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The Forgotten Scepter by Nick21

DJ Full 5 8 6 5
Gerty 3 5 6 5
Jay 6 7 6 6
JesseG 6 5 4 4
Jose 3 5 6 3
manarch2 3 5 4 4
Orbit Dream 5 7 6 6
Phil 8 6 7 7
Rambo 4 6 5 4
Ryan 6 6 6 5
 
release date: 13-Aug-2015
# of downloads: 56

average rating: 5.35
review count: 10
 
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file size: 63.20 MB
file type: TR4
class: nc
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
lepynicolas@orange.fr

Reviewer's comments
"Afterwards I do wonder of this is ever been tested as there were some nasty bugs in here, as well as the wrong animation of opening a crowbar door. There were luckily not that many enemies as in his previous levels so that in my book was a plus. Textures could us a lot of attention as well as the lighting. And what about those banana jumps, come on now, lazy building is what I would call that. Be creative because mazes as well as banana jumps certainly aren’t." - Gerty (28-Jun-2017)
"This game is made up of four levels, each of which is no longer than roughly half an hour, so you get at least two hours of gameplay upon reaching end trigger. I wasn't as impressed with this one as I should have been, however. The surroundings aren't particularly appealing with stretched and missing textures and overbearing darkness that seemed to follow me wherever I went. The gameplay fares slightly better if you discount the tedious backtracking and the pushable puzzles (which weren't that bad, as long as you do it in the right order). It wasn't as bad as I expected, but I felt it didn't fulfill its potential." - Ryan (29-Jan-2017)
"It seems that this game have never been tested. There are a lot of missing and bad placed textures, numerous ilegal slopes, paper walls and floors... Even when there are some puzzles here and there, the gameplay is usually tedious and bored; the author lets you advance without the necessary items and often you'll have to go back if you miss them; another times you're forced to run long distances, go back to the previous rooms and run back again to rooms you've already visited. Many rooms are too huge and empty with nothing to do, but enemies and pickups are often well placed. It notices an effort with the musics and the cameras showing where to go when you trigger something; for me the best of the adventure. Texturization is often terrible, and many rooms are too dark or, simply black, even when I found enough flares. I suffered a bug in the last level near the room with many moveable crates: each time I tried to get out of the water, a blue ghost appeared and I had to jump into the water to kill it; again, when going out of the water, a new ghost appeared, again to the water, and so on... After a dozen of ghost and noticing that I should be trapped there forever, I decided to abandone the adventure." - Jose (05-Nov-2015)
"At one point I felt like this series could become a meme: Lara dies in slow motion from a plastic-looking laser with horrendously inaccurate collision, while the screen fades to red with the word "PERDU!"... Also, in the first level I thought you were supposed to purposely burn Lara on a horizontal flame and run for the next pool of water to douse the flames. However the return trip was quite intense and I just barely made it after sucking up all of my medpacks...only to find the switch to disable the flame in a corridor close by! Enough of my silly stories and on to the review. My favorite part about this level was the use of audio, I think it was very well timed and keeps the player on their toes, especially when they return to a previous area but find out they are no longer alone. The weakest point is definitely the texturing, it is very wallpapered and warped in every room, and even missing in quite a few places, sometimes because of the poor geometry which also lent itself to some illegal slopes. The author also has a nasty habit of moving water rooms up and down after connecting them - I would strongly advise to correct this habit as you can see the consequences when trying to leave the water! The distance fog was a bit thick and made it hard to see ahead, and the lighting was too dark overall. There were several ways to get stuck, such as dispatching enemies before they blow up certain obstacles for you - I ended up using a cheat to get a grenade gun and blast things for myself. For some reason the camera shots were always throbbing as if they were inside of a discotheque. There were some decent pushblock puzzles, and a few traps, some easier to dodge than others. While the above factors made this play a bit headache-inducing, the series did end with a satisfying feeling as Lara gets her hands on the prize after a long battle. Each aspect of the level needs improvement, but the foundations are there and I look forward to seeing how this author does after more experience building. Time: 1 hour 40 minutes." - SSJ6Wolf (20-Oct-2015)
"Gameplay & Puzzles: A few puzzles and better tasks here and there but often you move from one room to another and there is a lot of boredom. There are unused things and bugs too. Enemies, Objects & Secrets: The enemies are okay and the objects often fit, but are not always well placed. The secrets are good. Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: The rooms are very carelessly designed with a lot of mistakes and the atmosphere is often destroyed, still there are some nice things here and there just as with the tasks. Sounds are okay, cameras not so. Lighting & Textures: Many texture mistakes and very boring looking rooms, the lighting is not very good too but not flat. Total: 4,75/10, mediocre at best." - Rambo (01-Sep-2015)
