quite fun in comparison to the next"shocker" in this level,
the underwater maze including a double-timed run which would
have been quite doable if the builder didn't make the odd
choice of placing some plants with too much collision in
each of the maze rooms and thus making this part nearly
unplayable. I was rather glad the level ended soon
afterwards, as who knows what the builder could have
included if this level was even longer. 24 minutes." - manarch2 (26-Feb-2012) |
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"I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with these two levels. On one hand, I love some of the gameplay - for example, the multi-level push-block puzzle in The Underground Lake, or jumping around high above the initial area and then dropping down into it in The Castle of Corpus Fatalis. But I also detest other aspects of the gameplay, like the truly horrible underwater maze in TCoCF or the huge underwater area with the hard-to-find switch in TUL. The constantly changing camera angle in the fight with the horseman is headache-inducing. The fight with the bird monster takes place in ridiculously confined quarters, and the pickup it drops landed on the other side of the room for some reason, so I had a hard time spotting it on the treasure-covered floor.
On seeing screenshots of these levels, I was worried that they would be too dark for my taste. But on playing them, I did not mind the darkness so much - as a matter of fact, I found the lighting to be suitably atmospheric, especially in TCoCF. Both levels have some vibrant and extremely colourful textures. In some spots, the colour combinations are rather weird, as in the pushblock area of TUL. But in most cases, they work really well, especially the rooms with the golden treasure in TCoCF.
Overall: A fairly nice set of levels, though the gameplay is a little annoying at times (ugh, that underwater maze!)." - Mytly (23-Feb-2012) |
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"Underground Lake: After a modest looking beginning
you enter an immense cave with a large temple building along
with a strange structure in the middle of the lake the level
is named after. The visuals are the best so far, and are
some of the most impressive areas I've seen in a TR pack.
The lighting is also improved here and there's much less of
the flatness from earlier, and the texturing is both unique
and coherent.
Your goal in the two levels is to find three (there are
four, but you found the first in Lava of the Depths) items
to access the next part. You are pretty much entirely free
to choose which to look for, and, while there's not much
direction at first, some exploration will reveal some tasks
to do. Including an elaborate block puzzle, and an
underwater cave even more massive than the rest of the
level. The latter is the main weak-point, as there's no
direction whatsoever, and both the air-hole and switch you
need to find are ridiculously hard to find. It seems the
focus on making that task so hard has also made the cave
pretty underused for how big it is. There's various pretty
hidden levers elsewhere, but they can be found easily enough
if you're careful. There's also a horseman fight that relies
on fixed camera angles to cheaply add difficulty, but I
didn't really have any problems despite that. Another route
leads you into the strange structure...
The Castle of Corpus Fatalis
The Castle theme of this level seems at odds with the
Egyptian one around it, but the way it's done adds to the
intrigue rather than taking it away, especially as it prominently shows the plaque of the bad-guys who've been
shooting at you in the earlier levels. The visuals are good
too, and just about every room is well decorated and lit.
The level starts with a chase sequence with the bird-thing
from the Ice Palace in TR2 back for revenge. There's the
twist of making you catch alight if you draw your weapons at
first, in that regard there should have been a few more
hints to this, as it took me a little before I worked out
what was catching me on fire. After dealing with the monster
by drawing it somewhere the strange curse isn't present you
then move onto a platforming sequence, and then an elaborate
underwater maze (although that sells it a bit short). The
main theme in the second half is the swimming sequences, and
there's a long series of lung-busters. The meshes can be an
irritation here as they can block your swimming and slow you
down a lot if you aren't careful, I also thought the trial-
and-error was a bit too emphasised a couple of times as
there's almost no way to work out the right way to avoid
drowning without trying some parts a few times (with useless
side-passages placed specifically to slow you down). After
this you have the means to get to the extra part of Lava of
the Depths; you can pretty much check my review of this as
it's essentially a small extension of that level.
