Level reviews

"The outside bits were fun, the factory bits had too much padding (with a lot of running back and forth), and the sewers were just there. Towards the end, simply navigating the town and open houses to get to places was quite a disorienting experience. There's also something off about the collision of the swinging blades, I died more times than I'll ever admit and that made the level a little more aggravating than it should. 65 minutes, 5 secrets. 07/25" - Treeble

"This is included as the opening level in the builder's full League of the Dragons series, but even as a standalone level, this provided a good close to two hours worth of extensive raiding. It's not strictly an Easter level, but it contains many challenging sequences that will make an experienced player drool. None of them are ridiculously unfair, but I found the collision of the swinging hammers to be a bit dodgy, and I ended up losing more of Lara's life than I care to admit. The textures are attractive and the city environment well constructed. There's also a couple of tight timed runs, plenty of traps and a long button pushing exercise, plus five secrets to go for." - Ryan

"I played this as part of the full series and the dramatic opening flyby and scrolling storyline text already hints at something epic and that is exactly what you get. The first level alone takes you from City to sewer to Home to Factory & Warehouse type environments. It is quite heavy on levers and buttons, with only a few push puzzles and an occasional timed run thrown in, but still works quite nicely in that way. You get to battle plenty of dogs, rats and workers and five partly very sneaky secrets. I wasted a whole lot of medipacks due to those swinging things that were quite tough to get past without being hit, but maybe I just did not have enough patience to time these moves right." - MichaelP

"A really nice level here from featuring over 2 hours of gameplay. Set in (though it could be an early century London with the classic train noises and horses clip-clopping along in the background ambience), you find yourself exploring the city, sewers and industrial complexes. Gameplay is on the medium to difficult side, with medi-packs fairly scarce. The sections with the swinging arms drove me potty because their range of damage is so wide they are very difficult to get past without taking a hit. The rest mostly involves push blocks, timed runs and plenty of keeping your eyes peeled. Enemies consist of Rats, TR2 dogs, and some rather unpleasant spanner wielding grunts. Texturing is good for the most-part and the outdoor court-yards are beautifully constructed. I think a little distance fog might have added to the ambience even more but it's very well lit overall. My only real critisms were that I wasn't too keen on the Lara model, and it would have been nice to include more TR3 music queues (you get the odd TR4 one which just doesn't really fit the ambience/atmosphere being created here). All in all I netted 2 hours 8 minutes from the Legacy of the Dragons The Square. A very strong level here from Raider Matty and definitely one for anyone's raid list. Highly recommended, Stiggy." - TheStig

"The screenshots and the title promised a charming little city adventure, so I decided to give it a go to have a bit of a breather in between the BtB 2011 levels and the next big level series. It turned out to be somewhat longer and more involved than I first expected, so the first impressions can be deceptive, but then again - with pushable object puzzles and flicking switches taking up the lion's share of gameplay present here, the duration and complexity turn out to be a bit illusory. I've never understood the appeal of setting large portions of city levels within the sewers, unless the story would require Lara to infiltrate a heavily reinforced city where the sewers would happen to be its weakest point. I mean - they usually are not that visually appealing, don't really allow you to do much you couldn't do outside them gameplaywise, and I think we can all be very glad that nobody has thought of adding the dimension of odors for a more visceral playing experience in videogames. That rant aside - while I found the excursions in sewers here to be lacking in logical justification - they are actually surprisingly appealing and add to the diversity of the settings. The level's looks certainly are its strongest side, and it's an aesthetic pleasure to explore the cozy courtyards, streets, warehouses and mansions. The most novel aspect of the gameplay would be the way you can interact with the pushable objects (pushing them over edges), and I enjoyed the occasional timed run, but overall the gameplay relies a bit too much on switches and odd, sometimes internally inconsistent TR-logic. I suppose no one really as much as blinks these days when a switch in one building opens a door in another one (the real life equivalent of the light-switch in your room flushing your across-the-street neighbour's toilet) as long as a camera-hint is shown doing exactly that, and I suppose I would much rather prefer the level to be preoccupied with setting up interesting tasks than being rigidly realistic, but it did become a bit too noticeable during the course of the game in here. At times the game also rather arbitrarily involves identical looking boxes, where you can stand on one of them, but not the other - and the entire puzzle ends up being moving the non-standable box aside, so you can push the standable one closer to a high crawlspace you have to get into. I was also not keen on the movable wall segment that blends in a bit too well with the rest of the wall closer to the end, and the rooftops that set Lara on fire (why not just make them inaccessible (better), or separate with invisible walls (not as good, but better than what is there) if you don't want the player to go there?) - the issue for me here being - is that the builder is not really giving the player a fighting chance to figure out the level's tasks, do's and dont's by themselves. All that said - I did overall enjoy my time here (even though we never meet this Jack guy in the end - maybe a better mission would've been in order) - but the obsession with switches and internal inconsistencies hurt the flow of the game. Still recommended, if you can handle those for the price of a nice looking city setting." - eTux

