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Return to Luds Gate by sonnyd83

DJ Full 8 9 9 9
GoldfishGam3r 10 7 8 8
High Priestess 7 8 9 7
Jay 9 9 9 8
Jorge22 9 9 9 8
Jose 9 9 9 9
Josey 10 9 9 8
manarch2 7 8 8 7
Mman 8 8 8 8
Phil 9 8 8 8
Ryan 9 9 9 8
Sakusha 9 9 10 9
TombExplorer 7 8 8 7
 
release date: 01-Jun-2017
# of downloads: 113

average rating: 8.42
review count: 13
 
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file size: 67.10 MB
file type: TR4
class: City
 


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Reviewer's comments
"This levelset of 2 levels revisits the entirety of TR3's London Section, but kind of "backwards".
As some know, I don't like the original Lud's Gate, and TR3's London very much, but I still wanted to give this a try.
First of all, atmosphere. I enjoyed how, especially at the beginning, the author tried to incorporate some "lore" into the level, but this started to fade the more further I went with the level sadly.
The graphical aspect is nice in some places, and very flat / dark in others. Was not too bad though.
The main problem with the levelset was the gameplay:
I really appreciated all the new puzzles(I swear, the falling rocks one was amazing!), but some sections were just dreadful. And not because of the difficulty.
It's either huge amount of backtracking (yeah, I am mainly talking about the blue-hallways section near the end of level 1, the one with the water) or... super unnecessarily long puzzles
(yeah, the INFINITE super long puzzle with 24 SWITCHES and 4 pushables to move around.. it took me 35 MINUTES to complete, and I knew the solution for the most part. It was the mechanical part being slow...)
And then we have Level 2, which is short, it has an interesting boss fight, but has a lot of backtracking, and...
the Kayak, which had some weird interactions with water(which is ok for gameplay) but you are kinda forced to do 90° degree turns in small hallways, and even kinda forced to glitch through/against an animated giant snake at the end... eh?

Overall, this level had nice innovative ideas for the London section, being super interesting, but remains a bit flat on the graphical aspect, and frustrating in many situations due to unneccessary long puzzles or weird geometry.

Recommended? Yes, especially if you like TR3's London section.

Difficulty? Medium.

