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Palace Midas 2 by Emoo

Bex 8 9 10 10
Dhama 5 1 4 8
Dimpfelmoser 8 10 10 9
DJ Full 8 7 8 8
eRIC 8 9 9 10
Gerty 8 8 10 9
Gill 8 8 10 9
IndyDallasJones 8 8 9 9
Jay 8 9 8 9
Jose 8 9 8 9
Kristina 8 8 9 10
Leandro 8 8 9 8
Loren 8 9 10 10
MichaelP 8 9 8 9
Minox 7 8 7 8
Momster 8 8 9 8
Phil 8 8 8 8
RaiderGirl 8 8 9 9
Ryan 8 9 8 9
Sash 7 8 9 8
Sheevah 8 6 8 9
Torry 7 8 9 9
Treeble 6 7 9 9
vienna 8 9 10 10
Whistle 7 7 6 8
 
release date: 16-Feb-2002
# of downloads: 81

average rating: 8.25
review count: 25
 
review this level

file size: 19.12 MB
file type: TR4
class: Rome/Greece
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
emoo@go2.pl

Reviewer's comments
"If you're a fan of the original Midas level, then this should be right up your street. There's a few too many levers to push for my liking, but I did like how different combinations opened different doors for you to explore and each contained various enjoyable tasks to perform (I liked the mirror room in particular). Regarding enemies, normally I find the crocodiles and skeletons a pain in the behind to deal with, but here I found them suitable for the setting (the crocodiles, anyway). The textures will take you right back to the heady days of TR1 and overall this was an entertaining run around for an hour or so, the only downsides being the flare bug and the obscure chandelier shooting sequences." - Ryan (27-Mar-2018)
"There's most definitely a nostalgia factor to reckon with here - I think those wonderful textures would strike a chord with anyone who played and loved the original Palace Midas level. There's a lot of lever throwing going on, but some of the puzzle combinations are interesting so I didn't mind too much. You'll be glad to find the shotgun early on in the proceedings as there are quite a few skeletons trying to hinder progress. Crocodiles aren't quite as easy to deal with so I contented myself with avoiding them as best I could. Very enjoyable." - Jay (08-Jan-2018)
"Emoo was one of the early peakers in the TRLE scene and generally speaking a very talented author, but this is definitely not his best offering. Atmosphere is pretty spot on, with mazey-like tunnels and narrow passages as you work your way through different areas of this underground palace, but gameplay sadly involves a dozen too many levers. There are some ingenious puzzles with parallel levers operating multiple doors so you keep going back and forth with different combinations, but at some point it became predictable. On the other hand, this helped maintaining a much appreciated linearity, so no time is lost backtracking or trying to understand what's supposed to be done next. I did enjoy my time here, and for the dense atmosphere alone I'd say this is worth checking out, even if gameplay gets a bit repetitive. 50 minutes, 4 secrets. 12/2017" - Treeble (11-Dec-2017)
"This level atmosphere is awesome. It is very easy to find shotgun (2-3 places has it). There is also enought flares. I liked very much mirror-room and shootable chandelier. Lots of leveres. TR1-based design is very fine. There are not hard gimmicks and playing this level is like flying forward." - vienna (21-Jul-2016)
"It is with great pleasure that I played this level, with a lot of memories. The level is nice but we must quickly find the shotgun to remove the skeletons and crocodiles. The puzzles are classic with lots of levers. Recommended for nostalgia." - Minox (11-Feb-2014)
"If levels like these were all we had to play, I would have lost my addiction to Tomb Raider long ago. However, levels like these are a great deal of fun to play from time to time, and I had an enjoyable hour and a quarter playing this one. It's all quite linear, and there's nothing noteworthy in terms of enemies, puzzles or gameplay, but it's just a nice raiding experience. How else can I say it? I remember playing a large chunk of this level years ago, but I gather that I never finished it for one reason or another. Most likely, it's because I got bogged down near the end, and the walkthrough was not clear enough to get me past the more obscure parts, and I was still somewhat of an raider-in-training. However, I stuck with it this time, and undoubtedly with the experience gained from 12 years of playing this game I was able to make it to the finish trigger. This is the kind of level that caused me to gush effusively when I first started reviewing custom levels. I'm a bit more restrained now, but I still think this is a level worthy of being played by anyone who enjoys a rip-snorting raid. Recommended." - Phil (30-Aug-2011)
"This thing keeps Catacombs mood rather than being original Palace Midas remake. However, some places bring back memories from that TR1 level. BTW, I didn't play Emoo's level because of its classic raiding style. It was because of its size. It is 5 MB only and I thought it will be a fine, short break. Instead of it I hit boring prologue, containing of technical bugs, disturbing, unnecessarily put cameras and too many enemies. It is built so predictably that when I suddenly encountered the first serious puzzle, I just thought there is probably no finish trigger and wanted to look into the walkthru. But I didn't do it so now I'm very satisfied I managed to complete the game without looking for hints. The farther I was getting, the better puzzles I was solving. Suddenly, bad feelings faded away, boredom changed into attraction and I was surprised Emoo has packed more than hour of such a fine raid in such a small project. There is a lot of things to do here, despite of usage of original wad. The author proves times of making good things of old things did not pass away. SUMMARY: It's not level for everyone. Some players looking for innovative textures, unprecedented gameplay, funny secrets, cool enemies etc. will be disappointed, especially in the prologue. However, if it doesn't scare you, and if you like classic raiding - don't hesitate. Play it to find out how wrong I was when I wanted to throw this game out!" - DJ Full (28-Aug-2010)
