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Baptism of Fire 2 - Lost in London by Dutchy

Akcy 8 9 8 8
Blue43 8 8 9 8
CC 8 8 9 9
DJ Full 7 8 9 7
eRIC 9 8 8 8
Gerty 8 8 9 8
Jay 9 8 9 9
JesseG 9 7 8 7
Jorge22 9 9 9 9
Jose 9 8 9 8
Kristina 7 7 7 8
manarch2 8 7 8 7
MichaelP 8 8 9 9
Moonpooka 10 9 9 9
nerdfury 9 10 10 7
Orbit Dream 9 8 9 9
Phil 9 9 10 10
Relic Hunter 9 9 10 9
Ruben 9 9 9 9
Ryan 9 9 9 9
Treeble 7 8 8 7
 
release date: 27-Apr-2007
# of downloads: 75

average rating: 8.46
review count: 21
 
review this level

file size: 85.20 MB
file type: TR4
class: City
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
omebolle@gmail.com

Reviewer's comments
"Dutchy's premiere. I rather liked the feel of the adventure. There are things that remind us of TR3 and a couple of nice timed runs along the way. Pretty cool." - Jorge22 (02-Jun-2023)
"London is a rather difficult setting, to be quite honest (even the official levels I feel are odd from a design point of view), so I admit the bravery for choosing such theme for a debut level. And it sort of works, you have a lot of city environments here, such as streets, rooftops, factories, sewers, underground stations, etc. Gameplay is quite simple and straightforward as you look for keys and switches to proceed while gunning a few thugs on your way. Nothing particularly groundbreaking but still a good distraction. 60 minutes, 6 secrets. 04/23" - Treeble (16-Apr-2023)
"This quest for the beloved crowbar is rather long at 1h20 of net gaming time for me , the 5 secrets weren't very hard to find. A couple of areas with elaborate movable blocks for a secret of for puzzle , jumping around roofs and ledges which is an always a fun thing , a brief visit into sewers , a subway station where challenge really begins with a few tight timed doors with perfect timing , and acrobatics like an easy and fun jump from a pole swing to a a rope or less easy a curved jump to a ledge you don't see although you know it is there. The course is straightforward , atmosphere and enemies are appropriate. The lighting is sometimes on the brownish tones or a few missing sounds did not spoil the fun." - eRIC (06-Jul-2021)
"I haven't played the fourth level yet, but so far this is the hardest one of the set. Tight timed runs, collapsing floors, flames, and a couple of tricky jumps over deadly liquids will put Lara's skills to the test, and for me it was an enjoyable challenge, the only change I would make would be to reduce some of the backtracking. This level also has the strongest architecture so far, with a good variety of indoor and outdoor London scenery. However, like the other levels this one suffers from a fair amount of wallpapering. Lighting has a good use of color, although it is a bit heavy on the purple side. 1 hour 11 minutes." - JesseG (18-Jun-2021)
"This is my go-to level if I feel like a London adventure. There's a robust mix of challenging platforming, combat (with mostly human enemies), exploration, timed runs, and traps/puzzles. I enjoyed all of these elements; most of all the exploration and the timed runs. The level starts off with a Thames Wharf outdoorsy environment, then transitions to Aldwych underground exploration, before finally returning above ground. There's one pushblock puzzle that is quite creative, however it lasts way too long; otherwise I would have given the gameplay a 10/10. I think the builder did extremely well with flyby and regular cameras, to provide hints to the player and to ensure that they do not feel lost (despite the title of the level). It wasn't an easy level, but never once did I feel frustrated at a lack of direction/objective or overwhelmed with too much non-linearity. It is of course a dark level, however, the builder is generous with flares and balances out the darkness with good usage of outdoor and interior light sources. I do think the builder was a little bit sloppy with texturing, though, and I noticed warped textures or wallpapering quite a bit. Overall, it's a superb adventure, and the key names did make me chuckle. 9/10/10/7." - nerdfury (11-Oct-2020)
"This is far longer than KitKat's or LaraCroftBaby's levels, notching up at over 70 minutes for me. You can find everything what raiding is all about in here. Pushable blocks, gymnastics, rope swings, shimmying, timed runs and fetch quests. I'm amazed what the builder managed to include in this level. Perhaps some parts were slightly too long-winded (I had a couple of problems with that huge block puzzle halfway through), but overall I enjoyed myself very much." - Ryan (03-Aug-2017)
