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Level: Terror School back home search
Author(s): Jliboy64
total rating:5.36 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Anurag 6 5 6 5
bERT 2 8 5 6
Bullet Ridden Monkey 5 8 7 5
davep83 4 9 5 6
Dimpfelmoser 1 2 8 8
eTux 4 3 3 4
Gerty 2 5 5 7
Kristina 2 5 5 5
Leandro 7 9 6 5
Magnus 0 2 0 1
MichaelP 5 8 6 6
Orbit Dream 2 5 6 6
RaiderGirl 6 7 7 7
Sash 5 7 6 8
Scott 4 6 6 8
Snap125 5 3 6 5
Tombaholic 2 2 3 3
Torry 6 6 6 8
Treeble 7 8 7 7
TrueRaider 4 8 6 5
X-TremeError 8 7 9 7
category averages
(21 reviews)		 4.14 5.86 5.62 5.81

Reviewer's comments

"There’s something desperately wrong with the lighting at the beginning - it’s so dark, even flares or gunshots don’t make any difference! I couldn’t tell when the game started either, it’s only through pure luck I managed to find a trapdoor to a properly lit area. The texturing and objects are generally not bad at all, some objects appear to have incorrect collision which isn’t helpful when you need to jump about a lot, but this does resemble a school in every way, plenty of classrooms here to explore, all having desks, chalkboard, etc to make it more life like. The only 2 things you do in this game is shoot baddies and pull jump switches, which are good to trap them whilst you deal with others, although some switches trigger machine guns out of thin air which isn‘t good gameplay. It’s best to take cover if there’s many baddies, but if there’s just one or two, just get really close up and take care of them. It is rather difficult to begin with, but once you get going, things become easier, especially when the grenade launcher arrives! I’m surprised it takes 2 grenades to do the job though. Use medipacks sparingly, I had to resort to using dozy to gain 1 small pack, as there‘s far too few in the game to deal with all the enemies. I enjoyed the brief ending video of the end of the siege. Net gameplay 40 minutes." - davep83 (08-Aug-2012)

"What sort of school would have loads of men with guns prowling its corridors while shooting mindlessly at people? An American one,naturally;but fortunately Lara is on hand to deal with these mindless thugs in an equally mindless adventure. I awarded Gameplay with a 2,but that was only because of a Map Puzzle; otherwise it's simply 'kick open door,shoot guard,pull awkwardly placed hang-lever',over and over until you finally emerge outside and the level ends.The guards have a habit of materialising in mid air (as do pointless machine guns) but there really is little difficulty in staying alive provided you keep enough space between yourself and the enemy,ensuring that you can shoot at them but they can't retaliate.As such (and despite huge amounts of blood-letting) it's all completely predictable and dull,and the use of custom objects (although presumably novel at the time)doesn't really spice things up to any extent.If you feel in the mood for killing with no thought process involved,I suppose this could satisfy you." - Orbit Dream (14-Jan-2008)

"While I applaud any attempt at moving away from the cliché set-up of having Lara go on a quest to find a powerful/valuable artefact, that alone doesn't make a level fun to play. This level sees Lara trapped in a school overrun with SAS guards, with her goal being to pick up a book and escape, as far as I could gather. I've actually tried playing this level before, but had to give up due to the ridiculously large amount of enemies. The one good thing I remember was the objects. Back then, custom objects weren't as plentiful as they are today, and so they were the biggest draw of this level. Sadly, there's only one word that can adequatly describe these custom objects today: inferior. The collision boxes are often huge, meaning that you'll have problems hitting enemies when they stand behind a waist-high table. Few objects have textures, and when they do, they're incredibly stretched. The textures used in the level in general are pretty bad, with most rooms using the exact same texture. Lighting is also more or less non-existent. The gameplay gets a zero from me, not because of my dislike of shooter levels, but because that's all there is to this level. You pull levers, and you shoot enemies. I could have lived with an overabundance of enemies if there had been more to the gameplay than just killing five SAS guards in every room. The level is nowhere near as difficult as some reviewers make it out to be, but how difficult you find it could depend on how much of the school you explore, as there's no need to visit most rooms. I spent fifteen minutes in this level, and I don't think it's a good sign that I find myself rather spending all day in a real school than playing this level again." - Magnus (24-Sep-2006)

"Just shoot all the baddies in this game and nothing more to do." - Anurag (24-Jul-2005)

