Level: City of Gods Author(s): Levelzentrum total rating: 6.21 Gameplay & Puzzles Enemies, Objects & Secrets Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras Lighting & Textures alan 5 5 7 6 CC 6 5 7 7 Dimpfelmoser 7 4 8 7 Drakan 7 6 7 6 eRIC 6 5 7 6 Gerty 5 6 7 6 Gonxii 5 5 7 7 Jay 5 6 7 7 Jose 5 6 7 8 Kristina 6 6 7 7 MichaelP 6 6 7 4 Orbit Dream 4 4 6 7 Phil 6 7 7 8 RaiderGirl 7 6 7 7 Ryan 5 5 6 7 Sash 6 5 7 6 Treeble 6 6 7 8 category averages (17 reviews) 5.71 5.47 6.94 6.71 Reviewer's comments "I read a few other reviews to find out if they had encountered the same problem as me, namely staying stuck in the opening before the burning room with no hope of reloading. I had to start over with a previous backup. Otherwise excellent small level of catacombs with some enemies but we quickly find the crossbow with explosive arrows." - Drakan (24-Nov-2018) "This is a worthwhile catacombs level with a serious flaw. About 25 minutes in you have to shoot a set of bones to open a nearby door in order to progress. After that point, if you save and try to reload, Lara is frozen in position and will not respond to any control keys. The only solution is to play the remaining 10 minutes in one go, without dying along the way. This is somewhat difficult in the room where you get the scroll, the one with the burning floor. I died there three times and finally got through by using the hop-back-and-glide technique to reach the exit passage, as there appeared to be no other safe way to get there. Other than that, you're treated to a good-looking and well lighted raid that I enjoyed a good deal." - Phil (08-Feb-2018) "Just another catacombs level with the classic gameplay: find some puzzle items, blow up skeletons, pulling levers and doing some jumps. There's a maze which wasn't very confusing for me. The statues where the wraiths have to bump into are used like a decoration rather than to kill any wraiths. Anyway I kinda liked it and finished after 35 minutes." - alan (30-Jan-2018) "It's not bad, I suppose, but there's nothing innovative or out of the ordinary occurring here. It's not bad aesthetically, although a bit overdone in darkness in some places. There's some switches to pull, mummies and skeletons to blow up and some artefacts to find. Not terrible, but there are better Catacomb adventures out there. The savegame bug which I encountered (stuck in a cut scene format so a replay was in order), didn't help matters either." - Ryan (08-Jul-2017) "This was fairly a very good catacomb level and straightforward also. You need to gather several artifacts in order to get through. Some rooms were very big and empty, some other a bit challenging, specially that with fire at the bottom. Enemies were skeletons but there's plenty of ammo to dispose them off. Atmosphere and textures were good used. Took half an hour. Recommended for those who want an easy raid through catacombs." - Gonxii (16-Nov-2015) "Not good, not bad. It's well put together visually, but the gameplay lacks any real spark, being mainly exploration, switch throwing and blowing up skeletons. The nasty bug towards the end doesn't help to endear it either, although in fairness once you realise what's going on there shouldn't be a problem provided you remember not to reload for any reason. You may however just prefer to play one of the countless other catacomb style levels available." - Jay (04-Oct-2015) "Not very interesting this catacomb level, but playable anyway. There are some skeletons to shoot once in a while, enough guns and weapons (what the uzis and the revolver were for?), hundreds of vases to shoot but nothing inside them. Correct cameras and flybies, I missed more musics. The best were the lights and textures (too many shadows perhaps). There is a simple puzzle with the moveables near the end but no more than pull levers or look for items. Consider if it could be worth to play for you." - Jose (02-Jun-2015) "This would have been a perfectly enjoyable (if undemanding) Catacomb adventure were it not for a ridiculous bug which prevents you from saving at about 10 minutes in. As a result,I played sections of this level a couple of times over and can verify that it has,as a consequence,very little replay value. Visually it's all entirely competant (although I'm not too sure about the pitch-black sky)and you'll spend most of your time running back and forth over considerable distances in order to pick up and place various familiar items. Ordinarily I would recommend this for those in the mood for a traditional old-fashioned raid,but the Save Bug prevents me from doing this without a strong note of caution." - Orbit Dream (09-May-2008) "An old level and pretty good by the way. I've said so many times that I have now forgotten but I am not really a big fan of Catacomb-wad environments but this one I found to be rather appealing. The work done with textures and lighting really did make the level worth 'looking at' although gameplaywise there was nothing out of the ordinary. You'll be in a quest for several puzzle items going from one side of the map to the other which isn't really that big. Definitely worth a look. There was an annoying bug which I couldn't get rid off because as soon as the game would reload the camera would stuck itself in the flyby mode and wouldn't allow Lara to move. The only way I found around this was placing Lara right at that point using the provided project and playing from there without saving/reloading - somewhat of a bad cheat. Total 35 minutes. 