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BtB2014 - Fight for the Right to... by Thierry Stoorne

Bigfoot 10 10 10 10
DJ Full 8 9 9 9
Drakan 10 9 9 10
EssGee 9 8 9 9
janachorider 6 7 9 9
Jay 8 8 8 8
JesseG 9 9 9 9
Jose 8 8 9 10
Josey 9 9 10 10
m.julien 8 10 10 10
manarch2 8 7 8 8
MichaelP 9 8 8 8
Mman 9 9 9 8
Mytly 9 8 9 8
nerdfury 8 8 10 8
OverRaider 7 8 9 9
Phil 9 9 10 9
Relic Hunter 8 9 8 9
Ryan 8 9 9 8
Treeble 8 8 9 8
 
release date: 02-Aug-2014
# of downloads: 94

average rating: 8.70
review count: 20
 
review this level

file size: 88.70 MB
file type: TR4
class: Cambodia
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
thierrystoorne@aol.com

Reviewer's comments
"(8) Gameplay & Puzzles: This is *generally* a medium-difficulty adventure that took me about 2 hours. I had a good time, however the difficulty curve is very strange, in that there is one very challenging room near the start of the game, NOT suitable for newer players (the slopes n' spikes platforming room). Then, the mid-game has a bunch of easy-to-medium tasks, suitable for new players. This seems strange to me. Not a big deal though, and I had a delightful time trying to navigate the very creative slopes n' spikes platforming room. I just felt like the gameplay intensity just got lower and lower as I explored further, with later tasks not holding a candle to the slopes n' spikes platforming room (if that makes sense). So, at nearly 2 hours, I felt like I was ready for the adventure to end. I did discover a softlock which surprised me given the builder's experience: in the 2nd half of the game, there is an indoor waterfall courtyard. If you don't have the wooden cog switch in your inventory as you pass a gate, you are softlocked, as the gate closes behind you and there's no way to go back. One more thing I wanted to comment on regarding gameplay is the lack of storyline, and lack of a sense of progression/accomplishment. I'm going from beautiful courtyard to beautiful courtyard, not really sure what my main objective is, and then I find a jeep and the game ends. (8) Enemies, Objects & Secrets: Some enemy setups are great (e.g. the skeleton mob, and the fight with goons who are standing next to explosive boxes). Other enemy engagements are annoying and not well executed in my opinion (on two separate occasions, you are getting shot at by goons while swimming and trying to find something to climb onto). In some areas, the object decor is very well done, especially in the case of trees and bushes. Other areas are lacking in object decor and look quite barren. The trap setups are pretty interesting/creative in some areas. (10) Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: Something I noticed in "Finding Zorba" was the builder's ability to create eye-catching, interesting architecture, and this is also true for this level. No area looked too "boxy" and the atmosphere is very professional and polished, with beautiful, immersive flybys as well as excellent static camera hints. Music tracks are well selected. Something I wanted to comment on is the builder's lack of "natural" geometry (you'll find yourself in man-made courtyard after courtyard, or in underground ruins, without really exploring nature). I know btb2014 has a lot of nature/jungle elements however I feel that the setting is the builder's choice. If this builder wants the player to explore man-made ruins without truly ever breaking out into nature, that's totally OK with me, considering that these courtyards and ruins are varied and memorable architecturally. (8) Lighting & Textures: This is a beautiful level and I just love the builder's skillful eye for colored lighting. The builder's waterfall setups are also stunning. Alas, some areas are too dark (e.g. the slopes n' spikes platforming room), but it's not a huge deal as the builder regularly sprinkles in outdoor courtyard areas to balance out the underground dark areas. However, I didn't like that the builder is not generous with flare pickups (I finished the game with no flares remaining). There's also frequent occurrences of wallpapering (it doesn't look very jarring though, so not a huge deal). Overall, I had fun and I think that the gameplay is good... however, I do feel like something is lacking in the overall gameplay flow in order for the gameplay to be great. 8/8/10/8." - nerdfury (05-Oct-2021)
