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Level: The Old Library back home search
Author(s): Cool King
total rating:3.55 Gameplay &
Puzzles		 Enemies,
Objects &
Secrets		 Atmosphere,
Sound &
Cameras		 Lighting &
Textures
bERT 4 3 2 2
Catherin 3 3 4 3
CC 4 4 5 6
Dimpfelmoser 2 2 4 4
DJ Full 2 0 2 5
Gerty 3 4 3 3
Kristina 5 4 5 5
MichaelP 4 4 4 3
Orbit Dream 4 3 4 5
RaiderGirl 3 4 4 4
Sash 3 5 3 2
Sheevah 3 4 2 3
Torry 4 3 5 5
Treeble 3 3 5 4
category averages
(14 reviews)		 3.36 3.29 3.71 3.86

Reviewer's comments

"Start the game full of good feelings, as you assume Venice = great climate. Then, activate the improperly applied switch, wonder why the door closes and finally unexpectedly discover you can go through the portal normally, survive the multi-sentry fire while getting out of the water, get annoyed by unmarked burning floor, find an abrupt secret only by coincidence, ignore the useless bike, don't mind yet more useless monkey swing, kill 9 SASes in one place, "admire" some Nevada boxes which don't belong on the Venetian ceiling, and finally assume the author gotta be kidding when you encounter the "bosSAS" fight. So I advise ignoring all the opponents, running in panic to throw some switches and reveal the final slopes, and sliding down out of the level to avoid the bullets. This method is much easier, much faster and much less annoying than killing legions of enemies with manual targeting, rapid fire and... pistols. Yes - pistols! Because we get only 18 revolver bullets in here and it's definitely not enough. The only thing in this game that is worth mentioning is the lighting. SUMMARY: Even shooter lovers should stay away from this one. The worst venetian level I've played so far. At least short enough." - DJ Full (20-Nov-2010)

"Lara is not able to get out of a waterhole when 3 sentry guns and a guard are firing at her? Then reload and don't pull one of the jumpswitches (ignore the ammo you would get). Though on the other hand, if you get killed and have to finish the game, it wouldn't be a loss either. There are way better shooter levels which are not so annoying. The sentry guns were really getting on my nerves. Well, back to the level... you pull a lever, a door or gate opens, then you pull another lever and another door opens and so on... The amount of guards, ammo and medkits is well balanced (not too many, not too less). A few empty rooms but well textured." - Tinka (21-Oct-2005)

“Once I figured out that just because a lever was in plain sight it's not a good idea to pull it but to work out which ones need to be done in a particular order then I was fine. But for a long time I got burned by machine guns appearing in very awkward places and I was trapped. The only other pain was the unmarked floor with fire tiles. A very short level with large rooms but nicely textured in mostly Venice style interior with bookshelves and a short bike ride which is unnecessary but useful to mow down all the guards that appear at the end.” – CC (07-Mar-2004)

“There must be some very ancient or expensive books in this library because it's guarded like a maximum security compound. And the one that doctored out the security is a mean bastard because by triggering some hang lever there's machine guns appearing out of nowhere seemingly innocent looking floors burning you and...well mainly very silly things happening in my opinion. The burning floor tiles at first looked a trial and error thing but now I noticed in fact it's mirrored room so there is some kind of gameplay lurking in that you have to act very carefully not losing too much health but on the hole this was very boring in settings that were not convincing at all.” – bERT (02-Feb-2004)

“I actually enjoyed this more than the sequel. The setting isn't too bad and the gameplay is completely unsophisticated (and at times clumsy: death levers and barmy machine-gun placement; together with a quite unnecessary monkey-swing as the lever is reachable by performing a simple jump) but quite fun all the same. 15 minutes of bare-bones running and shooting; but if that's what does the trick for you...” – Orbit Dream (26-Nov-2003)

