trle.net ::: Level Reviews

Level:	The Croft Woman 1-3
Author(s):	Lindén

total rating:	7.21	Gameplay & Puzzles	Enemies, Objects & Secrets	Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras	Lighting & Textures
	CC	8	7	7	7
	Dougsan	7	9	7	7
	Gerty	7	6	6	7
	Jay	8	7	8	7
	Josi	7	7	6	7
	Kristina	7	7	7	7
	MichaelP	7	6	7	6
	Miguel	7	7	9	7
	Moonpooka	7	8	9	8
	Obig	8	8	9	8
	RaiderGirl	8	7	7	8
	TrueRaider	7	6	6	7
	Whistle	7	7	7	7
	category averages (13 reviews)	7.31	7.08	7.31	7.15

Reviewer's comments

“At the beginning it looks like a real ‘this is my first level after reading the manual-level’. But going on we can see that Linden knows how to use the cameras and perspectives. The level is an Egypt-location adventure with teeth spikes ropes dark places and the baddy enemy. Even if there was something wrong with animations (pole rope climbing) and at the end I had a problem with finish-trigger – but was a nice experience. Being interested in what Linden will build getting more and more experience by passing the time – new textures new locations ... lets have a look...” – Miguel (26-Mar-2004)

“Level One: A really enjoyable level from start to finish. Here are Egyptian type rooms to find your way around with the usual pickups hand of Sirius x 2 two halves of the Eye and Cartouche pieces. Some great hidden secrets and lots of pick ups for ammo and health so you’ll never be short on those. Great gameplay throughout Ninjas and scorpions are all you have to deal with here but they turn up at unexpected times and that’s what I like to happen in any level. A few spike traps some pole and rope dancing to do and lots of climbing which I really don’t like too much but the rope/pillar room to place the Cartouche is really fab. Sounds and music are always a must for a good level and there was plenty of that here. Nice level fun to play can’t wait to start the second level. Level Two: A wonderful set of rooms here again there are boulder traps and some rope swings to do but all in all I loved the rooms themselves some great places to visit and items to collect the raising blocks was nice to see also the use of the chains to open doors is a fav feature of mine. Lots of ammo and health isn’t always a good thing as it takes the element of effort away but I leave a lot of it for that reason so I don’t know if I missed secrets by doing this. Dogs and bats are the enemies in this level and not too much of a problem. Again this was a stunning level I really enjoyed it and to see the guide at the end was nice! Level Three: Fall into the water and swim around to admire the view before going onto some really great experiences. There are some beautiful views of the building above the water and again the textures are of the Egyptian style. Some tricky wall climbs to make and here you can find crocs scorpions and Ninjas mainly to hamper you way there’s also quite a hard swim to open underwater doors. Loved the gameplay throughout all three levels less pickups would have improved the game though. So worth playing and a wonderful TR experience. Thank you Linden.” – Moonpooka (26-Oct-2003)

“Three levels in one quite interesting game. It starts slowly with simple puzzles and mostly levers to push and open the doors needed to proceed. The textures are a little stretched at some areas and we see paper thin walls but further in the next levels there is much improvement. Canopic jars guardian keys vraeus are the items to be found with the last level being the best in my opinion. The first looks like it’s been built with the tutorial WAD and the rest it’s definitely the second level of the editor. The blades and the whole setting lead to that conclusion. Some spike traps and rolling blades from the ceiling are the obstacles Lara has to face along with ninjas dogs bats and crocodiles mostly at the last level. I liked the third one because of the underwater areas and nice cage puzzle. I didn’t find the last guardian key that is meant to be used at the outside near the pyramid and I never got to use one vraeus. I am afraid I might have missed something. I found seven secrets but knowing me I must have missed a dozen more. It lasted an hour and fifteen minutes and I enjoyed every minute of it.” – Kristina (22-Jul-2003)

“’The Croft Woman’ offers two major levels of difficulty; one is knowing where you are in relation to where you are supposed to go next and the other is in what bug the designer will throw at you next. I’ve read there are 30 odd secrets in ‘The Croft Woman’. I found 17 not counting the ones I couldn’t pick up (I don’t know if they’re secrets). None of the puzzles are difficult but finding the secrets is probably challenge enough. Lighting is sufficient and the music (thanks to the excellent XP fix I’ve had sound for some time now) is appropriate. I enjoyed the game a lot but I honestly can’t say why. There are many too many bugs and thin walls and missing walls etc. I recommend the game to all who accept the challenge to find the secrets. Finishing the game IS NOT A CHALLENGE even for inexperienced Raiders.” – Dougsan (24-May-2003)