"Really a pleasure to play this level. A good ambience with plenty of enemies, good puzzles and very well textured. The design remembers the old level from TR1, but it's not a remake. I couldn't find a gun to blast all those nasty skeletons, so I had to use the shotgun a lot. Secrets are easy to find, but I missed some more flares for the darker areas. Nostalgics will enjoy it a lot. Recommended." - Jose (24-Dec-2009)
"As soon as you enter this little adventure, enemies will be waiting and are ready to attack, which made playing this level even more challenging and rewarding as you progressed throughout this level as you were in search of some blue gems, pillar knots to finally reach your prize, the golden rose. There's not too many traps to avoid during your mission here, but there is a nice boulder run, which took me by surprise, after competing and getting through a little timed run. Your enemies are mainly skeletons and crocs, but with your trusty shotgun at hand and enticing them into another room, you're able to dispose of them down a pit or into some water. You will have some puzzle solving of objects to do, one with a torch, some pulling and rearranging of some blocks, shooting targets and quite a few levers and switches to pull, some of which are needed to be pulled more than once. On the whole, there is nothing too complicated in completing your mission and tasks here, its fairly straight forward in game-play, but do make sure you find that shotgun at the beginning, as without it, those skellies will make your task here, that much more harder to complete. The layouts, architecture and lighting of each room was nicely chosen by this author, which gave you an excellent feel and the right kind of atmosphere as you were making your way throughout this quest, as you were in search of all those important items. This is a great little level to play, its well thought out and designed, with the right choice of textures and appropriate colour coordination, which just enhanced the game-play to make your adventure here that much more memorable." - Gill (17-Jun-2006)
"Atmospherically this level is wonderful; the places are beautiful everything looks great. The puzzles are not bad; In fact shooting the chandeliers was a ice idea. You have to get knots a pillar gems and avoid the skeletons until you get the shotgun. After that and with the crossbow the crocodiles and the annoying skeletons are easily disposed of. All the areas are well connection and with the exception of the first part that I had to navigate with the torch at hand in the darkness I have no complaints. There is some swimming involved and climbing you also get clues either from flybys or Lara's starting at something. The levers puzzle in the mirror room was nice too I liked the garden areas but one door had me puzzled as pushing the switches didn't open it so I had to pull them down and up again for it to work strange. All I have to say is that this level is stunning and puzzle wise isn't bad so you better load it up or you will miss one of the good levels." - Kristina (09-Sep-2003)
"This level does look stunning even bearing in mind it was made more than a year ago. Gameplay is fun never too difficult. There are loads of levers to pull but it is all part of a puzzle. There is also a block puzzle jumping block puzzle target shooting and a mirror room with 5 levers. The enemies in here are not my favorite ones. Skeletons (found even 2 shotguns) and crocs luckily there either was a pool or a pit nearby so you could maneuver. It does sound easier than it actually was though. Apart from the shotgun and Uzi you'll find much later the revolver and sight for some practice shooting. There are some artifacts to gather like two gems (Crystals of Neptune) and a pillar and a knot (Key of Ares and Key of Hermes) to get the Golden Rose. 28-07-2003" - Gerty (05-Aug-2003)
"Palace Midas 2 is an enjoyable level. Although the gameplay is linear and although some of the lever and pushable object puzzles were sometimes tedious and although a couple of the secrets were rather obvious Emoo has done a wonderful job with a combination of textures from the Graeco/Roman levels from the original TR the Catacombs level and the Rome levels from Chronicles. His lighting is superb and his camera work excellent. The enemies are fairly plain and straightforward - crocodiles skeletons and bats. The mad dash to avoid the rollingball was devious. All-in-all a well-built enjoyable level to play." - Loren (05-Jan-2003)