"If you like levels that are located in a small town, this is the one for you. Architectural is it done pretty good. I even like the eclectic choice of textures as it does fit in some way. Secrets are hidden pretty well I have to admit as I didn't get all of them. And I've been looking everywhere, mainly because I lost my way too many times. Some parts of the game-play was quite logical but some of it wasn't. It was all quite clear in the builders head but it didn't pan out, a pity though. Overkill I call the pushing of the buttons that made a crate appear hanging from a crane and I had also a nasty bug there in those passages. Lara had to crawl into a crawlspace but she couldn't get down and there is a fital button there to be pushed. The timed run where you found a pushable, I just couldn't do it as the ladder that Lara had to climb was giving me trouble. Some of the collisions were way too big for the objects. Also pushing a very sneaky block so that a fire got extinguished in order to push a lever is not logical and as I was running very low on medipacks I search for that block for hours. The explotion was rather buggy but you can avoid it by saving and reloading. What I did miss was more camera work. Be sure to have some free time on your hands as this exploration is time consuming but fun to do and there is lots to see." - Gerty

"TECHNICAL INFO: Even if You encounter the detonator bug and save by coincidence, You are NOT doomed - just return to the trigger square, and the explosion will activate as it should. So it's not as serious flaw as the author thinks ;). Playing the game, I had to force myself to remember the author is Raidermatty. As for him, everything is surprisingly dense and connected with each other on rather small space, so there's not so much travelling between a trigger and a triggered thing. However, geometry and architecture makes the level look much bigger than it actually is. We have at least two squares, and a lot of houses to explore... and a factory with obligatory flames and swinging iron, of course. I assume the whole wad and texture set is taken from Trix's A Time Odyssey, mostly from its city level, however I am sure there are also objects and textured from Vesuvius part added - pushable Minerva statues, ceramic Roman vases, bath tiles... It all looks beautiful, in lighting identical to the one set in original ATO. Even the sky is painted the same way, and the same full moon is shining above Lara's head... I have a real dilemma how to rate those objects. On one hand, none of them has been made by the author, on the other, all of them are applied the way which makes this level feel like a DIRECT sequel of Somewhere, sometime. Let's make it clear: even if made of the same exact stuff, it does NOT feel like a remake, so this is probably Raidermatty's greatest achievement here. I think if Trix stumbles upon this forum from time to time, and plays this game, she'll be either proud or jealous, or have feelings as mixed as I do. The only object flaws are: bottles (once filled with fuel in ATO, now completely unpickable, so I was trying to grab each of them) cupboards (missing drawers) and crowbar doors vanishing in walls after being open. Fortunately, in a game so complex like this one, these flaws vanish just like crowbar doors do - among awesomeness - so they might not be spotted by a player at all. However, the whole category can't get full 10 because of enemies - these are, so far, the most irritating one of EVERYTHING Raidermatty has made so far. Rats attacks You while You're opening a door or pushing a statue. Grrr... If You are one of those "I-will-do-it-with-no-medis" guys, You need to SAVE/LOAD/REPEAT to restore the lifebar. I also am one of these guys, but when a worker smacked me with his spanner through the door I was opening (he had enough time to do it several times) and I had no chance to defend myself, I lost my patience (I really rarely do) and took a half medi, just because it was definitely the builder's fault, not mine. Also, how many bullets do You need to kill a dog? Here, it's sometimes (and somewheres) more than 24, if You play pistols only. Is this an author's intention or a bug? BTW, why did I play pistols only? Either secrets are very good, or it's something wrong with me this time - I managed to miss the shotgun, the grenade gun and the crossbow. I don't remember a game where I did such a fail, but it's not the point - it is about I also needed to SAVE/LOAD/RETRY to kill a dog several times, because they often attack in small rooms, sometimes when You are exitting a narrow corridor, so You don't have a split second to avoid being bitten (fortunately, my neighbours live behind a wall thick enough for them not to hear rude words shouted from my mouth). A thin line between "thrilling" and "annoying" enemies has unfortunately been crossed in this level. EDIT: I completed the level once again, more carefully, as it has a strong replay value, and found 2 more secrets, so I have a comparison to "pistols only" and I must admit using that shotgun, if only found, is very satisfying. SUMMARY: Raidermatty, for all this time You've been putting together objects made by others, many times achieving atmosphere equal to filling levels where those objects were used for the first time. You must be a very observant and careful builder, because You can perfectly transport all kinds of atmosphere to Your own levels. Now You're ready to build something unique. A level where backtracking does not matter due to its awesomeness, so You won't need to drop Your building style presented in Infada Power or Christmas at the North Pole. Yes - even though those levels are MADE OF BACKTRACKING, I think it is a kind of building style, which is impossible to copy. That's why I always liked to backtrack in Your levels and I miss it in this one. So launch Meta, make some nice objects Yourself, build a level from scratch and get the heck to the Hall of Fame - NOW." - DJ Full