11/04" - Treeble (13-Nov-2004) "Playing this on the last day of the year 2003 that bug is still there. And like the other reviewers I was relieved to find that it wasn't just me. When I reloaded a savegame Lara is frozen with only the look button functioning. So a total replay of the game had to be done without saving. I liked this level a lot particularly the cameras. I thought it looked very well and I didn't really notice the texture problems. Gameplay is looking for two pillars/knots to open doors swimming dealing with skellies and mummys shooting a lot of vases for fun because there's no reward but shooting bones does eventually open another door and pushing a couple of columns about. I had a little laugh when the 'dangerous' music started on entering a room only to find a lone skelly rising from the floor - ok let's go get him but where is he? Gone vanished too scared to face me eh! I liked the idea of this very catacomb level opening out to an outdoor space with temple type structures. A very good level for such a tiny download." - CC (25-Jan-2004) "I also got stuck in a flyby or cut scene or whatever you want to call it. Right about when I was having fun and this level looked nice I get that bug and start to wonder if something happened to my PC. I am glad I read the reviews and found out it wasn't me after all. A knot two gems skeletons and the classic catacomb design but well done. I wonder why the author never bothered to correct this problem with the date being 18-12-2002 a long time since its release." - Kristina (20-Dec-2002) "I was really relieved when I read the reviews after finishing this level as it turned out that I wasn't the only one who got locked up in a fly by mode after reloading a savegame. See this was the third PRJ file I've converted and I feared I had messed it up somehow (like the second one I've converted) but now I feel quite confident and will continue with the fourth level from the Zentrum. Alright I liked this a great deal although shooting the vases becomes a bit boring as there's never anything inside (why?) and as you find the explosives very early the enemies pose no threat whatsoever (where were the elementals?). But I loved the traditional catacomb atmosphere and thought the missing textures looked quite good and as if omitted by design. There is a lot of toing and froing but since you generally get a cut scene when placing and item or pushing a lever you don't have to do much fruitless searching. As in the other levels from this series the camerawork is excellent while the gameplay is rather fast paced and easy." - Dimpfelmoser (24-Oct-2002) "This level makes quite good use of the catacomb textures and objects although lighting was just too uniformly dark throughout. Again this is a pretty standard level in the 'of Gods' series and there was no one thing that stood out as exceptional however there was one thing that was devastatingly bad about half way through you come to an outdoor area where you need to shoot a certain object to proceed and after that if you save you cannot reload it without Lara being frozen to the spot so all I can say is be as careful as possible after that spot. I can't be sure at my finish time as the statistics couldn't be accessed at the end but I think it roughly took me between 35 to 40 minutes to play and apart from that major inconvenience this was a pretty good level." - Sash (21-Jun-2002) "Minimum download time for this one and quite some time of gameplay for that in a standard catacomb WAD setting with unfortunately a number of texturing bugs paper-thin walls and the possibility to hit the 'end of the world'. As usual with the levels of this series a lot of running around to do and lots of vases to shoot although this does not really yield anything as opposed to shooting bones. Gameplay is built around picking up the puzzle items and finding their receptacles and some neat fixed cameras have been used. Strangely I had one major bug that when I tried to reload a saved game my editor went into camera mode and I could not move Lara anymore so I had to start over and play it all in one go which is manageable but just be warned about this issue." - Michael (21-Jun-2002) "After reading the other reviews I made sure I played this level through without saving which usually would be pretty annoying. However this level is only 35 minutes long and even with a few skeletons it's fairly easy and straightforward so really there's no need to ever save. It seems I've been spoiled with all the custom wads that are being used nowadays and my first instinct is to say 'great another catacomb level' but this is very well done and although there's nothing tricky here and it wasn't filled with brilliant puzzles here it was a lot of fun to play and looked nice. There are a few objects to place - two gems a scroll the knot and the pillar - and plenty of places to explore as you look for them plus the well done camera angles made it even more interesting." - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002) "Released in March last year and still the same bug in it see review Michael. What really is a shame. Because this is a nice level and as I never play a level in one go it got me peeved. You find enough weapons and ammo to fight the skeletons you encounter. A little backtracking but nothing major a nice flow in the gameplay. Some levers to pull a pharo's knot and a pillar you have to find to open even more doors. And don't forget to shoot the bones. Also a flare bug appears very sloppy. If it wasn't for that still not fixed bug the gameplay would get more points. 26-05-2002" - Gerty (21-Jun-2002) "An easy catacomb level of exploration of 35 minutes with some puzzles. You can find here all the weapons of TRLR and even the unuseful crowbar. My favourite part in this level is the long alley with catacomb houses on each side which explain the title of the level an abandoned city. I have found no bug except the flares bug in the room with fire where you pick up the scroll and do some good jumps. Good atmosphere and camera work." - eRIC (21-Jun-2002)