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The Villa of Remembrance (Demo) by Alex Chap

Ceamonks890 1 1 2 1
DJ Full 5 5 7 4
Gerty 3 4 4 4
Jay 4 5 4 3
Jose 3 4 6 4
manarch2 3 3 4 2
MichaelP 4 6 4 3
Orbit Dream 3 3 4 3
Phil 6 6 6 7
Quentin 2 4 4 3
Ryan 3 3 4 4
Xela 2 3 4 2
 
release date: 09-Sep-2013
# of downloads: 85

average rating: 3.73
review count: 12
 
review this level

file size: 145.00 MB
file type: TR4
class: nc
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
alex96-tr-ost@hotmail.fr

Reviewer's comments
"In this high-concept "demo", Lara journeys through familiar nostalgic sections from the first five original Tomb Raider games. I probably would have scored this higher if not for a few irritating gameplay designs. The unmarked deadly tile rooms were annoying, some areas were too dark, and the ninjas often attacked in overwhelming bunches. But, I did enjoy the classic TR tunes which brought back memories, I liked the textures that were used (crudely applied though they were) and the concept was nicely thought of, the execution less so." - Ryan (16-Apr-2017)
""IF" is a keyword to this worst execution of best idea. Finished, polished and twice diminished, it could have worked as a perfect hub for some TR Gold project, plus a set of starting zones that would prepare for each separate adventure. Still I view it as "good bad" and not "bad good". Cameras work nice to introduce each chapter but not all of them are necessary. What the author really did well is the musical background - I already see Alex as a specialist in this field. A constant variety of mood achieved thanks to this and care about theme consistency in the end left me fulfilled like decent "normal" levels can, despite applications of nearly simpliest graphics and gameplay possible, not to mention the author managed to achieve this with help of Egyptian enemies only. I wish I went for the hub secret before setting off to the second part, because it appeared useless when I reversed this order. All the other secrets are fine, I only missed some themed pickups - dragons for TR2 section or roses for TR5, You know what I mean. But the final "giant reward" deserves a highlight on its own. SUMMARY: It's now possible to remind Yourself of all classic Tomb Raiders within 3 hours or less in very unfinished yet quite satisfying way so You can play this one if You have enough time." - DJ Full (18-Apr-2015)
"This one's a real piece of work. As it is just a demo, I'll try not to sound overly harsh, but I think the flaws in this creation outweigh any potential polishing that could make it redeemable. This is an ambitious project that aims to incorporate all of the major settings from TR1 to TR5 into a single area by compartmentalizing each setting into a room/part of the villa. Sounds interesting on paper, and it looks rather promising when you first boot up the level. But you'll be indelibly disappointed after playing through just a couple of sections. Why? Because this compilation is coated in stale and unfair gameplay choices that irritate or bore the player. Death tiles are placed haphazardly throughout the TR1-TR3 portions, and some have no rhyme or reason for being there. You'll be frequently wondering why you just died instantly. The TR4 and TR5 areas fare a little bit better, and show more concerted effort, but aren't much to write home about either. The worst part about all of this is that few if any of the sections feel like they correspond with their associated TR setting. Strip away the wallpapered textures and you'd have no way of knowing what areas you're suppose to be in. And I think this is the core problem for this level, and one that can't be fixed without completely deconstructing the level and starting over. There are numerous other problems too: enemies are limited to ninjas, scorpions, and mummies (all TR4 enemies); everything is way too dark; the water looks like it's radioactive; the puzzles make no sense, and the moveable pieces get stuck sometimes; etc. I spent most of my hour and a half wondering why I didn't just return to the classic games themselves. The one thing that I found to be actually enjoyable was the "secret" level, which housed a somewhat creepy atmosphere that ended with silliness. But, other than that, there's not much that I can recommend here. If the author plans to see this to completion, it's going to need major reworking, and perhaps a different approach entirely." - Xela (21-Jun-2014)
"This concept could be interesting for some people, but I did not like. This villa is divided into five parts, each of which leads to a place of ancient Tomb Raider. But the gameplay is repetitive, the textures are not great and wallpapered, but there is a good variety. There are some color effects, but the lighting is generally flat. I liked the secret with the crossbow in the bonus level with some written on the walls, the loading screen of this level is special, we see that it is under construction. I'm not going to dwell on this review because the game is only a demo. (From 2:30 *-*)" - Quentin (23-Mar-2014)
