Level reviews

"I appreciate the attempt to make this a spooky looking mansion, but the effect is completely lost in its incredibly long hallways and the endless running back and forth as you pull a number of levers. There was also one monkey swing that might have spanned around 30 tiles in total with all the curves the author forces you to take (and you'd even have to swing back just a few moments afterwards, but luckily you can do a curved jump around the wall to land on the lower platform you came from). It's dark but pickups come by the dozens, so you don't really ever need to worry about running out of flares. 50 minutes. 07/21" - Treeble

"I had very high hopes for this level by Seifer Zero as twin crystals was a very good this, but This Level was very tedious with long runs and Way more medipacks than you will ever need." - JoeTheCrazyGamer

"Not entertaining for me this tedious level; very boring run always from place to place pulling levers to open doors. In the big room with the deep pit I had to monkeyswing a long time only to shoot a ball and monkeyswing again back to the entrance and return to the starting area, and not a camera to show what door opened. In the very looong corridor with the final boss, I ran a long way to the end to pull a lever and then run another loong way back to the beginning of the corridor to the open door. And so all the entire level: pull a switch to open a door, go a long way back to pull another switch to open another door in the place you came from. The very long shimmy in the roofs was the same. There are some balll traps to avoid, excessive pickups, rude architecture with very elongated textures, empty rooms with nothing to do and no ornated, the rooms are very dark... I only noticed some work with the lighting, but nothing more. Of course, a level not to replay." - Jose

"Oh, dear... This could have been so much better. You have a moonlit setting, a cool outfit for Lara and some nice enemies to dispose of. It all went sour with the overbearing darkness. Not atmospheric, overbearing. There were also stretched textures around, which spoilt the atmosphere a bit for me. The excessive backtracking got annoying too (my hands were aching from holding the sprint key). You also get a huge amount of ammo, flares and medipacks, so I have a feeling it wasn't as scary an experience as the author intended." - Ryan

"I wasn't really impressed by this level, even though I stuck with it through the bitter end, encouraged by Dutchy's typically thorough walkthrough. Scads of flares are provided, many more than you will ever need or could ever use, but why not just give the players adequate lighting in the first place? And this is a prime example of "gameplay" where you pull a switch in Area A to open a door in Area B that gives you access to a switch that opens a door in Area A, etc., etc. ad nauseam. Builders should instinctively know without having to be told that such tactics will never endear you to your playing public. I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes here, and although there are entertaining moments to be enjoyed in the game, the incessant backtracking put a pallor on the whole process for me." - Phil

"So much bad luck has only Lara. She wants to explore sometimes a villa without ruffle or excitement and what happens? This villa is of course full of traps. And disagreeable opponents. And an immortal opponent. And it goes not really a good mood from the cemetery out. And it's very dark in the subterranean maze. But Lara would not be Lara, if she be impressed from such things. And because she finds a whole truckload of Flares, Medipacks, weapons and ammunition, this investigation expedition is not too much a big problem. This level has really persuaded me the first half an hour. It has given pleasure to look for levers, to open doors and to explore always new rooms of this villa. But then with the time it becomes dull, because it happens nothing else. Simply always only find some levers and switches which opens closed doors, perhaps, bump off a few opponents et cetera. I'm running around nearly 85 minutes and have made, actually, nothing else. This level is quite unequivocal too long. Maximum 1-hour playing time, rather still less, would have been right here. There were many stretched textures in the dark maze. And why are so many medipacks lying around. And why found one so many medipacks? I had at the end 16 small and 19 big ones. Nevertheless, Seifer Zero was very generous there. The same one is valid for the Flares. Well, it was dark quite richly, indeed, I had another nearly 200 Flares in the luggage. And I was quite rather generous. Moreover, a few camera tips more would have been better. Result: Actually, a good level, but too long and thereby richly tenaciously" - Scottie

"Nice and frightening level. Very dark here, lot of traps. There aren't many enemies. But nice rooms and nice textures." - Andzia9

