Level reviews

"For a debut release, this is quite ambitious, with four massive and sprawling levels. However, that's where it loses me. The first level, "Dark Caves" is quite monotonous and on the dark side, and when you finally reach the finish trigger you enter level two, the first thing that caught my eye was the level title: "Even Darker Caves". Like, come on. When you finally get to the cathedral in the massive green fog it's a refreshing change of scenery, but shortly after it's back to clautrosphobic and narrow caves some more. Gameplay is quite confusing so I'm forever grateful for using my crutches (here provided by Nina and Phiol), but some of the things just didn't feel right such as pulling up through (and then back down) a 1-click crawlspace, an underwater switch fully hidden in algae and a particular trap in level 4 which took me dozens and dozens of tries until I made it through. There's also a distinct lack of medipacks, so make conscious use of those if you decide to play this one. 2h20min, 7 secrets. 03/26" - Treeble

"I've got mixed emotions about this one. First and foremost, there's no doubting that the majority of this four-level adventure is entertaining, with a few good puzzles, jumping sequences, well placed enemy encounters and enjoyable traps to avoid. But the gameplay felt a bit out of balance for me, not because of the exploration factor, but more attributable to the extreme toughness of some of the traps (particularly the spinning blade traps in narrow spaces) and the builder being quite stingy with medipacks. I personally never ran out, but there are many hair-raising sequences that may be a little too difficult to conquer. The textures are fairly bland, not terrible as such, but there are quite a few rough wallpapered areas to go through. Unlike others, the dragon in my game was surprisingly easy to get past, and I never got torched once. In summary, this is great for a debut, but a little unforgiving in some places." - Ryan

"The progress structure is very good - the first level is an excellent prologue, occasionally confusing but too small to get lost for long, and not boring with convincing tunnel shaping. After that you learn you should be observant so you pay attention in the second level. Here I don't know if I missed a hint for the sequence puzzle or if it was trial and error. I also found an invisible collision denying passage through the animating door with a crucial jumpswitch behind - possibly a gamestopper, but it disappeared for me after a reload a bit further. Albeit from unmarked traps you can die a tad too often, this level is easier and more spacious than the first one, what sustains the infiltration mood until the third, central level - possibly revealed too fast in the title flyby - gives a bit of breath with rocky platforming around the destination temple, somewhat like in Sanctuary of the Scion but more "European" and undead. The forced double climb for the high secret wasn't good and there would be no problem to provide a fast return instead. In this level, a curious engine behaviour occured I have never seen before: when I threw the torch into the spikes and then threw a flare into another spikes, the dropped torch has teleported to where I dropped the flare. I don't count that as the author's mistake, unlike another bunch of sounds missing too frequently to leave the atmosphere unaffected. Also getting just the ammo pickups was quite frustrating, I think by this time we should have a stronger weapon because there's no reason to deal with combo enemies with pistols and insufficient uzis. Some more firepower appears as soon as we dive underground for a lot of combat riddles but outbalanced again: we still happen to lack stronger ammo and end up with pistols - very likely, leaving just the important baddies - initial crocodiles, triple skellies, wraiths, templars, the bull - would do much better, because so frequent combat loses a lot of surprise factor. I would also disable the locusts from the final fight since TRNG allows (and the original creator of Ahmet_Mip, no hate intended, should end up trapped in Peter Jackson's insect pit with a single flare burning out). In this particular case, the emitter is substituted with some yellow things which don't just drain health but also cover the whole screen so I couldn't see what I'm doing - and being halted in such moment is the LAST thing I want... The conclusion was a real pity - when I eventually opened the final ship I couldn't even step on the deck but I was rerouted to get the final artifact from the cave below. SUMMARY: This game has certain imperfections and unpleasant moments but also a few memorable spots and things done totally good. A worthy piece to play." - DJ Full

"This TRLE is one of those that are for Experienced Players because you will need to conserve your health. This 4 Level TRLE is one where you will die alot specially in the final level." - JoeTheCrazyGamer

"Another good example of quality not always meaning quantity.The first two(of four)levels are irritatingly dark,but progression is reasonably fluid.Things really start to go awry with level three which,while brighter,is expansive yet also vague in terms of progression.Steps need to be retraced,but it's not always clear when or where. The fourth level is the final straw to all but the most persevering of players:the progression is even vaguer,enemies are thrown at you en masse,and the builder is so frugal with medi-packs that I suspect many people will call it a day quite some time before they reach the Finish Trigger.Nonetheless,the gameplay (when you can understand what you're supposed to be doing) is often inventive;and there's always something to keep the player occupied.Atmosphere isn't bad,but the application of textures is a little uninspired,resulting in grandiose yet often bland surroundings.Cameras could have been considerably more helpful,but secrets are diligently placed and objects have been used well enough (although much of the final two levels feel barren).There's no doubting the hard work which went into this debut release,and the builder must be heartily applauded for that;but he really ought to be kinder to the player for his next release,as too much of this felt like an ordeal rather than a pleasure." - Orbit Dream