"I thought I might as well try this level because I loved his latest level. This was a pretty fun level but I don't think it's that much of an easter level. The city reminded me of somewhere sometime in the time odyssey by trix and the textures and atmosphere was great in this level. The houses were my favourite but they weren't that long. You had to be in the sewers and the factory for most of the time! Easter levels aren't supposed to be sewers and factories! Another reason why I think this wasn't a very good easter level was because there were a lot of enemies, there was a lot of traps and there were corpses in the sewers! I don't think children would like seeing rotting bodies. All the negatives aside there were a lot of good things as well like the gameplay was pretty fun exploring the city and the houses. The atmosphere was so brilliant! I loved it! The builder textured and lighted the level perfectly! I think it was a bit like trix's! The texturing was fantasic in the houses. It fitted perfectly. I liked finding keys and other objects and the secrets weren't thsr had to find. Even though not a level that fits easter, it's a level that is very fun and brilliant for a debut" - afzalmiah

"This is a thoroughly enjoyable "Easter" level that seemed nearly as complicated as some of last year's Advent levels. As a stand-alone level it took me nearly three hours to complete, but nothing about it was boring. Many thanks to manarch2 for providing a clear and concise walkthrough. I got hung up on the first secret and spent considerable time after finishing the level trying to ferret out how it worked (since I was unable to get it the first time around). Only after trying numerous different combinations did I discover what triggers the opening of the secret door. This activity, involving only a small portion of the level, gave me renewed insight and respect for the foresight and planning that's required of a builder in laying out a decent raid. I'm looking forward to playing this builder's other recent release. Highly recommended." - Phil

"I didn't really enjoy this level and I don't quite know why. Sure, there was a lot of pushing a button to push a button to find a key to open a door just to push another button, but there are many games like that. The puzzles were straight forward, the timed runs were very achievable, the baddies well placed, the use of textures nicely done and a good solid feel to the whole level. So, why didn't I enjoy it? I think it was the endless running around looking for what the last button, lever, push-block had done coupled with the small, crowded, blocky rooms that Lara kept getting caught up on and the swinging pendulums that clobbered Lara if she was within two metres of them. I didn't mind the delayed explosion or the slightly buggy push-block puzzle, the builder had warned about those in the 'Read Me' and that's fine. This was a pretty fair level and I should have enjoyed it but I'm afraid, for me, it missed." - Diz