"I took a long time to play this game, partly because a slight arm injury necessitated limiting my playing time, but equally because it just felt like a great big chore. Admittedly, it improves quite a lot as it progresses, but given how poorly it starts off that really isn't exactly heaping praise upon it. It's very dark in places and although flares are in reasonable supply, I still found myself flaring and reloading rather more than I would have liked. It becomes better built in the later sections and the city atmosphere in the final part is quite good, but overall both gameplay (with the exception of a couple of well devised block puzzles) and surroundings are just rather dull. Having picked up quite a lot of crossbow and revolver ammo, I began to suspect I'd missed the actual weapons but lo and behold they turned up at almost the end of the entire game, just in time to be of very little use at all! Basically, this has flashes of potential but could most definitely have done with a 'director's cut' version." - Jay (29-Aug-2015)
"I have to register my disagreement with the previous reviewers. When I downloaded it for the main purpose of writing a walkthrough, I expected to find an easy, quickly completed romp. Au contraire. Although the first (of four) levels served primarily as an appetitizer populated by a few bats and scorpions that offered little challenge (and skeletons at the end that did, because you didn't have the weaponry to deal with them), I managed to miss one of the three secrets there. The second level introduces some human enemies and more sophisticated gameplay, including some puzzles that are not at all intuitive. The third level to me was the most fun to play. It has a pushpiece puzzle that some considered buggy. However, the clue to the placement of each piece is plainly marked. The last level probably could stand on its own as a separate release. Contrary to the opinion of an earlier reviewer, I felt that the tasks were laid out in a very logical manner, and there was very little backtracking required if you completed all necessary tasks in a given area before moving on. My main complaint was with the crude textures and the darkness that seemed to follow the player everywhere. I manufactured unlimited flares for myself so I could squander them without fear of running out, and I'll bet I used 100 or more. On balance, although this release certainly won't earn any awards, I feel it has gotten a bad rap and deserves higher scores than it has thus far received." - Phil (21-Aug-2015)
"The beginning of this adventure is totally primeval with large areas covered with wallpapered textures and poor lighting but it gets better in time: we get distance fog and fitting objects, including some nice puzzle items but searching for them is designed wrong - too often we have long pathways spreading from a junction, one way ending with a puzzle, another with its receptacle, without any hint to which route is supposed to be checked in the first order. This results in much of extra time spent on being confused. In other places the cameras do brilliant work giving multiple clues (we even have some flyby attempt) and I don't wanna think about the frustration that would be here if they were not - but they are still not enough considering the structural sophistication of these levels. On our way we can also get numerous and helpful secrets, the ambush medikit being particularly clever (the pool draining is inconsistent instead) but I still enjoyed getting them all. The eventual city street finale, with ghosts accumulating on the streets, audio tracks properly intensifying tension and fast camera shots at the awaiting danger, leading to a boss fight and the final pickup is just great - I didn't expect any "wow" moment in this game but the patience was well rewarded. SUMMARY: I love games bringing me to central Africa. This one can't be called "good" in many fields, but compared to the builder's initial release it's like going from Stone Age to Grenade Gun invention (hint intended). The builder has learnt a lot in the last units so I can't get why he didn't take his knowledge back to the first ones to fix them a bit. Mostly optional, the last part recommended to all." - DJ Full (15-Aug-2015)
"Actually I can't add much to Ian's review. There are glimpses of good ideas in any aspect, such as the extended pushable puzzles, a few good enemy usages and a few more atmospheric and decently designed rooms, with some rather okay use of distance fog, but overall it remains a rather wildly and incoherently put together work. Areas that don't resemble any kind of atmosphere with badly placed or even missing textures and very odd geometry and worst of all a gameplay course that is very tedious to work through with almost no guidance of the builder, you can often go anywhere to find a current dead end, the camera hints are plenty but mostly not exactly helpful and the myriads of long crawlspaces and passages plus a lot of backtracking really doesn't make things better. The pushable puzzles show a good intention, but they are often that long that by the end you just wished to move on. The fourth level had a few good ideas, but due to the very confusing setup it turned out to be the worst of them all, I really wished it would've just ended. All good gameplay-related ideas and better designed rooms would've formed a quite appealing 30 minute level, but the 85 minutes I spent here were just too much for my likings. Found all 10 rather decently hidden secrets." - manarch2 (15-Aug-2015)
"Four levels - at least two hours of gameplay - and none of it could truly be said to be anything more than 'just about alright'.Gloomy lighting;unconvincing locations;huge empty areas;a wealth of missing or misplaced textures;buggy pushable block puzzles;camera clues that often pointlessly depict areas you haven't been to yet;absolutely miles and miles of level-padding backtracking.These comments effectively describe all four levels comprising this adventure;and a players patience will be sorely tested by the time they reach the final one. It has to be said that the gameplay ideas actually become fairly creative toward the end (although I didn't find the banana jumps to be particularly enjoyable);but I suspect that most players would have entirely had their fill some time before the Finish Trigger. This is another good example of the need for proper beta-testers;as,with a lot more polishing,this could have been a really decent adventure.As it is,I could really only recommend it to completists." - Orbit Dream (14-Aug-2015)