"This is by far the longest BoF level I've played to that point (50 mintues), far longer than any of the previous levels. It's actually the first decent effort, and both the gameplay and the looks are worked nicely upon, if not quite perfect anywhere. The gameplay is challenging and fun, the amount of puzzles and timed runs is high. Many rooms seem slightly under-used and cried for more elaborate exploration, where all you have to do is find a lever or your path though, but there's enough to be done in the level so that you won't ever be bored to the slightest. I was rather amused at the various key names, although there's a slight overuse of items in this level, but nothing like in Forgotten Realm; the secrets were a bit too easy to find considering the rest of the level, but Overall, the city atmosphere is pretty solid and has a certain charm, although the flat purple lighting is a bit over-impressive and could've been toned down, while the rooms should've had more dynamic lighting. The texturing is slightly better and manages to nicely picture various settings (like e.g. a factory, crane area and even a boat), but is sometimes a bit too simplistic in the outside areas. At several places, one can reach or see the end of the world, and the architecture is a bit too blocky, but it's not a large gripe - and the rather unique charm of the level helps to forget those issues quickly. Certainly a level recommended without any "but"(t)s. ;)" - manarch2 (26-Mar-2014)
"Graphics: Lighting is sometimes a little bit weird to me - I don't know why some rooms are red, other are orange, and the river is purple. Maybe Dutchy simply likes Stanley Kubrick or what. Anyway, that lighting application does not disturb at all. The rest of lights and shadows seems to be adjusted for them to resemble lighting from original TR3. If this was intended, the author succeeded completely. Texturing is also from TR3, but everything is "painted" in a little bit crazy manner - some windows don't match the rest of the wall, one wall has a floor texture, and, apart from that minor flaws, a lot of textures is stretched and repetative. Somehow, just like in case of the lighting, it doesn't disturb at all and makes me wonder: when a wallpaper remains a wallpaper and when it becomes some kind of art? Where is the border between those situations and what decides about crossing it? I don't know it yet, but I can see Dutchy does. Gameplay: CAUTION! In one place, if You go back through collapsing floor without collecting a key item, You're doomed. But if such thing happens, You will lose maximum several minutes only (as long as You have a previous save), so I don't mind. I just wanted to warn You. The level contains many classic raiding elements - jumps, series of slopes, timed runs, flame pits and even a zipline and spinning propellers, both things characteristic to early TRs. There's a little bit too many pushables, but this sign of tedium is compensated by one of them, being a smart puzzle. Also, the game has great sense of humour, present in funny object names, so I won't mention any of them here, for not to spoil a surprise. Also, I noticed difficulty graduation: the more we progress, the more challenging jumps and harder timed runs we pass, and I'm glad Dutchy cared about that. Atmosphere: Excellent camera work, great usage of sound, and also these two things mixed together - all of this set in standard London environment, what means this adventure is something truly different from the rest of both "Baptism of Fire" editions. EOS: If You played TR3, You know what baddies You can encounter here and what objects You will see. For secrets, they are quite obvious, but there is many of them and it is fun to collect them. SUMMARY: 80 mins in stats, 120 in real life, and this time isn't wasted at all." - DJ Full (01-Feb-2011)
"I normally don't like to play city levels that much but I followed through here because it is part of the Baptism of Fire 2 series. I am glad I did, as this is a surprisingly well-built debut level in a London setting where the goal is to find Lara's beloved crowbar ;-) Seems like a lot of hassle to just find a crowbar, but this adventure is definitely worth every minute of it. The game play is not too easy and not too hard, just a perfect mix of precise jumps, timed runs and exploration. It is fairly straightforward and fluent and it is not easy to get lost here. I only checked occasionally with the walkthrough just make sure I had gotten all the secrets, which were nicely hidden. The push block puzzle was well designed and not too hard either. Enemies were mainly gunmen and the gang members from TR3 and the occasional rat, bat and dog. The lighting was a little on the dark side but not too dark and one really need flares for item searches on a few occasions. The good looking textures was well applied and together with nice room design and a pleasant sound track the whole atmosphere added together to create a wonderful gaming experience and a good example that even a debut level can be as nice as something built by a veteran. Definitely recommended for all players, even a beginner should not have a lot of problems here." - Blue43 (26-Nov-2010)
