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Quest for Immortality by Sabatu

Adrian 9 10 10 10
DJ Full 9 9 9 9
eRIC 8 8 10 8
Gerty 7 7 8 8
Jay 8 8 9 9
Jorge22 9 9 9 10
Jose 9 9 9 9
manarch2 7 7 8 8
Mulf 8 7 8 9
Nomad 9 9 10 10
Phil 9 9 9 9
Ryan 9 9 9 9
Sakusha 9 9 9 9
TheStig 9 9 9 9
TRTheoP 8 10 9 10
 
release date: 09-Jan-2018
# of downloads: 158

average rating: 8.78
review count: 15
 
review this level

file size: 213.00 MB
file type: TR4
class: Egypt
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
Sabatu322@gmail.com

Reviewer's comments
"Good set of 3 levels better played at dusk , very atmospheric with some good background audios and sfx, in particular the lions can be scary and are the hardest to kill. The first levels are quite long i thought i would be at the end and a new area was discovered, it seems we were always going down in the bowels of the earth and in Egyptian mysteries. Like other players i found some bugs , objects going through an overlayed room and a fence Lara can go through. Anyway the 4+ hours spent here were mostly fun , even if there is some repetitions of actions or situations. Some good puzzles , and easy traps , jumps and exploration of sometimes complex areas, my favourite moments were the (few) timed doors. The majority of the secrets are easy to find. Very good job for a fluent game with only mild difficulty." - eRIC (11-Jul-2019)
"I guess we may get players who tried this level and then had inferior experience of Mystery of the Lost Pyramid, and those who played that one and then didn't enjoy this one so much. Indeed, they share many patterns and playing one after another may wear out, so have enough break between them and you may enjoy both. I think Mystery of the Lost Pyramid still has the upper hand because it's briefer and uses more natural colors - while Quest of Immortality looks notoriously dry except from the canyon and if it happens to you the first ankh puzzle solves itself (no idea why), it makes the game better if you abuse this bug to skip the double backtrack for and with the crystal key. Nonetheless both games are good and it's astonishing how Sabatu managed to build them so quickly, avoiding quality loss and serious mistakes (I know the reload bug is here but the level is easy so you won't die a lot). Recommended but... but... I'm still missing something - Vaclav, I think you are absurdally talented and an author of this calibre can create wonders, so I wonder what will happen if you ditch the fully classic approach and add your own thing like you did in the past, BUT now armed with all the technical profession you've obtained over the years. I think this could make something undisputably ageless, what do you think?" - DJ Full (28-Jun-2019)
"This is an absorbing game in the good old (?) Egyptian style that kept me occupied for quite a while. It's a bit of a pity that the irritating running animation hasn't been addressed (whether the builder didn't manage to or didn't want to is unknown to me) and there was an odd sound issue with the movable blocks in one of the final rooms, but aside from those negatives I found this to be a wonderful and engaging experience. The gameplay contains some great puzzling, timed runs and enemy battles, ensuring that I was never bored with my time here. I also had no issues with the lighting this time round. It is dark in places to be sure, but you get more flares than you'll ever want or need (I'm sure I had more than 400 once I'd finished) and the surroundings are very pleasing to look at. You also get a scattering of 24 secrets to go for, although admittedly most of them are placed in quite obvious spots. Very enjoyable raiding." - Ryan (11-Sep-2018)
"This adventure really represents classical, Ancient Egyptian Tomb Raider playing. There are puzzles, places to explore, backtracking, jump sequences, mostly enemies like crocodiles, lions and scorpions, traps to negotiate (especially the sliding blocks and timed fire platforms), timed runs, and puzzles where Lara has to carefully jump on the right platforms to keep a door open to a key item. The decorations and lighting successfully evoke an ancient Egyptian environment, and a desert landscape. Furthermore, a lot of the music used comes from TR1. While the gameplay and the decorations were wonderful, it did feel a bit repetitive for three levels. Also, the really slow fps (frames per second) after reloading several times was very frustrating, especially in battle sequences like the fight with the dragon. At first I thought my computer was being slow, despite being a 2-year old gaming laptop. However, like many reviewers here have noticed, it has to do with the game itself. Sometimes the game would crash too after reloading several times. Overall, it is an adventure that successfully represents classic Tomb Raider gameplay." - Sakusha (03-Jun-2018)