“Ok so what if I shot the first two women soldiers they looked mean and they had ammo. How could I know they were on my side. All kidding aside this one had a nice school set up the fly-by at the beginning showing a school under siege. But it soon becomes utter boredom opening one classroom after another with each having a hang-lever summoning another soldier or a machine gun. The classroom settings on the other hand and detailed objects as in the little food storage room were well done. Was not able to open a very much needed secret ammo room. But even without that it is possible to finish without cheating and reaching the outside were it ends as it began with a nice fly-by of the school seemingly coming back under control of the good ones. Not sure whether everything worked as the author intended it to work: the second time I went through the game I could get out of the school without taking the terrorist's book.” – bERT (02-Feb-2004)

“This level has many SAS which I hate of course so it has to be classified as shoot em’ up. At first its pitch black so just go straight and try to open the trapdoor on the ceiling. After that you better run because unless you get the grenade gun you will be out of health quickly and there is practically none in the level well very few medi packs anyway. There is nothing than jump switches which open doors and some sentry guns appearing after a switch. At least near the end friendly soldiers appear and take care of the SAS for you. The objects like the desks are nice and the police cars outside only the level ends sort after you see the cut scenes with the soldiers and police cars. Fifteen minutes mostly running to avoid losing more health. Try it out only if you like to draw guns at every step.” – Kristina (27-Aug-2003)

“Anyone who likes a good battle will enjoy this one. Along with some friendly soldiers Lara has to enter a large school filled with SAS and machine guns pick up a piece of paper from a desk and then make her way back outside to where the police cars are parked. The school is fun to look through with the computer rooms classrooms complete with posters and chalkboards a large cafeteria a kitchen a library and a couple of bathrooms but it got boring after awhile with so many doors to open and there were too many jump switches. I found the uzis the revolver and the grenade launcher three different times plus a secret with some more ammo but otherwise there are very few pickups considering what she's up against. Towards the end the friendly soldiers try to help out but really just end up getting in the way as Lara targets them instead of the SAS. Some cool things were the custom textures computers police cars chalk boards Lara's new outfit and a fun storage room filled with shelves of 'dunkaroos' snack foods and little drink boxes.” – RaiderGirl (24-Nov-2002)

“Erfurt here we come. When I did camera stuff for the German Internet Channel NBC GIGA once a week we used to drive the SNG (satelite news gathering) to a school somewhere in Germany and broadcasted live from a the computer classroom about some interesting online projects from the respective pupils. Now here in this terror school is a computer room that looks exactly like the ones we've been to. The interesting thing is that they really all look the same. And I can't complain that the texturing here is boring and plain because that's how they are in real life. Very authentic. This is a survival of the most coward kind of level; you have to keep a distance to the guards so that they can't see you (they are all short sighted). This way I finished the game with two small medi packs 8 revolver bullets left the grenades untouched and a few doors near the end unopened. Well if you have that kind of ambition the game might be fun but it's not my cup of tea. Yet the computer room is too good to be true. You come across it fairly early in the proceedings so if you don't like the simple and violent gameplay you might as well quit there and then.” – Dimpfelmoser (11-Aug-2002)

“The actual extent of game play in this level is to merely pull countless wall levers and fight innumerable troopers which sadly took away from what could have been a great level. The reason it could have been a great level is the obvious work the creator put into making the look of the 3 storied school fantastically authentic from its toilets all the way to its classrooms as well as having great beginning and ending cut scenes. Apart from the lack of diversity in the game play there was one other thing that was lacking barely any medipacks with the amount of enemies medipacks were a necessity and the only way I could see to possibly make it through alive was to use the fly cheat for its unlimited health. So if you love a good fight and an interesting environment to fight in then go check this one out.” – Sash (21-Jun-2002)

“Felt a little awkward playing this after the September 11 events but of course it was built before that sad day. Being probably one of the best marketed level it is indeed a little disappointing in terms of gameplay and the overall architecture is not too exciting too. What it does stand out for is the custom objects which are already shown by the starting fly-by (police cars) and spread throughout the level (furniture shootable computers etc) as well as a nice custom outfit for Lara. Once you made your escape from the first (pitch black) room you have to deal with abundantly placed SAS soldiers (make sure you find the revolver and the grenade gun early). Indeed there are just too many and too often they appear out of nowhere right in front of you. Even more annoyingly automatic guns appear out of nowhere when you pull switches and kill you. I thought the idea to have some friendly soldiers supporting Lara towards the end was nice but technically did not work very well as they kept dis-appearing and re-appearing. Also the end though being a relief after all that killing came quite suddenly after about 30 minutes of net gaming time. And yes it is hard to survive without the fly-cheat but absolutely possible.” – Michael (21-Jun-2002)

”***review comments unfortunately lost***” – Torry (21-Jun-2002)