"Hmmm, that story is very familiar. And naturally we are in London, seems it was intended as a B2B level, but wasn't finished in time. Good that it's been released in here, becasuse it's really a good level. Big, and the tasks are nicely varied, good use of textures, quite dark but good atmosphere. It's not new, but the funny item names were great. Enjoyable timed runs and jump sequences, not too difficult so good entertainment for everyone. An outstanding first effort." - Akcy (24-Sep-2007)
"This was indeed a BtB level but while beta testing it at the time, there were a lot of crashes at the silliest points that this ended almost up in the bin. I am glad Andre gave it another chance (with the NGLE) and as you can see it worked. At the start there is a lot of pushing to do to get the first secret, but once you know, it is ever so easy. Not so nice were the goons that attacked Lara while the flyby was still going, but luckily one left a small medipack. Secrets are nicely hidden and I admire his sense of humour for the naming of the keys and fuses. In here you find most of the action Dutchy himself loves to do in a level. Jumping, timed runs and a good puzzle or two." - Gerty (17-Sep-2007)
"A very good London level that sees us (Lara) exploring very familiar territory, albeit another area of the city. It starts with Lara making her way through a block pushing puzzle to find the revolver and open the way out to the street where a nice flyby shows us our route: climbing a crane for a spot of pole vaulting, zipline ride, and some moonlight roof hopping; scouring the interior of buildings, down into a well created sewer system with giant rats, vent crawling, deserted subway station, water rooms with propellors, lava rooms with breakable tiles, and maze like storage room with walkways, shoot dogs and thugs, find keys and plugs, all to find the famous crowbar (well placed), and make our way to the Thames and a waiting barge. There are a lot of blocks to push around, excellent tight timed runs, dodging barrels and fire emitters, rope swing and breakable tile run (run in on one side and leave the other side in tact to get out). Gameplay is fluid and straight forward with no head scratching involved. We always know where we have to go, thanks mainly to the flyby. So, all told, a very well designed debut adventure to while away the time, and suitable for all players. Well done Dutchy." - CC (07-Jul-2007)
"One of the best debuts I've even played. In this long level you'll find almost all the tasks a TR player expect to find: timed runs, rope, all kind of jumps, shimmies, zip-line, climbs, swims, moveable blocks,... a very complete game. Only near the beginning I found a small error: you can do a sidejump over the grate near the crane nearest to the flaming barrel and so you don't need to open the crane door, avoiding some tasks this way; but this is only a small detail without importance. In the first part of the game gameplay is easy and fluid, but in the second part you'll find some tricky jumps and timed runs difficult to do. You don't need to look for the secrets too much to find them all, and enemies are generally well placed over strategic positions, although you'll dispose of guns and ammo enough to deal with them (except for the uzis). Cameras are very good and help you a lot to find the way to continue playing; the same old well known audio tracks, and textures from old TR3 Aldwich level but well implemented. I already knew that a good player and walkthrough writer should be a good builder too. Don't let making levels! Good work!" - Jose (08-Jun-2007)
"An impressive debut level that really should have featured in the Back to Basics competition and would have been a worthy contender for one of the prizes. It is quite long at about 75 minutes and has rather smooth progression, never too easy, never too hard. Some good use of colours along the way and rather solidly applied textures help the nice atmosphere. There is good camera work along the way and moderate use of audio and enemies. The 6 secrets are all not too difficult to find and maybe a few too many keys to find and use along the way.But the diversity of the areas is fun, as you roam around the roofs, in sewers, the inevitable Metro station and a factory type series of rooms. There are also a few puzzles involving push blocks to spice things up and a few timed runs as well. So, don't wait and try this one out for more than an hour of solid entertainment." - MichaelP (07-Jun-2007)
