trle.net ::: Level Reviews

Level:	Vila Del Chavo
Author(s):	birdmonster

total rating:	4.71	Gameplay & Puzzles	Enemies, Objects & Secrets	Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras	Lighting & Textures
	Andzia9	5	6	5	6
	Diz	5	5	4	4
	dmdibl	5	6	7	5
	eRIC	4	4	4	4
	Gerty	4	5	4	5
	Jay	6	5	5	4
	Jose	4	6	5	4
	manarch2	4	5	5	4
	MichaelP	5	7	6	5
	rtrger	3	6	4	4
	Scottie	5	5	4	4
	TheStig	4	4	4	2
	category averages (12 reviews)	4.50	5.33	4.75	4.25

Reviewer's comments

"Another level I have played a long time ago but stopped playing. Now I replayed it and finished. This level was clearly better in terms of graphics and objects than the first installments of the builder, and there was much more done to create a more or less realistic town, but there simply were too many negative points to call this a good level. This level was pure darkness, first of all, then paper thin walls, too long backtracks and block pushes, not really varied gameplay and so on. There were too many houses where you do nearly the same tasks again and again, or be totally confused what to do. Sorry, but this level had no fun factor and was way too long (don't get wrong with the short walkthrough)." - manarch2 (03-Jun-2011)

"Very dark level and only few flares. Many objects are bad positioned, because of that moving was very difficult. Besides very thin walls." - Andzia9 (25-Nov-2010)

"I’ll be frank and upfront now. I didn’t enjoy this one. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the gameplay as such, but overwhelming gloominess of the environments is absolutely crippling. Normally I tend to conserve flares by navigating sections using the muzzle flash from my guns. With this level however I grew so sick of doing this I proceeded to – save – explore with flare – reload and repeated the entire process throughout the level. Estimated completion time therefore (ignoring the counter) was probably about 3 hours. It’s hard to comment on the standard of the texturing etc as we can see so little of it. The starting trigger is bizzare as well. The first few times I loaded up, I took two steps and then found myself in the following level with no guns and being shot at. It wouldn’t of been hard to put that trigger behind a door initially to stop players from experiencing that issue. There’s a few mixed up sounds as well with Lara groaning like a large extinct reptilian whenever she bumps into something. Seeing as this is a simple fix, I don’t understand why the author saw fit to release the level in that state. There’s some issues with the character model as well which I haven’t seen for a while. The author’s read-me file doesn’t state who made the model, but I noted a ‘string effect’ between the hands when a flare was lit, that suggests that the geometry on that needs looking at as well. Wafer thin walls are present here too! Conscious design decision or not they don’t look right. A little frame object would be all that would have been needed to pad them out, as it is they don’t look right I’m afraid. Final major disappointment is that after all your hard work and effort fumbling around in the dark the game ends by crashing to desktop. This is also another level posted without widescreen support! I think conceptually here this wasn’t a bad level, and when I could see what I needed to do and where I was going I actually quite enjoyed it. However the gloominess and lack of flares cripple the gameplay. These easily rectified issues make me regrettably unable to recommend. Stiggy" - TheStig (17-Sep-2010)

"Something new from this author. The scenic outside locales may be ones he is reproducing from memory. The local market courtyards give a real sense of place. Throughout, the buildings have thin walls, but this must be a conscious decision on the part of the author. Lara has to search up a number of keys to open houses, and unfortunately the darkness, even with flares, is an impediment. Why does it have to be so dark? Lara kept running into furniture; around a square table there are chairs whose collision goes back into the corridor that should be free. And in a bar there was a button to push (when Lara finally spotted it with binoculars) that is hard to reach because of table collisions. The Egyptian demigods are completely out of place. Near the start of the level Lara was hit by soldiers' grenades, so she learned to shield herself with a door. She shot the soldiers through the door, protected from grenades. But in such close quarters they fell into a couch when they died--their keys were underneath and unreachable. Overall I thought this promising for its environment, though everything would have been immeasurably enhanced with better lighting." - dmdibl (04-May-2010)

"Although there are some defects like the paper walls and the wrong animations for some switches, the level is well builded; but there are two features which make it bad for many players: excessive darkness and lots of backtracking. Fortunately I dispose of Yoav's walkthrough, if not, this is one of the levels I'd sure abandoned after few minutes. Environment and textures are the only things I saw good in this adventure." - Jose (08-Apr-2010)

