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Level: Golden Scarab back home search
Author(s): Flyskater
total rating:6.30 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Duncan 5 5 6 6
eRIC 6 6 7 6
Gerty 6 6 7 6
Jay 6 5 7 6
Jorge22 6 5 6 5
Kristina 4 5 6 6
MichaelP 7 6 8 7
Obig 7 6 6 6
Orbit Dream 7 7 7 8
Sash 5 5 6 6
Scottie 9 8 8 9
category averages
(11 reviews)		 6.18 5.82 6.73 6.45

Reviewer's comments

"If it weren't for a pointless and scrappy fly-by and some rather uninspired lighting,this would be a perfectly well built and very competant Catacomb level of the old-school.The gameplay flows smoothly from one generally linear quest to another,with a few good scare moments thrown in,and is never too difficult to follow while occasionally posing one or two interesting problems for the player to work out.Textures are very well applied (and are also used to hide some puzzle receptacles),while enemies are placed effectively and objects are used as well as can be expected.Music cues come in at just the right places to enhance the experience,and the level grips from beginning to end. It's 50 minutes of absolutely classic entertainment and highly recommendable. A pity it remains the sole contribution from this builder." - Orbit Dream (05-Mar-2010)

"Lara is on the search of the Golden Scarab. She needs in addition two times both parts of the Portal Guardian, two Horsemen-Gem, the Pharos Knot and the Pharos Pillar. Opponents are skeletons. The level is well built and textured. The riddles are rather easy. For most levers the camera tips are absent, but that's not a prolbem, coz normally the doors opens nearby. One found the shotgun, crossbow and the grenade launcher for the skeletons. The lighting is good, the sound standard. Result: If you look for an good catacomb level with about 45 minutes playing time, than is this the right one" - Scottie (21-Apr-2009)

"A pleasant Catacomb level to play, the course is interesting. At times you wonder where to go next but only for a few seconds. The enemies are few and the tasks are easy, but the author is gifted to create a fluent gameplay. The setting is solidly made, and the texturing rather good." - eRIC (12-Sep-2005)

“This was an easy challenge a Catacombs-like level. The enemies are also only some skeletons but we gain the Shotgun the Crossbow and also the Grenada Gun against them. There are no special difficulties either the whole level is only going into a direction pulling a lever which opens a door in the other direction. Of course in the meantime you have to find Gems and the pieces of the Portal Guardian even more than once. At the end walking toward the Golden Scarab the level ends. I hated that the game always freezed when loading. The textures are average catacombs-like but there are added sounds also. Might be worth a play. :) You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version) savegames and pictures here: http://www.freeweb.hu/treditor/12/golden_scarab.htm ” – Obig (08-Dec-2004)

“A really solid debut level based on the Catacomb Wad. What you get here is very fast paced 45 minutes which will typically have you think only for a brief moment about where to go next every now and then as the author does send you on little backtracks time and again to find yet another lever. Two portal guardians two gems a knot a pillar and a star are the puzzle pieces that help you further along towards the Golden Scarab where the level ends. It is technically very well built with the exception of the missing load screen (fixed in the current download) a camera missing a few OCB settings and the flare bug in one place but it doesn't interfere much. The early crawl area was a bit annoying but it's small and enemies don't play a role as you can easily just avoid the half a dozen or so skeletons that roam around. Found only one secret.” – Michael (22-Nov-2004)

“Faithful catacomb look fair bit of swimming a handful of skeletons lots of levers to pull and loads of items to find and use. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell! You don’t get anything here that will throw you for a loop and the game will flow fairly quickly but just be careful not to die or reload as the game will crash to desktop and we all know how annoying that is luckily there aren’t too many points where your life is threatened too much so it shouldn’t come as too big a bother. I found only one of the two secrets and finished in just over 40 minutes right before attaining the golden scarab. A definite nice debut but there is still a lot of room for improvement in most aspects however I did downrate as there are some areas that I am definite are taken from one of Monika Pawlus’ levels ‘Alexander’s Tomb’ and that is just a no-no.” – Sash (23-Oct-2004)

“I know that the author explicitly warns in the readme file that if Lara dies or if you try to load a saved game you'll immediately get back to the desktop. ‘I couldn't fix it sorry’ he says before he finishes wishing us fun. Do you know what? I'm certain that's not sarcasm or anything simply honesty. But let's face it: delivering a game with this problem is a bit like Leonardo delivering his Mona Lisa with only half a smile. Incomplete and annoying. Not that I haven't had fun with the level... It's fairly easy from the beginning to the end but I guess that kind of balances those that are nearly impossible from the start to the finishing line. The only enemies are some skeletons and you can get burned once or twice but except for one situation you'll be able to immediately jump into the water so no big problem there. Catacombs in the classic style nothing new about the textures. Several levers to push a couple of crystals and two pillars finding your way around since there's never the slightest shade of a flyby (but it's not complicated) and that's it. Should you still play it? Just as long as you don't mind starting everything over from time to time... (October 20 2004)” – Jorge22 (23-Oct-2004)

“The bad news - there’s no load screen. The good news - you shouldn’t have to die much. This is a straightforward classic catacomb style level. It’s not too long and it’s not too difficult and would be excellent for the less experienced raiders out there. It’s nice that someone is still building comparatively easy levels and as a first time build this is pretty good. Parts of it did seem awfully familiar though - perhaps it’s taken some elements from the original games; I can’t remember well enough. Certainly a good one to choose if you don’t feel like straining yourself too much and you’re fond of the catacomb environment.” – Jay (15-Oct-2004)

“A simple and straight-forward level that does look like many others. Easy to play and competently built for the most part this is for when you just want to relax and not work up the blood pressure. I hope the author returns with something more original.” – Duncan (15-Oct-2004)

“This level starts on very familiar grounds but no fear the rest is totally different I thought anyway. The author warns us about the no loading screen and that is the pits but luckily I only died twice. Of course I set myself on fire and did the same thing again when going back. There is also a flare bug after the room with the block jumping with fire on top. You are in hunt for different artifacts like pillar knot gems and a star and for that find the crowbar. There is quite some running back and fro but this isn't a huge level so no frustration at this side. A nice and easy one between all those hard once we are getting lately. As far as enemies goes there are hardly any and you even get the crossbow and the grenade gun for the pesky skeletons. Found 1 secret and I had great fun. 15-09-2004” – Gerty (27-Sep-2004)

“I rated this catacomb level low because apart from not having a loading screen which makes it very annoying it has a lot of parts from another custom level from Monika Pawlus ‘Alexander’s Tomb’. The room with the rope the room with the fire blocks and portal guardian that prevent you from jumping over them and you need to go around it the idea with the bones you have to shoot; those rooms are exactly like in the level mentioned above. Those are what I remember since I played Monika’s level a very long time ago so there might be other things that have been copied. There are also some rooms that differ with gems to find a pharos knot a pharos pillar and skeletons. The pool area with many doors and underwater area was nice. The level ends after finding the scarab and while Lara attempts to approach it. I found one secret.” – Kristina (20-Sep-2004)
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