"This is not a peaceful Easter-level. The player has to deal with dogs, workers, a couple of rats and some nasty swinging blades. It's a bit annoying that it's hard to see from which position the start to be harmful. Three main-sections have to be explored - the factory, a warehouse and a lst section reached through the sewers. Gameplay is getting better and better during this level. Puzzles are well elaborate, three timed runs are not that hard to do. It sould be playable for everyone. The design is a bit monotone. Many rooms look similar, as in the factory-like areas as in the houses as well. More varied are the outdoor-areas. Lightning is well done. Highly recommended!" - Christian

"An action-packed stunning adventure by Raidermatty,no time here to sit down and waste your time for Lara is in for a real challenge in good old London. This game had me glued in front of my screen for many hours . Some may complain about the rather weird texturing especially inside the houses ,crazy enough its a crazy game with lots of exploring and tasks for Lara to do until she finally gets the key to St. James Park. A very well worked out TRLE game always on the edge between a player`s satisfaction or deperation." - Ruben

"A Reviewer on TRLE has appointed Raidermatty to the Backtracking King. I can understand this name absolutely, because in his last level Christmas at the Northpole one had to run so a lot to and fro that Lara got Blisters on her feet and I had a thick neck. I can only hope that it not will be in the new level of Raidermatty, because Christmas at the Northpole did indeed look good, but it provided frustration attacks. And this must not be.
The doors which one must open with the crowbar disappear in the wall. This does not look so nice. The canalisation looks very good. There one can see very clear, that Raidermatty a good level builder is. Not only the canalisation looks good. The Outdoor areas are also formed very nicely. And the apartments are furnished very comfortably. But attention if you play this level you should have a big serving of iron butt, because 2 hours can absolutely pass, until you find the Finishtrigger. Thereby the level is thus crammed with riddles that one's head is thumping and one sometimes does not know any more where one is. However, as a rule the riddles are comprehensible. However, one or two camera hints more would have been good for this level. Though one finds plenty ammunition, but unfortunately no weapons. On the other hand, only workers with a spanner, dogs and rats are in this level on the way. One can do that without problems with the pistols. Moreover, enough Medipacks exist.
Conclusion: Excellent level at which immediately the "What is behind the next corner" phenomenon occurs. At such levels it is hard to put the keyboard out of hand and you play until you are done or falling either from fatigue into the bed." - Scottie

"If you're looking for a pretty, gentle, enemy-free Easter level, don't bother with this one. However, if you're looking for an exciting, fast paced and occasionally quite challenging level, download it right away. There are certainly some lovely areas of the city (a rather exotic version of London) to admire from time to time, but Lara being Lara, most of the action takes place in rather less salubrious locations such as rat infested sewers and warehouses, with occasional attacks by those orange boiler suited chaps wielding spanners, dogs and rats. It's not the enemies that take the toll however - it's those huge swinging trap things that are hard enough to avoid when you have all the time in the world and become a bit of a nightmare when incorporated into a timed run. I was quite breathless when I finally achieved that one. Not perhaps a level for an absolute beginner, but highly enjoyable for any player with a bit of experience. I only found two of the (I hope) well hidden secrets, but I still finished the game with plenty of ammo and medipacks and I see from the readme that the ammo will come in useful for future parts of this series so I'm hanging on to a savegame in eager anticipation." - Jay

"This gets better and better as it progresses, so that the ending sections, such as in the horse courtyard, are very good indeed. There Lara can look around at a marvelously realized city of colorful rooftops. Throughout Lara will be hunting and using four keys--for a factory, warehouse, sewer, and St. Paul's--the last key taking her to a future continuation level after about two hours of intense play. The factory area was the most trying in that play drags while Lara hunts up at least six push buttons to open a door. All of this takes place in dismal corridors where a sign warns Lara: "Seriously, don't even enter here." Should Lara trust the author of not? Apparently not, as this is the way to continue. It's hard to know how to progress in the factory. Swinging machinery was not my favorite as Lara collides with it if she even approaches it by about the width of her body. Doing a timed run in this section may have players fearing that they have become ambisinister. But persevere, and the areas opened up by the three remaining keys go more quickly. One appreciates the huge amount of work that went into creating the puzzles and intricate game map. By the end I felt real satisfaction and enjoyment that Lara had prevailed. The author is developing as a major talent, best seen for now in the design of the courtyards and in the puzzles. Probably for seasoned players until a walkthrough is available. Highly recommended." - dmdibl