"It certainly is nice to see a walkthrough writer of long standing branching out into level building and a jolly good debut level it is too. In fact, it would have made a worthy entry in the Back to Basics London competition. Lara gets to use a good roundelay of moves and, although some of the jumps and timed runs might be a little tricky for a complete beginner, most raiders shouldn't find anything too difficult to achieve. Nice one Andre and more please." - Jay (24-May-2007)
"I've found that there are two main groups of people who frequent trle.net and the forums: builders and players. Although there's some overlap, by and large you're either in one group or you're in the other. However, once in a very great while someone will jump from the player ranks and demonstrate some extraordinary building skills. Eric Claire comes immediately to mind as Exhibit A, although there are certainly others who could be named. I've always held a great regard for seemingly ordinary Tomb Raider fans who take the time and trouble to learn the basics of the level editor, put together their own level and dare to release it to the cruel scrutiny of the raiding faithful. Dutchy has acquired a certain fame in these circles for his walkthrough writing skills, but now he has made the transition from player to builder by giving us his LE debut in the form of a London level of uncanny polish and sophistication. I understand that it was intended for release in the most recent BtB competition, but that the project hit a technical dead end along the way and would have been destined for the trash heap had it not been salvaged somehow and completed for inclusion in George M's second Baptism of Fire collection. Although the other reviews have noted its linear qualities, I found myself absorbed for ten minutes shy of two hours, generous gameplay indeed for a stand-alone level. Ian says the timed runs could be conquered in two or three tries. Speak for yourself, nimble fingers. That first one took me at least ten tries, and I was about to go find someone to teach me how to cuss in Dutch. The other timed moves were more manageable, but there was that curved jump to an unseen ledge around a pillar that gave me bruises on my fingertips that'll last for days. The breakledge area, by the way, poses no problems for those who approach it with eyes open: just run along one side on the way over, and along the other side on your way back. Shame on Dutchy for swiping Staticon's idea of giving cutesie names to the keys. Even so, I'm still waiting for someone to give us a Kink-Key. The lighting is great, the puzzles and jumps and enemies are worthy of someone with far more building experience, and the overall gaming experience is just plain fun. Bravo on your noteworthy first-born, Dutchy, and I'm looking forward to playing many more." - Phil (10-May-2007)
"Generally, I find London type levels to be kind of murky and uninteresting, but this level is an exception. It starts out with a small pushblock maze, but from there on it turns into an exhilarating ride through the nice London environment. This level has a very fluid progression and I found it quite hard to get stuck here. Visually, it is a dark level as it is London at night, but it's done well here giving the level a very nice atmosphere. You're going to journey through buildings, streets, machineries, a subway, and then emerge at a dock at the end. Exploring these places, you're on a hunt for some keys and fuses with some timed runs here and there, interesting jump sequences, some fun with burners, while having to shoot down the well placed baddies that show up. To sum it all up, it gave me an hour of something fun to do and I really liked this venture. If Dutchy continues to build, I'll be looking forward to playing his second adventure." - Relic Hunter (01-May-2007)
"Although London levels can be rather drab, this is probably one of the best I have played so far. Lara is searching for her old crowbar; and some of her old enemies have sniffed out her presence, so expect many guards and thugs to be patrolling the areas and hold on to your health. There are some keys and plugs to root out and Lara will also use the zip line, but my fav bits were the timed runs because they were quite tight and this made things challenging. There were a few missing sounds but I think that was due to the wad that was used, but textures were good and the rooms were nicely laid out so that the player didn't get confused or lost at any time. I loved the secrets which were in imaginative places, not too easy and yet not too hard if you take the time to explore a bit. I never found the crowbar though and it would have been nice to take it home after all that work. All in all, this is an exceptionally entertaining level and you certainly won't be bored. Thank you, Andre." - Moonpooka (01-May-2007)
