trle.net ::: Level Reviews

Level:	The Quest
Author(s):	davep83

total rating:	7.73	Gameplay & Puzzles	Enemies, Objects & Secrets	Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras	Lighting & Textures
	Christian	7	7	8	8
	dmdibl	8	9	8	7
	Dutchy	8	7	7	8
	Jack&	6	6	6	7
	Jay	8	7	7	7
	Jorge22	9	9	9	9
	Jose	8	8	8	8
	manarch2	9	8	8	7
	MichaelP	7	6	6	6
	Orbit Dream	8	8	7	8
	Phil	9	8	9	9
	Steven Svorticher	9	9	9	7
	category averages (12 reviews)	8.00	7.67	7.67	7.58

Reviewer's comments

"Despite some more negative views on this level, I had fun whilst playing it. Nice textures and settings, an adequate background music/sound, well organized with plenty of different tasks to perform (and not boring because of taking too long ever), accessible to anyone or almost, meaning there aren't really many stuck moments because everything is so cryptic as happens way too often. Fun indeed. Keep it up." - Jorge22 (08-Feb-2013)

"This builder never fails to come up with quirky and individualistic concepts;and is fast becoming a builder with a recognised and highly anticipated style.That's not to say,of course,that his levels are necessarily masterpieces - this latest being a case in point.The overall concept is a good one (four quests,each leading back to a Hub room);and each quest is stuffed full of puzzles and challenges - but the identical pattern of 'gauntlet;push-puzzle;riddle;Boss" becomes irritating after a while (despite the high standard of invention constantly on display);and the predictable pattern took away the potential for surprise.The rooms are all pretty small;architectural flourishes are few and far between;the texturing and lighting is serviceable to the gameplay but not especially to the environment;and the atmosphere is consequently not as interesting as it could have been.Coupled with that,a degree of irritation with some of the challenges (I found the boat sequence rather annoying;and,despite having several different paths to follow,I always seemed to choose the one with the lengthy pushable object puzzle).As for this latter element,I can only quote the Mighty Prager thus: "Why waste the building effort for rooms that in all likelihood then many players will never get to see?" Overall,a great creative concept;a plethora of ingenious puzzles;and top marks for creativity - but the result is a level that is actually pretty hard to enjoy all the way through." - Orbit Dream (27-May-2012)

"Oh my, I really wanted to enjoy this quest, but for me it would have been more appropriately titled The Ordeal. What you get is four times the same basic schema: Start with a few jumps through traps, then travel onwards in a linear fashion through a series of smallish rooms which host a puzzle, an enemy, a trap or both. And there are many really good ideas among those many, many tasks our Lara has to complete - yet, for me it all felt a bit too much of too many. The whole thing lost the plot for me quickly, I felt cramped in more and more and began to not like the fairly basic and mixed texturing more and more and probably some time during the third quest area, I really just wanted it to end. Even though each quest area will have a net game time of only about 20 minutes - not counting the reload from a save if you want to explore a respective other route you can choose (which is by the way an idea never get. Why waste the building effort for rooms that in all likelihood then many players will never get to see? I was also not such a big fan of Lara's only weapon being the bow. It worlks ok for the fighting you need to do, but still felt cunbersome to employ in many places. So again - I want to be clear that this just did not click with me real well and it may just work fine for you, so give it a try. I just hope Dave will conserve some of his very visible creativity and build a mix next between his last two levels - one with a few select puzzles to solve and a storyline and nice environment to embed it into. Now that would be something ;)" - MichaelP (24-May-2012)

"It's hard to find fault with these newer levels compiled with all the currently available tools. The concept here isn't terribly original, starting in a hub room where you have the choice of four separate routes to get started. And even within the routes you have to make choices along the way, unless you follow the advice of Dutchy's walkthrough and save before embarking upon the first of two possible paths. Much of the adventure consists of going from one trapfest to another, but they're highly entertaining trapfests and I have no quarrel with the builder on that account. You're limited in weaponry to the crossbow, but we have a new shooting animation and plenty of ammunition to keep the enemies at bay. I spent about an hour and a half here, and in my humble opinion this release is underrated by at least a full point. Maybe we're all just getting spoiled." - Phil (21-May-2012)

"A quite conventional concept: 4 doors lead to 4 sublevels in which some tasks have to be done, 4 keys have to found to lead the player finally to the exit. In each section a boss has to be killed keeping the item needed. It's a running from trap to trap all of the not too hard - but there's no time to relax. Poisened air, a bull opening a door, some nice ideas there. The timed runs are not that hard. Atmosphere is well created, lighting and textures well done." - Christian (15-May-2012)