"First and foremost, a friendly welcome to Luís, a builder from my country, Portugal, and congratulations on his rather nice premiere. Should I start with the pros or the cons? Two major cons: the somewhat repetitive and not really eye candy textures throughout and the huge lack of medipacks coupled with times of several great, life consuming challenges in a row (it took me hours to kill the second knight on the horse, being that knights on horses are one of my pet peeves, at a time when there were no medipacks in sight and my health kept blinking - no balance and a touch of sadism). Still, I managed, with a lot of patience, don't even ask me how and don't forget that everytime you use the grenade gun you lose some health if you're not unlucky and suddenly burst into flames. Other than that, the game was well designed, the challenges varied and I admit to having had fun while playing and a sense of reward when I put my hands on the golden cross. A nice start and I hope to see more from Luís, next time with more attention to eye candy detail and more balance so as to make sure people can make it through to the end." - Jorge22

"Rarely have I enjoyed a debut release as much as this one. The only one which readily comes to mind is the epic Sacred Emerald, whose builder has just released a long-awaited second effort. I got involved with Golden Cross to complete a walkthrough started by Nina Croft. I played the first two levels, using her guidance, and found myself thoroughly hooked. The second two levels are more elaborate and more complicated than the first two, but I immersed myself in the gameplay and enjoyed that unmistakable sense of accomplishment as I finally got past that dragon at the end of level four and hit the finish trigger. Hopefully there's a lot more to come from this fledgling builder. High recommendations." - Phil

"This levelset has some really annoying things in it, like the unnecessarily dark first two levels (and the start of the third level continues in that regard), several annoying moments, especially the underwater switch in that plant or the dragon encounter at the end but - in short: I still liked this game. Despite the gameplay being often uneven with things that could have been improved to keep things more intuitive, the progression is clever enough and the puzzles are interesting. The last two levels are notches above the first levels, good exploration and platforming in those; not much backtracking is required because the builder has cared for that. The enemy choice might be a bit boring (always the same repeating enemies) but the placement is nice, the fights are challenging. Secrets were sometimes well hidden, sometimes not at all (I wonder if anybody has managed to miss all of them). But the point where the builder needs to improve heavily is creating a decent atmosphere with clean looks. The levels heavily suffer from monotonously textured areas, most textures are used in each level and make the levels look quite alike. Also, the texturing itself could have been much better because there are lots of wallpapered and misplaced textures; some areas look a bit poor because of that. There are also some missing sounds (e.g. the spikes) and unnatural architecture in the caves. At the end, when Lara swims into the ship, she also lands in a kind of cave, which is quite strange. All in all this is a good debut and if you can bear really dark parts in the first two levels, it can be quite entertaining, thus recommended. Spent 2:25 hours in here and found six secrets." - manarch2

"Despite the first two sections of this game being entitled 'Dark Caves' and 'Even Darker Caves' (which made me smile), I thought the lighting was actually really well done, giving the impression of darkness whilst still enabling the player to see - not something every builder manages to achieve. This is certainly an assured debut level. The builder has mastered the basics of the level editor, although there is a certain 'wallpaper' look to some areas - most notably the church building - and the occasional missing texture. Overall though, it looks quite good. Where it really comes into its own is in terms of gameplay. There are some really well devised route finding, agility tests, puzzles and exploration, making for a well rounded and most satisfying raid. It definitely gets a bit harder as it progresses and some of the traps and enemy encounters would be too challenging for an inexperienced player. I had a very good time and my only real grumble would be the locusts at the end - dragons are a challenge, but locusts are just plain irritating. That aside, I really would recommend this game quite highly and I can't wait to see what the builder comes up with next." - Jay

"The Golden Cross is a pretty good level, but it definitely could have used refinement and more testing! The gameplay is by far the best aspect of this levelset, as there are plenty of fun and clever puzzles, although traps seem too frequently used at times. Items are well placed throughout the levels and used to good effect, and although more medipacks would be nice, there are enough pickups. Unfortunately, The Golden Cross is flawed in several ways. There are a few bugs, including a door that opens when stepped by, allowing early access to the inside of the church, and a game-ending bug in which a door either shuts or does not reopen unintentionally (I am not sure which). Enemies are often spawned in annoying combinations, such as dogs and horseman together and two horsemen riding horses at once. While the music placement is good overall, many times it is quite overly-dramatic, playing grand or intense music and even cutscenes for what are in reality insignificant events. The room geometry is terribly blocky in many rooms, and the textures are often wallpapered. Most areas look decent to good, but the ground outside of the church, which is uniformly wallpapered and almost completely flat, just looks awful (I am sorry to be harsh!). With more refinement (particularly in the visual area) and testing, this could have been a much better custom level, but is still great for a debut, and this builder shows much promise!" - okuhtfesq

"Small adventure, the first two levels are very short, the third is a little more complicated. For finish with the 4th which is quite long and complex, enemies are tougher in this level (Dragons, riders ... Some broken textures and a bug with the door closed which made me start back from the beginning of the last level. But overall I liked the first level of this author." - Minox

"Good debut. I think this levels were not properly beta- tested, or even they were not beta tested, 'cause I found some defects like a missed texture or errors in the gameplay... Sometimes I didn't found hints to know what switch to pull or the order to push buttons; another times there are not cameras to show what you're triggering in a far place and sometimes there are cameras to show you actions in nearby places. Also there are a lot of bad applied textures in small panels. I found some very tricky tasks too like the tight timed run in the pit with sloped pillars or the room with the fire ghosts where I got one of the ocular pieces. It was a pain the bug near the end of the game so I couldn't finish it. The author kindly updated the game including a savegame for the last level, but I'm not disposed to replay all the entire level from the very beginning repeating all the same tasks again only to see how I get the golden cross. Thank you anyway." - Jose