As I've hinted at, water is probably the main element of
this series, and also the main threat. Despite the flaws
I've mentioned I found more than enough interesting and fun
parts to balance them out, along with the epic visuals." - Mman (16-Feb-2011) |
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| "Beautiful rooms, but most of them are very dark. The place in which you get burn after taking weapon, was great idea. But fighting with birdmonster was quite hard. And final timed run in first part of Underground Lake was real challenge too." - Andzia9 (02-May-2010) |
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| "I am not sure why these levels are paired together but not the lava of the depths level, since the three of them work together. Anyway both levels are impressive environments, but playing through I began to find a number of things that were less than impressive, especially in the castle level. Lara burns in a certain room if you draw your guns - fair enough if shooting the enemy is too easy, but it took me quite a while to make the connection. The switch blending with the black wall was not cool, and I thought it was ridiculous to have Lara burn for sliding down perfectly normal slopes (2nd level of the main room). If using these surfaces is so threatening to the level design, then the author should find a creative solution to solve the problem. Making them death tiles is a poor quality quick-fix that only avoids the issue. The underwater maze is a drag because you must performed swimming timed runs around objects with horrible collision issues. As for the underground lake level, its rather straightforward in design - or it would be if the author didn't throw in a painful route that players must get through to backtrack from the lake depths. There are also quite a number of cracked textures underwater, such as those on this return route. Overall the levels are good presentations, but I feel that the level structure should be getting more care in this case. I hope things will turn upward for the upcoming levels." - SSJ6Wolf (17-May-2009) |
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| "As I already pointed out in my "Lava of the Depths" review, I didn't really like how this duo was incorporated with that level in one system and could've thought of a number of other scenarios how it could've been handled more successfully, but what's done is done and least of all this level duo actually involves so many interesting things to do that on the whole - as major issue as I did find it to be - I could squint and look past it for the sheer enjoyment some of these moments brought to me. I liked the bird-monster fight, the floor that disappears below Lara's feet was a great moment, as was the knight stealing one of the crucial Priest artifacts that's hidden here, and the multi-leveled block puzzle was very clever, if a bit tedious. Setting-wise this gets a bit ambiguous - as on one hand it's still an Egyptian level, but to stir things up, you arrive at an area that has a striking resemblance to the TR2's The Deck and the Castle of Corpus Fatalis with its Gothic looks seems a bit misplaced in time and space being found underneath the Egyptian ruins, but it all works together in a symbiotic manner and provides one of the most intriguing settings for this series so far. All of this would've actually elevated this to my top favourite level [duo] of the series so far, but as can be guessed it's not all without fault as well. The gameplay sometimes blatantly relies of hiding a switch in a massive area (the underwater cave with 3 crocs, the initial area of the Castle) and leaving your poor hapless self to scurry through it all its nooks and crannies with a magnifying glass as either the oxygen depletes in your lungs or the bird monster finds new ways to have his way with Lara. The underwater maze, which simultaneously is the host for a double timed-run was an absolute disaster, especially because the collision of the random objects placed there made it a nightmare to navigate through, some camera views, especially the one during the fight with the knight were awkward, and it seemed that for some part the gameplay exclusively relied on making the player feel like an idiot, which is the exact opposite of what one generally should want to achieve when making a game. That said - overall it's a mixed bag with its good and bad sides, but the good outweighs the bad in the long run, despite a few odd choices made by the author in creating these. Found 4 secrets." - eTux (24-May-2008) |
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| "A double-level set in a rather huge underground area. It starts quite clever with a multi-level multi-block puzzle to figure out, has a few not too hard timed sequences to beat and I really liked the 'teaser' when the knight steals the artifact before Lara gets her hands on it. Very well executed. The fight with the giant bird was quite tedious though, a few more camera hints really would have helped and search an elusive underwater level in a huge body of water is simply not my kind of fun. Enemies are only a few knights and crocs, but I would also list water as an enemy, as some of the swims are really long and breathtaking (35+25+10 min., 4 secrets)." - MichaelP (23-May-2008) |
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| "Until we finally work out what is needed in these two levels, they are a
very frustrating and challenging experience, added to by a lack of cameras
when we really need them. The room where we must lower blocks to ground
level, find all switches and levers to flood it, I now consider brilliant.
Not so while playing it! These two levels are not for the faint hearted.
