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The Rat City by mash

Bene 8 8 8 8
CC 8 7 8 7
Gerty 8 7 6 6
Jay 8 6 8 7
Jorge22 6 7 8 5
Jose 3 5 7 4
Kristina 8 8 8 8
MichaelP 9 8 8 8
Obig 8 7 8 8
Phil 8 7 8 8
Ryan 6 7 7 6
Sash 8 8 9 8
sonnyd83 7 8 8 7
Treeble 6 7 8 7
 
release date: 30-Jun-2004
# of downloads: 75

average rating: 7.27
review count: 14
 
review this level

file size: 41.50 MB
file type: TR4
class: City
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
Mark.Schareina@gmx.de

Reviewer's comments
"A rat city, indeed. This is a rather large city environment with a lot of running back and forth, so I have no shame in admitting I opted for a guided experience as otherwise I might have been roaming around aimlessly for much longer than I could bear. In addition to all the running, you also get way too much climbing, lenghty ladders from ground level to the rooftops that feel like pure padding in the end, all the while you're on the search for three horseman's gems to eventually lay your hands on the prize which had been on display inside the city museum. I stated this on some other City level recently, but levels like these just prove how the classic TR engine can't really handle proper modern buildings with the grid scale it uses, the buildings feel like they might be realistically large but when you get to run around the few inside areas they're cramped and too small. Still, props for the author for trying -- truth be told, the street areas look fairly decent in that sense. 50 minutes, 3 secrets. 03/21" - Treeble (28-Mar-2021)
"This was fairly pleasant, although it didn't enthrall me as much as other reviewers. I'd recommend you have the walkthrough within arm's length if you want to keep your orientation within this rat city. Since I did, I wasn't as confused as others as to what the next task would be. However, this wasn't really entertaining for me to play. I know that the construction of this city must have required meticulous planning, but it inevitably led to lots of backtracking and long ladder climbing. The highlight was probably the extended timed run, but the rest of the time, it felt like I was just shooting rats and climbing up and down. Texture-wise, it's rather repetitive, but I've seen much worse. Music choices were nice, but that's as far as my positivity goes. Just my two cents..." - Ryan (13-Nov-2017)
"Again very very surprised with the ratings for this level. The problem here is that the author lets you explore the entire level from the very beginning when you still have not the items you need. Example: I climbed a very very long ladder to a roof only to find a closed trapdoor, down and climb again the very long ladder later. Of course, if you like to climb kilometers of ladders, it's your level. The architecture is very simple, and the texturization is quite plain, with very huge surfaces textured with the same tile. The tasks consist only to pull switches and look for/place objects to open doors, except the timed run to get one of the gems. The best: musics and camera shots. Ah! And, of course, hundreds of rats to shoot!" - Jose (15-Jun-2017)
"If it weren't for the many excessively long ladder climbs this would have been a fun level to play. You have a relatively crude (by today's standards) city setting, but there's plenty to do and I was kept busy for nearly an hour and a half. You're provided a Jeep, but its primary advantage is cutting down the time you would otherwise have to spend on foor. The level is named Rat City for a reason - if you like long ladder climbs, and if you enjoy shooting rats to hear that delightful yelp as they flip over and die, you're in for an extraordinary treat. Nothing really memorable here, but it's an entertaining raid when you discount those ladder climbs." - Phil (20-Jan-2014)
"If you enjoy exploring vast urban landscapes and traversing rooftops one after the other, then this is the level for you. The action takes place in a city surrounded by skyscrapers, and of course you will get to climb right to the tops of many of them, although climbing such long ladders can be tedious, but rewarding at the same time. The views are quite something. I am not impressed by the lighting at all, it seems very dull and unworked throughout, but texturing is fairly good, albeit blocky. Lara crashes into a building and must jump off into the water below, always good fun. From here on, you will be visiting offices , apartment blocks, a church, a theatre, and a museum. The main aim of the game is to collect a panel artefact, but you need to collect 3 gems to gain access to this. Tasks are rather straightforward such as pressing buttons, collecting keys and pulling jump switches. There's really no real puzzles here. Lara's athletic skills are tested to the max, and expect to fall to your death on numerous occasions (accidentally or otherwise...). The level has a few bugs such as the difficult to traverse sloped monkey swing, a game crash in the theatre - managed to fix this by using 2008 tomb4 exe, and ability to drive through a wall. Yes, Lara gets a jeep in this level, but this doesn't have to be used. Overall, this is architecturally very well built, and looks like a real city, but game play is very mundane and too much going back and forth. This took me 2 hours to complete." - sonnyd83 (22-Mar-2013)