"An entertaining serie of 4 levels based on a dark-horror atmosphere and with ambient music staying tuned to the theme.. I think the author has been able to create what he wanted and used some flyby, not really "complete" but suggesting an imminent danger..I've been satisfied. Lights are used in a good way.. while textures are maybe a bit repetitive and the global building of the rooms is minimal.. I mean most of them are too little, built in a few squares and sometimes it would have been better to make them bigger. But let's speak about the main points of this adventure: gameplay and enigms. In these 4 worlds we find similiar aspects for each of them like: they begin in a narrow corridor with blades or other traps to avoid, in every world there's a question to solve (some of them quite difficult), in every final room we've to fight against a demonic demigod, every world has more paths to choose and each of them ends in a common room but it doesn't matter which one you follow.. each of them will give so much entertainment to you eheh! The nice thing is Lara has to go along about 10 rooms for each world, but none of them is "quiet".. all of them have many traps, time trials or dangerous enemies or there are original enigms to solve. So if you look for relaxing stuff, well you've chosen the wrong level. Let's see in detail. - 1st world. As gameplay: to cross a corridor full of blades, to cross a room with horizontal ropes and the next one with very fast darts, to jump above flames and time them in order to pull 2 switches, to sprint in a timed spiked floor, to do a time trial in narrow corridors to climb. Enigms: to guess which switches to pull in order to turn off some flames by looking some texture tiles with opened eyes, to move a column to make a lowering floor fixed (like in Catacombs of TR4). The question: there's a sequence of numbers.. which is the right next one? Let's reflect. Globally good world. - 2nd world. Gameplay: to cross a corridor with circolar blades, to avoid boulders traps, to fight against a strong but slow demon, to avoid 2 strange mummies in a very restricted space of 4 floor tiles rising up (like in the final part of Burial Chambers of TR4), to pull some jumpswitches turning off flames letting you pull 2 more switches, to turn quickly some valves or the gas will kill you, to pull quicly 2 switches (not easy because of the presence of obstacles) before lots of beetles eat you, to front a mini underwater maze avoiding 2 monsters. All of this at the beginning.. after that there are only enigms: a quicksand room with some safe tiles..which ones? The same thing realized with spikes, to shoot to targets because one of them reveal a hidden tile. The question: you've to move a pushable in the tiles with the correposndent alphabet letters forming the answer. Personally this has been my favourite world! - 3rd world. Gameplay: other traps (like Lud's Gate of TR3), to pull quickly a switch or so many skeletons will make you like themselves eheh, to make some jumps on several slopes or a group of piranha will comfort you! Enigms: to use the lasersight in order to shoot some targetings, to interact with several blocks developed on 4 floors (maybe one of the hardest puzzles), to choose among several baskets the safe one containing a key while the other ones are traps (like in Escape With the Iris of TR5), to "use" an Ariet to bash a door, to use the 2 waterskins in a balance like in the Horus Temple of TR4. The question: to choose which targeting to shoot according to the common number of 4 words (surely the most difficult question of the game). So a quiet gameplay with more enigms, but not among my favourite worlds. - 4th world. Gameplay: to cross a corridor with abrasive rollers (like in Strahov of TRAOD), to move quickly a block because we can't breath gas, to use a boat above boiling water in a very narrow area where you've to pick up objects placed on timed column in the water itself, to avoid Damocle swords falling from all the ceiling, to understand where it's better to stand because a sequence of spiked ceilings will lower.. so which parts of the room keep themselves safe? Enigms: to open several gates by using 3 buttons and the right sequence changes according to some painted textures in each gate (like in Underneath The Sphinx of TR4)... maybe this is the question. So a quite dynamic world and very good. As enemies we find spiders, strong demons, snakes, phanters, beetles, mummies, bats, harpies, an ariet, skeletons and the 4 final demigods. So many enemies that we can defeat only by using the arc-crossbow and, considering explosive ammo are a few ones and the normal ones so many, the difficulty will increase. I think it was a great idea.. people always complain when the game is too easy by having very strong weapons.. here it's a competitive example. The only wrong thing for me is to put in every final part of the level a demigod.. the author could have put other enemies. There are no secrets. Globally an excellent project, even more than the previous one (1943 Star of David): even if the graphic component isn't excellent at all, I think gameplay-enigms are (not always.. some examples are too equal to the original TRs) suggesting that feeling of mystery and danger typical of a horror theme. Besidess I think generally in trle history there are a lot of levels with good graphic, but limited in their gameplay.. my conception to appreciate a level is the opposite.. I mean I prefer works like this one where graphic is less accurated, but with consinstent gameplay and enigms because in this way you can notice the author's fantasy and ability that he put in practice so much. It was very delightful to play.. compliments. Go on this way!" - Steven Svorticher (08-May-2012)

"Glad to see the progression from this builder. The levels are not too large, but really entertaining, with innovative puzzles and new ideas. I was thinking about getting out of arrows for the bow during the game, but what I found was enough. I liked the option of, sometimes, choose a path ot another even losing a part of the gameplay. The environment is good too with a creepy touch. Recommended. Continue so." - Jose (07-May-2012)

