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Factory by M@ster

alan 6 6 7 7
Boris 7 6 7 8
CC 6 5 9 8
Dimpfelmoser 6 5 9 8
Engelchen Lara 7 7 8 8
Gerty 6 5 8 8
Jay 6 7 8 8
Jose 5 6 6 8
Kristina 7 7 8 8
MichaelP 7 6 9 8
Mulf 4 6 6 6
Necro 8 7 8 8
Nina Croft 7 6 8 7
Orbit Dream 6 6 8 8
Phil 7 8 7 8
RaiderGirl 7 6 8 8
Ryan 6 6 8 8
Sash 6 5 8 8
Scott 7 5 6 8
sonnyd83 6 7 6 8
Sys 6 6 8 8
Tombaholic 6 8 9 9
Tombraidergirl 7 7 8 8
Torry 5 5 9 9
Treeble 6 7 7 8
 
release date: 11-Aug-2001
# of downloads: 86

average rating: 7.03
review count: 25
 
review this level

file size: 19.90 MB
file type: TR4
class: Base/Lab
 


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Reviewer's comments
"A level that uses a different background ambient than most of these levels, which is the one from TR2 Offshore Rig and Diving Area. There are also a few objects and textures borrowed from those levels. The gameplay wasn't that appealing, though." - alan (22-Nov-2022)
"Neat little Base level that has perhaps been a little overserved when it comes to scoring; especially in the gameplay department, seeing how across the 30 minutes of its duration, all it asks you to do is pull a number of levers and backtrack between these and whichever door they opened while killing a few SAS. The two most interesting rooms, both near the end, are pretty much wasted—in the first, there’s no need for you to raise any blocks (as Gerty observes), and even if you do, you’ll likely go, ‘that was it?’; in the second, you can simply drop down to the lower level (I did so by accident) and use one final lever without engaging any of the SAS that are present. There are too many flybys, yet a few camera clues that would have been useful are missing. There are also too many pickups (this should have been a pistols-only level), and a fair amount of crawling for such a short level. On the other hand, there is no mission and no plot; the submersible is made to look important, but you never get to it, much less use it; nor do you destroy it in order to prevent the baddies from using it for their own unstated, yet undoubtedly nefarious purposes.
For all that, though, the level’s construction is sound, and it manages its Feuerzauber spectacle quite effectively—although it could have been set in scene even better with more sophisticated lighting. (Unsurprisingly, the flare bug is present; but you’ll likely not notice, since the level is uniformly bright throughout.) As it is, the good old TR2 “Oil Rig” background audio does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to atmosphere. In fact, the level might as well be called Oil Rig in Flames—it’s conceptually similar Yann Houbas’ Bunker in Flames, but more concise and better designed. The level’s brevity and the small size of its map allow design to some extent to make up for what it lacks in gameplay, but it can’t prevent the deflating effect of its abrupt ending in a dead-end hole in the floor." - Mulf (03-Mar-2022)
"Well caught atmosphere and solid texturing and lighting help to balance out the generally mediocre gameplay of this short level. At under half an hour it's difficult to cram too much in, but even this is based only around using levers, shooting guards and avoiding fires (must be why this factory is never used). No secrets as far as I could tell, but at least more than enough ammo and weaponry is provided to defend against the numerous guard attacks. Blameless but a little underwhelming." - Ryan (27-May-2018)
"Twenty five minutes of fairly straightforward raiding in a very solidly built base. Good atmosphere and camera work somewhat offset the lack of diversity in the gameplay. There are guards about, but sometimes the biggest threat to Lara's life is the numerous fires around the place if you're not careful. Simple, but atmospheric." - Jay (05-Aug-2016)
"Good design for this small level, very well textured, small rooms and well placed objects and enemies. The flare bug appeared 'cause the too many fires. There is enough ammo for the shotgun, but I never found the uzis. The flybys are OK, but sometimes the author didn't place cameras when the triggered objects were in distant rooms. Poor gameplay based only about pull switches and pull more switches, with some backtracking between rooms. Nice to see but not interesting." - Jose (14-Jan-2016)
