Level: Fenician Temple 4 Author: Turbo Pascal total rating: 7.90 Gameplay & Puzzles Enemies, Objects & Secrets Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras Lighting & Textures Blue43 6 7 8 8 dmdibl 9 9 8 8 eRIC 9 9 8 8 Jerry 7 8 6 8 MichaelP 8 9 8 7 category averages (5 reviews) 7.80 8.40 7.60 7.80 Reviewer's comments "This is a really great and extensive adventure that could have been almost perfect with a few minor adjustments. The overall variety of tasks, the gradually increasing challenge factor and the intermittent hints of genius with original and special moments happening are worthy of even higher scores, if only all these ideas had been presented in a little more compact fashion. The biggest downside of this 2+ hour quest is that you do spend a considerable amount of time running through fairly empty connecting hallways (often more than once as you get to backtrack quite a bit) and with most of the (many) push block puzzles the block or blocks have been placed in a way that the amount of pushes or pulls is maximized - even when that could have easily been avoided or at least reduced. If you can manage to ignore these issues, then you will be treated to one clever puzzle room after another, with ledge hopping, lever/door puzzles, an overlapping room scenario, an obscure water room connection, a nice room with 4 keys to pick up among rolling blades, a series of enemy battles with creepy willards and others, a nice puzzle room with several Thames Wharf machines, a tough timed run and best of all, a cool swim on a turtle! Thanks to the walkthrough, even the final boss was not a big problem for me, although I did think that the unmarked trigger tiles for the first helpful door were rather unfair. Overall, a true classic in TR3 custom level history that you must play - just bring a long a healthy level of patience." - MichaelP (24-May-2010) "This is a well built level with good lighting and solid textures, although most of the rather larger and boxy rooms have a sterile industrial look to them. A little mire decoration would have made much difference. Very interesting game play with lots of TR3 features like the electrifying robots (weren't they some type of cleaning machines in TR3?). In the beginning it is a bit boring as there is lots of running back and forward through nearly empty rooms just to pull a lever and then back for the next lever and so on. Enemies come later in the game and some are rather tough, like the giant spider creatures. The boss fight war really enjoyable in the end, although it seemed to take forever as I was out of UZI ammo and only had the pistols. I would have rated this level higher if it wasn't for this tedious and never ending block pushing, that occurred several times in this level. Generally a good level but I enjoyed the TR2 Fenician Temple version of the same author a lot more. BTW - I was able to take the turtle out of the water and fly around the previously visited rooms. Nice and very enjoyable bug!" - Blue43 (25-Mar-2010) "I am sorry I have to say that I am not as excited about this level as the previous reviewers were. What the level offers in the first place is running around, back and forth, through huge rooms which are nicely textured, but simply strung together. Indeed there are some interesting elements built in, like e.g. the breakable tile blocks, the changing room and last but not least the turtle (which is a bit buggy, as Lara sticks in the wall with it in some places). The second half of the level becomes more juicy with some interesting enemies and more challenging tasks like the rolling wheels and those electrical machines (which I found the most enjoyable part in the whole game), and the big boss in the end. But altogether there was too much backtracking and too much block pushing over far too long distances what became rather annoying after a while. So apart from those points mentioned above, I experienced nothing really extraordinary gameplay-wise, it's pushing blocks and a lot of climbing, crawling and monkeyswinging to reach a switch and open a door, run back to that door to find the next switch, and so on. Altogether this level was not bad, but it shows that it was built to be a demo." - Jerry (28-Oct-2009) "A very important level as Turbo Pascal did this to show off many of the features of his Dxtre3D unofficial editor. Here you will find things such as diagonal walls (indeed there is an intricate puzzle involving maneuvering a box through a whole section of diagonal wall pillars) and of course since this is a TR3 level boxes can always be placed on top other boxes for Lara to stand upon. Initially the play seems rather bland, and the rooms boxy with uniform lighting, but have patience: this is well worth playing for its own sake. When the giant spiders show up--in this level giant spiders always travel in packs--and Lara has to figure out how to get the Uzis from a series of rolling cutter blades this gets quite interesting. Actually, getting the Uzis is Secret #3. The room geometry stays generally boxy, but the puzzles are good. Some, such as the traveling electrified machines, are unique to TR3. I had played this level before, and remembered the parts where Lara had gotten stuck, and the solutions, but it still took a full three hours to finish. It's probably too much for a single sitting. Just as I was getting a little weary, the fun parts come at the end. Lara gets to ride a turtle back and forth through water corridors to overcome a strong current, a lovely novelty from TR3. Then there is the boss challenge at the end. The first time I played this the boss part took me at least an hour to figure out, but this time I looked at the walkthrough and it points out that the boss is quiet as long as the lizard creature is loose. So don't shoot the lizard creature! Just feed medipacks to Lara as needed, and leave the lizard alone. I found Lara could trigger the boss, then run through the open ended corridor behind him, then go about flipping a lever to free the push-block, and everything was easy. Many enjoyable ideas here, and a must play for anyone with a broad interest in Tomb Raider." - dmdibl (22-Oct-2009) "One of the longest stand-alone level I ever played. Except for the boss at the end (which without requiring any special skills is highly frustrating and not fun at all), the degree of difficulty is well balanced and suitable for all profile of players, as you progress from stage to stage in this big map. An adventure well textured generally and suitably lighted, where the author has also thought of light effects and cameras which is not always the case in TR3 custom levels. The course is quite fluent , giving the good part to Lara’s moves , with some original and good ideas like the ledges that have to been broken so to free pushable blocks , and some “mystic” moments by well made flipmaps and other means. The ledges that are broken by picking up an object is a bit far fetched gameplay wise though , and the idea of picking up an invisible object at the foot of a plant never crossed my mind. Farther , some great ideas of puzzles are extremely well thought out and fun to solve , such as the room with the deadly machines, the pushable block you have to drag in the cave with diagonal walls, or the different challenges with the rolling wheels. The author has also used some other traps such as the pistons and swinging iron thingies of Lud’s gate or the spiked cylinders of Tinnos. You encounter your first enemies only after quite some time , and some are great like the spider creatures. Despite a few long sequences (pushable blocks and a couple of long crawlspaces) this is a recommended and generally pleasant adventure with some excellent highlights gameplay wise, but spoiled by the very frustrating boss ending. [ 2 h 15 / 3 Secrets not hard to find ]" - eRIC (20-Sep-2009)