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Level: Ruined Castle back home search
Author(s): Timo Turunen
total rating:6.42 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Bene 8 7 8 8
CC 4 3 8 7
Gerty 7 5 7 7
Jay 6 6 7 7
Kristina 7 6 7 7
MichaelP 6 5 5 7
Obig 8 7 7 7
Orbit Dream 5 4 6 8
Sash 5 3 5 7
Tombaholic 7 7 6 6
Wendee 5 7 8 5
Yoav 7 7 8 8
category averages
(12 reviews)		 6.25 5.58 6.83 7.00

Reviewer's comments

“Very frustrating for me playing on a mac and I don't know yet how to solve the problem. I couldn't save load exit to inventory or see the stats. And running or swimming far enough the screen froze. If a tom had been supplied I might have been able to fiddle around with the files. What I did in the end was get as far as I could in one direction without trying to kill Lara I even dozyied to give her more health (as I couldn't get it the normal way) and when the screen froze I started again in another direction. I did this about ten times so I got to cover a lot of the level in that way. I've left it for now as there's supposed to be a follow-up in the future. I hope this level is included in the follow-up so that I can explore it in one go and as it should be. It would be nice to see a couple of enemies as well.” – CC (12-Feb-2004)

“Beautiful beginning coming across a massive castle isolated by a moat from the tree strewn bank on all sides once inside the castle this quickly became a door opening caper with dozens to be found and although there’s a fire tile room to traverse and a couple of other small distractions from the norm you open most of the doors by simple trigger tiles or locating easy to find pick ups. Maybe this wouldn’t have felt so repetitive if there was an enemy here or there or some actual objects in all the rooms you visit but there were no enemies and each room was devoid of anything. I ended after 55 minutes well I say ended but I actually hit the top turret on the castle and expected it to be the end and when it wasn’t I just couldn’t be bothered trying to find where I was supposed to go next hello a camera would have been nice so took my three secrets hit the Alt/F4 buttons and left!” – Sash (24-Jan-2004)

“While I wasn't too impressed with the ‘castle’ setting I thought some of the puzzles and traps in this one were a notch above average. Most noteworthy is a color-coded pressure pad puzzle involving doors a torch and a flipmap. The rolling boulder traps toward the end were lethal enough to get me reloading a couple times too. Sadly the level is just a bit too truncated to rate higher on gameplay.” – Tombaholic (20-Jan-2004)

“This level is not different from other coastal levels that we played before. The same gameplay objects and of course skeletons. How can we play without them but I want to say something about the scenery outside the castle all around the castle is very nice canal water around bridges and many trees look like a forest (giving me the feeling to do picnic) LOL and in some place that Lara stands there are flyby cameras that show the all around wonderful.” – Yoav (11-Jan-2004)

“For some reason Timo’s levels just don’t seem to click with me. This is an impressive and huge setting of a castle and I liked the moat the walls the trees and all but I found gameplay very tedious with all the running around empty spaces and then reloading and starting over to explore a different area. In an area as huge as this one the disappearing horizon appears many times as well. The flybys most definitely need some work as they go through walls. There are a few traps here and there (spikes and fires) but gameplay as such is just of the ‘find a pickup lying on the ground and use it to open yet another door. Not an overly exciting level for me but see for yourself.” – Michael (21-Nov-2003)

“This is a nice level which takes place in a ruined and desolate castle. Unfortunately there are no enemies. I would have kindly seen a few dead knights beasts and birds in the forest and crocodiles in the water although it's still a good adventure. You have weapons right at the beginning you will find the Grenade Gun in a Secret and swimming through the spikes the Shotgun. You can get the Laser Sight in the basement in the pool but it's unnecessary. What's more in the end you will get the UZI the Revolver and another Laser Sight. Will it maybe needed on the next level? There's only one timed run for getting the second Hathor Effigy. I found 3 secrets. You must find the Crowbar on the floor by no means because you will force open several doors and get the Star with it. The textures are nice they fit well to the surroundings but unfortunately there are no added sounds. There are numerous Medipacks and pick-ups but none of them is necessary. Find the complete walkthrough with pictures and savegames here: http://www.treditor.hu/english/ruined_castle_eng.htm ” – Obig (18-Nov-2003)