“A bit confusing at the start but somehow I managed to go the right way the first time round. Two eyepieces to be found and also two cartouche pieces in the first part plus a lot of ammo. The second part I liked better and I really started to enjoy myself. You have to find some keys there's a nasty spike room and again a lot of pickups. I liked the way you jump in to the third part that is the best of all three in my opinion. A lovely outside area where you have to find keys again. Once inside again there's a water room with crocs (and lots more of course) and the room with raising cages and monkey climb was great. I found 11 secrets and although I had a lot of ammo for crossbow and grenade gun I did not find the weapons. At the end you get the Amulet and a key maybe for the next level?” – Josi (03-May-2003)

“I only got to play the first two parts of this three level series as the third level always crashed me to the desktop but I'll go ahead and review the first two. [edit]Just downloaded the revised version so could play the third level after all[/edit] The first level uses the tut1 wad and the second the settomb wad so you know what kind of look and enemies to expect - the usual ninjas scorpions dogs and mummies - but the enemies don't play a very big part. Most of the levels are spent exploring the many paths and tunnels even a maze or two for a number of objects including some hands a cartouche and the timeless sands. There are often many ways to choose from some leading to secrets some leading to traps with boulders and spikes and some leading to the next door or switch. Some of the switches had camera work used on it but the new area was only shown for a split second so I still had no idea what the switches did. I've seen that in many levels and always wonder what the point is when the camera shot isn't shown long enough to help. I spent an enjoyable half hour on the first two levels with a couple of reloads because of those tricky boulder traps. The third level turned out to be my favorite. Set in a karnak styled level there are some Guardian Keys and canopic jars to search for as well as a few other objects and I felt like the puzzles and exploring were even better here. Enemies were easy to get rid of except for the few crocs that attack under water and the ninja that was shut up in the vase was interesting.” – RaiderGirl (20-Apr-2003)

“For a first and built a while ago this is not bad at all at least it gave me more than 2 hours gameplay and I found only 12 secrets. Don't forget to use the revised WADs or else you are in trouble. Even then I encountered some butts in the last level. Picking up a half of the Cartouche made me realize that I missed the first half by then I had to go back to a saved game as after the slide you can't go back again. Better would be if Linden used that as a trigger for that gate instead of the Hand. There is a plethora of pick ups apart from the secrets. And those are the one that are nicely hidden and not that obvious. What I didn't like is the use of the fixed camera on the other hand the way Linden made some walkthrough wall/crawls (just watch carefully as there are hints) and that I did like. There are some thin textures and also some even missing. Tip would be: explore everything as Linden used every corner and cranny to hide things. Reading the other reviews I must have missed some myself. There are some nice use of raising blocks and even a very nice use of monkey-climb and the raising cages in the last level was great to do as well. 18-04-2003” – Gerty (20-Apr-2003)

“In some ways a rather frustrating series of levels which give you the impression it is yet to be finished. This is definitely true of the last section with doors and various finds to open them not available and the sudden end to the last two levels. Plenty to do though and a rather twisty route through with a good maze. Wide range of things to splat-ninja bats dogs and crocs often in multiples. I found some of the camera angles to quick to change-Lara swinging on ropes which made lining up a pain. Others were great and added to the scenes. The atmosphere generally was sound with good changes in lighting. The downside to the graphics being some thin walls. Definitely worth playing as long as you get the updated wads with Lara actually in situ for the 3rd section.” – Whistle (20-Apr-2003)

“Lindén is extremely modest in their readme file warning us not to expect anything great in this series of levels when in fact there are far far worse levels out there. This was in fact a pleasant Egyptian adventure. At the start of the first level I liked the sequenced flames which light as you go up some stairs and also the many cameras. Some of the cameras were a little disorientating and annoying such as the ones placed in the swimming sections. Others were quite good like one below a monkey swinging section. There were a few beginner's mistakes like spikes set to trigger in the wrong way but nothing too much to worry about. So all in all good fun not hard and a pleasure to play!” – TrueRaider (19-Apr-2003)

