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Level: Curse of Apollo Ring (Demo) back home search
Author(s): Daniel Inhoni
total rating:2.00 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
Bene 3 2 2 2
Blue43 3 3 3 2
Cory 2 2 1 2
DJ Full 3 1 3 4
eRIC 2 2 4 2
eTux 2 1 1 1
Gerty 2 1 2 1
Glouglouton 1 2 1 1
guss18 2 1 2 1
Jay 2 2 3 2
Jose 2 2 3 1
MichaelP 3 1 1 1
Orbit Dream 2 2 2 1
Oxy 5 2 5 2
Scottie 1 2 1 1
SSJ6Wolf 2 1 3 1
Treeble 2 2 4 2
category averages
(17 reviews)		 2.29 1.71 2.41 1.59

Reviewer's comments

"This short demo level is actually a lot better than one might think from the ratings. Yes the texturing is basic and simple. The lighting is a bit flat. There are a few spots where textures are missing and there are also plenty of stretched ones, but the place had a nice layout, which perfectly fit the game play. There were 2 gems that opened doors, a few simple enemies and a series of jumps from block to block and roof to roof. I give one extra point for finally running into a basic level that was not infested by ninjas :-) The second room contained the longest monkey swing in TRLE history I guess – at least I haven’t seen a longer one yet. I found one secret but somehow it did not register in the statistics. The level is a short romp for in between and that’s about it – no more no less. I thought it was worth the download." - Blue43 (17-Mar-2011)

"I didn't find this level so bad. I didn't mind stretched textures, as IMO they quite fit the climate. So I consider texturing as average, as well as the lighting. Gameplay is also average, with some platforming, monkey swinging and ladder climbing. But nothing innovative here. Puzzles are simple. Not so many enemies, and a wild boar shouldn't be located in the same place as the crocodile. Objects are necessary basics only - there is nothing more than puzzle items, slots for them, two medikits, a shotgun and some ammo for this weapon. Poor. No secrets. Poor as well. But I can appreciate quite realistic exterior. Cameras also get one point. SUMMARY: Now, when we have so many great classic levels like "Aegean Legends" around, a Greece level looking only "acceptable" is not enough to satisfy even a maniac. So even if it may seem I rated it quite high for its atmosphere and texturing, I still don't recommend it." - DJ Full (04-Oct-2010)

"About this level one can shake only the head The download was 120 mb big, would you believe it?. - After unpacking I had to ascertain which was 100 mb alone the uncompressed audiofolder. Why were in the Datafolder so a lot of level, if there was only one playable one? With some players the download lasts longer than the playing time. It lasted because only 12 minutes. - The textures looked absolutely cruel. Wallpaper was here the rule, and not the exception. - One could recognise the "village" in the start area with difficulty as a village. A gigantic area with a few scattered "houses" and a bigger square water surface, otherwise abolut blank, sometimes apart from a wild boar, a crocodile and easily to find an blue diamond, to an access to the interior granted. This first interior was gigantic and with uniform wallpaper textures. You had to jump only on higher and higher columns and then work the way along to the next space. This monkeyswing has lasted forever. In the second interior there were at least two different textures, but it looked as bad. Also here you had to collect the blue diamond slightly to be reached, which granted an access to the next area. Because one was on the move most time again on a few columns, were both skeletons not really a problem. The next area turned out long way and level end What remains as a result? This level is the purest time waste" - Scottie (15-Apr-2009)

"Well, there is nothing to tell with this demo. Big rooms, streched textures, bad colors shows us the autor has to work the tutorial to make a good game." - Glouglouton (06-Dec-2008)

"Have we progressed at all during the past eight years of the Level Editor? To judge from the quality of this Demo,the answer would be 'no'.Thank goodness there is ample proof to the contrary elsewhere in the Level Index and we can put this effort down to another newbie who hasn't,as yet,got around to reading the Manual. Some of the column jumping is quite fun,but it's all so slapdash and awfully textured that even the 15 minutes you're likely to spend here will be a good 10 minutes too long." - Orbit Dream (10-Nov-2008)

"Nothing interesting in this very short demo. About ten minutes to look for and place two gems to open two doors; an unnecessarily long monkey swing and no more. The secret I found was not hidden. The author must think about doing the rooms more small and learn to apply textures at least." - Jose (04-Nov-2008)

"This is not a bad demo. There's a few jumping sequences and a funny disappearing boar along with a block Lara disappears into - not intended but funny, still. Paper thin walls and missing textures can sometimes be overlooked in a demo with good gameplay - but this is just a little too short to tell if this will develop into an interesting game. But there are indications that this may, if completed, turn out better than what we have so far seen." - Bene (19-Oct-2008)