"The trigger for level two is if you go straight, so don’t do that, go east. Going further into this level I have to say that the idea was pretty good but due to not been tested properly, it fell short. Paper-thin walls and dark, yuck. Had to add loads of flares or else it would be impossible to continue. No camerawork to speak off and the one that were there, it was too dark to see what they were all about. Very nasty huge collision on objects used in here, Lara has difficulties to pass or soldiers you encounter are stuck in them. On a good note, the difference with his first level is quite noticeable. Have been running around sometimes like a headless chicken and had to look up in the walkthrough where the silver ball was and even then I had a hard time to find it." - Gerty (08-Apr-2010)

"And now for something completely different by this author vs his previous work. And it could have been a great level, if it had been beta tested by a few experienced players and their feedback used to improve on the weaknesses, such as: it's simply too dark, it has way too many thin walls, which spoils the otherwise fairly authentic setting of rooms in houses, it has a number of sound issues and wrong OCBs for switches and most importantly, the whole non-linarity of the gameplay only works well if you actually had the mind of the author to give you some clues - or Yoav's helpful walkthrough as a somewhat easier alternative. Otherwise you will likely search through those two connected levels forever for some of the keys or balls that you need to find. With the assistance of the walkthrough it does play reasonably well though, with a few blocks to push, a few guards to kill and plenty of exploration and back and forth. I really liked the school and all the market stands, but have to say that the inclusion of a demigod and a (killable) hammer man seemed oddly out of place - then again, I do not know the TV series this is based upon - maybe equally odd things happen there ;)" - MichaelP (02-Apr-2010)

"No streched textures, loads of annoying enemies or pointless game anymore. The builder has improved his skills quite a lot since his last release. Though the gameplay stayed a bit monotonic, because mostly you have to search for keys, but there is a great puzzle in the second level with the boxes. Otherwise, the main thing that will keep you busy is searching for those very well hidden keys. These keys are mostly behind loads of objects, and I kept stucking up on them because of the "hard collision", and sometimes I stucked up on the air too. The improvement is clearly visible, but the gameplay is a bit flawed." - rtrger (28-Mar-2010)

"Oh dear, what a dark and gloomy level! I’ll admit I cheated and used the editor to give me unlimited flares otherwise I would have given up after 5 minutes and thrown it in the bin. Paper-thin walls, walls you can jump into (into limbo), invisible barriers you have to jump at to get past, levels you get to by running at closed doors then are able to leave before completing but not return so you’re stuck! (Mentioned in the read-me as the only glitch!) Having to push nine blocks to get a key, not a puzzle mind you, just push a load of blocks! Apart from this, the gameplay was promising and if the author continues to improve I look forward to the next level." - Diz (21-Mar-2010)

"It does not augur too well when you hit a level jump right at the start near where Lara is placed. There is a few other things that could have been ironed out so to give a better gaming experience, mainly too many objects are placed in the decor thus the 'navigation' was a bit annoying ; a weird sound is heard when Lara hits a wall and the walls are often quite thin. Gameplay consists of finding keys and a few switches , and some blocks are to be moved. The author has worked on the atmosphere of this adventure , even a bit on the lighting which is overall quite dark. This level is quite different from the author's previous releases , the rooms are not big and empty and brightly lighted this time, and there is some research to do." - eRIC (21-Mar-2010)

"This might have been a much more pleasant raiding experience if it had been lighter. It’s gloomy indeed and very few flares are provided, so I gave myself more in the interests of sanity. Whilst birdmonster is not (and may well never be) a master builder, I feel that this latest offering represents a definite improvement over his other levels. Although the gameplay is fairly simplistic and mainly consists of finding keys and a bit of block pushing, it has glimmers of promise and certainly doesn’t display the complete anarchy I’ve come to expect, plus the enemies are neither over used nor ridiculously tough. You need to find a bronze, silver and gold ball and I must say I thought the silver one was rather well hidden. Also, despite the fact that every single wall in the houses is paper thin and the interiors all look pretty much the same (which can make it hard to remember just exactly where you’ve been), some of the outside areas are not entirely unattractive. A step in the right direction." - Jay (18-Mar-2010)

"Well, we player know the works of Birdmonster, hence, we know what expects to us and can actually only hope for the best and fear the worst. Or vice versa? No notion. I have not expected, in any case, a lot. And was disappointed pleasantly. The level looks anyway better than his previous attempts. However, this is no big achievement, because his previous attempts were just bad. Well, it is a little bit dark. And one hears a strange noise if Lara stumbles somewhere. And one gets stuck constantly somewhere. And the equipment in the houses needs getting used to. And a nicer texturing in the houses would have also quite felt well. And the paper-thin walls also do not look so great. However, Birdmonster was consequent here. It gives not one or two paper-thin walls, but rather all walls are in such a way. But the whole rest was OK. And what is left? Actually, only the hope which takes birdmonster even more care with his next level. We will see." - Scottie (17-Mar-2010)