Level reviews

"Readme and story give a hint but don't say it's for avoiding a massive softlock - I mean DON'T move to next level without taking a star from each of the first two levels. Other pickups are abundant but not a must, though revolver and explosives help a lot. Makes more sense to play and rate this trilogy together, which forms a solid adventure, and that's why I rated and reviewed all parts identically. In short - you can feel the messiness, but the build is creative and recommended. There are Italian voice lines, "liberato" of the fairy forest being an understandable objective, but I would add the english version anyway - though I don't make a good fairy, so hire someone else..." - DJ Full

"The final installment in this trilogy is easily the best one, with the least issues in design in my opinion. It's also a bold level, centering around mazes (lots of mazes), and including a central shaft which resembles the surreal Escher paintings with doors and giant staircases going in every direction. Of course the TRLE engine is quite limited so the whole relativity angle couldn't be pulled off, but I applaud the effort nevertheless. Gameplay is still a massive colect-a-thon of supplies while the only enemy you come across is a tin horseman (and a handful of fire wraiths which are quickly doused off). Visually I felt the first maze looked rather odd and too dark for my tastes, but as I carried over my inventory I had plenty of flares. Lastly, when submitting this batch of reviews I just noticed the author has provided an updated package recently -- my experiences are based on the files I've had archived since their original release, sorry for any incongruences. 40 minutes, 4 secrets. 02/21" - Treeble

"This level is longer than the previous ones. Starts with a very nasty and dark maze with nothing to do except find the hard-to-see exit crawlspace and waste your time climbing angulous blocks looking for pickups. Later, in the room with serpent-switches, I was forced to use 5 or 6 large medipacks to go up the long ladder when Lara burning; not a good idea trigger a fire ghost there. And about the rooms with the serpents, I never knew if there were puzzles there or the hint to know the single switch you must pull. The phantom wall at the end without a hint was not a great detail too. Again, excessive pickups, few enemies to shoot, not much care with the texturization and many areas are too dark; at least I found enough flares. But in this level players can see some features adquired by this builder, like the fixed cameras in dead end areas, features the author will keep in future creations." - Jose

"This starts off rather nightmarishly with a dark, tedious labyrinth (which is optional as there only seemed to be pickups and a couple of secrets in there), but from there it goes uphill slightly, but still contained a few annoying parts. I loved the surreal room that changed every time Lara traversed through (just what were those fake doors about?) and I also enjoyed evading a boulder trap halfway through. The wraiths were annoying though, and you have to take damage from at least one as it attacks you while climbing a ladder. A couple of serpent switch puzzles also make an appearance and the level ends soon after and then loads into an extra level which apparently contains no ultimate goal, although I didn't bother to look. These works do pale in comparison to Greywolf's later works, but as debuts, I've seen worse." - Ryan

"And so comes the last part of this small series, and it's definately the best level, though I felt more than a little want after finishing it. The initial maze section is already the first fun killer, with still way too many health and ammo reserves to find - the "boss fight" consists of a single horseman which can easily be killed with pistols only, so none of the items are actually needed. This felt more like a playtime enhancer rather than guidance by the builder. There are some better parts in the middle of this level, with several halls with the same concept as in the builder's recent Inside the Magic Gem, with several rooms reminiscent of M.C.Escher's Relativity painting, a few lever puzzles where I unfortunately missed a hint and - as the highlight - several inspired secrets to find. The doors that open when you walk through them is a rather obscure detail of this level though, and many tasks seem to be completely optional (such as finding the lasersight and one of the lever puzzles). I found the lighting to be a step upwards versus the builder's first two offerings, and in general the atmosphere was solid, yet there are no special efforts in terms of architecture and only a slight bit of good camera work. All in all this level took me a bit less than 25 minutes and I finished this series with a total time of 45 minutes. While having some interesting looking areas, the gameplay feels rather uninspired and after finishing I was a bit disappointed since I expected a bit more. But as you can see the builder has proved to do better in his later levels which I'd recommend you to play rather than these simplistic and unrewarding earlier works." - manarch2

