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Level: Spooky Places back home search
Author(s): tombrdr
total rating:6.86 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Engelchen Lara 7 8 8 8
eRIC 4 4 4 4
Fairy Godfather 7 7 8 7
Gerty 5 8 8 7
Kristina 4 6 7 7
MichaelP 7 8 7 8
Phil 8 7 9 7
RaiderGirl 7 8 8 8
Sash 7 8 7 8
Whistle 5 6 6 7
Yoav 7 6 8 7
category averages
(11 reviews)		 6.18 6.91 7.27 7.09

Reviewer's comments

"Certainly not my favourite from the author. It was all about exploring a lot, with some complex areas , not knowing what was the goal of it all. Besides, the level is not that pretty in my opinion. It was hard to finish because the level really bored me. If you like exploration, you may perhaps enjoy it." - eRIC (01-Jun-2008)

“Spooky…? I do not think so. Looks Great…? Yes but some places are very dark without any flares. Well nice level many levers to open doors spikes boulders traps 11 golden skulls and good atmosphere - enjoyable.” – Yoav (17-May-2004)

“I've been playing Debbie's levels in a rough chronological order and this one is by far the most complex and difficult yet. In fact I had to go to the author twice for help on points not documented in the walkthrough (which have since been rectified). There's a little bit of everything here except weapons (since we have a Young Lara) to kill the considerable number of enemies so you have to be fast on your feet. Highly enjoyable. If you haven't played this one yet it's definitely worth a look.” – Phil (10-Aug-2003)

“Some places do seem a little bit spookier especially if you're young Lara and have no weapons and no flares in your backpack. A few areas were a bit too dark but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting and the enemies were easily outran though the raptor and the golden bird did make me a bit nervous. With the exception of a few well-hidden passages gameplay consists mainly of searching large areas for floor levers and luckily they had a helpful camera shot as there was some backtracking to do along the way. Some of the textures are really beautiful especially the red roses and the blankets of grass. I found 10 golden skulls and the level ended as I was running down a stone hallway with blue lightning.” – RaiderGirl (23-Jan-2003)

“As the name suggest a weird collection of rooms with no real theme I could discover. No guns so all baddies to be avoided and there are some. This makes for difficult marking as they could be viewed as just ‘traps’. There are no overt puzzles just find your routes. Here the level is spoiled for me as you also have no flares or bins which with no pistols makes seeing rather difficult at times. The object seems to be collect a number of skulls (I managed 10) and other objects i.e amulet. Rope swings can be critical and frustrating even leading to believe that it cannot be done. The graphics are unusual in places but to me spoiled because of the ‘dark’ problem. There are also sections which are rather hit and miss-the square you have to ‘dive’ through with no water in the waterfall pit. Actually you can hardly see the square. If you fancy being frustrated then try this level” – Whistle (14-Jan-2003)

“This started out a little annoying for me as I ran around rather helpless for a while but when I started to get into things it turned out to be a rather fun level. Luckily I did not encounter any of those bugs some of the other players had to struggle with. I liked the new custom textures and the use of fog for atmosphere even though you had to make a guess that some of the roses were climbable. There are a few places which can get you stuck if you did not do the right things before so keep your savegames in order. The rooms are huge as we have come to expect from Debbie but lighting was interestingly done event though some dark corners were rather too dark. There are helpful cameras nice use of waterfalls coloured plants and surprisingly many enemies for a young Lara level as you encounter crocodiles a bear a raptor a harpy mummies skeletons wraiths and bats. Some traps along the way with spikes boulders and collapsible tiles and I managed to find 11 skulls and four secrets in the one hour+ I spent in those Spooky Places.” – Michael (11-Jan-2003)

“What an odd level but what else can you expect from Debbie! The setting here is a mix of angkor jungle and temple but as this is set in large boxy sections these separate mixes don’t really mingle. The difference with this one compared to her others is that the progression isn’t a straight run through but rather circuitous as you come back to places you have been before even sometimes a third time and for me this let me come to enjoy and acclimatize to them much better whilst giving you at the same time a feeling of uncertainty at leaving things undone as you don’t know if you really will be back to some places. If I hadn’t mentioned this is also a young Lara level and my hat is off to Deb as she has given this a level of excitement with the great diversity of enemies that obviously can’t be killed off but only avoided with some quick thinking and as pick ups are pretty much non existent usually she has included locating skulls as well as some secrets the first of which I found 12 and the second 4 this gave it another dimension I always enjoy. So in my eyes this was an at times odd sometimes confusing but always entertaining 50 minutes level. And luckily I had no bugs.” – Sash (09-Jan-2003)

“Surprisingly as I got further into this level I began to enjoy it. Poor young Lara can't carry anything but health packs so had to run from the enemies and the over friendly bear. Easy to go wrong as you can climb over the scenery into the next area but having explored there when something is triggered at least you know where it is.” – Fairy Godfather (06-Jan-2003)

“What spooked me was to play with young Lara and not having flares or binoculars I hate that especially if you have to go through dark places. This is a forty minutes level but most of it I spent trying to find an area with waterfalls and then try to get out of that area. I collected ten skulls some of them were secrets found three secrets and got chased by a raptor a bear bats a wraith crocodiles skeletons and a mummy. As you can understand playing with young Lara means no guns but not necessarily no puzzles I guess someone forgot that because all you do here is push levers and open doors plus climb ladders. The end of the world bug is present and that made me not being able to spot an area as I thought it was just a bad textured wall and not another area I needed to explore as I was seeing the sky going further but blackness around. There is also a bug I don't know if that big gap was supposed to be filled with water but it wasn't for me so I had to jump and when Lara landed without loosing any health I have no idea what happened and through what she got past I had to use the crawl key to enter a hole in the floor that wasn't visible but Lara could swim in it. After many collapsible tiles and ladders finally I got out of the forest and by pushing some more levers the level ended while Lara was entering a blue lightning. Not one of my favourites.” – Kristina (06-Jan-2003)

“Spooky perhaps I would rather say unfinished. Using the rope swing and way further down this level after opening that round door there is another door you can open and it shows a flyby a door opening from the beginning and the level crashed back to my desktop and no matter what I did I couldn’t continue. So then I went back to a saved game just before the rope swing and I could get to the waterfalls at a certain point I hit the end trigger. In a way I played the level in two halves. Must have been a bug. Another bug was not being able to swim in the water under the waterfall no matter how I tried so for that part I had to use the fly-cheat. Enemies are not that many but with no weapons Lara is rather helpless. She encounters crocs a mummy skeletons a bear some very pesky bats a wraith a harpy and a very hungry dino. For the rest it is lever galore and no puzzles as such. The rooms are huge and some nice textures were used found illegal slopes and some climbable walls are not discernible as such and in places it was pitch black. The flybys were very helpful. A pity though of the bugs as I had to take points away from the gameplay although I had a good time this is not as it should be. Found 4 secrets and I think 10 skulls. 05-01-2003” – Gerty (05-Jan-2003)

“Nice to see Young Lara again like in TR4 :-) Not sure how to describe the level though kind of a jungle temple. Some new textures used and Lara can climb up some roses :-) After some exploring I found a total of 11 skulls and four secrets registered. As for puzzles many levers to pull jumps to make and slopes and bridges to cross. Quite a bit of thinking involved. Cameras are helpful and show the way. Enemies were skeletons and even a bear and some dinos. I like the atmosphere and the custom textures but that’s of course a matter of taste :-).” – Engelchen Lara (05-Jan-2003)
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