“You start with a dive in a moat and have to find a way to climb on the embankment where you'll see the Ruined Castle. This level is vast curious as I am I swam the entire moat (was very glad I never encountered any enemies anywhere) and also jumped to the other side and had a stroll through the woods. Once inside the castle it was a different story as there are some artifact you have to collect like a star a gate key twice the Portal Guardian and also twice the blue gem. There are also some traps but the solution is near (always carefully look around and you'll see what I mean). There are many trigger tiles to open doors and even a timed run to get the Effigi. Found two sights and in the weapon room more than enough to battle an army. Took me quite a while to finish this level as I got lost in a major way and I still found some gates locked but I hit the finishing trigger and was very very tired of all that running. 28-10-2003” – Gerty (11-Nov-2003)

“WOW! This level is VAST. The author obviously spent a great amount of time creating the nooks and crannies as well as MONSTER-sized castle. Thank goodness the author included a walkthrough with the readme. A map would have been nice too. The premise of Lara’s task is to locate various articles (horseman’s gem portal guardian star effigy etc) return to an already-explored area to place them only to have triggered a gate in ANTOHER area. The flybys were only somewhat helpful. I spent more time trying to remember where the gate was that I just opened and how to get there. Frustrating to me. As the author stated there were no enemies other than spike traps and fire. I found two secrets of the three. The atmosphere was very castle-like with fitting dark corners. I would only want to change a few things for part 2. Backtracking is fine. Just don’t overdo it. You shouldn’t have to hunt out an obscure gate each time you place a pickup. The castle was beautiful. However the textures became monotonous after a while. I would suggest making smaller areas to explore and adding different textured rooms.” – Wendee (11-Nov-2003)

“It actually looked in pretty good condition to me and it's big really really BIG. It is also the castle of a thousand doors and to begin with I just couldn't imagine where I was going to find all those keys but most of the doors are activated by trigger tiles. Once you start exploring the inside of the castle you will find yourself in an absolute warren of corridors and rooms some with spikes some which will set you on fire if you don't look around carefully. I must confess that initially I thought this was going to be a rather boring level but I actually quite enjoyed it and shall certainly try the promised follow up. There are no enemies in this level but considering the amount of fire power and medipacks I picked up I can only assume that part 2 is going to be somewhat fraught. 4.11.2003” – Jay (05-Nov-2003)

“It was rather unfortunate that I played two 'Empty Castle' levels almost back to back as this suffered visually in comparison to Oxy's effort. The objective here is to run around a huge labyrinthine environment activating door triggers and collecting pick-ups in order to progress; and this you do for around an hour until the end of level trigger kicks in. There are no enemies and few puzzles (although the fire-tile rooms are quite well planned out) and hence not much to keep you interested. There's nothing wrong with this level as such (apart from a couple of dodgy flybys). It's just that it's a little ..well how can I put this tactfully? ...boring.” – Orbit Dream (04-Nov-2003)

“We have a huge Scottish castle with no enemies not a single one. It’s a nice one though and the lack of enemies didn’t bother me at all as I was trying to find a way to open the next door and let me tell you that they are plenty. Don’t search for any switches there are none but triggers are everywhere and usually different floor tiles which are used as triggers. Gems a token two portal guardians a star and a pillar are the items you will be searching for in the huge areas around and above the cattle. Some small parts of texture are missing in a few places but it’s barely noticeable. A few areas and corners were too dark but the flares are so many that even I finished with close to a hundred in the inventory. I found three secrets and took me and hour to sort out the mess with all the doors. I liked this level and I think the author has potential.” – Kristina (29-Oct-2003)

“This is supposed to be a castle in ruins although it seems to be in perfect condition. It's quite large and in fact I was left with the feeling that I had seen only a small portion of it. Of course this is Part 1 with a promise of more to come. Lots of fire tiles spikes and dark areas (whip out those binoculars/flares) and no enemies. In fact no ambient sounds; which was by itself a bit spooky as befitting any deserted abandoned place. The builder has used clever floor and ceiling patterns as guides to navigate rooms filled with fire tiles and Raiders are treated to a weapons room filled with goodies......always a lot of fun. Once up on the ramparts be sure to look around and admire the sun. No it doesn't look like ruins.......just a perfect place for a Raider to raid. In fact I think I'll return now and look for the 3 secrets that I didn't find. One of which I think is a shotgun. I am definitely looking forward to Part 2.” – Bene (29-Oct-2003)
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