"You can play this level with the provided Savegame, or you use your Savegames of Secret of the Forests 2. If you want to play with yours, you must copy before still the TR4 file of "Secret of the Forests 2" in the folder of "Secret of the Forests 3".
Lara begins here in a very much branched and bewildering cave system. If she has got then sometime sometimes to come there out (either alone or with the Walkthrough), she comes to a very strange place. Time is one in rooms with painted doors and real doors. And then one is within buildings or slides a very long slant down, with Rollingballs in the nape. Then one also has sometimes fire ghosts in the nape and must fight against a metal man on horseback. As I said, very strangely all that. The metal man loses a diamond. Lara should use him, actually to open the door at the level end. However, with me this has not functioned for some unknown reasons. Because I was, according to the Walkthrough, anyhow almost at the level end, was this also no big problem.
After the third part I have asked myself where then now the many opponents have got to. I mean, I have
- the Uzis and 630 shots ammunition
- the revolver and 60 shots ammunition
- the shotgun and 160/96 shots ammunition
- the garnet thrower and 22 shots ammunition
- the crossbow and 28/20/54 shot ammunition
- 134 Flares
- 16 small and 18 big medipacks
For what have I dragged then now everything with myself if I have hardly used it? And this wretched cave labyrinth was also not so great, there I would have nearly got lost. Without Walkthrough I would walk around there yet. But, nevertheless, right now apart from the fact that I really not like labyrinths was this well built and textured. One can say the same one of the other localities. Many rooms looked really good. The lighting also felt well and for the dark places one had the Flares. By a few actions the sound which was otherwise a standard was absent.
Now where I am at the end of the 3-episode series, I ask myself where then now the sense of all was. There was no artefact and no right story. Actually gave it nothing at all. One only walks around, finds vast amounts in weapons, ammunition, Medipacks and Flares, opens a few doors, hunts a few skeletons in the air and then carries at the end still the metal man on the other side. Why and how so? I have no notion. Allowedly, most localities were quite interesting, but anyhow cultivated boredom ruled here during about two hours." - Scottie

"I wonder about builders still thinking that players will have fun exploring big and confusing mazes. As for me I don't and I was glad when this first maze in the cave part was finally done. The rest of the level was not bad and the big 'changing' room was an interesting effect. But altogether it seemed to be mainly a search for ammo, medis and secrets, and in the end I wondered what all the ammo was good for as there are only some fire wraiths and a horseman to get rid of. And regarding the title I wonder as well what the level had to do with forests." - Jerry

"This was my second attempt at this level.First time around,I gave up after becoming completely disoriented in a huge labyrinthine cave system.On my second attempt,I realised that the entire opening maze was a complete red-herring (existing simply as a place to explore for countless pick-ups). Instead,I used two gems aquired in the previous two levels of the series (a Savegame is provided in case you want to play this as a stand-alone)and got on with the adventure in hand.And what an entertaining experience it was! Granted,a few sequences were somewhat bungled (particularly the push-doors which only opened once you'd run through them); but everything is crafted with care;there are some original ideas;a great rolling-boulder sequence;well-textured and sumptuous areas;and an occasionally intriguing gameplay which incorporates puzzles,trap evasions and enemy confrontations. No masterpiece,but quite entertaining (especially if the invaluable Walkthrough is utilised)." - Orbit Dream

"This little nightmare made me shaking. I wouldn't make it without walkthrough. I'm glad that you get save-game before start, because I used a lot of medi-packs and flares. It could be done also without them (that was probably builder's intention) though all switches near snakes didn't make sense which are dangerous and which aren't. Game is suitable also to beginners so I recommend playing if you want to see something different. Textures are placed very well. When you will find crawl-space (look up where light is), you will first see room with rotated doors - made me feel dizzy and very little, like one huge dinosaur walked there. The library temple area is stunning, with pictures of unicorns and baby-mermaids. When exploring the temple I also got scared and because of dark corners I thought that is someone there. Really scary ... Also rolling-ball sequence will give you a few reloads from save-games. Knight on horse is very pretty - I would never guess that copper tile is trapdoor. So be prepared. :-) Congratulations to the builder, I liked the weird room with painted doors, also some doors were left unopened, some kind of mystery game. I also liked new textures. Well, this weird review perfectly suits to game I played. :-)" - Oxy

"How soon they (or rather,I) forget: released in '05 with what we were all then familiar, a tom file. Easy enough to install, once I got over my surprise. There are 60 pickups (according to Harry's walkthrough) and almost all are redundant. The author included with his savegame not only the two gold stars and unlimited flares but unlimited medipacks and unlimited ammo for the uzi and revolver along with all the weaponry; grenade launcher included. The maze is a bit easier to navigate with a walkthrough but that crawl space is still hard to spot and took me a rather long time to find. There's a particularly nasty fire wraith that's hard to evade as Lara has to make a long climb to the water source but there is a way (as most Raiders know) to sometimes confuse it and that worked this time. I didn't know at that point that I had unlimited medipacks or I would have used them. You finally get to use all that firepower on one, lone horseman. Six secrets and a revolving room make this a bit interesting." - Bene

