Level: The Shadow of Ganesh Author(s): Begebies total rating: 1.21 Gameplay & Puzzles Enemies, Objects & Secrets Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras Lighting & Textures bERT 0 1 1 1 CC 1 1 1 0 Dimpfelmoser 3 2 0 0 DJ Full 2 0 1 2 Gerty 2 1 1 2 Jay 1 1 1 1 Jose 1 1 1 1 Kristina 1 2 2 2 Lady Lara 0 0 2 1 Magnus 2 0 1 1 MichaelP 2 1 2 1 Necro 1 1 2 0 Orbit Dream 1 1 0 0 RaiderGirl 2 1 2 2 Ryan 1 1 1 0 Sakusha 2 1 1 1 Sash 1 1 0 1 Scottie 1 1 2 1 Torry 3 2 4 3 Treeble 2 1 2 1 category averages (20 reviews) 1.45 1.00 1.35 1.05 Reviewer's comments "The first thing that draws attention to this level is the horrible texturization. Then you'll advance through some empty rooms with missing textures and unmarked ladders to get a key and go back to a previous room to use it. That's all the history. On your way you'll shoot few ninjas and scorpions. There is also a very tricky jump in a dark room with a deep pit. At the end, in the swamp room, I found a part of Lara's body I could "use" as an underwater switch, but the door never opened. Really not worth to play." - Jose (29-Dec-2017) "Oh dear, this is really bad. It's full of misapplied and stretched textures (most of the triangular shaped textures seem to be missing, possibly because they're hard to accomplish - I wouldn't know). It's buggy and the gameplay is practically nonexistent, apart from shooting a couple of ninjas and scorpions. It doesn't appear possible to finish it either. Don't bother." - Jay (06-Sep-2016) "God, what a mess. Lara's butts everywhere, missing and stretched textures abound and no real gameplay. Misplaced water textures. I can't recommend this at all. Stay away. For reviewers like me only!" - Ryan (06-Apr-2016) "This builder of long ago had(to judge from his two existing levels)a complete and unfathomable inability to actually play either of them himself.If he had,he would surely have noticed the complete absence of the rolling boulders and underwater levers that he had intended to incorporate?Not to mention the painfully stretched textures;or the medi-pack on a ledge that you couldn't escape from without dying? This level actually cannot be completed due to a door refusing to open;but further progression would only have been prolonging the agony anyway.Textures are abominable;there is no atmosphere;but at least there's a key to find and a couple of ninja's to kill. I really hope that this completes my 'really bad early levels that needed reviewing' mopping-up operation;as there's no pleasure to be had from any of this sort of stuff,except for perhaps a malicious chuckle or two." - Orbit Dream (30-Sep-2013) "This level is not as well textured as the author claims. What is more, I can agree it has no good textures at all. But as long as I've seen much uglier things in several customs I think the texturing in this level deserves 1 point. Gameplay is rather average - consisting of some platforms, slopes, ladders and pools - but it includes one long, unnecessary backtrack. Honestly, when I found the key I thought I reached the end of the level and if I didn't read the reviews, I wouldn't have known there's something else to do. So gameplay is 1 point only. Puzzles get the second one, as I had to work something out. But neither enemies, nor objects satisfied me. I've seen several butts again, and ass long ass they are there, I have no reason to give any points for objects. Atmosphere is acceptable - I felt like I am in India temple. SUMMARY: Long monotony, but I can see the author had an idea and some motivation, as the level is quite long. However, this is still not enough to make a good level." - DJ Full (11-Oct-2010) "If one has a look at the textures, we would have to be in India. But really we are in the hell. One sees everywhere stretched wallpaper textures. If one can see then the textures. Because they are absent at many places. And one cannot necessarily recognise climbable walls as climbable walls. And though in a room one can jump to a half Medipack, but there is no way back. Several objects are not to be seen, instead of this one sees only Laras belt. The water is not animated partly properly and if one is under water, one can look in the room above because the ceiling is transparent. And there is a Dead-End. In a room a door does not rise in spite of the underwater lever. Because this is described in all Reviews, was here after less than 15 minutes end of work. Only both Baddies gave variety of the monotony. More or less." - Scottie (28-May-2009) "This is the second level I have played by this author, which happens to be his first attempt at level designing. I thought the other was abismal. this is plain awful. There seems to be only one texture used throughout and no effort has been made to reduce stretched textures. I have seem plenty of untextured tiles, and various "butts". I couldn't complete the level because the underwater "butt" didn't topen the door. I have found other butts scattered and wondered if they were part of a sequenced switch which ultimatly opened the door but alas - no such luck. I can see why the author gave up on creating another level." - Necro (06-May-2008) “I see what the intention was jungle temple fallen to ruins or falling into the sea as the author says but unfortunately it falls flat on it's face as it's obvious the author gave up trying and we're left with the 'shadow' of his former intentions. The boulders were butts seriously stretched or missing textures unmarked climbable walls. To make matters worse in the final room you fall into mud but are able to swim down to a 'butt' and pressing action Lara does her usual at an underwater lever but the gate doesn't open so we're stuck here forever.” - CC (23-Oct-2004) “The story may sound interesting and the