"Lara will explore quite a few lush indoor and outdoor temple areas in this level in search of...a black jeep? I'm not entirely sure what her goal is, but there are some nice challenges along the way. The outdoor lighting isn't too exciting but I really like how it is used on the inside, and want to give a nod in particular to the green glow that appears when you place the orbs – now that is a great way to make an item you're using feel special. Players will likely find this to be one of the more difficult entries due to tricky quad bike jumps, sloped jumps over spikes, a chamber with many deadly pits and dangling blades, as well as a battle against a large number of troops (with those instant-death grenades). To me it was an enjoyable challenge. There are also quite a few puzzles, most of them involving pressure pads, but also a trial-and-error lever puzzle and a four-in-one timed gate run. This last one threw me in for a loop – when I figured out the correct sequence and made it through the gates I thought "cool, there are some extra pickups lying between the gates here for those who feel like repeating the timed run a couple times". To my horror, there's a fifth gate that will only open if the player gets all of those items, forcing the timed sequence to be completed 3+ times, and it was an objective that wasn't made apparent enough. That's my only gameplay critique though and otherwise this made for quite an engaging raid. 1 hour 27 minutes." - JesseG (17-Mar-2021)
"This has nice pacing: rather than using object blockades, it's extensively based on exploring and platforming which keeps you on the move and doesn't make you feel stuck in a single room for too long - so even though you fight 49 enemies, I think the real opponent here is meant to be the landscape. It's this kind of raw style I like and Thierry uses it in many levels of his so I really hope he didn't say the last word as a builder. If only more plotful and less patterned, this level would be on my top of the pack but it's still very good." - DJ Full (06-Jul-2019)
"This penultimate level in the contest is not for inexperienced raiders. From the start you need to be on guard for traps, enemies and hidden switches. I enjoyed it but may be a bit much for inexperienced raiders." - Ryan (06-Feb-2016)
"The gameplay is good, except for some things I've already comment like the very tricky jumps onto the sloped spiked tiles, the absence of clues for some puzzles and the last jump with the quad is hard too; I should place one more solid tile over the water. Also sometimes it could be good to place a flyby or camera targets to show hidden items (jumpswitch in the area with the serpent gem receptacle). Enemies are well balanced, and there are enough weapons and ammo, but I should place more flares and some small medipacks here and there. The game has a good appearance, but many rooms are too empty, with no furniture or objects to ornate. About another features, I think all is OK; very well lightened and textured, cameras to show you where to go and well placed CD tracks. Good work." - Jose (01-Feb-2015)
"Another winner in the 2014 BtB competition. I'm now down to my final two levels, and this one is near or at the top in my estimation. It's elaborate, complicated, and occasionally quite difficulty with some wicked jumps that gave me fits, and it took me two hours and fifteen minutes to complete. There's a timed sequence that has to be repeated three times to open successive barriers, and I felt it was a well conceived and executed challenge for the players. There's also a nice concluding Quad bike exercise, and Dutchy documented the secrets so well in his walkthrough that I decided to go for all three of them. Once more I'm amazed at the builder's ability to map out and compile such a complex adventure within the time constraints of the competition, and to do so in such a competent manner. While this is not an easy level to play, it's certainly a rewarding experience and the high scores are well deserved." - Phil (08-Oct-2014)
"There are many many things I have very enjoying in this level. The gameplay is for me perfect even if I think it is maybe a bit hard per moment. We have a very nice use of the flipmaps and quad sequence at the end. Also a good use of the triggers during the adventure like the pad and rollingball in the beginning and the doors sequence. The other thing I have liked is how the level is texturing with 256 textures instead of 128 per moment and that give a nice look to the game. The full objects are very well use specially for the various trees and enemies. The design is also one of the highest point of the level specially near the end where is located the loading camera view. We are also a nice use of the differents flybys cameras who show what we need to do during the game and too the various audios and sound atmospheres in each aeras like underground, outside, gardens and underwater corridors. For me everything of the btb package is well use in this adventure to do an exellent btb game. Top 1 of my personnal favorite btb2014 levels and congratulations to the author." - Bigfoot (07-Oct-2014)
"I've said before that Thierry's levels are somewhat hit and miss to me, luckily this one's a hit. It's actually on the small scale side by Thierry standards (more along the lines of Finding Zorba) but there's plenty of the non-standard geometry that tends to define their levels. Unfortunately the one weakness is the lighting; some parts look great in that regard but others are quite flat with little contrast. I really liked the look of some parts though, like the waterfall area near the start and the waterlogged temple full of foliage part-way through, which has probably conveyed the feeling of being in a decaying overgrown Khmer temple better than any other level here for me. This is one of more challenging levels, with some tough agility tasks and traps (one jump near the start in particular felt a bit too tough relative to everything else, especially as you potentially have to repeat it, but maybe I missed something). There's also some nice puzzles, like one with a subtle clue that clicks nicely when you get what's going on. The Quadbike is also used well. A bit of backtracking part-way through felt unnecessary, but it's the only notable example of that. one of the stronger levels in this BTB, and one of my favourites of Thierry's levels too." - Mman (04-Oct-2014)
