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Level: Deadman's Keep back home search
Author(s): John Sutton
total rating:7.89 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
bERT 8 7 5 5
Dimpfelmoser 8 8 10 8
Dougsan 5 5 5 8
Emeritus 9 8 9 7
eRIC 9 9 9 9
eTux 7 7 8 7
Gerty 8 8 9 9
Juan Carlos 9 7 8 7
Kristina 8 8 8 7
MichaelP 8 8 9 8
Momster 9 8 9 7
Monika 9 8 8 8
Orbit Dream 6 6 7 9
Phil 9 9 9 9
RaiderGirl 9 8 8 7
Sash 8 8 8 8
Scottie 9 8 9 8
Treeble 7 7 9 8
category averages
(18 reviews)		 8.06 7.61 8.17 7.72

Reviewer's comments

"To me, this is a vastly underrated level. The game map is a sprawling mass of complexity, the coastal setting is pleasing to the eye, and the action never ceases until you hit the finish trigger. Cher has provided a compact walkthrough for a level that took me about an hour and a quarter to complete. She noted a bug near the end that kept her from finishing, but I didn't encounter the problem she described. Maybe the builder later released a fixed version. Anyway, this adventure has a little bit of everything, including a concluding room of staggering height. And yes, you go all the way to the top. A little darker than I like, but everything else about the level approaches perfection. Highly recommended." - Phil (04-Aug-2012)

"Lara looks for an artefact called Deadmans Coin. Moreover she must investigate the ruins of Deadmans Keep. This is a successful Coastal level. One must find here keys and Items for doors, climb a lot and jump and explore an underwater labyrinth. Besides, opponents are wild boars, crocodiles and some skeletons. However, these skeletons are with the groats gun and the explosivemunition no much too big obstacle. However, the lighting was nonuniform partially a little bit and quite often it was badly dark a little bit. However, the Flares should be sufficient. All together a well built, just 2-hour level with weaknesses in the lighting. A recommendation is he, however, anyway." - Scottie (17-Apr-2009)

"Such a small file yet such a massive adventure. What you get here is a great looking coastal adventure. You'll be looking for quite a few puzzle pieces to proceed and even though it's not always clear where to go next it's rather linear so you'll hardly ever get lost. I did have to backtrack to the lasersight, though, when I first entered that room I thought it was funny that there was nothing to do inside, but that just shows I was a little distracted. Unfortunately you can reach the end of the world right in the area with the first receptacle and towards the end there are a couple of untextured spots. The lighting varies, it's very bright outside and rather dark in the inside areas, but it's not overused in my opinion so it helps increasing the atmosphere. 60 minutes, 1 secret. 04/08" - Treeble (07-Apr-2008)

“Another one of the old levels that’s worth downloading. In a coastal setting with the appropriate enemies wild boars skeletons crocodiles we search for stars knots and definitely the shotgun because of the very persistent skeletons. I wasn’t very happy about the pitch black areas and they are a lot that even a flare wasn’t good enough to light the way. Luckily we didn’t have the flare bug so the game was tolerable. I admit there are more doors than should be and the targets weren’t a very good idea. I say that because I had trouble locating the laser-sight so I decided to use the explosive arrows to destroy them. Although I shot all of them the door that should open didn’t and that is definitely a bug. There is another way apart from cheating to get the laser-sight and shoot the targets; that is from the second secret the arrows jump to the left and from there to the right. That gets you at the higher level and close to the targets from there it’s easy enough to destroy them one by one with the pistols. I think that is the problem they have to be shot one by one otherwise you will get stuck forever. The textures are standard and missing in some areas. Do try it but remember the target bug. I found two secrets and ended the level in an hour.” – Kristina (05-Aug-2003)

“This was a nice one hour experience in a coastal setting. Nothing special actually I found most of the looks and tasks more boring than interesting. The jumps fights with the skeletons keep some interest but the only thing what kept me to go on was that I didn't want to leave yet another level unfinished. The darkness was rather annoying but because I had sufficient flares I didn't downrate too much. It got more interesting towards the end but still was not too fun because of the darkness. The targets got me first since I couldn't spot them so high above until I decided to dozy a bit around (but I finished the level with reloading another savegame and completing it fair and square before someone starts picking on me lol). Go for it if you're into the coastal setting (without that much water).” – eTux (20-Apr-2003)