“Playable Tutorial Level (7/7/7/6 45 min. 3/7 secrets): This feels initially like a fairly standard Tut1 adventure with two hands 2 eyepieces 2 halves of a cartouche to get and plenty of additional pickups all around. There are a few beginners mistakes such as spikes placed the wrong way round stretched textures thin walls and the flybys could use a little fine tuning but actually the gameplay is quite entertaining with boulders ropes poles spikes darts some swimming to do and a couple of interesting fixed cameras. Enemies are mummies scorpions and ninjas. Found 3 crossbow ammo secrets out of seven secrets in the level so need to go back once more I guess. The Tomb of Seth (7/6/7/7 30 min. 2/6 secrets): In the well-known settomb style environment progression is quite smooth. In places the cobwebs and fog is well used. Again spikes darts and boulder traps along the way and I thought and overall rather clever course that turns you around a few times. Nice use of raising blocks (maybe repeated to often) and a few dogs bats and scorpions to kill a guardian key and a timeless sand to find. The maze is annoying but small enough and I thought the blades were placed rather ineffectively.Also the end was rather sudden for me – just when I jumped towards the waiting Aziz (?). Temple of Karnak (7/6/7/6 45 min. 3/6 secrets): This starts so nicely with the drop in the lake but then I thought the exploring isn’t all that much fun. You can easily reach the ‘end of the world’ and get stuck in illegal slopes there. The ‘electricity room’ with the raising cages was remarkable though. You get to find two guardian keys two canopic jars and a vraeus and you take the Hypostyle Key and the Amulet home. Enemies are scorpions ninjas and crocodiles. All in all it shows that these levels have been built a while ago and only released recently but they are nowhere near as bad as the author’s readme seems to imply as they will keep you busy for quite a while in solid standard TR environment and what more can we ask for.” – Michael (18-Apr-2003)

“It was very distracting playing this levels. You get countless weapons ammo medipacks but you hardly have to use them as there are only ninjas scorpions crocodiles dogs and jackals attacking Lara in the game. There are a vast number of secrets involved. It’s true I have found only 12 for the first time but I will be more careful while I play it second time and writing the walkthrough :-). Although you are able to complete the level using only the pistols. I especially like the third level. But I don’t understand why is there the rope on the floor? Because you can swing over to the other side and from there I didn’t see anything where Lara could jump to. Unfortunately the texture is a bit incomplete there. But from the second level you need the revised Wads as without these files the textures are incomplete – e.g. one of the blocks in the beginning and neither the pole can be seen. And you need the official script.dat and english.dat files as they aren’t in the Zip. There are no too difficult jumps and worked-out timed runs so this level is really good for some relax I can recommend it anybody. There are no added sounds and the textures are great despite of its shortcomings mainly in the third level. I am curiously waiting for the next part.:-)” – Obig (18-Apr-2003)

“Take no notice of the author's readme Linden is too modest by half. If this is an example of his 'rehearsal' work then he should certainly continue building as he has an obvious flair for it. This is an enjoyable romp through the tut1 settomb and karnak wads well used with plenty of interesting gameplay and nothing too difficult for the more inexperienced (or maladroit) player. The karnak wad has a few minor glitches but nothing serious enough to spoil the gameplay. There are 19 secrets to be found altogether. I only found - no I'm not going to embarrass myself by telling you how few I found! If you want entertainment without tears this is the level for you. The key pickup in part 3 was apparently intended to be used in part 4 which was never built. Build it Linden build it.” – Jay (16-Apr-2003)

“Great imagination is shown here. Although we know all these Egyptian textures they are used in a clever way to make original rooms with a lot of things to do. A bit confusing in that there are different ways to go. I came across what I thought was an invisible door while swimming but it was opened from the other side when I went another way. Unusual camera angles. I thought the tall room with pillars where you get the lasersight and cartouche was great. Also the entrance into Tomb of Seth a large room with pillars and jumps is good. On to a truly nasty but challenging maze and out to a room with breakable tiles where your guide waits for you. This is where my game ends. I believe a new karnak has been posted to finish this level so I have to download again. Enemies are appropriate and placed well dogs mummies etc. I found binoculars in the sand slope outside behind the railings and lasersights in both levels. For a first effort this is very good. I’ll be looking forward to your next one Linden well done.” – CC (15-Apr-2003)