"A debut level and demo so I didn’t really expect much. What you get is badly textured areas in a coastal setting, very little gameplay other than jumping from pillar to pillar in search of two gems. Enemies…croc, boar and skeletons you can pretty much ignore. 10 minutes of gameplay for a ridiculously long download." - guss18 (15-Oct-2008)

"Great, it's playable on my mac. Except...there's not much to play exactly in these four rooms. The first room (I mean literally one room) is a vague resemblance of a greek village. The gameplay here is almost decent actually, you get to climb around the roofs of a few oddly shaped houses, amongst them is one secret. The architecture is not quite sound, especially that one wall with a crack all the way through, which nevertheless has the upper section still floating above the other one. The atmosphere had promise, with a dramatic flyby at the start showing the village and nearby mountains, but the textures totally killed the mood. The large wall on one side and the mountains only get one texture each, while it is the ground that is randomly sprinkled with various natural textures, for variety I guess. There is no attention paid to stretched textures here, nor anywhere else in the level. Next room is indoors and has water textures on the floor that make you burn to death (?!) and pillars to jump around on, plus a tedious monkeyswing. Next room is a sort of cave with some missing textures. Finally some enemies show up here but they are skeletons you cannot do anything with in this case. The fourth room is a hall that ends the level. Lighting is nonexistent. I finished in 10 minutes with 1 secret." - SSJ6Wolf (11-Oct-2008)

"Already the scale of the areas through the fly-by shows that it's a fairly ambitious effort trying to capture a village setting in the mountains, but as usual - the ambitions translate poorly into a playable level without the proper skills and training. There are a couple of simple jump sequences for the 2 gems, and you encounter the villages locals both living and undead, but all in all this is probably not something you should feel very sorry for missing out on. As for the author - do give the manual and tutorial level a chance! They are worth the trouble!" - eTux (05-Oct-2008)

"Debut level, demo, oh dear. Regrettably, it’s just what you might expect – blocky coastal textures, rather sloppily put together and a few minutes of very embryonic gameplay. Even by demo standards it’s a bit less than stellar." - Jay (30-Sep-2008)

"The level starts out with a flyby showing the entire coastal-based town you'll be leaping across. You're also shown very organic hills which fortunately you don't have to explore through. Gameplay can be summarized as leaping from one tall pillar to the next while questing for the two gems and their receptacles. The underground area seemed to be built as an after though, as you can tell it hasn't received the same care the town did. You can't jump back into the sea at the start, either (and even if you could, I guess all there would be left for you to do would be to drown). You hear the secret chime in one of the rooftops, but it doesn't register in the game. 10 minutes. 09/08" - Treeble (29-Sep-2008)

"Lara takes a visit to Greece but all that I could see was badly textured areas and doors that had huge gaps above them. Gameplay is simple, do a few jumps to get two blood diamonds and leave. It takes 10 minutes. I hope the author will work on the texturing and gameplay when it comes to the real thing." - Cory (29-Sep-2008)

"After a long boat trip Lara visited abandoned Greece Village, surrounded by mountains. She must find two Blood Diamonds to escape from skeletons. This game is very easy to play, recommended also to beginners. Textures were stretched and because of bad lighting they gave wallpaper effect. Also dark sky doesn't fit to the bright environment. The intention of architecture is very well done except the illegal slopes, which are reachable to Lara and you must reload the game. I liked the flyby cameras and game-play. Tension atmosphere, where two skeletons appeared, was excellent. I was disappointed that game ended so soon." - Oxy (29-Sep-2008)

"Well as you will find out it is a first, stretched textures, some untextured bits (rather obvious as you have to walk over them to get to another room) and invisible blocks in front of the gates. It is also a demo, so not much gameplay apart from jumping from pillar to pillar to get your hands on two gems." - Gerty (28-Sep-2008)

"Demo indeed - I did trust Dao's review at the Levelbase and reduced the download package to the needed elements (even though I left the unnecessary tomb4.exe and the standard title.tr4 in) and what remains is a beginner effort of 10 minutes in standard coastal textures with three huge rooms to cross, two gems (Blood diamonds) to pick up and place and a boar and a crocodile to kill and two skeletons to avoid. Some of the jumps were fun, but not enough to make this a worthwile level to explore." - MichaelP (27-Sep-2008)

"Downloading half of the Editor to play only 12 minutes , is it serious ? This is a demo in what is supposed to be a Coastal setting. There is no other puzzle than to find a couple of gems , obviously the author likes jumping , and I must admit it was not unpleasant. The Coastal wad enemies were not a big nuisance for Lara. The good quality of the sfx sounds was appreciated and the secret was a plus. I would suggest the author to focus on the looks of his levels : fixing stretched walls textures (page 13 of the Manual) , adding lighting (pages 14-16) , avoiding wafer thin walls between two connected rooms (pages 19-20) , smooth floors when the shaping of the blocks create missing textures (page 25) and adding a horizon so that the environment looks more convincing." - eRIC (27-Sep-2008)
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