"I do like city levels and this was no exception. The author has a sense of humor as evidenced in the directional arrows and other signs, a few indicating slow opening doors. It's a search for three Jade gems that will take you on many long hikes up ladders and a few loong shimmies. The keyhole for the sewer key is well placed but there were a few oddities: once a boulder drops, we are shown an empty crawlspace instead of the newly dropped rope; there's a few unmarked ladders and I had to go back to a savegame to activate the finishing trigger. Lots of Jolie TR signs and a really nice timed run near the end. Nicely built and much longer than I first thought. There's a lot of exploring and of course, there's a lot of rats." - Bene (01-Nov-2008)
"I liked this level. We are adventuring among high rise buildings in a district of a city. We have to find the three Jade Stones but for finishing the level we'll need the Revolver and the Laser Sight too which I ignored for the first play after using the Sewage Key. There are three secrets on the level but unfortunately I could find only two of them. We can explore the district with the Jeep too but we don't need it. The textures suit the level but there's nothing extra in them. The added sounds are great too. There's a timed run on the level but neither this is difficult. There's no really hard puzzle on the level rather we have to run helter-skelter to find everything. The level is not linear so the order can change a little bit. I advice everyone to try this easy adventure. You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version) savegames and pictures here: http://www.freeweb.hu/treditor/12/the_rat_city.htm " - Obig (08-Dec-2004)
"I have to say that I am most impressed by the way the gameplay in this City has been put together. It is really quite ingenious and were it not for a few way too long ladders a bug where you can drive the Jeep through a door to short-cut a part of the level and a lot of frustration because I had to look for that coin behind the fountain literally for hours I would have rated this a 10 in the first category. You get to explore a city at night with skyscrapers and need to execute a few interesting moves in order to get to the places that you need to reach to find three keys the crowbar the infamous coin and of course the revolver and lasersight and the three Jade Stones that provide the access to the cartouche and the end of the level. I found two golden rose secrets which are nicely placed and missed the third. The elevator shaft section was nice the Jeep a nice addition although really just there to help you get around quicker and near the end you even get a fairly long timed run. It needs a bit of patience and good orientation but it is still very rewarding as you find your way around during the almost 90 minutes this will take. Oh - and I did actually stop counting the rats but there must be 70+ around. Give it a try!" - Michael (02-Sep-2004)
"Nice level albeit somewhat irritating in those moments when you think you've accomplished something and after all you still have some dozen mysterious tasks ahead before you do. But that's not the reason why I'm downrating the level a bit... I'll do it because there's something crucial in the game that was terribly built and horribly beta-tested. I'm speaking of the only timed run in the game from the top of the extra-tall building down to the door that opens in the garage. In order to get from one place to the other in time you would have needed a ladder where you could let go and grab and let go and grab quickly so that you could save precious time. No can do unfortunately. If Lara lets go off the ladder even for a millisecond she falls to her death 95% of the times. And please don't dare think I just wasn't able to do it right: if there's one thing I'm an expert at (fortunately or unfortunately) that's Tomb Raider. So it's not unfair downrating the game simply is unplayable to the end. Or at least something weird happened with my copy... Now the reason why I'm not going to totally downrate a game which I couldn't finish (because it was impossible) is that I can see others have. Maybe they were lucky... I don't know and I don't care. In my game the end is unreachable. Full stop. Apart from that the ambiance is very interesting and I'm not going to criticize the sky because I'm guessing it must have been made pretty artificial on purpose it's a somehow enigmatic game with lots to do you use your imagination and have fun that way it's all very ingenious right from the start when Lara lands on a rooftop in flames and has to make the long dive into the water. Then there are rats and rats and rats and even more rats. One reviewer said something like 'I must have killed at least 50'. Bad counting... I must have killed at least 500! But that's funny not a problem at all. The great mistake of not placing a fully grabbable ladder where it really needed to be is the huge problem. Were it not for that and my ratings would be radically different. (August 20 2004)" - Jorge22 (20-Aug-2004)
"If you ever wanted the chance to know what it feels like to be Charlton Heston then here's a good start alright so who in their right mind wants to be good old Charlie 'I love my guns and you'll have to rip them out of my cold dead hands' Heston if you wanted to be an irrational white lunatic you'd probably have more fun being Michael Jackson. Anyway what I was getting at is that in this level you get to play in an expansive desolate city full of skyscrapers and at every turn out of nowhere giant rats seem to appear it gave me the feeling of being in the movie 'The Omega Man' where the lone Charlton is being stalked by crazed albinos (though the politically correct term nowadays is person with albinism) and whenever he let his guard down they would pop out of the woodwork and try to kill him quite spooky indeed. Well here I guess it isn't so spooky as the rats don't take much