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Create a Classic: 20 years of TR - The Dragon Statues by Erikku

alan 8 8 9 8
DJ Full 8 9 9 8
Gian Carlo 8 8 9 9
Jay 8 8 8 7
John 7 8 9 7
Jose 3 7 8 5
manarch2 7 8 8 7
MichaelP 4 6 8 6
Mman 7 8 8 8
MrJavi94 7 8 8 9
Phil 8 8 8 7
Raider99 8 8 9 7
Ryan 8 8 8 8
smcandrew 8 7 7 7
Torry 4 7 7 4
 
release date: 02-Dec-2016
# of downloads: 141

average rating: 7.48
review count: 15
 
review this level

file size: 85.80 MB
file type: TR4
class: South Pacific
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
ericw.japan@gmail.com

Reviewer's comments
"It started off so very well with a great location and sunset setting by the coast and beach, with really good exploration, tricky platforming and good traps! the problems start when you find yourself getting lost and disorientated in really dark places and unfortunately it continues on and off throughout, also the fact that sometimes both paths and items needed for progression are really well hidden or unfairly hidden in my opinion, i mean i expect that for secrets but not for the general progression of the level, speaking of secrets you may wanna get looking for them from the get go as a lot of them contain flares and believe me you'll need them! The game-play highlights for me was the chasing after the monkey in the treetops to get that key they pinched haha! the trap sequences and platforming, the zip-line and of course the ending in the final room. Overall id say this level is definitely worth a play if your happy to use a walk through and don't get irritated easily by using flares as the level layouts, exploration, cameras and environment is very well done" - John (18-Feb-2023)
"I have to concur with Michael on this one. The overbearing darkness really spoiled this level and flares are few and far between unless you find the secrets, which in the darkness is not that easy to do. I missed the whole first section of the level as I found and used the rooftops key right at the start, so this could have a lot to do with it. The only reason I discovered that was by referring to the walk through so after some 40 minutes of stumbling around I started the level again. Such a pity as the starting sequence showed so much promise." - Torry (04-Nov-2022)
"No, No, No... I really did not have fun with this one at all and I am quite surprised with the conistently fairly high gameplay ratings. To start with the positive, the overall location is very nicely constructed and really invites you to play with the two temple areas embedded into the coastal setup. There is also very decent camera work and a fun scene captured with the monkey stealing a key and there are six secret to find, none of which are overly well hidden. But... as most reviewers have mentioned the overbearing darkness gets in the way of really enjoying the environment throughout. There are just too many areas which are completely dark and if you happen to not find the secrets you will have run out of flares in no time. There is also an entire zoo of animals to kill, which was not hard to do but kind of starting getting on my nerves once the annoyance about the darkness had kicked in and then, to top it all off, there is the beetles room. A small room, pitch black, in which you first grope around to find the elusive jump switch to raise a block, then need to pull a skeleton out of the way, then pick up a crowbar and then crawl out of - and all of that while literally not seeing anything and being chased around by a beetle swarm. I used up all my medipacks and 20 saves and reloads until I finally - and just barely - made it out of there. Very, very poor choices made here by the builder that really spoil what could have been such a fun level of about an hour duration. The way it is though, I would really not recommend playing it - sorry." - MichaelP (13-Jun-2021)
"This is a different take on classic themes, as it combines Pacific and Xian textures; they fit together pretty well, and give a new twist on those original themes. The main areas look nice but the main issue is darkness; a lot of the indoor parts are almost pitch-black and flares are somewhat rare to begin with (the only ones I found in the initial area were in darkness-shrouded secrets, which felt like a bit of a cruel joke). When you can see though the visuals are decent, and the theme combination gives it a different feel. It also makes nice use of the Xian objects and enemies, and there are a couple of nice surprises with how certain objects are used. The gameplay has nice moments and exploration, but something about the structure feels a bit off; despite plenty of foreshadowing progression feels oddly random with you just kind of stumbling on things as you look around. It does become more directed in the second half, as you access the pagoda structure that makes up a decent amount of the level, but that kind of makes the odd feel of the first half stick out even more. Some invisible walls blocking off certain cliffs doesn't help, especially as I found one or two shortcuts despite that, along with some easily accessible illegal slopes. I guess the issues are a sign of this being a debut level, and it's a good map outside of that." - Mman (30-Nov-2019)