“Played this a while ago but got sooooo stuck and got it out again today and finally found the place where I needed to put one of the knots. Just plainly forgot where to put it. After that I could venture further. What a great level even if it is only a cleopal.wad. There are a lot of items you have to find keys knots a gem some stars and last but not least a coin. There are not that many enemies as I encountered some warthogs crocs and of course some skeletons. So finding that shotguns is a must. Later you get hold of the crossbow and the laser sight as there is some practicing shooting to do (very well done). And still there is more to come. There are some traps some are easy and some are a bit harder also some nice jumping to do. This is what I like in a level and playing it on my Mac I didn't need one flare although on the PC it was rather dark I have to admit. 27-02-2003” – Gerty (01-Mar-2003)

“In a perverse way I enjoyed Deadman's Keep. It was very easy and the path was reasonably logical. The puzzles were very simple and the general gameplay was on a par with a general intro to basic TR gameplay. There were no enemies or secrets that I can recall -- save for the usual pain in the a-- skeletons. Honesty demands I admit to completely losing it in one VERY simple room. I convinced myself Lara must egress one way (which was impossible?) when the actual egress couldn't be easier.” – Dougsan (09-Oct-2002)

“It is really surprising how much playing fun an author can put into 1.23 MB. I thought that this would be a level for in between but I was mistaken. It took me over 2 hours (statistic) to finish the game. If one wants to practice how to get rid of skeletons with a shotgun then this could be the place. Later on I found stronger weapons like the crossbow and even later the grenade gun. Other enemies next to the plentiful skeletons are wild boars and crocodiles. Lara had to explore the outside of a castle inside rooms and also she had to do some swimming. Got a bit lost in an underwater maze. I liked the transparent blocks in a lava room. I was wondering at one time what to do next till I discovered the not very obvious targets high up. In parts there are pitch-black areas. One finds enough flares but I always had the feeling if I didn’t control all dark areas I might miss something and that just hindered the game flow a bit. I found several Gate Keys 2 Pharos Knot and Golden Stars. In one place there are 4 Golden Stars. I could take them all four but I really needed only 2. I found 2 secrets.” – Monika (01-Oct-2002)

“Pitch black not a reference to the boring Vin Diesel SF-movie but just describing the second part of John's level: no excuses here and no mercy in my ratings (5 and 5). It does not add tension it does not do anything but annoy the gamer. But...on the other hand the author sure knows how to tease the gamer with doors seemingly to be opened with the crowbar only to find out they're to be opened in another way. Other than that: rather big level (always appreciate people putting so much time into it) and a real skeletons-exploding-extravaganza!” – bERT (23-Sep-2002)

“What a fantastic level! Again I’m amazed I had it so long and hadn’t played it. The realistic castle keep setting was so enjoyable and there was so very much to do! Just when I thought I was ready to move on or a door should be open there would be something else I had to do. The major enemies here were of course skeletons and a lot of them. With no weapon to dispose of them early on you either avoided them or used the shotgun. I had to laugh at one area where there is a narrow stretch of water that had a deeper swim hole in it but at the other end there was just a small ledge and I blew 2 skeletons into that narrow stretch of water and when I came back later they were huddled together on that little ledge with nowhere to go. The water maze was extremely difficult for me and Lara drowned more times than I can count. Finally I got through it and on my way or so I thought. At about an hour and a half I thought for sure I was close to the end but still had another hours gameplay to go. This was not a particularly easy level although I’ve played much harder but there was no help available other than the reviews. It wasn’t difficult in a normal sense just that there was so much to do and it is so vast that your memory had to be at full speed to remember where you had seen something. Probably my biggest complaint was the shortage of flares as there are vast amounts of dark areas. Great atmosphere good jump puzzles always trying to get up and out.” – Momster (16-Jul-2002)

“There’s not much to say about this 80 minutes level other than it’s a wonderfully set out huge castle with lots of swimming jumping climbing and opening doors while battling some skeletons and crocs and I thought it was great. The only thing I would have improved on would have been the addition of camera shots to triggers as I was left wondering a couple of times what I should be doing but I got there in the end. Definitely worth your time downloading.” – Sash (21-Jun-2002)