"I thought I would play this since it was Halloween, but I only got a bit frightened once when I heard the strange boss toward the end. That was actually a good placement since you hear it before you see it so you aren't exactly sure what is lurking beyond. In this level, which doesn't resemble the semi-entertaining Stephen King mini-series, Lara has a modern, sexy look complete with sparkling blue contacts and an awful tramp stamp tatoo. Gameplay is really basic with lots of switch-pulling. The level is designed using the old-fashioned blocky hallways which are seemingly never-ending in some areas, however, I know this is related to the Rose Red theme. It was kind of boring in some areas, especially since the author supplied our heroine with a totally ample supply of goodies, which was rather odd since this is supposed to be a place that wants to terrorize and trap you. That feeling went out the window when I felt really confident that I would be able to blast my way out just about anywhere." - Shandroid

"Since part of the Rose Red mini series was on TV over here yesterday, and this level seemed to be on the wishlist forever, I thought I'd give it a go while I have the movie fresh in mind. There are a few resemblances from which I thought the beginning and the long hallway closer to the end were rather faithful to the original, and the level also has a few creepy areas of their own - with my favorites being the graveyard, the hallway that disappears behind you if you go too far (for good unfortunately - so don't make a mistake and save your game here) and the dark abyss areas with battlements, which partially reminded me even of "Castle Doomsday", but when looking at the big picture I'll agree with anyone who said that this level was too long for its own good. Apart from activating a bunch of levers, picking up countless ammo and medipacks, and mastering the occasional skeleton, skeletal harpy, green boss skeleton and demigod nothing much happens here and you spend all your time getting from one point to the other. And with cameras appearing seldom and not even being very helpful if they do you usually have to figure out the way on your own. But after the first few tasks it should be clear that it usually means backtracking to previous areas to find open doors or keys, and all of the doors don't even open up (for what I actually am thankful, cause, frankly, I was bored after the first 15 minutes already). The looks vary from acceptable to rather weak with stretched textures all over the place. Now this all sounds negative, and I must say I was unimpressed for most part, but the level has its shining moments - I only wish it would've been reduced to them only, as stumbling upon them once in a while in this hour long level wasn't as satisfactory as it should've been. One would usually say "the book was better", but since I've yet to get my hands on it sometime, I'll stick to saying that I preferred the mini-series over this level." - eTux

"I saw the movie so of course I was hoping it would be similar, well it was a little similar like the dark, eerie rooms and halls getting block when you go back. The long corrider that seems to grow (like the house did in the movie) but don't go to the end of it. The use of colors in places was nice, many of the rooms seemed empty didn't seem like a house but maybe that's what the builder planned for easy running around which you do alot of. Now I'm not sure why there was so much ammo and health packs, at the end I had 15 small and 17 large and I used 5 and I had over 200 flares. I usually conserve my ammo but it was fun to have so much to blast away. I liked Lara's look, hair down, flared jeans and a tattoo, very modern. Gameplay was easy, more of a maze, I didn't find any secrets and it took just over an hour. Fun, spooky, a fairly good resemblance to the movie." - Elsa

"Haven't seen the movie or read the book but if this level has given me any indication of those predecessors I can then be happy in the fact that I didn't spend money on either the movie or book. This was way too long for the type of game, opening door after door and finding levers, and way too dark, though flares could be cracked end to end and you would still have had some to spare at the end there were that many, for my liking. The premise of this level is that you have to enter a spooky skeleton ridden house with a graveyard out back (of course) and pretty much get out of it again with no momento, relic, or jewel. There are definite nice points, the graveyard look for one, but then along comes a dark underground maze with some of those horrid skeletons right after and all nice thoughts of that graveyard (that sounded a little ghoulish on my part) just get pushed aside. I also ended the level, after a very long and tiring hallway section where again doors and levers have to be accessed, with some doors unopened, but as there are no secrets in the level and I finished the game these seemed to be unnecessary elements, and that is one pet peeve I have. This level took me 75 minutes to play and had it been about 20 -30 minutes shorter it may not have outstayed its welcome for me as much as it did, I am sure though some will really enjoy this level." - Sash