"Really another good debut. I liked the architecture, the texturization, the good atmosphere, the enemies, and secrets not very hard to find... But this is a level designed only for pure explorers. The gameplay was really nasty for me, 'cause if you miss something or you don't do the tasks the way was intended from the author, the backtracking is terrible; and I had to run through all the entire level several times to look for missing items. Erikku, please, read carefully the page 70 from the official manual, antepenultimate paragraph. Evenmore, the tiles to place the moveables are not clear, and the extreme darkness (simply, black rooms) in many places makes very difficult the exploration. A promissing author with a good potential, but still far to build an entertaining level. If you decide to play it, I recommend you carefully read the provided walkthrough." - Jose (09-Mar-2017)
"Definite love and hate relationship with this one. The opening sequence made me really look forward to playing it, but unfortunately it quickly became more about groping one's way through dark underground areas than exploring lush open air scenery. There is much to enjoy about the gameplay, but it would have been oh so much more enjoyable with more of the lovely outdoor areas and not quite so much playing by braille." - Jay (03-Feb-2017)
"This is a very decent contribution for the Create a Classic competition. Lara starts her adventure dropping from her (presumably) own helicopter to land on a TR3- South Pacific style island. As a good classic level, here we'll meet several tigers, fish, crocodiles and wart dogs, as well as some eagles and why not the typical bothering bats here and there. As many other already stated, there's an apparently intended darkness touch distributed along the entire level making you use your very escase amount of flares. At least the good thing is that some of the six secrets have flares as a reward that will come in handy for many sections here. I particularly liked the ending sequence, making a very good end after claming the three dragon statues (as the title says itself). Speaking of the secrets, I haven't had a hard time in finding them, except for only one which took me a while to find (but I should've been able to spot it in my first playthrough), so only managed to find five of six in that first playthrough. For a second playthrough I need 19 minutes to complete this pretty cool adventure with all six secrets and without the need of using a single medipack. I want to congratulate Erikku (or Eringo as stated in the credits) for creating such a nice level for a debut. Easy-medium difficulty. Recommended for everyone!" - MrJavi94 (23-Jan-2017)
"Some areas are too dark, and I ran out of flares. I had to shoot as I explored those areas, every shot illuminated a bit for a second. But besides the dark areas there are also some nice ones, like the start of the level, with the magnificent view of the sunset. This is a level with a feel of the TR2 and TR3 games. TR3 with the South Pacific style, and TR2 with the chinese temple. I would have liked to kill those nasty bugs in the dark room with swinging chains. They caused a lot of damage. The flyby at the beginning and the final one were nice. Found 5 of 6 secrets. Recommended (be sure to conserve flares!)." - alan (21-Jan-2017)
"The darkness throughout most of this level was apparently intended, given a high number of secrets with only flares as a reward. So was my early decision to give myself unlimited flares. That being said, I enjoyed playing this level while working my way through at the same time I was writing a walkthrough. A nice touch was that trapdoor on the temple grounds that was never opened until the very end, when it was too late, when you found all those dragon statues you'd been looking for. The darkness aside, the gameplay here is well thought out and unfolds logically, although the significance of that monkey climbing a tree escaped me until I went looking for it and found the key it was hoarding. There was shotgun ammo to be found here and there but no shotgun, indicating that it was in one of the two secrets I missed. It would have been a whole lot more fun to play if I'd been able to see everything around me at all times." - Phil (14-Jan-2017)
"I actually found this level pretty enjoyable. The only downside that spoilt it for me slightly was the overbearing darkness which seemed everywhere. I ended up using nearly all of my flares throughout the level, despite finding some supplies scattered throughout the level, including within a secret, which is a shame. Aside from that, it wasn't bad at all and I enjoyed searching for prayer wheels, mystic plaques, a Tibetan mask and the dragon statues themselves. I loved the use of TR2 music throughout the level too. I got bogged down close to the end due to overlooking a movable block which was half the size of a regular one! Teach me to be more observant in the future. There were also a couple of levers in the final anteroom that did nothing (or else I missed something). Not bad at all for a debut and I look forward to more. Took me 66 minutes and I found 4 of 6 secrets." - Ryan (13-Jan-2017)