"I am rather disappointed with this level set. Huge parts I already saw in the demo and the stuff that is added didn’t made me enjoy it more. Just the opposite; too many nasty glitches and/or bugs. Didn’t like the Lara figure in the demo level and in this game her animation is still off. I know, he probably “borrowed” Lara but still. Further I had quite a few crashes and also lagging at certain points when reloading. It was so bad that I had to leave the game and then reload it, play a bit and then again leave the game and reload that way. Also I had a nasty ghost flame going on. I had to put the torch down and Lara immediately got a flame sprouting from her belly, this didn’t disappear when she picked up the torch. It went away when the torch was put out by the means of water. There is more but other reviewers pointed that out already. Sloppy, and probably not tested. A pity though." - Gerty (01-Jun-2018)
"I was really in the mood of playing a Tomb Raider level filled with Egyptian related architecture, puzzles, traps and desert and i can say that Quest of Immortality by Sabatu didn't fail to carry me away with its beauty. I jumped from one room to another solving interesting puzzles, finding cleverly hidden secrets and stacking up with a lot of ammo and health packs. The lightning and textures were the thing that I loved the most about this level. Moreover, the creator perfectly combines puzzles, enemies, ammo and health packs provided to deliver an interesting and satisfying adventure. I really liked the puzzles which required the use of binoculars to go further. The boss ending battle was quite a climax and no matter how many times I lost, I really enjoyed it. However I found out some bugs in the whole game that i would like to mention: In the first level, when I found the first ankh and inserted it to its right spot, the door magically opened without needing the second ankh. Therefore, when I found the other ankh I didn't know what to do with it and I carried it to the second level and managed to use it there, thus not finding one of the four ankhs needed. Furthermore, in the massive room of the second level, with the timed sequence, magnum and laser sight (mentioning them in order to understand which room I am talking about) I found out that if you run through the bars separating this room with its neighbor, Lara will pass through them, thus skipping a huge part of the level (I don't think that it was intended to work that way). I would also like to point out the bug occurring after reloading a lot of times the game. One more disadvantage is that I found myself pulling A LOT of levers without knowing exactly what most of them trigger. I would have liked some more cameras to point out what changed. Conclusion: Egypt lovers really need to give this level a try and fall in love with its magic environment, lightning and textures. Puzzles are not so difficult to solve and some of them even require the use of binoculars. If the game had a few more cameras and less bugs, it would have been one of the best experiences someone could play." - TRTheoP (22-Apr-2018)
"Tomb raiding is in my opinion all about a balance of exploration, action and puzzles occuring in a polished, good looking environment. These levels are on point with this. The texturing and particularly the lighting work is very successful. I really enjoyed exploring the initial outside areas filled with dust, sand and hills merged with the ruins and tombs. The cloudy sky was looking realistic as well. The next level, underground city of apep is full of puzzles and traps in an impressive area. Some parts are a bit confusing but in general the level is very entertaining. 4 ankhs and 2 gems are what is needed to progress to the next level - the sanctuary of apep. The snaky area is filled with flame traps and a maze which will probably make you search for a lot of time for a well hidden torch. Thankfully we have the walkthrough! Soon the final boss Apep, which seems similar to the dragon of tr4 emerges though it is surprisingly killable. I gotta say a couple of things more about the levels: The sound and music are noteworthy, the chanting voices and the hissing sounds of the last level all boost the mood successfully. The secret placement were questionable though, there are a surprising amount of 24 secrets scattered around, and while I could only find 14 of them some were in very obvious places making me surprised when I found them. The length is satisfactory and the game ends without making you bored with the egyptian textures. Definitely recommended." - Nomad (22-Jan-2018)