“A lot of levers to push and if you make the mistake and flip the wrong jump switch the sentry guns will burn you. The walls are thin everywhere and there are a lot of SAS guards. If you use the revolver and the bike to run them over you won't have a problem. I liked the way the laser sight was hidden into a hole in the floor. A bit of swimming and climbing and that's it after twenty minutes the floor tiles might slow you down a little but nothing too difficult Lara slides down and the level finishes.” – Kristina (20-Dec-2002)

“Really I don't know what to add to the other reviews. It has all been said. Did they mention that at one stage you have to sneak behind the sentry gun in order to neutralize it? That's as far as excitement goes in this one. Otherwise it features almost everything I hate in Custom Levels like the fall through tiles or two levers for every minute of gameplay and all the other things that everyone else complained about. I liked the textures though.” – Dimpfelmoser (18-Aug-2002)

“A couple of huge packs of SAS to fight a small game environment using Venice interior textures and very uninspiring lever pulling made this 20 minute level very unappealing to me. If you like gun play though then you might find something to this.” – Sash (21-Jun-2002)

“This level is very short and you make it through the 45 rooms in about 15 minutes pulling some 15 levers or so and battling packs of SAS soldiers. There are a few booby traps here some waferthin walls and floors as well as death tiles without any indication. There is also a bike you don’t need and a monkey swing you don’t have to do. One for beginner and SAS lovers.” – Michael (21-Jun-2002)

“This is another short level that will keep you occupied for around 20 minutes. There are levers to pull and fire fights to contend with but really the whole thing is rather uninspiring. Nothing here to test your wits except the fire tiles that look innocently like other tiles (and I hate that). Also one part was a certain death trap with no way out (even though I re-played that part 6 times to make sure) and that simply (in my book) is not on.” – Torry (21-Jun-2002)

“Hmmm this level reminded me of the TR2 Venice levels with its textures but the lighting was not worked at all. There are a lot of SAS troops in the level and Lara can run over them with her motorbike. Be sure to not activate wrong switches or else you won't proceed (many sentry guns will appear). Also there was a burning floor puzzle that I didn't understand but trial and error worked fine.” – Treeble (21-Jun-2002)

“Bill Gates would be jealous - even Windows doesn't have this many bugs. I was unable to climb a bookshelf to get to a switch I was unable to use a monkey swing and Lara freaked out when I tried to walk through some water. I just see no way to finish this level without using the fly cheat. These things may have been acceptable if the level had had a point but it looks like the author just slapped some bookshelves around a level and called it a library then filled it with soldiers machine gun traps and innocent looking tiles that kill you instantly. All you do here is pull switches to open door after door and kill soldier after soldier often groups of them till you finally run through the final gate. You'd almost have to use the fly cheat anyway for the weapons and ammo as there are basically no pickups here to be found. The only things I did like were the rooms that were decorated like the ones from Tomb Raider II and the fact that unlike most city levels this one was fairly well lit.” – RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002)

“This is not my way of fun too much shooting and not much else to do as pulling levers. Don't mind the shooting but not only for the shooting. Don't like the burning tiles you step on and you are dead without warning. I played (by accident) the other level first and liked that much more than this one.” – Gerty (21-Jun-2002)

“First of all there is a technical bug in this level: When Lara tried climbing she vanished in the block to then suddenly stand in front if it again. Or am I the only one who had this bug? So for me it was unavoidable to activate the fly cheat. But playing with fly cheat or without - it makes no difference. You just have to run around shoot some guys find the next lever switch to open another door and so on and so on. I even found myself trapped in one place: When Lara had used a jump switch and was diving back to the waterhole she came in there were three fire spitting sentry guns waiting for her so she couldn't get out of the water. I had to do that part again with another savegame avoiding that lever switch otherwise the level would have been finished at this point. Some other bad thing is those non-obvious invisible traps and holes. I really don't like Lara stumbling into a fire trap without any clue that there is one.” – Sheevah (21-Jun-2002)
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