"This level is a bit of an assault course, consisting mainly of cramming in as many ways for Lara to die as is possible in the running time of approximately one hour forty minutes. Basically, there are four different areas to explore off a central room and each one is full of traps, puzzles and enemies. I did get a bit tired of the inevitable demigod in each area, but some of the puzzles were interesting, including a few fresh takes on very traditional themes, and battling the various enemies with only the crossbow (albeit with the benefit of some explosive ammo) certainly spiced up the action. Having completed all four sections, you will have four keys to place and end the level. It certainly has its enjoyable parts and overall I liked the experience, but just occasionally I found myself becoming a bit irritated with certain aspects, such as the aforementioned demigods, and I�d have liked a bit more variety of scenery. Well worth playing though and certainly an adrenalin rush for the most part." - Jay (03-May-2012)

"well i will be not very generous with the marks at this one .....seems like a begginer work ... small rooms in fact very small ..... demigods boss at each quest and this at a 3M/3M room !! u have no room to avoid his blasts . and forget to say u have only a crosbow and few explozive arrows only ..... so u need to use normal ones on them too .. ok u get some medipacks . but is silly fight ...... also is 4 paths with diferent trapps . floor slicers at one ... rotative at next . stampers at next and so ..... some acrobatics at some slopes ... nothing special ......mediocre game .both at gameplay and visuals too" - Jack& (01-May-2012)

"A collection of numerous quick puzzles and traps, almost a compendium of obstacles Lara has overcome throughout the years, rather like those comedians who tell one rapid-fire joke after another: if you don't like one vignette, Lara will soon be on to the next. Takes a full two hours with four distinct levels, and I found it to be engaging. Whereas the author's previous levels were scenic, here the surroundings are basic Spartan, with everything devoted to challenges. Some are rather weak: shoot objects through slits; find a path through spikes by looking at the ceiling; climb down a long ladder just to pick up a jewel. Of course there are various switch or push block puzzles, and standard gymnastics like multiple slope jumps over a pond with hungry piranha. If players don't know who Menes is, then look it up. For the math trial a calculator is handy. I had favorite spots. One was the small room with two wraiths draining Lara of health. What to do? The doors are shut, the walls are solid, Lara can shoot funny objects up in the ceiling but it doesn't seem to do anything, and the only object on a pedestal is a banana (large medipack). The boat area was a highlight: the water is deadly, yet Lara needs floating power crystals in it to exit the rooms, and the solution involves timed raising platforms. Each of these four gauntlet levels ends with a demigod, and the normal solution is to run up, crouch, and shoot with pistols as required. But here the demigod is in a pit, and the only weapon that Lara ever has is a long bow with normal ammo and six explosive arrows. I was surprised to discover that Lara can handle these demigods without taking damage, which is a good trick to know as this has to be done repeatedly. In the end I wished the author had done more with this: lose the weak puzzles, expand on the best areas, and provide more suitable surroundings than cramped bare rooms. Quite playable." - dmdibl (01-May-2012)

"It's so great to see the author improving and improving since his debut level, and with this level he actually managed to entertain me thoroughly the 75 minutes it lasted. Being set around a central hub level you get to visit four sublevels spicked with puzzles full of imagination and a lot of never-seen-before moments. There never is a dull moment as you get from one puzzle room to the next, progression is fast-paced and very linear except for some divided paths where you can choose between two routes. The routes are never really long so I recommend trying both of them, as you would leave a lot of nice puzzles untouched. Now talking about the puzzles themselves - there are some really classic ones, like the bull, the fire lever puzzle (even with a logic this time in comparison to the recent Easter level) or a pretty demanding pushable session, but also some very unique ones like the enhanced honeycomb puzzle from an earlier level of the builder, the best puzzle with a boat included I have ever seen, a room with four different spike walls moving down - there are too many to name them all, and I don't want to spoil too much, so just be amazed when playing. The text hint method was used nicely to construct a few puzzles, e.g. in the room with the math puzzle or in the one with the petrified creature. What I didn't like so much was that you fight a demigod each at the end of every level (the way the enemies were placed so that you cannot get a safe point was smart though), I rather preferred another boss enemy, and at some parts I found the enemy placement rather unfair, such as with the two sea hags in the underwater maze. The sound usage was great in my opinion but the areas seemed pretty cramped and textures didn't quite match the gameplay as there were a few misplaced ones; else than that it was good mostly but because of the rather blocky architecture this was certainly rather easy to do. You first have to get used to Lara's slightly updated way of moving but this was not a big drawback. All in all a fantastic game that ended just in the right moment." - manarch2 (29-Apr-2012)

"Very nice level, a lot to do here. A hub room with 4 ways to go from there, you have to visit all 4 quarters to get the keys you can use in the hub room to finish the level. Every quarter has its own kind of traps and puzzles. In every qaurters there is also a choice of 2 routes you can take, so save where you see two possible exits, you can try the other side later after you came back to the hub room. Only downside to that is that you'll have to do some rooms a second time, as the 2 routes will not end in the hub room, but somewhere down the line. The rooms are a bit cramped at times, with not much room to move. Maybe next time build somewhat larger rooms. The lighting and atmosphere were OK for me. No secrets, maybe in a next level we can go find some." - Dutchy (29-Apr-2012)