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The Skribblerz Stonez 4 - Mayan Legends by Aza

DJ Full 7 6 9 8
Gerty 9 8 9 9
JesseG 9 8 8 8
Jose 8 8 8 9
Lara_Fox_Croft 5 8 6 5
manarch2 7 8 8 9
MichaelP 8 7 9 9
Phil 8 8 9 9
Ryan 8 8 8 9
Treeble 8 9 9 9
Zhyttya 6 6 6 7
 
release date: 22-Jun-2013
# of downloads: 93

average rating: 7.89
review count: 11
 
review this level

file size: 163.00 MB
file type: TR4
class: South America
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
harryandgill@blueyonder.co.uk

Reviewer's comments
"The opening level of this series is a rather grandious one in design, with a massive underground pyramid and lots of surrounding cave areas. Perhaps one best enjoyed with the walkthrough, as some bits can be slightly a bit off the beaten path (shooting jars in the distance with pistols only for instance) and there's a lot of ground to cover. Funnily enough, with the guided experience I felt there were several areas I never got to fully explore. The pushblock puzzle tower at the end was fun actually (with the walkthrough I never needed to refer back to the clue provided earlier on but for what it's worth I had taken a photo with my phone and kept it open at all times, just in case). For the most part I thought the level was rather silent, and even enemy encounters are few and far in between. 45 minutes, 2 secrets. 12/23" - Treeble (30-Dec-2023)
"The first level of The Skribblerz Stonez 4 by Aza was somewhat disappointing. I didn't find it very amusing, in fact, at some point I was bored. It takes place completely underground and we're greeted with a nice pyramid structure, unfortunately, most of the level takes place around the fortress, and here is where the problems start for me. It is not clear what we need to do, or where we need to go. You might argue with "it is an open area, of course, it is hard to explore", while I find that statement to be true to some extent, I've experienced other custom levels with the same concept that were not as bad to traverse or not as tedious. The last puzzle was the lifesaver for this level, but the reward was dull. I did all that platforming, on a beautiful cavern structure, just to open a gate with a vase to shoot. Actually, most of the level felt that way. While in some areas can be fun and challenging, the reward for completing them is not satisfying.; Enemies are some poor old panthers that die too easily. There's no challenge on this matter. To conclude, an underground level with a dull-looking environment is confusing, and not intuitive, but it does have some interesting areas and nice platforming." - Zhyttya (24-Jun-2022)
"Gameplay&Puzzles: few words to describe the gameplay: "not obvious at all", in this level, you don't really understand what you have to do, shooting some "vases" to access the masks (stones) at the end. I had to find a video walkthrough to understand it...putting a revolver/crossbow with a lasersight was maybe too "logic"... The builder seems to love to hide things, like keyholes behind blocks, or even jumpswitchs... This level was quite tedious and I really wanted to finish it as fast as possible, but the way to take was not obvious.. Enemies, Objects & Secrets: Poor harmless panthers... They seemed to be quite weak. Objects were quite nice, except the desappearing things like the water wheels, or the snake/dragon statues. I really dit not understand that I had to shoot these vases. Secrets, found none, my bad. Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: Atmosphere was ok, even if I don't understand why this orange distance fog, was it a choice or something else, but it was pretty strange. Sounds were nice, but cameras...Way too close to the target, and sometimes there are no cameras to show you what to do, like shooting the first vase to access the first Stone mask. IMO a cameras is supposed to help the player to know where to go, but here they were so close to the target that it was so hard to spot where to go...They were quite pointless, because not helpful. Lighting & Textures: Lighting was pretty "night club" like, I mean water with "blue/green/purple" is pretty close to what I saw in some night club. The whole level is full of color, and this is not logic, I don't want all grey levels, but sometimes a coloured light needs a thing to create this light, like an object to reflect the light for instance, here it seems that the builder thought it was a good idea to put every color in every corner. Again: not logic. About textures, I found a lot of "not seamless textures", a lot of "stretched textures" and few "compressed textures". So IMO this level was not really beautiful or even logical. I played "Lara's Mansion" recently, and some reviewers seemed to think that lighting and texture were not that good in that level, and nice in this one, waow we don't see the same things I guess. No offense. I also found a missing texture close to a raising bloc to access another floor ( a triangle of 1 clic of height) To sum up, this level was not amazing, pretty in the middle, and I can understand why it only got 8 reviews... (9 with mine), because you have to be patient to finish it, some tasks are pretty long and tedious like the "pusblock" puzzle. So if you want to play this level, you'll have to be patient and you also have to love colorful levels." - Lara_Fox_Croft (07-Feb-2018)
"I'm fairly certain I played and reviewed all the SS levels soon after they were released, and I don't recall that any in this series was ever withdrawn from public consumption. The release date of June 2013 and the lack of any reviews until more than a year later tell me otherwise, however. In any event, playing this level again was a new and fresh experience for me, as I remembered literally none of it. You explore a vast underground area and frequently have to cross from one corner all the way to the opposite corner to continue a task. That didn't bother me, however, as the surroundings are well crafted, well lighted and quite pleasing to the eye. Dutchy's typically competent walkthrough got me from start to finish in a little over an hour. There's an ingenious pushblock puzzle near the end that I would never have figured out on my own. According to the walkthrough there's a wall map that tells you where the blocks are supposed to go, but that requires applying the small print (the wall map) to the big picture (a multi-tiered building with ledges connecting the pushblocks). Spatial conversion was never my strong suit. I'm replaying these levels in the order set forth in the load screen and walkthrough, and Mayan Legends is an excellent jump start to the series. Recommended." - Phil (07-Oct-2017)