"A very solid set of levels here from Sabatu. It feels like a long time since I've played something set entirely in an Egyptian setting. Game play flows fairly well for the most part, and the few timed doors are reasonably generous. I did have to resort to the forums after fruitlessly searching for a torch in the final level though. Excellent use of lighting throughout, with great use of colour throughout as well to really add depth and atmosphere to the rooms. Like other players I did occasionally pick up on an odd glitch where loading became very slow. All in all I netted just under 4 hours from the Quest for Immortality. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended. Stiggy" - TheStig (20-Jan-2018)
"A very nice experience with this 3 levels. The atmosphere was unique and original. I found maybe a bug in the second level, Lara can pass through some metal barrier and bypass part of the level. Btw, highly recommended!" - Adrian (19-Jan-2018)
"After reading Mulf's encyclopedic review there's little more I can add, although whatever I would have to say would relate to aesthetics and not the technical aspects (about which I admittedly know nothing). I found this three-parter to be an immensely rewarding raid that required a little extra time to play (in my case four and a half hours) because I was writing a walkthrough along the way. The first level appeared fairly identical to the demo version recently released by the builder, although with a few added secrets. Altogether there were a generous 24 secrets to be found, but several of these were quite easy to stumble across. I have absolutely no reason to complain about the lighting, because at the end I had a whopping 392 flares in my inventory after having using them with reckless abandon during my progress. Indeed, some areas were dark by intention, but as a whole I was quite pleased with the lighting and the environs revealed by the lighting. Gameplay is fairly challenging on occasion, but fair to the player and consistently engaging. The second level is by far the longest and most complicated, but well constructed and a great deal of fun to play. The boss dragon at the end could actually be killed with gunfire, requiring only some deft side jumps just as the flame balls were about to be disgorged, and luckily I had ammunition to spare. One would think that finishing the level after that would be anticlimactic, but there's an apparently routine platform jump that took me a number of tries before I finally made the grab. In summary, this is classic tomb raiding, and I'd like to see much more just like it." - Phil (18-Jan-2018)
"Please, everybody don't start building Egyptian levels but this particular Egyptian three-level set I actually found to be rather enjoyable. After getting through the first part quite quickly (I already knew it from the demo) I ventured into the unknown... What else can I say that I haven't said already? The lighting is still great (better than in the demo, less golden yellow or maybe that's subjective), the architecture is still nice and the gameplay generally flows easily enough but not as much as to make it too simple (exception made for the tile room where you get one Ankh) and the secrets aren't too difficult and become rewarding for that, rendering the final result rather satisfactory. On the flip side, I had to use an alternative exe as my antivirus decided to totally block me from using the provided exe (adding it to the exceptions didn't work this time), Sabatu didn't manage (or didn't want) to change the animation so as to make Lara's moves less slow and pushing/pulling a couple of blocks in a certain room sounded like there were serpents in the place, which was weird. Still, I enjoyed the entire experience quite a lot and do hope to see more from this builder." - Jorge22 (16-Jan-2018)
"A good and enjoyable levelset overall, but I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed that the builder neither tried to do something with the extreme lag after a few reloads (added to this, there are even more crashes), but also didn't change the annoying running animation. As I stated in the previous review, it's not a nice idea to release demo versions of upcoming levels and let the players beta test them, but even if you do so, you should mind the players' comments - a short view over the review page of the demo shows that more than half of the reviewers complained about the animation. In general, I think this game wasn't properly beta tested (or the builder didn't mind the potential testers as well, I don't know). There are just too many issues that no serious game should have still included, to name some: the second ankh in the first level I never had to use because it appeared... out of thin air at some time?, too many obvious texturing mistakes (at one place, a lever