Secret of the Kalima
- Release date
- 09-Nov-2001
- File size
- 13 MB
- Class
- Egypt
- Engine
- TR4
- Duration
- short
- Difficulty
- easy
Review scores
Read the comments ↓| Reviewer | Gameplay & Puzzles | Enemies, Objects & Secrets | Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras | Lighting & Textures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| alan ↓ | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Anurag ↓ | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| CC ↓ | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Dimpfelmoser ↓ | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| DJ Full ↓ | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gerty ↓ | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Jay ↓ | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Jose ↓ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Kristina ↓ | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Leeth ↓ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Magnus ↓ | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| MichaelP ↓ | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Momster ↓ | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Mulf ↓ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Necro ↓ | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Orbit Dream ↓ | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| RaiderGirl ↓ | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Ryan ↓ | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Sakusha ↓ | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Sash ↓ | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| Scottie ↓ | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| SeniorBlitz ↓ | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Tombaholic ↓ | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Torry ↓ | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Treeble ↓ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TrueRaider ↓ | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Zhyttya ↓ | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Category averages (27 reviews) | 2.48 | 1.44 | 2.44 | 2.85 |
This sophomore effort thus testifies to a certain degree of progress the builder's part, but it still doesn't amount to more than a first sketch of a playable level. It's of the Settomb type, and your goal is to acquire two Timeless Sands items and place them in the hands of two pharaohs, who have to sit on sandy slopes because some joker purloined the blocks on which they'd normally sit and carried them off to the first room of the level. The initial area is textured in patchwork mode (a wall may be made of rock, stonework and sand all at the same time, perhaps with a hieroglyphic tile thrown in for good measure, why not); the final room, probably the first that was built, doesn't look too bad by comparison, although lighting is absent (as it is in the entire level, disregarding the infamous Dark Room); all the rest, wallpapered. The rooms are correspondingly boxy, with occasionally dodgy portals and the odd wafer-thin wall or hole in the geometry.
DJ Full's walkthrough describes the course through the level as it is presumably intended, - secret' lever and all, and with a rollingball threatening to block your path. However, it turns out that this lever, the large pit that it fills with sand, the Dark Room and the rollingballs are all redundant for the simple fact that one of the two paths leading up to the Dark Room is legally accessible with a standard standing jump from a block on the ledge in the lava cave. After a ridiculously long corridor, you find one of the Timeless Sands items sitting right there in your path at the entrance of the Dark Room. If you're so inclined, you can now turn around, use the - secret' lever, and pick up the second Timeless Sands, thus finishing the level even more quickly and avoiding the Dark Room altogether.
However, this is not the route I took when I played the level straight (after the one required instance of DOZY). Instead I unwittingly skipped the - secret' lever and the sand pit, approaching the cluster of rollingballs from the other side and using a tall block to jump over the spike tiles. As a consequence, the rollingballs were triggered long after I had passed them and had reached the far end of the room, leaving me mystified as to their purpose. Taking this route entails navigating the Dark Room to its full extent, which, however, I didn't consider too irritating; largely because I could run along the top of it, which pretty much cancelled out its mazelike character. - In sum, apart from the monkeyswing everything works, but only sort of; there's too little of it, and what is there isn't well-conceived. This is, pardon my French, not a good level." - Mulf