"Another good level from Aza. The very best are the impressive architecture and texturization. There is a good use of the cameras, many times pointing the next places to explore, and the musics are well chosen too. Not difficult tasks, you'll need to waste some time after the start exploring the surroundings of the big pyramid, but when you find the place to accomplish the first tasks, the remaining gameplay is more fluid and never boring. There are few enemies to shoot, the shotgun appeared too late, and the secrets are not too hidden. A level to enjoy; recommended." - Jose (25-Sep-2017)
"There's a huge area to explore at the start of this level which manages to form the centrepiece of the majority of the gameplay in this level. The way forward is often sneakily hidden away, so a keen eye and an alert mind are needed here. There's a fun symbol pushblock puzzle to solve based on hints found earlier in the level, as well as spikes to avoid and some swimming to do. As mentioned by others I did like the lighting here, but the audios were lacking slightly, although they are present. A good start to this series, nonetheless." - Ryan (07-Jun-2017)
"A rather good attempt, however it bears an issue common to all SS levels: feels both connected to something and disconnected from anything - so it would be infinitely better if some internal storyline was at least drafted, as we never find out what "legends" we're actually facing (same issue as in The Museum, first edition). Sometimes I didn't know what a camera hint shows but being rather observant and using some memory sorts it out so if you like sniffing, this is a level for you. I was only stuck once with the first Mayan Key because that opening completely blends with the wall unless you stand very close. The level provides a secret shotgun but when all enemies are already dead, also there are just two baddy kinds so a simple bossfight would solve a lot plus make the climax stronger. I would also limit the long pushable to three storeys because satisfaction from recognizing a hint is enough and following it doesn't have to take so long. The last thing I would fix is the fog: not the color, very signature and fitting, but the minimum distance - I would move it a bit further because the eyes need a certain margin of clear vision, otherwise it feels like having sight problems or a dirty monitor. Moving the max distance further could be good as well, but I'm not sure." - DJ Full (28-Feb-2017)
"Again I had a great time replaying this one as well. It has been about 3 years and I forgot quite a bit. I felt sorry for the panthers, as you have to shoot them while they were doing only their job, namely guarding the items Lara needed. The map is quite big and some of the jumps you have to do are not that obvious. But the Mayan Pyramid looked very good. There is a nice block puzzle that looks harder then it really is, very well designed I have to say. There are some traps and of course exploring is rather high on the list so get to it." - Gerty (13-Jan-2017)
"Stumbled on this set of levels in the wishlist - highly surprised that there are so few reviews, which makes me wonder if I'm missing something here. Anyway this was a pleasant raid, most memorable for the pushblock tower that Lara must construct to get to that Skribblerz Stone. There were a few great trap sequences too, and I like how the author makes you work for some of those pickups. Another plus was the lighting, which achieved a nice combination of fog bulbs with regular lights, but the textures bring things down somewhat - there were a few missing in a few small places, and the natural green rock areas were just a little wallpapered. My only other critiques would be to add just a few more enemies + audio tracks to add some spice. Either way this level is nicely done and I hope it sees enough light of day that many others will enjoy it too. On to the rest of the Stonez levels. Time: 1 hour 5 minutes." - SSJ6Wolf (21-Oct-2015)
"I guess I was not quite as lucky as manarch2, as I did indeed run around quite disoriented several times around this huge pyramid cave, trying to figure where to go next, so overall my net gaming time was almost an hour. That does not take away from this being a really well constructed pyramid cave indeed. I was most impressed with the environment created here and really enjoyed the exploring elements that make up most of the adventure. The major block puzzle near the end is well designed too and manages to come across as not overly tedious. Aside from that there are a few traps to master and only very few enemies to deal with. As manarch was saying, a bit more done with audios would have given the atmosphere an extra boost, but all in all this was a very well crafted and really enjoyable raid." - MichaelP (25-Nov-2014)
"I don't know if it's somewhat an intended style element of Aza's levels, but they all seem to be fairly confusing at the start with one large area to explore for a single small opening. Anyway, this is the only place where I was really stuck in this level (and not anymore after consulting the walkthrough), because the gameplay flows nicely as usual. Still the game lacks decent puzzles or challenging platforming parts, as the only really nice task was the block puzzle over various stages, which is definately the level's highlight. Otherwise, though, the gameplay feels too easy and at points almost dull. There's also a completely optional (if intriguing) sequence of getting rid of a skeleton, which is easy to avoid otherwise so there's no real need to do it. For once, I really liked the setting with the large pyramid in the main hall and some other well designed caves and temple rooms, and the looks are again nearly faultless (especially liked the lighting here), but this time I had the feeling there's a severe lack of audio tracks in this level, which is quite a shame actually, because the atmosphere that otherwise felt really great suffers from that. Anyway, it marks a solid start to Skribblerz Stonez 4 and certainly is another very coherent and commendable effort of Aza. Found both secrets in 35 minutes of net playtime." - manarch2 (28-Aug-2014)