"I had real fun with this level and I loved every minute that I spent in it. As the name suggests it is strongly reminiscent of TR1's 'Palace Midas' in terms of texturing and that is definitely no bad thing in my book. Emoo pulls this off with such style that it makes you think that Core's original is somewhat weak by comparison. I loved the way the whole thing looked and felt enemies were perfectly placed throughout (mainly crocodiles and skeletons) and gameplay was totally absorbing. It's highly unlikely you'll get stuck anywhere as the level is rather linear and not too difficult at any point. My favourite part was finding the gold rose - well after all this is the Palace of Midas and what would the level be if not for a little bit of gold? A very nice touch I thought. This is one of those levels where I really wish the author would come up with a sequel because the hour and a half I spent in this level didn't seem long enough at all. To mention the downsides: The flare bug appeared for me about halfway through and I had problems with one of the block puzzles but even so this is a great little level that deserves a place in any raider's collection." - Bex (09-Nov-2002)
"I spent a little over an hour in this enjoyable if somewhat linear level. A little tedious on the lever pulling although I enjoyed the fact that levers went both ways to accomplish different results. Crocodiles and skeletons are the enemies awaiting Lara in this adventure and plenty of them. The baddies are placed perfectly in my opinion and crocodiles fairly easy to do away with if you waited long enough by a water opening. Skeletons on the other hand were a bit more difficult but in many places they can be blown into pits or water. A couple of good moving object puzzles some lamps to shoot and many many levers and switches to obtain 2 blue gems a knot and a pillar to gain your ultimate objective the golden rose." - Momster (27-Sep-2002)
"Visually this level is absolutely stunning there is a most ingenious placement of enemies and the camerawork is truly exceptional (I wish more level builders would use the wide angle lens) so I can't understand why this isn't even rated with an average of 8. The gameplay to me incorporated just too many levers although most of the time those levers were part of a (not so difficult) puzzle. There is some backtracking but all in all the course is rather linear with some target shooting pushable objects a torch puzzle and many swims in between. There is a nasty boulder trap that had me doing the running swan dive (great) and I really liked the little hints you get throughout this thrilling adventure. I reckon once you find the lasersight and the revolver you can go back to the beginning and shoot the bones there which might give way to another secret but I never did." - Dimpfelmoser (19-Sep-2002)
"In this level Emoo did a great job of texturing to make this one of the more stylish catacomb levels but there seemed to be a lot of repetitiveness with rooms in that you seem to find one room duplicated to look exactly the same as another. The gameplay was nicely executed too but never difficult what I thought was done really well was the placement of enemies crocs and skeletons as there wasn't much to do in most circumstances but take some damage until you could get to a safe place or until you could maneuver a skeleton near a pool or pit which in quite confined spaces was not always an easy thing to do. My only real disappointment was that there was just one golden room in this whole level and that was the final room where you find the golden rose the reason for this adventure as I would have loved to have seen more vibrant colour through the level. Taking me 70 minutes with 3 secrets found although I know I missed one that grabs Lara's attention this was another great level from Emoo although definitely not my favourite of his." - Sash (21-Jun-2002)
"Again a rather linear progression through a 'remake-type' level but highly entertaining due to some variety in gameplay and excellent lighting and good texturing. Your objective is the Golden Rose at the end and you will need two gems (Crystals of Neptune) and a knot and a pillar along the way (Key of Ares and Key of Hermes). Good use of Omega symbols a torch puzzle and movable blocks. I liked the different application of lever/door combination puzzles and the mirror/lever room but there are also tedious bits and pieces to accomplish along the way. Enemy placement (skeletons and crocodiles) is most excellent as it was very hard to kill any of those right away and they really do hurt you. I found only one of the secrets (the Uzi) so after ending this adventure in 1:20 hours I guess I need to go back now and find the other two." - Michael (21-Jun-2002)
"Another Egyptian type level and not up to the author's finest works but a very good level none the less. Textures were great whilst the puzzles were somewhat frustrating and shooting lamps to get objects to raise/open just did not ring true but I suppose one can only do so much with the editor. One point to watch is that switches can and must be used multiple times and in a certain sequence to get things to happen. May be somewhat confusing but is really quite simple." - Torry (21-Jun-2002)
"Palace Midas is my favorite ever Tomb Raider level. That's because of the main puzzle (the one with the gold bars)... the best puzzle ever in a Tomb Raider game in my opinion. But I didn't expect another brilliant puzzle in this level even if Emoo (one of my favorite authors) created it. And I was right but that isn't bad. I didn't find any brilliant puzzle but a lot of good ones that created a very nice level. I've also found a good atmosphere and very beautiful lighting." - Leandro (21-Jun-2002)