This block puzzle room is just off an area that is very much like the deck
of the Maria Doria in construction. We dive off this 'deck' to another ship
shaped structure and accomplish a tight timed swim to get inside, followed
by another multi-lever swimming sensation. The initial small ship shaped
structure morphs into a huge castle treasury interior guarded by one of
those big bird characters. Good route around the walls, high above to
another dazzling treasure room to find two Corpus Fatalis stones. The
intriguing thing here is if Lara takes her guns out she will catch fire. So
we must find another way to deal with the guardian! Further on, we swim into
another huge flooded cave with resident crocs we can't kill, and one of the
best hidden-in-plain-sight levers. In fact, we spend a long time searching
for many underwater levers in this Underground Lake. But we're never too far
away from lava, as in the room with cages to jump to. Nor are we free yet of
red beasts, dead knights and demigods. Add to that, jumps, runs, shimmys,
climbs, swinging axes, breakable tiles, and more timed runs. One leads to a
blue church like interior. A cutscene shows a cheeky knight escaping with
our artefact into the lower regions where we have to follow and kill him for
his artefact. There is a way to the secret in this room by jumping from one
of the islands to grap up into an awkward crack in the wall. On the other
hand it took ages to figure out how to get another stone... a simple climb
up a lava wall! Our aim is to collect and place four priests' artefacts so
we can get across that deep pit and make our way down to the next level." - CC (07-Jul-2007) |
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| "Tim, please ease up on the gameplay, as this was one of my least favourites as gameplay goes. Not saying anything about the look of the level as you sure can build them, not saying anything about the clever way you have to manoeuvre through this level, as that is fine. Just ease up on those very tight timed runs as that only brings out frustration and not the"high" you feel when making them, because I dreaded what was to come next." - Gerty (11-Jun-2007) |
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| "These are by far the most complex and intricate levels in the Osiris series to date. They're also probably the most difficult. Without the walkthrough I would have been hopelessly lost, and even with the walkthrough it took me many passes before I found that first underwater lever in the croc-infested lake. I was also obliged to load and reload a number of times before I could find that small artifact dropped by the Chicken Monster. The requirement of opening up new areas by pushing a block onto different designer tiles was a bit tedious, but the gameplay was fast and furious and seldom boring. This is a major project indeed, one that should have been released commercially and made a ton of money for the builders, if only that were possible. These levels are definitely up to the high standards that have been established for the series." - Phil (15-Apr-2007) |
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| "These two levels are not easy to review, as my feelings about them are rather contradictory. On the one hand, there's wonderful ambience, great music, beautiful textures, very intelligent puzzles; things for which I loved them. On the other though, there are some situations that are so hostile, that the player (well me at least) may end up a total wreck. To begin with the good things, there is a variety of tastefully textured settings that create a beautiful environment. You get to explore a castle, a (huge) lake, rooms holding treasures, all beautifully lit and constructed. Visually, both these levels are impressive and real works of art. The block puzzle in UL is brilliant and well-made. In COCF, it was an interesting innovation that you couldn't draw weapons at the beginning because Lara would be on fire. And now the grumbling. I don't mind underwater action and I like challenging timed events, but it becomes really nasty and sadistic when you've been swimming in an abismal underwater cave for hours, trying to figure out what you are supposed to do yet having absolutely no clue whatsoever. And when you finally find a lever, you get to realise that the gate it opens is impossibly timed. But this is nothing compared to wandering in the nastiest underwater maze, pulling levers that (you find out too late due to the total lack of cameras) open timed gates, and swimming to them out of breath (literally!) is a real nightmare. It's known that Lara can't go superfast when swimming, so doing a tight timed swim is by default a difficult task; let alone when there are huge plants and furniture scattered at the bottom of the maze, dragging her back and stopping her at the most inconvenient turns due to the collision detection, resulting in her not being able to reach the timed doors on time, but instead getting stuck opposite them behind a plant, watching them closing. It's a shame that such a brilliant timed challenge was almost ruined because the obstacles were way too many and because, due to all that, Lara would get out of breath before the challenge was over. After a million tries including saving and loading in-between (which didn't work), I just got tired, reloaded my very first save from the entrance of the maze and managed to make it in one go. Ha, that was a good reward for so many hours of trying! In my opinion, both of Tim's levels would have been challenging enough without those nightmares, it wasn't necessary for those trials to be so horribly nasty. However, call me a masochist, but I did enjoy the whole thing." - Ravenwen (12-Apr-2007) |
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| "This levels, although are well builded were bored for me; too much time going from place to place and get back again many times, and looking for very hidden switches in very huge areas is not the kind of gameplay I like. The ambience is very dark too using flares or binocs continuosly. There is an interesting use of the cameras in the fight with the crusader and a good architecture. Author would must think that there are more levels to play, and if somebody is not able to make the hard timed swim couldn't play rest of the levels from another authors." - Jose (02-Apr-2007) |