"A truly classic level that brings back the mood of TR 2's China and TR 3's pacific levels. The gameplay is very classic with a lot of exploration and a few rather managable jumps and puzzles to solve, all nothing groundbreaking but enjoyable. The monkey scene was of course a highlight of this game, as was the final cutscene, and the action in and around the high tower to finally get to its top was enjoyable too; perhaps a bit more moments where you have to think a bit instead of exploring dark corners would be nice. Darkness is indeed a prominent factor in this game, and I found it slightly unfair to hide most flares in secret locations, but in other places it's used well to enhance the exploration difficulty and only in one area it's really too dark. You get to destroy nearly the whole local wildlife of this island (although there are living examples in the final cutscenes so not all is lost), sometimes the placement is really effective and once quite scary. The atmosphere is quite nice, with a believable landscape with nice interconnections built here and textures are also used well to create the scenery. Sometimes the visuals seem to be a bit crude (both in terms of architecture and texture application; there are also some nasty illegal slopes). The lighting, putting aside the darkness, is decent. A quite good debut and a satisfying 30 minute level, found all six secrets of which only one was really hard." - manarch2 (07-Jan-2017)
"I get the feeling the builder of this level intentionally made it quite dark in some spots to make it more realistic. While it adds to realism indeed, it stopped me from enjoying it for the most time. Firstly I ran out of flares, but luckily there were enough around to help us get through some really dark caves and tombs. The gameplay itself was simple, true to originals, but it lacked some hints where to go next as some puzzles were hidden too well. I experienced one game breaking bug - a crash while loading a level and found out it's because of baboons, but it's engine issue so I'm just saying it here, kill all the baboons before you proceed! Everything in level felt quite consistent in terms of objects, textures, sounds... and then a HQ pushable block shows up, it felt quite out of place. Music tracks were used nicely, except some of hem could be triggered more than once. Aside from many rooms being way too dark, pitch black too, I found many cracks (underwater cracks are so visible it hurts), texture issues and as well some nasty illegal slopes that can get Lara stuck for... eternity. While visually this level might not be so stunning, due to darkness, it was quite enjoyable adventure if you have enough flares, haha!" - Raider99 (18-Dec-2016)
"This is a good TR2/3 feel level - it was enjoyable but had many frustrating parts, such as lack of flares, as many areas were incredibly dark and look me endless amounts of time to find things due to being so hidden in the dark. The gameplay was good with a fair few good puzzles (e.g. actually prying off prayer wheels instead of TR2's version of hiding them under a box!) I really liked the final area and was incredibly satisfied once I found the three dragon statues - it seemed incredibly rewarding after powering through the entire level. The end cutscene was a nice touch too. Overall a good level however I felt the lighting in some areas ruined it as it hid some important areas (like finding the initial key) especially if you ran out of flares." - smcandrew (18-Dec-2016)
"I don't really have a lot to say. It feels like TR3 inside TR2, which I found it very cool. Everything on this level seems on point, so it's worth playing. Oh, and I've loved the new animation!" - Gian Carlo (15-Dec-2016)
"In short, it's a piece of TR3 in TR2. I could stop here, but I won't. A very nice dose of exploration in organic, coherent scenery. A bunch of fitting puzzles to collect and enemies to kill. A satisfying batch of secrets though I would prefer ammo instead of flares, and the amount of latter should never require secrets to suffice. The only gameplay flaw is the inability to go back to higher temple from the lower temple, and though I found an unintended way to do so, I did it after completing the game. There's a bit of unfair health loss which should be avoided at all cost: a fish blocking an underwater corridor, a bunch of inevitable scarabs, a dart trap activating on pickup square - but I think a no-medikit run is possible. The quest is nicely built up to the climax and the finale is very satisfying itself but also boosted with a concluding cutscene - it seems this builder views extra content as a standard thing to happen and I like it a lot." - DJ Full (06-Dec-2016)