trle.net ::: Level Reviews

Level:	Autumn Creek
Author(s):	Brad Casali

total rating:	7.05	Gameplay & Puzzles	Enemies, Objects & Secrets	Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras	Lighting & Textures
	CC	7	6	8	6
	Cuqui	8	7	7	8
	Dimpfelmoser	6	6	9	8
	G.Croft	7	6	7	5
	Gerty	6	6	8	7
	Kristina	8	8	8	8
	Magnus	7	7	7	7
	MichaelP	7	6	8	7
	Momster	6	6	6	8
	RaiderGirl	7	6	7	7
	Sash	8	8	7	8
	category averages (11 reviews)	7.00	6.55	7.45	7.18

Reviewer's comments

“This is another level I ditched quite a few times as I couldn't figure out how that block puzzle worked. So doing the Tomb Complex a long time ago and finally because the solution of the puzzle is there as a sort of walkthrough I could finish it. What had me really thrown off the level again is that after placing the 5 lilies the door to the Café wouldn't open and in sheer frustration I started to shoot. Something near that parked car popped and the door opened strange very strange. In the Tomb I also found two knots and also found out that you could leave without using the four beetles because of the find of the first knot. The last level I played only partial as I couldn't be bothered and I had played it many moons ago. It is a real shame that this level wasn't presented properly as it could have been a great one the way it is now it for sure is NOT. 03-02-2004” – Gerty (24-Feb-2004)

“I can't see people doing this on their own I had to look up the forum to see first of all what the idea was with that block and the reason why I could run straight to Tomb Complex from Main Street without opening other doors on the street. The author hadn't time to finish it. OK well that's kind of knocked the stuffing out of it. Main Street is a nice looking street the inside rooms especially all the library rooms are lovely. I thought the application of textures as very strange in places but it all somehow looks very good. Apart from that block puzzle gameplay was very interesting picking up five Lillie discs to open the door to the Tomb of Lillie. Enemies here are ninjas and dogs. In my game the dogs didn't make a sound probably because a lot of them carried weapons and ammo - there's a first! In Lillie I couldn't figure out how to get the beetle in the room that kills Lara then eventually I saw the way up to the fourth beetle. That wasn't fair not to show a climbable surface. And after placing all the beetles and pillar the level ends. Brad explained the 'choice' of doing Lillie and Tomb Complex. OK I got to play both of them but it was annoying I didn't like this 'choice'. Perhaps he intended to run Lillie back to the Main Street but never got around to it. Also there were certain areas screaming at me that something still needs to be done and I couldn't figure it out so there obviously was more planned and not finished. What a pity because all this could have been brilliant and of course it's going to affect scores from reviewers. It would have been better to just have two levels and finish or run Tomb Complex straight into Lillie or vice versa. The name Autumn Creek is odd it gives you the impression it's possibly in America not Egypt. Tomb Complex itself was well done again unmarked climbable surfaces. The big thing was to put out the fire around a pyramid key and find the eyepiece. My advice would be after placing all five Lillie discs and opening the door beside them to save their game and keep this savegame so you can go back later and do Tomb Complex. If this 'unfinished business' doesn't bother people then they are going to have a great time playing these levels.” – CC (25-Sep-2003)

“The first time I played ‘Main Street’ I jumped to ‘Tomb Complex’ and I felt I was missing some important things. Reading the posts at the Forum I found the solution. I think that this level is quite difficult because of the darkness and some climbable walls really hard to find. However it's an entertaining and well done level and many rooms are worth to see.” – Cuqui (18-Feb-2003)

“Well even though I'm not sure if I got through these correctly after reading the other reviews I managed to make it through all three levels. The first one was my favorite with the great looking city street. I have to admit though that the actual inside of the buildings wasn't as cool as I hoped they'd be. The exception to that is the HUGE library with its very own swimming pool in the center. There are five keys to collect in this first level and then you can choose to go either to the second or third level. If you want to play both I suggest you keep a savegame right before you exit the first level. The second level is in the style of Cleopatra's Palace and is actually short if you find the Pharaoh's Pillar pretty soon. The third is in the style of Sets Tomb and was a little too dark for me though I expected it to be a little unfinished already. I wish the author had just made the first level and put a little more work into that one.” – RaiderGirl (11-Feb-2003)