"Another short (25 minutes), older level that provides a decent amount of entertainment. Enemies are SAS and a large number of flames scattered about. Gerty mentions the flare bug in her walkthrough, but everything is so well lighted here that I had no occasion or need to light a flare. No secrets are documented, but you get the uzis and the shotgun quite early, along with ample ammunition along the way. The raid is so short that backtracking never became much of an issue for me. The level ends with a bit of a fizzle. You drop down an opened trap door to a seeming dead end, you take a step forward into the alcove and hit the finish trigger." - Phil (27-Apr-2015)
"A decent base-based level, very easy to play and finish, even for beginners. There are no hard jumps or traps or timed runs or swim sequences here. Just a lot of crawling, climbing, a bit of backtracking, going around some flames and finding levers and switches to open a few doors around. The SAS guards are actually the trickiest part of the game (so easy this game is) and the builder also provided more than enough good ammo and health supplies. As in any base in the world of TR, there is a decent amount of backtracking, but the builder also made some shortcuts when most necessary. The gameplay is not boring, it is very fluent and takes no more than 30 minutes to finish. The level is also quite ancient, so don't expect to see some "wow" objects and new decoration, or even textures. However, the level is nicely built, much better than older levels of this builder. Maybe more attention should have been paid to texturing in order to avoid cracks, but it is not bad as it is already. There are some nice flyby sequences, lighting is decent, but far from being perfect, and the overall geometry is as good as it can be. A rather abrupt ending, though. It would be nice for this level to be just a bit longer, and to add more puzzle elements and more enemies to it, as well as a couple of secrets and timed runs, just to spice things up. In that case, the ratings would have also been much, much higher. A nice little level to take a break from those insanely hard levels. Recommended particularly for beginner players!" - Nina Croft (28-Aug-2014)
"This does bare quite a resemblence to a factory, plenty of machinery, barrels, chimneys and metal cages, has a very industrial feel to it, the background track of machinery running adds to this. May be there arre too many flames in places, but I appreciate the ones which stop you going back where you came from as it stops confusion. There's not much to be said with regards to the gameplay other than pulling a few jump switches and taking out a few SAS baddies, there's a bit of crawling about in air ducts. There's some very good flyby's at certain points too. 25 minutes net gameplay." - sonnyd83 (09-Aug-2012)
"This is a much better effort from this author. The first thing you notice is that a lot more work and effort has been spent in the design of the level. If I was ever to venture into a factory i would expect something like this. The scenery is integrated into the level for maximum effect and although I prefer levels set in Egypt, this was a welcomed break and I thouroughly enjoyed this level. Recommended." - Necro (23-Apr-2008)
"Working in this 'factory' would be a nightmare boilers belching steam fire and electricity. The run through here is fairly simple but the camerawork architecture lighting and textures are excellent. There's something I'd I'd like to know: was the player supposed to get into the room with the sub in the final flyby. I felt totally let down when jumping into the last trapdoor to run into a brick wall and the level ended." - CC (12-Feb-2004)
"Another one of those levels with decent ideas good construction and generally interesting gameplay that has rather sunk without trace. A pity as it provided half-an-hour of good entertainment in a reasonably convincing setting; although I'm not sure what the Factory's Health and Safety Executive would have thought of all those unsafe flames everywhere. The gameplay area is rather small so you can expect some 'padding out' backtracking here and there but overall it's quite fun and inventive (with quite authentic atmosphere provided by the flybys) with only the anti-climactic ending letting it down." - Orbit Dream (12-Oct-2003)
"I am not sure where Lara is supposed to be it looks like a base but then again maybe a ship too. Anyway we have to deal with switches and SAS guards here. The traps are simple like fire and steam there is some crawling and swimming involved as well. There are no real puzzles except finding your way in the level and there was a big medi at the start that I couldn't find a way to get it. One thing that got me thinking was the room with raising blocks and jump switches I reached one of the switches by carefully jumping from the block with fire. I am not sure if it's the intended way or a flaw in the level. Also in an area with a lever and a trapdoor I just jumped down from the slides and maybe again not the right way too easy if you ask me. Then again the whole level is easy enough but enjoyable. A nice setting and worth giving it a try." - Kristina (04-Jul-2003)