"I really wanted this level to end much earlier than it did, which for me was after 75 minutes of net gaming. Why? Because it has a lot of pointless running/backtracking, plenty of doors and almost no cameras, maze like areas, darkness and dark mazelike areas and way too many pickups. On the positive side it does have it's spooky moments, the graveyard from the load screen looks nice and the enemies are rather cool and suitably placed. There are a few sneaky moments with well hidden switches, but once you get into the flow it proceeds rather well. Textures are not applied or even chosen with a lot of care and did I mention it was very dark throughout? A solid effort but the author has much improved since - or so I hear, since I have yet to play Twin Crystals." - Michael

"What comes to mind after playing this loads of ammo a lot of running around back and fro and dark. It started quite entertaining but became quite tedious towards the middle of the game. Glad that the author learned a lot so his Twin Crystals paid off big time. Loved the cemetery but found the grenade gun quite late in the level. Luckily there are pits all over to lure the skeletons to glad for the overload of ammo I found. The key in the water was pretty hard to find though. There are also traps so be aware. Also be aware that after flipping a floor lever better save there and then as you get stuck if you follow that corridor through. That end-boss the flying skeleton was a pain in the neck and you better dodge him and save in between or know where the water is. Keep an eye out for levers though. I am terrible at keeping directions so I did get lost a bit too much for my liking. 13-12-2004" - Gerty

"I didn't expect this level to be so dark but it is. I am not sure how to describe the setting sometimes it looks like a big house with library rooms and then you go outside to find huge areas with gardens and more gates to open. Although at first it was rather entertaining near the end it became tedious. There were so many doors to open and a lot of backtracking that I became dizzy. It's an interesting level all together though with enemies such as skeletons and demigods but I didn't get to open all the doors near the end. I suspect these early levels were the introduction to the author's game 'Twin Crystals' which is BIG I might add and I am not referring only to the download. This level has many flares fortunately and plenty of pick ups to last you for ten levels. I think it's worth taking a look at." - Kristina

"I loved the movie and novel by Stephen King so I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more similarities to the movie. I was happy to see the Perspective Hallway and I loved the invisible wall that added to the effect of what its true length really was. This doesn't effect how I scored the level but if you're going to tackle making a Rose Red level you have to have the deathly arboretum and the glass floor library. They're absolute necessities! Seifer did a good job of keeping a consistent atmosphere throughout the entire level. I loved how the lights flickered on in the main hall when you first entered it. I almost expected the door to slam shut behind me! The dark hallways in what I assume would be the basement were a pain to navigate through. But there were more than enough flares to aid you. I learned the first time through not to go exploring around because then I ended up with a horde of skeletons after me! The enemies consisted of skeletons with a new flying skeleton thrown into the mix periodically throughout the level. The gameplay was mostly finding levels switches a key and a gem there were scattered around in the huge maze that the house is. The bottomless pit was a bit of a challenging area; mostly with trying to get the jumps lined up just right so you accidentally burn yourself to a crisp (happened too many times to count for myself). An enjoyable level despite the multiple pick-ups that occurred." - Celli

"Well this was quite an interesting level. You get plenty of ammo medi-packs flares and weapons apart from the grenade launcher well if it was there it was certainly very well hidden as I could not find it. It would have come in very handy in taking care of all those skellies throughout this level fortunately there were many pits nearby to blast them off with. This level is quite dark in places too but you do get plenty of flares especially when you are in the underground maze which had me going around in circles many a time with skellies hot my trail. Textures were a bit bland in places for my liking but this did not spoil the game play. Your main objective was to open up these many doors by pulling switches shooting balls and you need to find a key and a gem. The graveyard was very well laid out which gave it a very nice and spooky atmosphere the skellies gave me fright though when appearing rather suddenly from behind the graves they always took me by surprise and I nearly fell of my chair. Enemies were of course the skellies fire winged birds demi-gods which shoot out blue bolts of fire and at the end of this level you are dealing with a floating skellie who follows you down this very long passage firing bolts of fire at you while you are trying to pull some more levers. I am not sure if he could be killed as I gave up shooting him in the end and just dodged my way past him. All in all a very nice and easy level and you won't get too lost apart from when your in the maze well I did...lol" - Gill