"Well, I fought, acquired the right to raid, and I think this level achieves its objectives! Here we have easy, hard, very easy and very hard challenges, making a perfect level for testing our raiding skills without undue irritation. For me, there was only one frustrating sequence, that of the transparent spiked ramps at the lava room - Lara got spiked whenever she landed at the last ramp, and wasn't I glad when at least she timed it right... And there was only one boring sequence, that of the timed run by marked ledges. My first option was to pick up the Bazooka and forget the other items, because it was very boring to go back and repeat everything. The result was that the last barrier didn't open after picking up the Bazooka. Only after three trials I understood that it was necessary to pick up the other items, because Lara had to step in the special tiles where they were. Oh, well... that endless voyage through tunnels to the starting point was no fun... but this is a minor sin. I liked very much this creative, well done and interesting game. Play it!" - Josey (22-Sep-2014)
"A rather longish level, beautifully textured and lit with some very impressive architecture. Could have been enhanced with more extensive use of the supplied object set. Having said that, the places where objects have been substantially used look perfect. The hall with the Bronze statues is one of my favourite atmospheric highlights of this competition. I also really liked the way the temple courtyard is constructed to accommodate the quadbike ride. There is one section based around a lava pit that is hard, requiring some precision jumping that may frustrate some players, but otherwise the gameplay is challenging but all very manageable. It seemed a bit of a pointless exercise in exploration that Lara doesn't exit the level with any artefact as a reward, as there were plenty of good locations to place one. So the end felt slightly anti-climactic. Good audio choices throughout and good camera work." - EssGee (15-Sep-2014)
"Another long adventure for me at just below 2 hours and it has quite a few challenges along the way as the title might suggest. There are indeed plenty of interesting but not always very obvious puzzles, usind trigger tiles and timed elements in nice combinations. What I did struggle with a bit is that the balance of the level difficulty feels a bit odd at times. You get often rather smooth and obvious progression and then you come to a halt and scratch your head about what to do next. Often then it is a well hidden crawlspace that you may have overlooked. The room with the sloped spikes to jump across will have many less experienced players give up on this level (or use a savegame), but my issue with this entire room was rather that you can get to almost all places without mastering the jump sequence - yet you do need to do it to switch off some spikes. Not very obvious and rather confusing to the player. Along the way you get a nice mix of enemies and will need to work the grenade happy SAS with good strategy a few times. There is a four lever puzzle that I did not find a hint for, but even trial and error works quickly on this one thanks to the wall torches lighting up. It all culminates in a very nicely designed quad bike ride. The rooms are very solidly textured and often you can see the effort that went into lighting, but then you also get long passages that seem a bit empty and bland - again, the level does not quite keep up a consistency throughout. Still, all those complaints do not take away from it being a very solid contribution to the competition - one of the tougher ones to manage..." - MichaelP (13-Sep-2014)
"Gameplay in this level is mostly very entertaining. The puzzles involving jumping on certain safe tiles are interesting; the four-timed-tiles-and-gates task is very good (though it's rather tiresome to have to do it multiple times in order to get all the goodies between the gates); the changing floor room is great too; and the quadbike ride is fun. The four switch puzzle is a bit annoying, as it relies only on trial-and-error. Though on the whole I enjoyed the spike jumps and the whole puzzle room surrounding them, I did feel that the task was a little too tough to be placed at the beginning of the level. It would have worked better as a final challenge - especially as there is no real final climax in this level: Lara just reaches yet another of the many new areas in this somewhat linear level, and her adventure just ends abruptly.