Duration? Approx. 1h30m-2h45m

" - TombExplorer (16-Sep-2023)
"Another serious and spooki effort from sonny. Merges the entire London underground into one coherent place, throws in several surprises and somehow even the kayak is here in the way it fits. I would halve the pushable and clarify the wall hint is about the block mechanism, because it seems to be about switches and becomes unreadable this way. Good job." - DJ Full (03-Jan-2018)
"This is an enjoyable level in the London style that poses some creative gameplay elements. The first lengthier part has some more complex puzzles such as the multiple block puzzle and the flooding puzzle with buttons and underwater levers, as well as using oil to solve a couple of puzzles. The second section has a creative letters puzzle to allow Lara to defeat King Lud, a monstrous dragon, as well as pilot a kayak (never a favourite of mine). This section is simpler, although no less enjoyable. I could have done with a few more medipacks throughout as I was close to running out, although I luckily never ran out. Also a bit dark in places, but I did find enough flares so that's minor. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it." - Ryan (11-Oct-2017)
"This game is dark and I didn't find a sufficient number of flares in the first level; and a few more medipacks would be desirable - that is all I have to remark on the game's "down" side. In spite of this, I loved the level; without being too easy, it is not very difficult and gives one that nice feeling of accomplishment when we solve without external aid a few of its smart, creative puzzles. My favourite was the falling stones one, but I congratulated myself for looking at a wall and guessing the correct answer of the twelve buttons' puzzle. The way to finish that dragon was also different and creative, and the sequence of actions, logical and interesting. Congratulations!" - Josey (01-Aug-2017)
"First of all, I'm glad I was able to have a bug-free experience, and complete this level series. This adventure starts off in an urban steampunk London environment, then delves into a medieval area dedicated to King Lud. Some of the puzzles are novel (notably the torch lighting puzzle with oil, dropping rocks into the right spot...), and tight crawlspaces did take quite some wiggling to get through. Most of the time, the enemies weren't a big deal, but the bats and the locusts really depleted my medipack supplies, and the knights made the grenade launcher useless, patience with pistols was what I needed, though the clumsiness of the knights' AI did help in that case. Defeating the first dragon, and dodging the second one did call for some ingenuity though, with boulders, and simple evasion. This was the first time I saw a workable quicksand environment in a level, though it wasn't fatal compared to the original Tomb Raider III. I was excited to see the kayak in this level, and it was amazing being able to move upstream with it. However, I was astonished at the slowness of the kayak, compared to the motorboat in Tomb Raider II. Backing up was ironically the fastest move at my disposal. This level series is definitely worth playing if you're in the mood for a London environment, and a Tomb Raider III experience." - Sakusha (01-Jul-2017)
"I rarely if ever submit a review for an unfinished game but alas, the executable file became somehow corrupt but I was fairly near the end when this occured. This is without doubt a great level in two parts. We see some familiar characters and textures and there are a few puzzles to solve but none too taxing. I had to score this down slightly due to a glitch which I mentioned on the Stuck forum. I submitted a savegame and another member encountered the same problem - we couldn't get Lara out of the water in and above the wraith area in the second part. I had to reload a previous save and that time I was able to emerge (one reason I ALWAYS advise Raiders to save in different slots regularly)!! However, I really enjoyed this and would rate it as playable by mediocre-skilled Raiders. There is a YouTube BLIND walkthrough for this level-set. Blind meaning the Raider went in without any hints. Please check out that glitch and build more, Sonny! Thanks for the challenge :)" - High Priestess (24-Jun-2017)
"We've had a rash of TR3-based levels lately, and I'm perfectly fine with that. They've all provided a rush of nostalgia and crackling gameplay, and this one is probably the most sophisticated of the bunch. The only real problem I had was trying to steer that kayak near the end; it acted as if it were filled with ballast, but I stuck with it and finally got it to where it was supposed to go. The block-shooting puzzle was a bit tedious, but at least you're provided ammo to spare. I tried speeding things along by using explosive ammo, but that didn't work very well. In fact, I wonder if the builder really intended to provide such a wealth of explosive rounds, because there were remarkably few occasions to use it. Anyway, the ambience of this two-part release was quite realistic, even though the overall darkness was a bit more than I would prefer. I spent 2:22 from start to finish getting through, although admittedly I was not in any great hurry. Recommended." - Phil (20-Jun-2017)