"This is a fairly ambitious set of levels that provide glimpses into the TR1 - TR5 commercial games. You get a sampling of three or four vignettes from each game, each of which lasts ten minutes or so. Everything is linear and fairly predictable, and in the hands of a more experienced builder this could have been a more successful and visually appealing project. Still, for those who stick around until the end you get a bit more than two hours of net playing time. The secrets are plentiful and for the most part placed in plain sight. Not really one for your "must play" list, but it's certainly worth a look." - Phil (24-Dec-2013)
"What a good idea this was and at the same time a pity that it didn't pan out that well. I wasn't expecting a revisit of the original games but a bit more than that was offered wouldn't go amiss. The main goal is to visit all five Tomb Raiders adventures that are laid out in different rooms. And here it falls short as although the rooms are different, but the tasks are not. Most rooms are huge and very little is in them. Getting a couple of Hands and later more artefacts so you can visit the biggest treasure room ever seen in a TR game and then the level ends shortly after that. Texture wise it could use quite some attention. Lighting was rather poor, either bright enough or very dark where flares were not really helping (at least at my end). The push puzzles were quite easy to figure out although in the last TR 5 game I had to go back to the slides and do them all over again as I pushed one statue, one gate opened but then Lara wouldn't push the other statue. I also got some unexplained burning of Lara when she wandered around in the TR 3 level area. Enemies you could see popping up out of thin air and I did encounter some invisible blocks at some gates. It for sure brought some nostalgic feelings back for me." - Gerty (03-Oct-2013)
"This is a rather interesting concept - revisiting all original TR games in a kind of museum - but the execution is not quite as good as it could've been, since the room design is rather spartan, the tut1 enemies and objects did not fit at all and many textures are so badly streched or squeezed that it hurts the eyes. Here and there, one could see sparks of originality, like in a few push puzzles in TR 3 and (mostly) TR 4, or the whole bonus level (has anyone found that yet?), but the gameplay neither is quite decent anyway, especially because of several ultra-long ladder climbs and very repetitive tasks. The sound and camera usage is halfway decent as well as the often surprisingly effective enemy placement. The lighting is often flat, sometimes interestingly weird and sometimes way, way too dark, so that even flares might not really help you. It's a game that won't blast you away, but not an unplayable one either and has at least some ideas. 1:35 hours, 13 secrets." - manarch2 (24-Sep-2013)
"A good idea to re-visit many places from another TR games, but only the textures can help to remember that places. The levels have a fast gameplay, based about pulling some switches, find some artifacts to open doors, some simple puzzles with moveables and some traps in certain places. Architecture is simple, and textures are often not well applied. The secrets are not hidden. It notices an effort with cameras, musics and shadows; but the author forgot to place a couple of cameras when pulling the last two switches. For next levels, don't forget to mark the deadly tiles and the ladders, please." - Jose (17-Sep-2013)
"Don't be misled by the 'demo' in the title - it took me just over two hours to complete. This is a really splendid idea that unfortunately hasn't been well served by the standards of level building or the actual gameplay involved. Basically, it's a wallow in nostalgia as Lara accesses various areas of the huge house devoted to some of the places visited in TR1 - 5. The problem is, the respective areas have only a vague feeling of the original game locations and sometimes objects appear to have wandered in from another zone entirely. Ninjas, zombies and scorpions are the default enemies, so obviously feel completely inappropriate in most places and, apart from a slight frisson upon entering the Rome room, I found everything blurring together after a while. Easily the best aspect of the whole game is the chance to hear those captivating Nathan McCree melodies again. Otherwise, this feels like a missed opportunity to make something really special." - Jay (15-Sep-2013)