“The author had the idea to split the levels and letting you decide which one you want to play. At the start you will have to solve a moving block puzzle rather weird as there is absolutely no hint to it. You have to move the block in a room that has two fans on the ceiling the correct spot is the fan at the back of the room and then the choice comes you can either complete the rather long ‘Main Street’ level and jump to the ‘Tomb of Lillie’ or you can skip most of the first level completely skip the third and play the second one. Most of them and especially the second one are very dark and at the end of ‘Tomb Complex’ the flare bug appears. ’Main Street’ has some baddies and dogs then there is a demigod and a harpy later on but the second level has no enemies at all. The items needed will be to collect five Lillie keys to enter the third level four beetles to finish it a guardian key and a cartouche plus the Eye of Horus to go through the second and reach the end. There are many climbable walls many of them unmarked and the setting it's just a library but huge at the first a cleopal setting at the third and the second is a tomb like level. There was a problem many had and I spend quite some time trying to find out the correct order for a puzzle. At the level ‘Tomb Complex’ after solving the spike puzzle you have to proceed in the level complete a few tasks and then get the guardian key that was on fire. So by going through a door and performing a jump a spike ball falls and prevents the player to go further. The action to do next is get back and jump to an opening on the right side the two levers in that room will make a hole and the spike ball falls down making the passage free. From that point it's not too difficult to reach the end after some time of course. There was another bug except the flare one when I got the cartouche and went back and onto the raising block the room with the two levers was flooded and Lara found herself from walking to a corridor suddenly swimming. It should have been a ledge or something there and not a straight corridor. Anyway this is a rather difficult and very dark adventure and I will stay neutral I can't recommend it nor reject it. If you are up to that kind of gameplay then by all means go for it.” – Kristina (07-Feb-2003)

“I spent more time in the Tomb Complex than in the other two levels together (and I got both pillars from the Cleopal adventure) and I still haven't reached the end. I posted two pleas for help in the stuck forum (no-one seems to remember) and I wrote to the author (he doesn't remember neither) so I leave it at that. The irritating thing is that this could have been an excellent set of levels if the author hadn't been in such a rush to put them out. I think the atmosphere is truly breathtaking most of the time; from the realism of the main street over the big library to the dark caverns it's all very well built and even the old Cleopatra wad looks good to me. Unfortunately it is a bit dark and you can't help but feel that there is missing something (not only some more lights). Like in the Tomb of Lillies you find a lot of big medipacks but you encounter only one demigod and two harpies while there are no enemies whatsoever in the Tomb Complex. On your rather linear course through the Main Street part you pass many carefully textured rooms with nothing to do in them so this just feels like an unfinished job. For once I smelled the climbthrough wall straight away and even the subsequent unmarked climb didn't fool me but of course from then on you are permanently searching for climbable walls that aren't textured as such which is a real damper on the gameplay. The long block pushing near the start is a bit far fetched but thankfully the author explains the solution on his homepage. Before you reach the Tomb of Lillies you come to an area where there are five slots for the Lillie keys. Imagine my horror when I had only three and despite having a run through the level again I couldn't find the missing ones. Well fortunately you need only three keys to open the door to the next level. Bottom line a real waste as gameplay wise it doesn't feel like a real level but definitely worth to have a look at just for the magnificent rooms and the dramatic fly bys.” – Dimpfelmoser (26-Nov-2002)

“Without a doubt this is the most ambitious project to date by this author. Unfortunately as he states himself he rushed to release it as he did not have time to work on it anymore and you will notice this in lots of places and that makes the overall experience more annoying than it would have to be. So a few hints: There is an easy way from ‘Main Street’ to ‘The Tomb Complex’ which allows you to play the latter. There is an independent (!) long way through ‘Main Street’ that brings you finally to the ‘Tomb of Lillie’. So now the comments about the levels in turn: Main Street (60 min. 8/7/8/7): This starts so very promising with a great street setting some good objects (cars) and then is immediately spoiled by a clever but totally illogical movable block puzzle. Check the author’s homepage for a hint – I do not believe anybody will figure this out by themselves other than by pure dumb luck. But it gets so much better from there with a timed sequence raising blocks (also timed) many jump switches (often hidden in dark corners) and an overall rather interesting architecture. But too dark in many places. Also you sometimes wonder how you accomplished certain things and if you are lucky find out that you stepped on some tile somewhere to trigger something. The library and house elements are well crafted and the quest for the five Lillie Keys that open the door to the next level and the mechanical scarab is kind of fun (watch out for movable blocks). I found one secret area with nothing in it (?) and there are a few red ninjas and some dogs as enemies (which drop heavy weaponry when dying hmm?). The Tomb of Lillie (45 min. 7/6/8/6): Again after using the mechanical scarab to avoid some spikes you make your way into this Cleopal setting and strangely collect a Pharos Knot which I can only assume the author forgot to delete after testing his own level as it allows you to exit this adventure after about 10 minutes. Better not do that and instead go on your journey for the four black beetles for the pyramid and enjoy the good and colourful lighting in places the lava caves a demigod and two harpies and many jump switches again. Often again too dark and why did that walkthrough wall and the untextured climbable walls have to be there? The Tomb Complex (30 min. 7/6/7/7): Again you will be solving some of the puzzles by pure luck here and can actually get to the end quickly by a jump from high up down into the alcove that lead to the exit room. If you want to play though you will have to make your way through quite an interesting settomb style setting with a guardian key and two halves of the Horus Eye and a cartouche to find. Again a little too much on the dark side and some tedious climbing in here and I guess we will never find out if those levers underwater were planned to be good for anything.” – Michael (08-Sep-2002)