"Another good if not particular excellent offering of the builder. As usual there is a lot of nice object design and most puzzles are also quite interesting; I especially liked the one with shooting boulders off the ceiling, although two didn't want to come down and I had to do the job with explosive ammo, which was quite a risky task. The gameplay includes too much tedium to be more enjoyable. Doing the same things several times - especially that block puzzle is too long-winded; some yo-yo-backtracking - e.g. in the cistern or the cog wheel area; a tendency to exhaustingly long crawlspaces that are more than superfluous) - all those things are making the game painfully slow. On the other side the final actions are quite fun again, especially dealing with the two dragons. The looks are quite decent, with rather (not exactly everywhere) clean texturing; the lighting is too dark though if you ask me and there are too few flares to find to cover that up. Objects aren't lit in a particularly realistic way and some of those don't really fit to the setting (Roman knights?). A few sounds like the one for buttons are missing and I didn't really like the background audio, but that's more a personal preference. Overall still a solid level that just didn't click with me so well because of the mentioned things. Found three secrets of which only one was a bit harder to find in a total of 1:05 hours." - manarch2 (18-Jun-2017)
"I rather enjoyed this ride back to the Lud's Gate sceneries. Never too charging, never too easy and quite ingenious at times. Two moments were, to me, drawbacks though: one was the block puzzle with the "infinite" buttons, a good idea but rather complicated and a little time-consuming in my view. The other was the kayak ride as it seemed not to move quickly enough. Other than that, I'm sure you'll enjoy the game as much as I did and I therefore recommend it." - Jorge22 (17-Jun-2017)
"This is a cracking raid that should have a broad appeal. It's very creative, with some good puzzles, traps and enemy action. The atmosphere is excellent with good nostalgia value, evoking as it does the London levels. It's challenging enough to entertain the experienced player without being too difficult for the less able. I personally found it hard to put down, which is always a good sign. There's also an enjoyable (if not especially taxing) boss ending. The only slight downsides for me were the kayak ride - my least favourite vehicle, although mercifully the ride was brief - and the overly dark areas from time to time. These however are small niggles in what is overall a highly entertaining two-part game. Highly recommended." - Jay (09-Jun-2017)
"As the name suggests this is a London level, with a focus on the Aldwych/Lud's Gate style over the streets. The visuals are relatively simple, but well executed, and details like the use of coloured lighting does a good job capturing the abstract and surrealistic atmosphere that I love the London section of Tomb Raider 3 for. One or two parts are a little on the dark side, but there's a decent amount of flares at least. It also adds a bunch of custom objects, sounds and other touches to capture TR3's aesthetic, and it does a great job of it. The second level had a mix of a creepier ambience and relatively upbeat song that was a little dissonant, but maybe that was intentional?
Gameplay isn't especially tough, but there's enough going on to be engaging, and there's some original object use along with a smooth structure that interlinks without much backtracking. There's a bit of a theme of doing actions four times, which can get a little repetitive as there aren't really any twists added, but those moments still go by pretty fast. One semi-long crawlspace you have to go through twice also felt a bit pointless, especially as it feels a little foreboding but nothing comes of it. Lara has some thoughts on screen at times, but outside of hints for a slightly unintuitive sequence at the end and some story most of them seemed a little pointless and hand-holdy. The ending is also a little anti-climatic (though the boss sequence is nicely done). Not amazing, but a good set that's worth playing, especially if you want more of the style of TR3's London." - Mman (07-Jun-2017)
"Overall, this turned out to be a really great level, with some very unique puzzles and ideas, and I had fun playing through it. The puzzles in this level were quite creative and unique, and at the same time, not frustrating. Whenever there was a place a player could potentially get stuck, the author goes out of his way to give a hint, preventing that frustration from getting stuck. Some people might not like this, thinking the level becomes too easy, but personally, I hate getting stuck, and since these hints are really only given when they are strictly necessary, on little details that are easily missed, I think it helps the flow of the level. There was a boss at the end that I thought was pretty cool, especially since you have to defeat it through a puzzle instead of just shooting at it. I did have a problem with the thematic though. Having a high tech and DNA lab, with magical teleports, connected to a metro tunnel with no rhyme or reason, it took me a little out of the experience. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that it makes no logical sense and breaks immersion, I wish these elements were stitched together a lot better. I only managed to find 2 secretes, and I don’t know if there are more since the author doesn’t inform that. But all in all, a very enjoyable short level, and I definitely recommend it." - GoldfishGam3r (06-Jun-2017)
"Good work. I really enjoyed this couple of levels. Always with something to do or where to go, it's not easy get stucked, and you'll never visit the same places more than twice. The tasks are not hard, and even when there are not many puzzles, you'll find a fresh and entertaining gameplay. Only a "but": the bug I suffered in the room with the water columns. Enough guns and ammo, if you want extra weapons you'll need to find the secrets, but there is enough ammo for the lasergun though. Good use of cameras and some TR3 musics, a nice ride with the kayak in the second level, a good work with the texturization and lighting, but the ambience was a bit dark in many places. Anyway a level very worth to play. Recommended." - Jose (05-Jun-2017)