"Certainly the best level (and the longest one, too) in this series, which I'm quite satisfied to quit for good for I regret to say I had no great fun playing these levels. I played this one with Yoav's walkthrough for I was bored already in the first half of the level as you have to find a crawlspace in a very dark labyrinth textured with jungle textures. The author has included a savegame with illimited flares and ammos and the two stars you are supposed to have collected in the first levels. Nice , but even with illimited flares, navigating a labyrinth is the opposite of what the word FUN means. Boy it is only a waste of time. I like the concept of the second part of this level set in a library style in which you have 3 big rooms , and each seems to be the previous room that has been rotated, meaning that the (fake) doors which were strangely placed on the ground in the previous area are now real doors in the new one (and vice versa). No flipmap is behind this (no technical achievement)but I like the idea. Not many good moments to spend in between , except maybe avoiding a couple of rolling balls while diving in a pool. There is also a passage with the classic traps of the lost library (cogs and chains) and a final 'boss' with a horseman, but aside from that there is nothing else worthy to be mentionned and remembered , except running around , avoiding some fire wraiths , and a very unisnpired puzzle with the serpent switches : 5 of them are trapped and the 6th open a door , lol. There are also rooms with secrets or plenty of pickups but as you have already illimited ressources.... The setting is rather well done (no animation for the library doors though) and one flyby is very well executed in an artistic manner." - eRIC

"Now you have to be a pretty confident builder to decide to stick a huge dark cave maze right at the start of your level...or possibly a very stupid one! I think I started this level about 4 times and gave up each time after short periods because I just wasn't in the mood for a brain malfunction, but in the end I thought I'd bite the bullet and just get it out of the way. Then to my horror I found the rest of the level had a maze like feel with blue doors en masse in this weird crazy cave room, which I think was supposed to rotate as you came back to it from different places. Somehow though I muddled my way through it and realised at the end that I couldn't really pinpoint anything I had actually achieved along the way apart from just moving on like a rat in a maze. Although I did happen to find 3 or 4 of the secrets, 1 in the starting cave that I would recommend to everyone just to avoid looking for as then you have to go backtracking to get out, and I ended this level after, well I don't actually know, I was just so happy to finish I didn't even check my stats but it would have been something like 45 minutes to an hour. This was definitely not my cup of tea but I'm sure lots of people will find it uniquely fascinating." - Sash

"This third part is definitely the best so far and also the longest at 45 minutes. But it is a bit difficult to rate, as initially you get a very tedious and annoying dark maze area. But once out of that one it becomes more interesting in a library setting with the usual puzzles and one idea that is so clever that it is actually not immediately obvious. The room with the many blue doors turns several times (or at least the author tries to give that impression) and this way allows access to different areas. I found five of the six secrets, some of them quite cleverly hidden. Enemies are a few fire wraiths and the horseman with his horse. Not sure why the end had to be via climbing through a wall - quite a spoiler that, but all in all an interesting level." - Michael

"You could play this as a stand alone as in my download there is a saved game. Still a plethora of pickups and a maze that I didn't like at all. I am not that overly fond of mazes, but this one was the pits. There is still a lot of work to do by this author to get everything to run smoothly, like good puzzles, atmosphere and do something about that maze. 21-05-2005" - Gerty

"First comes a pickup fest, although if you've played the previous two instalments in this series you'll already have more stuff in your backpack than you know what to do with. Next comes an absolute nightmare of a dark cave with maze like passages I seemed to be stumbling round for ever. Finally, with the help of the forum, I got out of there just in time to preserve what's left of my sanity and found myself in a rather strange room full of doors, some real, some just used as motifs. I was so delighted to get out of those ghastly caves that I was really inclined to be well disposed towards anywhere else and certainly there are some nice paintings and textures in some of the rooms in this section. Not much in the way of enemies - a wraith of two and a horseman right at the end. Unfortunately I entirely failed to find a finishing trigger so unless the author provides a sagegame with level 4, I shan't be playing it." - Jay

"In order to play this level you have to use a savegame from the previous levels where you have collected two stars, otherwise it's impossible to proceed after the maze. It starts with a maze as mentioned above with a few pick ups and a crawlspace you need, to find to access the first main area. Unfortunately the setting and atmosphere are not very good due to the not so well placed textures and the emptiness of the areas. Generally the player has to visit a few rooms that have pools, a puzzle with snake statues and nice paintings or go through the blades in every level while climbing a pole; something we've seen in the official Library level in TR4. I didn't find many secrets, in fact I just got one but this level wasn't interesting for me at all so I wasn't in the mood to search for secrets. The puzzles or atmosphere need a lot of work so we can say that this is an enjoyable game. The enemies are wraiths and a horseman that will give you the gem you need. One thing I have to bring to the author's attention is that there wasn't an English readme file which makes it very difficult if not impossible for most people to understand the story or read any important information the author has provided. Also a savegame should have been provided with the download since a player cannot play or finish the level from a point after." - Kristina