“The creator’s idea of giving the player 2 separate adventures starting from the same point was a really good idea however at the end of both adventures I found that I couldn’t finish either level because of a bug in one and what seems to be a design fault in the other thankfully I was given a savegame from Jason who didn’t have the bug in his level. The two adventures are also quite different with one set in a tomb and having no enemies lasting 30 minutes and the other set in a town as well as what seemed to be a huge mansion underground and finally a tomb with plenty of enemies lasting around 2 hours. Apart from the trouble I had at their ends and that they aren’t very difficult besides one movable block puzzle that seemed to have no rhyme or reason for its solution I still had a lot of fun with them and really liked the progression found in both.” – Sash (21-Jun-2002)

“I find it very difficult to review these levels. I played them with a sense of irritation but yet they are good. To be able to actually play level one and two you have to pull a block a looong way and it is not obvious where to put it (I don’t mean that everything should be obvious but at least a hint?). If I had not checked the author’s homepage I would only have played two minutes of level one and then level three. The puzzling and running are rather good but you have to use a lot of imagination to solve some of it (and that you on some spots can step in lava and at some other places you have to step on a certain unmarked spot and if you’re lucky you do it by accident or you could run around for hours). At the end of level two I already had a pharos pillar (should I have used it somewhere?) and could go straight to the ending without doing the beetle puzzle. At the end of level three I also think there was more to do that could not be done because there were levers under water that are ‘dry land levers’. I think it’s sad when it is like that because you miss so much of the level. I also found the levels too dark most of the time there isn’t anything in that darkness but you have to check. Well make sure you have a lot of patience raid on and have fun!” – G.Croft (21-Jun-2002)

“Autumn Creek consists of three levels. The first level is called ‘Main Street’. You have to play that level to get to any of the others. However you only have to play the beginning to get to ‘The Tomb Complex’ and a whole lot more to get to ‘The Tomb of Lillie’. ‘The Tomb Complex’ is the easiest of the levels (at least when you know how to survive the spike-puzzle) and doesn’t require too much time to play through. But if you want to finish ‘The Tomb of Lillie’ you have to play through ‘Main Street’ first and that makes it last longer. It’s a good idea to let people choose which level they want to play and let them choose them from one ‘main-level’. However it should be possible to get back to ‘Main Street’ after you have completed one of the other levels (I didn’t like having to move the block in the beginning all over again!). The lightning is good although the flare-bug appeared in ‘The Tomb Complex’ making it hard to see anything in the dark places. The texturing is good but there’s a lot of misplaced textures. Some of the dogs were quite fun since they dropped weapons when they died and I think one of them dropped ammunition too but I’m not sure. One thing that confused me was that I could finish the level without first finding the four beetles to use on the pyramid since I already had a ‘Pharos Knot’ when I came to it making it possible to exit the level instead of getting the knot inside the pyramid. Maybe the author made it this way so that you wouldn’t have to find the beetles if you didn’t want to? All I can say is play ‘Autumn Creek’ if you want but be prepared for a couple of bugs.” – Magnus (21-Jun-2002)

“Autumn Creek was for me a difficult level not in the good sense of difficulty per se. I think the author has good ideas in the creation of the level and the best of intentions. All in all gameplay was interesting but not very smooth. I’m not asking for a run from switch to switch type level here but at least an inkling of what’s expected. After 3 tries at this one and that was 2 too many I finally resorted to a few threads to at least get an idea of what’s to be done. The level overall was attractive but just not terribly enjoyable not to mention the flare bug and it left me with a rather ‘flat’ feeling.” – Momster (21-Jun-2002)