“This is the hardest custom level I ever played! I spent more that an hour to finish it using the cheat. There's no way to finish it without cheating there are hundreds maybe thousands of terrorists in the school and Lara will get military help only at the end of the level! Jliboy made a very good level though it's very hard... and he included some of his custom objects like the military guards the computers the police cars the army truck and loads others.” - Treeble (21-Jun-2002)

“While I appreciate the author's efforts in creating new objects and characters I have to rate this level as very disappointing in every other aspect. Firstly this bloodbath exceeds the most violent TR level by many multiples. The theme of armed terrorists in a school is disturbing in its own right. The enemies come in such waves that they literally appear out of thin air before your eyes. Machine guns also materialize out of nowhere. Gameplay consists mainly of pulling lever after lever and trying to survive the endless assault of gunfire. Original objects aside the atmosphere is bland and dull and the rooms are just one textured box after another. If you're looking for a level with lots of gunplay and a fight to survive try ‘Little City’ by Andreas which is done with far more finesse.” – Tombaholic (21-Jun-2002)

“An interesting level to say the least. Obviously the main talking point is the objects. There are hundreds of custom ones ranging from lamps and desks to fridges and toilets. I especially like the smashable computers in one room. The gameplay is very repetitive open door go through door pull level go out open door.... and it goes on. There is an unlimited amount of enemies; they never seem to go away. Type DOZY to activate the flycheat as this is the only way to complete this level. The start and end are excellent bits and this inside of the school does look realistic to an extent but some textures are a little plain and very white. Less enemies and less repetitive gameplay would have made this a killer level!” – TrueRaider (21-Jun-2002)

“The only good thing about this level are the totally new objects. The gameplay is simple as are the puzzles and traps. The atmosphere nice but the lighting and textures are quite bad (especially the textures terrible). If you want a new WAD to use maybe this level is worth a download. If you want a new level to play forget this one!” – Leandro (21-Jun-2002)

“I'm not partial to shoot ‘em up levels and to tell the truth that is all this level had going for it. Even the puzzles were just death traps if you did them wrong. I'd been reading about this level for so long somehow I was expecting more. Although I did get the sense that I was in a school except for the extreme metal gates. Jliboy has done an excellent job creating a new wad with new items for that he deserves a 10. However I didn't enjoy the level very much. One thing I want to know is why would a whole battalion of SAS want to take over a high school?” – Scott (21-Jun-2002)

“Like the others I used the cheat with only finding 3 small medpack forget it. You only can play it with the cheat as in my game some soldiers did die in a ‘normal’ fashion and some soldiers plainly refused and I had to use the revolver with the unlimited ammo and even than it took a while. I liked the school and all the objects in them lots of details went into it. As for the enemies they just appear right in front of your eyes. 30-04-02” – Gerty (21-Jun-2002)

“Lara Croft has been called to a hostage situation at a local school but she is in for a big surprise. This is an immense level once you start to get into it unfortunately I had to use the fly cheat to get out of it. Lots of baddies and few medipacks (all the while through the level I was hoping there would be a school infirmary). Textures could have been better and the lighting seemed very plain. Objects were great looked very realistic. All I can recommend this level for is the excellent ending which is very cool. Otherwise good first attempt.” – Bullet Ridden Monkey (21-Jun-2002)

“Oh my God. What has happened here? This level is just I don't know what to call it. There were 5000 posts in the forum how good this level would be on wow the new object oh and the story is so cool. And then that. I wasted my time with downloading that level. Sorry it's no personal offense to the creator. But after 5 minutes I was so bored of these thousands of ceiling switches and copied rooms. And there were too many enemies. And the objects aren't useful at all. They are all one-color textures on them which looks ugly. And it is also very annoying that the enemies are triggered in front of Lara’s nose you can see how they appear.” – René (21-Jun-2002)

“I liked the place where the level takes place and the objects. But there are a lot of baddies in the level. Too many baddies I think!” – X-TremeError (21-Jun-2002)

“As somebody said before this level is impossible to finish without cheating - waaaaaaay too much terrorists and Lara got help only at the end of the level (in my case not at all I shot the army guys at the beginning :P). The classrooms were VERY boring you just enter flip a switch that probably does nothing else than summons one more terrorist. (Did I mention that the level was full of them?) The textures and lightning - no big deal at least there weren’t stretched textures (or I just don't remember any...) the new objects weren't that bad but of course they could've been better. This is no offense to the creator but please learn from your mistakes in this level so your next (if there'll be one) would be better.” – eTux (21-Jun-2002)
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