"Well this is a short and enough pointless level but however I enjoyed it. Originally I downloaded it for the factory-feeling and I wanted to hear that 'new' ambient sound too (that increases the filesize). But it wasn't new as it was grabbed directly from the original TR2 CD (Track 54). That ambient is one of my favourites and I really like industrial environments but these things couldn't really compensate the very simply and sometimes boring gameplay during this adventure. From this point of view it's not a big trouble that the level was enough short. So first about the worse half of the level! The gameplay is very simple it has no real puzzles and it just tries not to be very linear. There's no Secrets in this level. The few enemies are only soldiers here and we have enough Uzi & Shotgun ammos for all of them. There are only a few interesting areas and my favourite was perhaps the strange burning roof (very hot!) with the strange night sky. More negative things are that the level has no real purpose and the horrible end: it ends in a single "cube-hole" in the bottom of a hole. What will Lara do then? Perhaps She'll try to call Winston for some help? ;) Anyway there were so much 'fence bugs' in the level: we can touch the underwater ship-propellers and we can 'put' Lara into a crawlspace in one of the rooms for instance. And by the way I have to admit that the level name should be correctly 'Factory' instead of 'City Of The Dead' especially when it has a self-script file. And now some sentences about the better part! The atmosphere and the whole factory/industrial environment are very fine: it was nice to hear that good old ambient from TR2 and it was nice to see so much industrial objects also from that action-episode. Anyway the whole level reminds me a bit to the 'Offsore Rig' episode from TR2 which is one of my favourite parts ever although I just can't understand some 'Fiama Nera'-trivias here in this level. If my memory serves me then there was only one 'action-tune' in the whole level at the end. But I enjoyed the flybys and the fixed cameras too; although I used to hate the latter type of cameras they weren't unpleasent in this short adventure. The textures were excellent and I can say the same about the lighting. I liked the steam and the electricity (although it doesn't hurt Lara) and the fires also and I felt myself really strange when I looked up to the sky on the roof: was it just another type of the End Of The World feeling? Or it was just the Chaos?! ;) Naturally I mean the thunders and the rapid clouds across the sky... So summarily I can say that if You have a slow net-connection then You really shouldn't download this very short level but if You're really curious and You like industrial environments and mainly You don't mind the download time then feel free to download and play it. The level could be much better if its worst part - gameplay puzzles enemies - were as good as the brilliant setting of the environment was..." - Sys (08-Mar-2003)
"You are starting out in a factory building and the puzzles are mainly pushing levers many of those crawling through ducts and killing some guards. The building itself is well designed. Textures are solidly applied and there were a few cameras. The level was a bit short though as the camera held more promise than the ending offered ;-)" - Engelchen Lara (11-Feb-2003)
"A very straight forward but also nice little gem. I haven't been able to play this as I only got corrupted files but today everything worked like a dream. The sounds were well done and add to the atmosphere very well. You are on your way to the sub so start swimming climbing crawling and jumping. The use of fire and electricity and some steam won't make it too easy. But it is not too difficult either. There are levers to pull and also jump levers. In the fire room where there were 2 jump levers I jumped them without the use of the rising blocks well you can't win them all. Very help full are the flybys. Just a bit longer and a tad more puzzles and this could be a great level. No secrets. 18-12-2002" - Gerty (22-Dec-2002)