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| "If you do not commit suicide in the underwater huge cave then you have nerves of steel. I mean what on earth was that about. Let me start from indoors though and the moving blocks you have to lower to the ground floor in order to proceed into the game. I don't like pushing objects around for a long time but this puzzle got me interested so I didn't get bored. Suddenly you find yourself outside in a huge area with a lot and I mean a lot of water. Well so far so good you say, WRONG. Once you get into the water and access the underwater cave you get a panic attack, poor Lara is going to drown for sure. That's not all though because there is a timed, very tight swim to access the next level. There is something I don't understand here and that is why we had to swim to a narrow area only to get some flares, drain and flood it again. You are probably wondering why I rated this level high then, well it was my day of masochism I guess lol. Anyway the second level has a huge, ugly bird that will make Lara's 'life' miserable for a while. Once you get to the top though, you're thinking that everything gets easier. Well wrong again. The underwater maze with the even tighter timed swim is to die for and I don't mean that in a good way. Of course I couldn't go through all this without some kind of reward so I managed to find five secrets." - Kristina (19-Mar-2007) |
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| "This duo of levels was so far the most challenging in this saga. Tim's contribution to the project is divided into two parts - the lake and the castle. Your first visit here you'll spend some time solving a rather unique pushblock puzzle involving some running back and forth to accomplish, and later you'll come to the lake, where the castle is by coincidence. Inside there things get quite harder, if the tough swim to the next level which would leave you breathless wasn't enough of an indication of what would await. Looks like the Corpus Fatalis have been keeping a really big birdy in their fortress and forgot to feed it, so it decided to break out and eat you. But of course, you wouldn't let some big fat bird eat you, however drawing your guns would set a waterproof fire upon you, so some wit would be required to take care of that baddy. Though then you get to lure him into a place where you can toast him and put an end to its life. From there, the level continues in a challenging and sometimes frustrating array of reaching high places and visiting underwater mazes. However, the nice treasuries in the level did look pretty. Back to the lake then, you'll need to manage some diving in huge underwater caves with crocodiles, and there's only a single pothole for breath to use. While I do like to swim, traversing such large areas without being able to pursue your enemies is sometimes frustrating. After the swimming though, the level does liven up with less frustrating pushing, and a nice fight at the end. Overall, these are two really good levels that can be frustrating at times, but it makes that up with the feeling of satisfaction you get from accomplishing this tough two-parter." - Relic Hunter (10-Mar-2007) |
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| "Hard level , not only for the player but for the rewiewer also . Now how shall I work this ? Shall I rate it an evil frustrating nightmare which it definetely deserves or an outstanding challenge for the TRLE player ? It is certainly an issue that makes players very angry at certain stages but I have a feeling that this was one of the maker`s intentions, just to measure out how far one builder can go without getting threats of murder by the TRLE Forum Members . I have finally decided to rate it as above , only as a guide for players who are ready to take this challenge. I find it quite difficult to fit rewiews for a single or two-level game beeing only part of a level series like Osiris for example into a scenario where highlights like UB4 fill every players heart with delight ! Please do consider this when you read this rewiew ! But last not least : MERCI BEAUCOUP , TIM !!!" - Ruben (03-Mar-2007) |
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| "This level was the most challenging & frustrating one so far in this series for me. For some reason , embarrassing to admit, just could not wrap my brain around the block puzzle & had to resort to help from forum member. Probably should not have been playing with 3 day old migraine. Large areas to explore, very interesting puzzles, & a surprise when a Knight pilfered my artefact. Timed swim that I actually made with not too much difficulty. Interesting concept in castle when you couldn't use your guns. All in all, with frustration set aside, very well constructed level a few more camera cuts & medi-packs would have been nice. Despite what Jack& wrote the Gameplay & Puzzles deserved higher score than 4. This level is definitely for the serious gamer." - guss18 (01-Mar-2007) |
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| "Well, I have to say this level is well constructed in every ways and has a lot
of different kind of things to do. I liked very much the big areas among the
smaller ones and I think they are linked together pretty nicely. The
monster fight in The Castle of Corpus Fatalis is also very impressive and
it includes some things I haven't seen in any other level. For example
when Lara tries to take her guns out of holster she catches fire and I
haven't seen this before. I think that gameplay and puzzles are both
almost perfectly created but there are few things that lower the grade. One
of them is the irritating underwater timed run or maybe it should be called
underwater timed swim. I quess you don't even wan't to know how many
times I tried to clear it. It was absolutely too hard because you stuck the
objects very easily. Maybe there are also a bit too many hidden switches
to find in this level but it doesn't matter very much. Despite this level
includes some irritating things it is built with care, imagination and good
level building skills so it's very good work." - Samu (25-Feb-2007) |
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| "The Underground Lake is dominated by it's huge excellently designed caves. You are on a quest for four priewstly artefacts, which can be made in any order. For one you have to solve a complex, intelligent pushblock puzzle combined with flooding/emptying an area, for another one you have to carefully explore a huge underwater cave. In one quest a nice crafted sequence with a knight stealing the artefact. So Lara has to get it back in a nicely staged fight. One quest is more complex and will lead you first to the other of the two levels and then back to "Lava of the Depths".In the castle level you'll be confronted with some black magic of a bird monster, so that lara can't shoot it. And not to forget, you only reach it, if you master a quite tough timed swim. The level architecture itself is stunning with its huge central room and all the other rooms full of treasures. You have to explore quite carefully here and then make your way to escape. It involves again hard timed sequences underwater. One is a bit unnecessary hard, because objets in otherwise nicely designed rooms make it very difficult to maneuver Lara.