beginning was well done (except for the stretched textures) but the level was pretty badly made. The textures are stretched everywhere one of the water rooms suddenly becomes a room without water (once you enter the area that contains two scorpions and a ladder that Lara cannot climb because of a bug with the animation) there is a butt in the pool and one of the gates cannot be opened. By the way I only encountered one ninja in this level.” – Sakusha (08-May-2004) “After just over five minutes this level came to an abrupt end. Which was kind of a relief really since this level is a mess with missing objects stretched textures and non-existent gameplay. Basically all you get to do is find a Guardian Key. That’s pretty much it. Not recommended.” – Magnus (29-Jan-2004) “Usually the most important information is in the small print. If that's the case than this level is a scam. You are promised some level with a story line about a temple crumbling into the sea. At least that's what the read me says and I thought 'hey from the size this looks small but nevertheless promising'. What you get however is probably one of the worst levels ever. Unbelievable stretched textures an unbelievable amount of missing textures nothing in the readme file about the necessity to use the revised karnak-wads and...and...and... Even when using the right karnak wads the level is unfinishable because of some kind of underwater switch that looks like a butt but nevertheless is one you can pull but without any effect and keeping you stuck in a mud pool room because the grated door there does not open. Only play this if you want to be annoyed.” – bERT (25-Jan-2004) “Yet another level you'd only play to get an award. Well very stretched India textures - they really did give me a headache. You had to DOZY because Lara would not climb. Though it was funny to see her stick her head into the wall - she did it with such determination. I'd never seen that - and it gave me a good laugh. I only saw one butt though - perhaps because I could not get past the second door. Got the guardian key but couldn't find anything else. But then those textures were really beginning to give me a headache. I heard boulders and felt them shaking the ground but never saw any. I gave 2 for the sound cues and 1 for the temple entrance at the beginning.” – Lady Lara (28-Dec-2003) “A first effort from the author so I really wasn't expecting anything good but I was quite bored when I arrived in the ‘mud’ area found nothing but a door closed and a butt and became stuck. The whole level is textured randomly I guess and it sometimes it is simply UGLY (like the water textures applied on the ceiling of the water room) all walls that Lara can climb don't look they can be climbed so it was more like a wild guess and well I won't tell anything else otherwise I would spoil the whole level.” – Treeble (21-Dec-2002) “I think the title doesn't do this level any justice. Instead it should have been called ‘The stretched textures of Ganesh’ or ‘The lost textures of Ganesh’ or ‘The floating butts of Ganesh’ or ‘The thin walls of Ganesh’. This is terrible; it makes you appreciate the atmosphere of all those mediocre tutorial levels.” – Dimpfelmoser (25-Aug-2002) “I have only one word for this level: Bad! It is textured horribly game play is dull and for whatever reason deadly boulders have been replaced with non-deadly butts but the biggest inconvenience is that when you pull an underwater switch also replaced with a butt a metal gate doesn’t open putting a stop to progression...but I’m not sure that was a bad thing!” – Sash (21-Jun-2002) “This level turned out to be sort of unplayable for me. Alright there is the rather repetitive and sometimes missing texturing of the huge rooms the missing water textures and the overall rather strange architecture but the most critical issue is really that some of the objects placed in the WAD are not part of the installation so instead you find Lara's butt replacing them (including important things like rolling balls and switches!). I did find and place the guardian key and found the mud room reasonably well done but gave up after pulling the 'butt switch'. Not funny.” – Michael (21-Jun-2002) “This was not a bad idea but the execution was terrible. It started off promising but rapidly went downhill from there. Objects such as boulders didn't appear but you could tell something was happening due to the shaking. Some jumps were impossible and I gave up when switches were turned into floating butts. Another wasted download people.” – Torry (21-Jun-2002) “I'll admit I installed this level to see the boulders that looked like butts but they weren't as interesting as they sounded. Actually Lara's pants were everywhere just floating there - in doorways in pits underwater. I often saw them from far away and thought they were pickups. The first 10 seconds were fun but then it all went downhill from there (and I don't just mean the butt boulders). The textures were horrible the rooms were boring and in places I had to use the fly cheat because Lara was unable to climb. I was curious to see if the level got any better but I was unable to continue due to a problem with one of the switches. I don't think there's any way this level can be saved.” - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002) “A rather boring level. Had come across some floating parts of Lara before and I know it is not necessary. It could have been much more.” – Gerty (21-Jun-2002) “That was very bad. The textures are randomly placed and one tile all over a huge room a guardian key as puzzle and an underwater switch that didn’t open the door that was supposed to open. Every object floats and looks like a body part of Lara. Not interested.” – Kristina (21-Jun-2002)