"The level was released at Easter time, but not an easter level I think. You'll play most of it in the sewers, and it'll not be easy 'cause there are a lot of dangers and difficult tasks to solve. The timed run in the water room was really really hard! The author could place another weapons in the normal gameplay 'cause I've heard there was a secret shotgun but I had to play all the level only with the pistols. Design is pretty good, well balanced between inside and outside areas; I missed some more cameras in certain places to help the player. Good work but that timed run is excessively hard for most players." - Jose

"I can't understand why some bugs and faults, mostly in gameplay, can rate down such a nice level. It was clearly the best of Raidermatty until now, he at last gave up the really annoying backtracking which I really disliked in his Advent level, and concentrated on more exploration gameplay, partly with few puzzles in the level. There clearly was a touch of "No X-Mas without a Tree"/the original "A Time Odyssey" mixed in, and I really liked it. The texturing was very much fitting, the different locations in the town looked really realistic. The slicers, may they be as buggy as possible, can be passed without health loss and it was challenging, but never frustrating to pass them, even not in the timed run. OK, in the factory and sewers the combination slicers-fire gap is a bit overused in the area where you had to find five buttons, but in general I can't complain. The block and statue puzzles were highly entertaining, not really needed to think hard, but still quite fun to solve. The town was really well done with all its beautiful looking mansions, courtyards and walls. The explosion was a good idea but had also some bugs in it. All in all - what you get here is a nice 90 minute raid, with good lookings and flowing gameplay that at few points could be a bit better, but overall I had a lot of fun with this level." - manarch2

"*phew* What a journey this is through a factory, warehouse, sewers and several homes in a search for myriad keys and locations. One that got progressively easier once the timed run to the ceiling trapdoor was accomplished. Early gameplay was, for me, confusing; some of which was difficult to know what to do and then proceed to do it with a not-so-easy to-grab ladder (sometimes) and not one but two swinging blades to pass through (made all the more difficult because of collision issues)on a timed run. I didn't find all the secrets (only two) so if there were medipacks available through secrets, I didn't find as many as I would have liked as I thought the enemies, including the dogs, took more of Lara's health than was necessary. All that is not entirely negative - far from it - it grabs one's attention and doesn't let go. The solution to the first timed run button that a player sees at the beginning but doesn't yet understand is a touch of genius and the outside graphics are done really well and all of it is atmospheric and at times, appropriately dark. The graphics inside are sometimes a jumble of color and a bit too much but offset with the excellent views from the rooftops.
Not an Easter level, of course, and as the author explains is part one of a continuing story. One of which I will now remember (I hope) to guard my medipacks and play without my sometimes impatient, risky, usual recklessness.
A must - play despite any negatives; engrossing and above all, interesting." - Bene

"Ok, this one is not really an Easter game ... it has some good parts, but bad ones too which cut down the overall fun ... ok, let's detail it a bit: It is a fairly long game ... in a city setting with sewer parts and some swimming parts too ... you need to find several keys to progress in the game ... the crowbar you get right after the start ... - the game contains some annoying balancing slicers parts ... somehow even if you are close to the slicers and wait for the moment when to run through you still will lose health .. because the slicers are too big and the balancing not to ample so not enough room to pass at narrow spaces without losing health ... and to make it worse at one of these parts this is connected with a timed run ... so you need to avoid the slicers and to get in time to the open door fence ... also too many burner traps ... but this could be understandable somehow if there would be provided enough medipacks in the game ... which is NOT the case!! Also I cannot understand why the builder provided flares? Medipacks would have been better because you don't need to use flares at all ... also you get a lot of shotgun / Uzi / crosbow and even grenade gun ammo, but I did not find any guns for those. So I needed to finish the game with standard pistols and there are a lot of enemies. Mostly wrench guys and dobermans ... I was able to finish the game with 0 medipacks left and 25% health only! ... The overall conception of the game was not bad ... but not polished enough .... also the visuals did not impress me at all ... playable game ... but don't expect too much from it..." - Jack&