“Initially I thought - what a relief a nice and bright standard coastal level with rather easy progression. And it is - in a way but it turns out so much larger than you expect and gave me a net gaming time of 1:30 hours with a moment after about an hour where I thought it would end and then you actually still have to find a gem two stars and the coin which is your reward to take home. Before that you will need a few gate keys a star and two Pharos Knots (which are then placed in a Pharos Pillar receptacle - weird). There is some fun platforming/jumping involved and apart from the occasional warthog or crocodile there are about two dozen skeletons to kill (initially with the shotgun later you have explosives). Some good work on sounds and cameras although a few more cameras would have been useful given the many doors. The target shooting was fun but what I really disliked were maybe a few too many dark corners/areas (although enough flares are provided) and the underwater maze area - I just hate to repeatedly drown Lara. Still a long and fun adventure that gives you that good feeling of accomplishment when you make it through.” – Michael (21-Jun-2002)

“What a HUGE level - I'd love to know how many rooms this had! Very addictive also - it took me around two hours to finish counting reloads and I couldn't stop till I was done. Your objective is to find certain items which included keys hands a gem two Pharaohs Knots and a coin. There are also a large number of doors to open and like I said this level is huge. It's not too hard to find your next stop just hard enough to be fun. However a little camera work wouldn't hurt and a lot of the areas were just too dark for my liking. Along the way you'll find some gorgeous scenery and some crocs and skeletons to keep you company plus a few deadly traps to keep you guessing. There are a lot of clever ideas in this level that add up to a good time. I highly recommend this to anyone.” – RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002)

“This is a beautiful looking level without a doubt. The design work is accomplished and creative but there's too much of it! I have no objection to gameplay which consists of unlocking a multitude of closed doors but I get a little weary of running around after activating each and every lever (or puzzle combination) wondering which door has opened this time. There are no camera clues whatsoever to assist you. Apart from that this was an enjoyable exploration level; although I noticed a number of missing textures presumably overlooked because of the huge number of rooms involved.” – Orbit Dream (21-Jun-2002)

“This is a level with a great rooms map almost excellent. The level builder worked a lot creating rooms and corridors. Objects and puzzles are not difficult to get. I think it needs more music and cameras because there are a lot of doors. There aren't new textures most of them good but some textures not worked in the right size some un-textured tiles. There aren't lights so Lara don’t looks as a 3D figure. Shadows are too dark. Anyway I enjoyed playing this level.” – Juan Carlos (21-Jun-2002)

“A lot of doors - more camera views would be helpful- it’s impossible to remember all of them. In the main area finding the opened last door I thought the level was finished - but not - there was a lot to do just to find a pitiable little coin. But I liked the level!” – Emeritus (21-Jun-2002)

“A very enjoyable level for players who like to explore many areas without being lost. The level is rather long (1 hour 35 of net gaming) and I was happily surprised to discover again and again another big room with plenty to do or another great outside area. The progression is good and interesting; the puzzles are not outstanding but quite logical even if I had a useless golden star at the end in the inventory. The architecture of some places is really great it is only a shame that there are some missing textures in the beautiful outside area with the lake. A very good coastal level.” – eRIC (21-Jun-2002)

“At the start I thought that this was going to be a snitch as Lara indicates the pillar where you'll find the shotgun and you would have looked there anyway. The first part is pretty straightforward but soon this journey becomes more complex and intricate. Probably I've just been lucky here but I never had to search for long to find a way to proceed and although you have to backtrack every now and then there is a certain kind of logic to the things that have to be done. The castelesque setting is beautifully built and textured and it climaxes in an awesome tower where you have to climb up and down several times in order to retrieve and place a couple of stars. Fighting the skeletons with the shotgun is one of the most challenging matches in my book and even after you find some explosives you're not completely off the hook as you don't get them in abundance until you don't really need them anymore. All in all a throughoutly enjoyable adventure that isn't that fast paced but gives you enough opportunities to admire the gorgeous environment.” – Dimpfelmoser (21-Jun-2002)
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