to die and as the environment is so large you see them coming with plenty of warning. What the actual game holds is although sometimes annoying with extremely long ladder climbs and a lot of running around a whole lot of fun following the route the game makes you take over almost all of the buildings in the search for keys gems and finally a Cartouche (no it's not Egyptian). I found it all quite exhilaratingly intriguing and although I stupidly and blindly overlooked where the lock to the gold key was even though I spotted it at the start of the level I was never really held up with my progression. Even the three gold rose secrets were all cleverly placed and the sense of achievement at collecting them was high. Though in the end this 75 minute level is not a masterpiece by some standards the sum of the overall enjoyment it gives certainly makes up for it." - Sash (03-Aug-2004)
"Rather an original start to this level with Lara stranded on a rooftop amid the burning wreckage of her aeroplane. It's certainly well named - the place is absolutely heaving with rats. Mind you they're definitely more thoughtful than the average rodent - one of them actually left me a medipack. I don't know why but I expected this to be a straightforward level and it turned out to be quite a lot more complex than I anticipated. It's not very linear and there's a big area to explore. Granted there is a jeep but I mainly explored on foot. I miss enough things as it is without whizzing past them in a vehicle. Talking of which I didn't find the crowbar key for ages as I'd managed to ignore a ladder quite consistently so I became quite familiar with the city from rooftops to sewers and enjoyed the atmosphere. I especially liked the Tomb Raider film posters near the cinema - nice touch. The ending was a bit abrupt. After picking up the cartouche I just ran around and the level ended but I thought it was a very good first time build." - Jay (01-Aug-2004)
"And now for something completely different then this is the level you are looking for. Lara gets dropped on a broken down and invested with fire building and you can see a glimpse of a gem but there is now way to get it yet. Take a leap of faith or to be more exact a dive into the water. It is the only way. This is a small town with big skyscrapers and you are in search of 3 keys and 3 gems to get your hands on the Panel of Luck (Cartouche). It sounds easier than done as there are long climbs and finding some jump and wall levers in between. For me it was almost a nightmare as sometimes Lara is so high up and my fear of heights kicked in. You get the keys for the jeep and apart from one drive I didn't use it. I don't know if that was the way but in sheer frustration I bumped into the garage doors and the jeep just fell down a ladder to get to the basement and didn't even exploded. That was lucky as that ladder was the way to get to the gem you saw in the beginning. Don't know which lever opened what sometimes as there is no camera work to speak off. Enemies were rats rats and .. yes rats. All in all for me a pleasant hour behind the computer. 18-07-2004" - Gerty (18-Jul-2004)
"I enjoyed this level very much. A city with a river and no less than three bridges crossing it and a boat moored at one end. Lots of buildings streets waterways to explore. Lara starts falling onto a tall building on fire and has to find a way down to street level. The place is infested with rats no doubt referring to the level title. I lost count of how many there were and they were everywhere rough guess about 50. At the start you get a glimpse of a gem inside the building but no way to get in! At least I couldn't find another way. Prepare for a lot of running around. There is a jeep to help you but I got out after a while and didn't bother with it. It's got its own little intricacies like a shimmy that you think goes in one direction but actually goes in another; then a crawlspace to the outside of a building and continue around the corner; a ladder that you can't climb until you do something else to change it. I liked the fixed cameras but there were also a good few switches I had no idea what they did. I really liked the use of the lift up three levels in one building. When running around for a bit I realised it's quite a small map but it's very well constructed. If there's anything to complain about it's the sky and background. More noticeable when up high on the roofs especially as you can see the edges of textures squares. I think it would have been much better to just have plain black textures. But that's just me. It's not as easy as it looks. Often I was scratching my head trying to figure out what to do next. Look for hidden entrances blocks switches and in some cases if something seems impossible - just try it anyway. There are three gold roses to find too. Very good level a little frustrating but never boring . . . shame about that sky!" - CC (06-Jul-2004)
"A wonderful level and giving the fact that it's a first try I am impressed. I think not many will like this kind of gameplay because of its tricky jumps and very few if any cameras but I sure did. In a darkish city with very tall buildings and endless ladders the player has to find three gems three keys use yet another ladder that's inside a lift to reach the roof of the tallest buildings. Having to open a lot of doors use quite a few switches and kill dozens of rats which was very tiring you wander around the city until you can access the cartouche and end the level. I found two golden roses that were secrets but not the third one. I liked very much this game and recommend it." - Kristina (02-Jul-2004)