"I am not a fan of London levels and I'd have preferred to see another theme for Andre's first level but it is a nice one anyway. The setting is London of course with darkish areas when needed and a station with no trains. There are a few timed runs but nothing difficult there, rooftops and a lot of buttons/switches. The enemies are rats, goons with bats. I liked the gameplay in general but at some point it felt that all I was dong was running and jumping. There is one problem though in the area with the many collapsing tiles after the slide blocks. If you are careless and break most of the tiles you can't go back anymore. The moveable blocks were a nice addition but overused from a point after. It's a good effort for a first level and I am sure Andre will become a great builder if he persists. I found the six secrets and it was a pleasant hunt." - Kristina (01-May-2007)
"If only Andre had mucked this one up I could have got back at him for his opinion of Mallory's Trail;unfortunately for me he produced a superb piece of work and one of the best and most absorbing stand-alone levels I've ever had the pleasure of playing...damn him! In a way,I'm rather glad that circumstances prevented him from releasing it with the other BtoB07 London levels (which was his original intention)as this wonderful adventure would have been slightly obscured by one or two of the competitors. As it is,it is now able to stand alone as a superb piece of nocturnal urban explorataion,in a style now familiar to us all. It almost plays as a check-list of things you expect from this type of scenario: Alleyways;check. Tall climbable Crane;check. Large abandoned Church;check. Nasty warehouse;check. Deserted Subway;check.But it's a tribute to Dutchy's inventiveness that it never seems predictable;instead I was drawn along by the fluid progression and superb pace of the level,from one set-piece to the next.There are a few weaknesses,which betray the 'first-time' status.The layout is relentlessly linear and there are few reasons to pause in your forward momentum,as the solution (usually an amusingly named Key) is invariably close at hand.Camera's are often triggered to the square on which the important Switch sits,rather than being triggered to the activation of the Switch itself.A wall ladder could be climbed into the sky.A rope swing could propel Lara into an adjacent unfinished room. In particular,the level went on a little too long for its own good and culminated in an 'end-of-the-world' area which the player was obviously not meant to explore.The picking up of the Crowbar itself (the object of Lara's quest) would have been a more natural finishing point. It was almost as if the builder was thinking "I still have the availability of a couple more rooms to squeeze into the map and I'm going to bloody well use them!" Elsewhere,it's amazing that so much could be squeezed into one level;at several points I thought that the adventure was surely on the verge of ending,only to find myself arriving at another impressive area. Indeed it is here that Dutchy's experience as a player and walkthrough-writer clearly shows itself,for he fills each new area with a different and enjoyable challenge.There's nothing too demanding anywhere here;the timed runs are do-able on the 2nd or 3rd (at most)attempt;the jumps are fun but straightforward;the push-block puzzles are all easy to work out. But the flow of the adventure is superb and well-judged,with an experienced players eye.The atmosphere is all you could ask from this type of scenario (with a good use of atmospheric music);although there is perhaps too much use made of the Shadow bulb.The textures are impeccable and placed creatively. As a stand-alone level,this is very good indeed.As a beginners level,it is superb.What a jammy bastard he is!" - Orbit Dream (01-May-2007)
"A marvelleous little level by Andre , just the right thing to keep you entertained for a couple of hours on a lazy sunday afternoon. A straight forward gameplay without frustration to please the player`s heart , for the advanced raiders a good chance to train their abilitiy in tightly timed runs ! As in all my other rewiews I must point it out again : THERE MUST BE MUSIC ! Don't let Lara cruise around only accompanied by the howling winds of the TRLE files !!! Thank you Dutchy , well done , do it again !" - Ruben (29-Apr-2007)