Despite the name of the level, there are fortunately not too many enemies. Their placement is occasionally a little unfair - such as when Lara is swimming around looking for a way onto the ground, and keeps getting shot at by mercenaries standing high above on dry ground. On the other hand, I did like one showdown in which (slight spoilers) you have to blow up some explosive crates to take out a group of mercenaries from a distance. I also liked the room with the rows of petrified warriors, some of which come to life.
The looks of this level would have been great if it weren't for the terribly dark lighting. I have to echo Phil (in his review for Sumeru Illusion) in wondering why so many BtB2014 levels are so depressingly dark. Is there an award for the Level Most Likely to Cause Eyestrain or something?! Snark aside, the level does look good: the architecture is very pretty, with a number of interesting courtyards to explore, such as the one with the four timed tiles, or the one with the twisting quadbike ramp. I particularly like the numerous deep blue waterfalls throughout the level.
Overall: A good level, which could have been great with better lighting and a better level structure. Recommended." - Mytly (13-Sep-2014)
"The only good thing is the atmosphere.the gameplay was tedious and boring specially the gren orb room and the levers.overall not a bad level but one that certainly won't be playing never again." - janachorider (05-Sep-2014)
"Another nice level with a solid gameplay. As mentioned by other reviewers the deadly water room above the teeth spikes, shortly after the beginning, was quite difficult. Casual raiders would be stuck seriously here. The rest of the gameplay seems accessible for everyone, it's pretty straightforward and linear until the end. Regarding puzzles, they was well thought and I especially remember puzzles based on trigger tiles. The level was very beautifully textured and illumined (no found only one stretched texture). If I set aside the complex deadly water room, that cause some frustration, I really liked this pleasant level. Congratulations! 8/10/10/10" - m.julien (01-Sep-2014)
"I'll start off saying I ended up taking a two-week long break while playing this level, so I might have forgotten something. The environments are very pretty but I felt lighting to be a little too dim for my tastes, despite most of it taking place outdoors. Gameplay revolves mostly around the level design and while it does have it's highs, I also think it had its lows. The quadbike area was one that felt very out of place in comparison to everything else because it was pretty much a disguised quadbike course shoehorned into a room. Otherwise it's a rather engaging raid, with the occasional aggravating moment, so you're always on the move. Still on the quadbike, I'd like to make an additional remark of this very annoying jump towards the end, took me way too many tries until I got lucky to have enough momentum to get across (and I'm not sure it's a feat I could repeat!). 105 minutes, 3 secrets. 08/14" - Treeble (01-Sep-2014)
"Lara is fighting for her right to raid, and quite the fight it is that she must put up. Not a literal fight, but as in a level that has a variety of challenges Lara must pass. The level starts out with a relaxed difficulty and a nice sequence of jumping on tiles on a stairway to open the first major door, along with light platforming and swimming, and it's quick to spike up in difficulty soon after. The most challenging section of the level is early on, a large and rocky lava room with precariously placed slopes and ledges that require careful planning and agility to navigate and acquire the necessary puzzle items. Add several spike slopes with tight timings and we have quite the challenge on our hands. The remainder of the level doesn't get quite as difficult, and is dense with a variety of puzzles of pushing and the switch variety, to agility tests involving timed doors and spiky platforms. Thrown in are a few neat sequences like the shifting platforms room, and the sequences involving the large outdoor pool room, as well as other platforming tasks of varying difficulty. There are some crocs and tigers to shoot, skeletons to dispose of, and later on some thugs join the fray. While overall an enjoyable level, some of the platforming gameplay would border on being almost unfair to the player. One particular ledge necessary to grab in the first lava chamber is placed oddly and took many tries for me to grab correctly. The timing on the sloped spike platforms also gave me a hard time, as Lara barely has enough time to clear two platforms with the same spike timer. Near the end of the level there is also one tricky curved jump on a block with two simultaneous slopes that requires some pixel precision to complete. Besides those hiccups in the gameplay, the rest of it was smooth and pleasant for me, and things end nicely with good use of the quadbike. Atmospherically the tracks and music are appropriately used, and while the rooms are professionally lit and textured, I feel the level sometimes felt a little empty on the atmosphere as many of the rooms have a routine aesthetic and lack the 'oomph' that make them stand out and want to admire the scenery. That aside, this is definitely a very good level that lasted around two hours for me." - Relic Hunter (28-Aug-2014)