"A very ambitious and charming concept here indeed, which unfortunately falls short in execution, although it is clearly a step forward from the authors debut release. What you get is almost two hours of fairly fast paced and straight forward gameplay, which is kept mildly interesting by ist diversity of taking you through the classic TR1-5 scenarios. I actually liked how it is structured and the leveljump after about an hour is technically well executed. I found 10 secrets (5 in each part) and it was fun chasing those. There are a few tougher battles, mainly with ninjas to spice things up and two or three actually quite tricky jumps, but generally you just run from one simple tasks to the next in fairly boxy rooms that are often rather dark too. The best section is really the TR4 section because it makes an effort at being a coherent part of the adventure vs just a sequence of rooms with Tasks and the author should build on that part for any of his future endeavors. Oh, and avoid those enemies appearing out of thin air and the unmarked death tiles please..." - MichaelP (12-Sep-2013)
"OK, so I'll just come out with it. While the central premise involving Lara going through a villa which can recreate areas from any individual's memories(In Lara's case, areas from the first five games in the series for newcomers who discovered Tomb Raider through the recent reboot), may sound like a intriguing concept for a levelset on paper, it's tragically let down most of all by poor execution. So, if you were expecting to see classic levels redone in a whole new refreshing way, you won't find that here. What you will get instead is possibly one of the worst levelsets released in recent memory, with it seemingly looking like the builder attempted to rush this one out the door without any proper testing whatsoever. Most rooms are far too big with plenty of unmarked death triggers in many of them, lighting is either too flat, too bright or too dark, textures are wallpapered throughout, enemies spawned in constantly(even in uncomfortable spots such as a crawlspace, monkey swing or even underwater) for seemingly no explicable reason, cutscene dialogue from past games are played at specific points, despite you never encountering those characters in this levelset at all... the list just goes on and on. While it's great to see familiar textures and hear some nostalgic tracks from TR1-5 upon entering a new area, they only set to reinforce how much better the actual games were in comparison to this disastrous levelset which shamelessly copies and pastes assets from those games, but doesn't do anything inspired or creative with them. In conclusion, I'd highly recommend that anyone interested in playing this levelset, would be better off downloading something else as this one lacks polish, proper testing or any actual heart. I hope to see the builder's next release done with a lot more care and attention to the players next time and not just rushed out the door again to show everyone that they released another uninspired level to the masses." - Ceamonks890 (10-Sep-2013)
"This level-set incorporates a beautiful idea.Inside a Mansion are five separate zones,each based on the five classic TR adventures;and each of these zones itself contains several levels based on the classic themes (Lost Valley;Cistern etc).Solving all the puzzles in each zone allows the player access to the next.It's a great concept and would probably make a superb group project (one builder constructs a level each).In this particular instance the strength of the concept is almost enough to forgive many an otherwise unpardonable sin (repetetive and generally simplistic gameplay;poor enemy placement;lack of atmosphere due to hurried and simplistic construction;monotonous texturing).The various levels should be steeped in atmosphere,yet they generate little else other than mild boredom;and the player has the perpetual feeling that it all should be so much better.Nevertheless,the lighting is often creative and colourful;and once in a while the gameplay actually perks up - the slide through the spike tunnel;the excellent use of music from each of the adventures;the occasional heated battle.The ease of gameplay is actually a vague blessing,as you never stay too long in any particular level nor zone;and although everything becomes predictable quite early on,it's at least fast moving throughout.I'm not sure why the builder feels that this is a Demo,as it seemed structurally complete to me (unless he intends to re-build every single area with decent scenery and more interesting gameplay,that is.) I gave higher points than I perhaps should,simply because I enjoyed this builders novel idea so much;and his nostalgic (and even reverential) use of music.2 hours of basic entertainment for the critically non-discerning." - Orbit Dream (10-Sep-2013)