"This is a must-play level for anyone who has fond memories of the Greece levels from Tomb Raider One. Both the looks and gameplay of this level remind me of a combination of the first Palace Midas and St. Francis's Folly levels with a little of the Cistern thrown in. I was relieved to see that the puzzles were not as challenging as the ones in Recon Labs 3; these were puzzles that had you using your brain instead of relying on luck and timing (like in getting through five sliding blocks at once in RL3). The hardest puzzle here seemed to be getting out from under a boulder before it could squash you. Your objective is to locate the golden rose in the treasure room and to do so you'll need to locate and place two Crystals of Neptune the Key of Ares and the Key of Hermes. These items aren't just lying around though you'll have to earn them by solving puzzles reminiscent of those from the original Palace Midas level such as a five switch puzzle movable blocks and columns that set you on fire as well as a few rope swings multiple door/switches underwater tunnels and the mad boulder dash. All that seemed to be missing were the gorillas and the lions but those have been replaced by crocs bats and skeletons and with this creepy atmosphere you expect one of them to sneak up on you at any second. I found three secrets and some nice weapons lying about but still took some damage before I could get into a position to take care of them or at times I could simply outrun them. The use of lighting familiar textures and some attractive areas with nice paintings and garden areas only added to my enjoyment and were shown off by the use of some well-done camera angles and fly-bys and the few added sound effects were a nice touch. It's nice to see Emoo branch out into some other styles - I enjoyed this level and hope to see a part three maybe?" - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002)
"I am sorry to say this but I was rather looking forward to this from the aspect of Emoo's other great levels and I found this tedious. This is only my view after all but the main thing I didn't like were the skeletons there just weren't enough space to maneuver into a position to shoot them down a pit with the shotgun. On the other hand the lighting was the best thing although I wish level creators (and this doesn't include all) would spend more time on the lighting there really is so much you can do. I think the atmosphere is the most important aspect of a TR level but I'm afraid for me this level does lack a bit it plays just like a number of other levels that I've forgotten about. As far as I'm concerned Emoo is so much better than the level he has produced here. Please play it as you may like it but for me a bit of a disappointment. My suggestion Emoo make more of the Recon lab style they're excellent." - dhama (21-Jun-2002)
"Odd things like binoculars don't work in some places and the camera work is a bind (hence I have down marked this section) as enemies are hard to get at and trees etc block your view. One of the movable blocks jams and some of the switches need to be operated more than once to make them work (not sure whether this is intentional or not). Other switch combinations are good. Lots of pesky skeletons to overcome and some are not easy. Beware if you have to swim crocodiles are waiting for their tea. All in all not a bad little level and not too strenuous." - Whistle (21-Jun-2002)
"Although the author used TR1 textures and you recognize elements from TR1 I missed a bit the typical TR1 atmosphere. But I liked the gameplay though. Your enemies are crocs and a couple of skeletons. I hate skeletons especially when I don't have a crossbow and some explosive ammo with me ;o). So you must try avoiding them or find a safer place to use the revolver + lasersight to make them run around 'headless'. There are a few block and switch puzzles to solve not too hard but often troubled by those annoying skeletons. And there was a new technical bit I saw in this level. As a levelbuilder I would really be interested in how it is possible to make a block come out of the wall instead of raising from the floor? I never saw this before. I needed 1 hour to reach the treasure room and finish." - Sheevah (21-Jun-2002)
"Lara has to find a golden rose in Midas' treasure room. A hard mission as she has to avoid or kill very sticky skeletons and crocs. I have never seen these enemies so well placed in a level. In the first rooms you will see that it will be an artistic level: texturing is well chosen the inside gardens are beautiful and I have even stopped playing to look at the author's work. The very best level I've ever seen for the lighting. The atmosphere and the architecture of the rooms are obviously from Catacombs. The progression in this level is pretty good. A very enjoyable level finally not difficult level in spite of the enemies." - eRIC (21-Jun-2002)
"Palace Midas 2 was an enjoyable level. I love the Midas textures & atmosphere. Most of it isn't too hard but is still challenging in a few places. I mostly just loved the atmosphere textures & feel of the level. Major enemies are skeletons but can easily get them in position to knock off into oblivion with shotgun. Also are crocs & a fire 'fairy' that's enjoyable. You have 4 or so special artifact items to get. Isn't a long level so is good 'quick' fun." - IndyDallasJones (21-Jun-2002)