was even placed above the fitting texture) and some objects (like the pillar at the last secret in the first level) going through walls in other rooms, several pits where you can drop in and survive but never can get out and the lattice in the second level which divides the two main halls is passable from one side (so you could possibly skip most of the level). It's really sad, because the second level at least is even more enjoyable than the first one, with a few creative puzzles and tasks (just a remark - those timed runs are not really timed as you could do all of them in half of the provided time). The shorter third level includes a rather superfluous maze for the element puzzle, but otherwise marks a nice conclusion to the game. Enemies are decently placed and the object design, while still slightly barren, is good as well. Perhaps the amount of secrets in the second level is a bit too high and some are almost unmissable, while only three or four are really worth to be called secrets. The atmosphere is the best element of the game, all rooms are designed carefully and the builder really tried to create realistic environments and in my opinion did quite well. I wished there were a few more camera hints and flybys here and there (the fixed cams should be breakable as well), but overall the large scale rooms are impressive on their own. On the other side the sound is also missing occasionally and sometimes messed up, while the background audio tracks are well chosen. The texturing is good, aside of the before mentioned mistakes, and creates a nice colour scheme together with a hard to fault lighting. If you ask me, the main issues in this game should be fixed and then this should really be a very good release, I just can't rate this higher in this rather prematurely released state. Found all secrets in 1:50 hours." - manarch2 (16-Jan-2018)
"If you played the 'demo' you'll know what to expect from the full three-part game. Unfortunately, the builder has not managed to address the reloading problem whereby the game slows down alarmingly or, indeed, sometimes crashes completely. Apart from that, the gameplay continues to be absorbing and entertaining with a good balance of enemies, puzzles, timed runs and traps. There's a bit of a boss ending with Apep (dragon), but if you position Lara behind it, the fireballs can't reach her and she can plink away at it with her pistols. Even with its flaws, it really is well worth playing and I look forward to future levels from Sabatu, especially if he uses a more agile version of our heroine." - Jay (15-Jan-2018)
"I've really enjoyed this three levels. Based mainly about exploration but with some puzzles to solve too; I didn't understand very well the puzzle near the lake in the room with many holes. The enemies are well balanced, the secrets are not difficult to find, but I couldn't find them all (only 19) and there is enough ammo for the extra weapons. Good use of cameras and sounds, I missed some more flybys. The lighting, even when there are hundreds of flares to pick up, is a bit dark for my old monitor but the texturization is quite good. Recommended." - Jose (15-Jan-2018)
"A very good-looking set of three levels offering about 5 hours of classic tombraiding in an Egyptian setting. Its plot revolves around Lara’s confrontation with Apep, the giant snake who threatens Ra’s journey across the sky and had to be defeated each day by Seth (replaced by Horus in later versions of the myth) to ensure Ra’s safe passage, though in this game it’s of course Lara Croft who defeats Apep"once and for all, it would seem"before she gets to bag her swag (so she’s officially immortal now, I guess).
There is a good sense of progression over the course of the three levels: first you’re looking for an entrance on the outside, then you navigate through Apep’s ‘underground city’, and eventually you enter his lair. This is supported by congenial enemy placement (first there are various forms of wildlife for you to battle"the lions perhaps packing too much of a punch when compared to the crocodiles"; then magical enemies are introduced; level 3 centres, very appropriately, on snakes), though not by a rise in difficulty: the level remains mildly challenging at about the same level throughout, with one exception. Level 2 has a step-on-the-right-tiles puzzle, the solution of which, while not technically trial-and-error, appeared to me effectively just so, because its clues are given in such a manner that the player cannot conveniently follow them without first drawing a map (which isn’t all that easy either). This proved to be a real gameplay killer for me (thanks again, Dutchy, for providing that map!), though it obviously wasn’t intended by the builder to have that kind of impact.