"There were one or two timed runs in this game that I found really challenging, the first one being a cleverly devised but somewhat fiendish dash over tiles whilst avoiding knife balls and the second being a series of trigger tiles on a roof. You'll see what I mean when you get there! There are equally some very good sliding and bouncing sequences when the route is not always obvious and some clever puzzles. Nice use of the quad bike at the end, but the way the soldiers were able to shoot poor Lara whilst she was swimming in the water felt a little bit unkind." - Jay (27-Aug-2014)
"This level is not too difficult except for the part in the room with the deadly water that I thought was great. The question was "How to enter and especially what to do? There are some challenge for go out of this room. This level is very well textured and lit, pleasant to do. Recommended." - Drakan (15-Aug-2014)
"Another very enjoyable level in the listing which persuades most with a row of quite clever puzzles, in most of which you have to jump on several trigger tiles, but every puzzle is quite unique. There are also some fairly challenging traps with spikes, burners and alternating platforms, a bunch of timed runs and a fairly fun raid with the quad bike. But while the single tasks feel rather fun, I think the level feels a bit tedious at the end because the areas look pretty alike and just when you think the level comes to an end you'll have to explore yet another large courtyard. Not that I'm complaining about the length of the level, it's just that there is no real goal to the whole thing (no real story as well) and the level structure is quite linear so that the tasks just feel like being placed one after the other. On the other side, the quad bike ride was cleverly placed in the moment where just another room to explore would create utter tedium, so that it never went too bad actually. One thing I disliked though was the multiple timed run where you had to pick up four items to open a door, it was fairly pedestrian to jump on all those tiles again and again and then return to them. There's a good bunch of enemies to kill here which are quite challenging to kill even with bigger weapons; the object design could've been a bit better because some areas look a bit barren. In general the looks feel a bit sterile, although they are fairly professionally done with near-faultless placement of textures, yet they don't really stand out in particular and while every room looks good, there's not much real eye candy to be seen here. The lighting is also a bit constantly dark-ish at times and for a - subjectively - long part of the level I had no left flares, but I never felt utterly confused because of that luckily. Overall this is a very solid offering which never excels but manages to please in every aspect. Found four secrets in 60 minutes." - manarch2 (14-Aug-2014)
"This level is rather on the easy side with the challenge because I wasn`t really stuck here but it has its moments like the part of a temple with deadly pool which is for me the most memorable part of this level because it`s not only most challenging part but also most creative one. So in gameplay terms as I said rather easy but still enjoyable with some tasks to accomplish or some rather easy tile puzzles (including timed tile jump sequence puzzle to open 5 wooden gates which was very nice) but many puzzle items were just lying on a tile/ground or dropped by enemies which wasn`t really creative in my opinion. There is also a four-lever puzzle to open four underwater doors one by one which was quite a nice sequence but I would rather expecting different tasks to do in each place I opened instead of very short and same/similar. Also some switches were rather easy to be reached so that it wasn`t so satisfying for me as in my opinion it could have been thought out more creatively. In terms of atmosphere I must admit that it is quite atmospheric level with nice choises of sounds and textures are applied with full care (or at least I couldn`t find any texture issue) so that it was nice to admire the environments and lighting could have been done better but still very nicely done and fitting to the atmosphere so it worked very well. In this level you mostly go through temples (outside/inside) areas where there are many beautiful places like the pool with some kind of waterfalls at the beginning or flooded part of a temple full of green plants, very nice. All in all a very nice btb2014 level which took me 1:44 hours and have found 4/4 secrets which were easy to find too and I don`t like easy secrets because I don`t have satisfied feeling, it is always better to think out about secret placments as secrets are optional and should never be easier than tasks themselves, they should be something special, miniquests or some tricky/hard skill required tasks or even sneakily hidden ones... Well as I said very nice level and of course recommended! 7/8/9/9" - OverRaider (04-Aug-2014)