Alltogether a very good job! Thanks, Timothy!" - Raymond (20-Feb-2007) |
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| "The adventure continues. From the initial elaborate block puzzle you will probably gather that this is not going to be a stroll in the park. This is not a level for the beginner; it's challenging, confusing and occasionally quite frustrating, the horrendous underwater maze being the point at which I was utterly defeated and had to get my husband, Smartarse, to do it for me. He, of course, had no problems with it (deep sight), but then again, unlike me, he actually has a sense of direction. Anyway, horrible underwater maze and constant confusion apart, there remains much to enjoy in this level. The main objective is to find four priest artefacts and you really will have to work hard to get them. If you like a challenge, this is definitely for you. Oh and I almost forgot to say - it looks wonderful." - Jay (20-Feb-2007) |
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| "This set of levels could be one off the best ones .........iff the builder not make some parts of it exagerated hard and frustrating ..... not allways the best custom level need to be the hardest -for ex UB4 brilliant without being frustrating .......and to be said the moust bad part of this game is the lack of Medipacks cos are alot of tough enemys around , lack of flybyes moustly at a criminal hard underwater maze with timed swiches cos u dont know what swich what door activated ..... also alot of opstacles to make ur life a misery and impossible to make all timed swims just with 1 breath ....sad cos the levels are briliant made huge very nice areas ........ but exagerated hard one i could recomand only at very experienced riders ........" - Jack& (14-Feb-2007) |
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| "*Note* I did not realise that the author wanted these two levels to be combined when I wrote the reviews. I see that now ;) Instead of making a new one or combining them, I decided to post them both as I wrote them with their individual scores. The overall score will be a full one ;)
Underground lake:
This level starts rather normal with some red caves and a very frustrating (but cool!) block puzzle. After a while you will enter a huge set of water areas (and I mean HUGE!) which will take your breath away. The only levels IMO that equal this are the last level in ¡§Aegian legends¡¨ and ¡§Sheep in wolfs clothing¡¨! The atmosphere is fantastic and the lighting and textures the same. The only drawback is the constant lack of cameras when you use switches etc. A few more of that would be appreciated ƒº Other than that there is nothing at all to complain about. The gameplay is great and even if there are huge areas, there is always something to do. You got all tens from me. A real highlight: The horse fight! A very frustrating but cool camera angle makes this into something special! Thanks for a fantastic experience. Both for the gameplay and for the architecture!*******Castle of corpus fatalis:
This level has many fine turns and twists. Right from the start you get into a large room only to get chased by the tallion monster! Why not shoot it? Well¡Khe has some kind of fire magic that makes poor Lara burn the instant she draws her guns ƒºƒº So¡KLara has to find a wet place to finish that beast once and for all! After that the level is filled with timed runs, difficult jumps and a very cool underwater maze containing the precious Uzi as a secret *hmmm* Like the earlier level the architecture is fantastic and so are the textures and lighting. Comparing the two, I must say that this one is a tad weaker when it comes to gameplay and texturing but not by much. I look forward to play more level by this author, as
he really contributes with something special in the custom level world. Keep up the good job, Tim!
9/10/10/9
Combined, this is an all ten from me!" - QRS (13-Feb-2007) |
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