Other ‘stuck’ moments are clearly intended. These have mostly to do with finding your way around the place (and result in a generous amount of secrets that you collect as a matter of course): in level 1, you need to scout the area until you hit upon the only path that actually gets you going; much of level 2 is non-linear, and the paths you need to take are sometimes obfuscated (especially in the underground lake area, which has a red herring in the shape of a structure the roof of which you can easily reach, but which doesn’t lead you anywhere); level 3 is more linear again, but includes a maze-like area (manageable), where the torch is hidden behind a passage in a corner which is shrouded in darkness (in a non-obvious manner"unlike the situation you often encounter in less accomplished levels, where a splotch of blackness produced by shadow bulbs clearly indicates a ‘cleverly hidden’ crawlspace or somesuch). I could have done without the latter, but I happily file the other instances under ‘exploration’, an integral part of the tomb raiding experience, which is supplemented here with a nice variety of tasks, occasionally timed (never in a frustrating manner), and involving puzzles, platforming (including two instances of ‘invisible platforms’, which should perhaps have been avoided) and traps such as fire, spikes, spikewalls and boulders. The spikewalls make no sound and pass through walls (no anti-trigger); the boulders are of the pre-TR4 variety (first use of a TRNG plugin I encountered) and therefore feel somewhat out of place in this state-of-the-art venture, isolated throwbacks to less sophisticated times.
So do the ‘Stones of Maat’ and ‘of Khepri’ in level 3, which, along with their puzzle holes, have been lifted directly from TR4, with no modifications to make them fit in with the entirely different aesthetic environment of this game. They are also, needless to say, ad-hoc inventions with no basis in Egyptian mythology other than their names, unlike the excellently fashioned Ankh puzzles (while the blue gems are generic enough to fit in just about anywhere, I suppose). This would be of no consequence in your garden-variety pseudo-Egyptian TRLE level, but one thing I particularly liked in this game is the knowledge of and care about ancient Egyptian culture that went into it and was abandoned in the instance of those ‘Stones’, but is otherwise evident in plot, choice of textures, etc. This is not to say that the game is archaeologically correct or even sound (textures are occasionally rotated so that people or gods are not standing upright, which means they’re dead even while presenting or receiving offerings; all arched structures would have to be of a very recent date, and architecture in general is of course built to accommodate gameplay more than anything else), but that this is the best approximation to a plausible ancient Egyptian environment I’ve seen in a custom level so far.
In fact, when it comes to design, I seem to detect a welcome striving for perfection. I can find no fault with the lighting"and more than enough flares (nice sparkles) are provided for any dark passage you might encounter. Texturing is generally excellent as well, albeit somewhat marred by the fact that the builder seems to be using two different sets of textures: one for terrain and another one for architecture, with no transitional textures between them, so wherever the twain do meet, the boundaries are thrown disagreeably into sharp relief; and if the ground is irregular, the textures on the walls above it tend to be distorted. The game doesn’t use many statics, but those it does use have no shading (perhaps it would have been better to move those columns to an Animating slot). Overall, the architecture looks fairly pristine for such presumably ancient structures.
Sound is used very well too, with custom audio files providing a suitably spooky ambience and tracks from classic TR games playing at opportune moments. However, in level 2 the flooding sound is corrupted (I seem to remember that the camera view was dodgy as well on that occasion; at any rate I was surprised to find the room flooded on my return), and in level 3 the sound of the push/pull animation got somehow mixed up with the snake hiss. These are minor issues, but they could easily have been ironed out prior to release.
Which brings me to the more serious issue of bugs. I understand that the problem of an intolerable drop in framerate and/or crashing on reloading is a fault of the current version of TRNG (cause as yet unknown) and therefore not within the responsibility of the builder; but players should be aware of it, as it tends to seriously disrupt the flow of the game. I have also had two instances of random death (one instant, one by bursting into flames) in level 3; other players report more, spread across the three levels. I do not now a probable cause for that one. Finally, in level 2 you can pass through a solid metal fence (wrong kind of Toggle Opacity). This doesn’t result in you getting stuck, but it is the kind of thing that shouldn’t be allowed to occur after beta-testing." - Mulf (15-Jan-2018)