"For such a huge download nearly 14 MB you would hope this level would last for at least an hour but it only lasted half that time. Set in a series of very industrial looking rooms full of large motors and pipes the main objective is to pull quite a few levers while fighting off a handful of guards and avoiding a lot of flames and when it seems like it is going to pick up with a great fly by of a submarine it is over a moment later as you pull another lever jump into a hole in the floor and take a step. Apart from that fly by there are a couple of other nice fly bys and the environment does look and feel just right but the game play just let it down somewhat." - Sash (21-Jun-2002)
"A huge download for only 25 minutes of gameplay but I enjoyed it nevertheless. The custom ambient sound the objects the fires steam and electricity help to create a brilliant factory atmosphere and there are a couple of well done flybys too. Other than that gameplay is quite straightforward and there are only a few SAS to kill along the way." - Michael (21-Jun-2002)
"A short level of 30 minutes set in an industrial complex filled with pipes motors and vents. Be prepared to do some crawling here. The level is relatively uneventful but at least the lighting was great. Just as it starts to get interesting and you see the mini sub you are prevented from taking a ride by the abrupt end of the level." - Torry (21-Jun-2002)
"The level is easy and a little boring. I sweep it is that to find a submarine in a bewildered factory. I have not found any secret and bug and I have ended the level in 30 minutes. 13 7 MB to download is too much for the quality of this level however if you are curious then download it." - Boris (21-Jun-2002)
"Nice level! Although it lasted only 20 minutes I really enjoyed it. Its illumination is not very good but it is right for the environment of this level which is a factory. There were nice textures and nice objects a lot of fire and electricity. Unfortunately the gameplay was only push lever open door push lever..." - Treeble (21-Jun-2002)
"I give this level high marks for the whole factory atmosphere including great use of some TR2 textures good lighting and sound and some nice camera work. The gameplay while not completely linear does not pose any great challenges and only lasts about 30 minutes. There's also a bug with the grating that makes up the floor of the ducts - from below Lara can jump and pull up right through it." - Tombaholic (21-Jun-2002)
"It was a pretty good level. It was nice to see some objects rescued and reused from TR2. The look to the level was fantastic. It needed a lot more camera shots to see what the lever you just pulled did. It could probably have used a few more enemies as well. My biggest complaint was somehow enemies could fire through walls at you but you couldn't do the same at them. About a 30 minutes level with a surprise ending. The surprise was 'it ended?'." - Scott (21-Jun-2002)
"All I can say is this factory would never pass inspection. You'll find flooded rooms exposed electricity fires and some hot steam to get through as you go from room to room shooting a few soldiers pulling switches and opening trap doors. Getting by the fires is the deadliest part of this mission (though I'm not sure what the objective is) as you'll find plenty of weapons and ammo to take care of the soldiers. I was really surprised to find that I had been playing for half an hour as it didn't seem like it took very long just as it seemed like I didn't accomplish anything. I enjoyed playing it and the camera work was done very well but it wasn't much of a challenge and just seemed to be lacking something." - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002)
"I loaded this down on the off chance that could shoot Andy Warhol but no such luck as Paleface didn't throw in an appearance. Now there are quite a few levels out there that have you crawl from lever to jumpswitch in industrial surroundings while getting off your knees every once in a while to kill the occasional SAS Guard and Factory is certainly among the better ones. True the gameplay is not very demanding there are no tricky jumps or clever puzzles but at the end you get a really great area with lot's of steam and fire that actually took me some time to master and in between there are some corridors that have a true claustrophobic feel to it. It's not long enough to become a world of it's own but then again it's not long enough to get boring. I really wish one day someone comes up with a original and unique gameplay in an interesting setting like this." - Dimpfelmoser (21-Jun-2002)
"This level is quite alright. Textures are applied well and you can recognize a factory. Also the objects are very fitting. Enemies are a bit rare and only SAS. There are some cutscenes and a bit of sound. The puzzles are not very difficult. There are some firetraps. All in all a very short level but worth playing." - Tombraidergirl (21-Jun-2002)