| Reviewer's comments |
"Yes, that’s a mighty fine horizon, and this and a few other custom objects made by other people stand out strangely in the otherwise primitive surroundings of this one-off, which distinguishes itself from many similar offerings of the time by its builder’s practice of planting trees and arranging flower pots with the mathematical precision of a 17th-century rationalist.
The game is a straightforward course from any given key or lever to the next door, through rooms that are uninteresting and far too large (needless to say, the simplistic room geometry never comes anywhere near representing a castle). The builder adheres to the practice, recently revived by Pablo David, of allowing players to pick up the same key several times over, so you may find yourself one or two keys short, hence stuck for good; but then not all keys that you find are actually required. The only other gameplay element is setting Lara on fire, and it’s milked remorselessly. It usually happens at random and may be caused by crates floating in water, by carpeting, or by using a lever during a trial-and-error procedure. The game’s only puzzle consists of an extended sequence of jumping over every second tile so as to avoid setting Lara on fire yet again.
The level sports a lot of giant moray eels, but they are confined to water and easily outswum. (If you try to kill them all, your net gaming time will see a sharp increase.) Their novelty value should have worn off since Cain adopted them as his mascots, but there is also one lonely barracuda to be seen at the beginning (claimed by the builder as his own creation), which, however, doesn’t seem to do much more than look at Lara inquisitively. The rest of the enemy department consists of a dozen or so SAS, spread thinly over the vast area. Their gun sounds are missing, as are many other samples. At the end, you get to drive that Jeep!…in a series of narrow corridors, only to then negotiate a system of angular walkways before you hit the finish trigger. In sum, there are, as they say, worse levels out there. But there are also so many better ones." - Mulf (10-Feb-2021) |
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| "The very first impression was rather bad, with a pool surrounded by invisible walls (aka the end of the world), but I have to admit the giant eels got me freaked out. I am not sure they could even be killed, and as they came in packs I figured I might as well just outsmart them. The level itself is quite linear, with a bunch of keys to retrieve from dead guards to open further doors, rinse and repeat. Rooms are huge and boxy, mostly empty. The only thing that sets this level apart from most "first offerings" really are the custom objects, such as the aforementioned eels, the jeep was beautiful, and the weapons were nice too. Shame so many SFX were missing though (and I had a laugh when I first bumped into a wall and heard a "nope" instead of her usual "oompf"). 20 minutes, 02/21" - Treeble (07-Feb-2021) |
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| "This portrays obvious signs of it being a
first time level and it unfortunately
remained that way throughout the entire 22
minutes. The rooms are unnecessarily huge,
drawn out, gapingly empty and textured
repetitively and blandly. The gameplay
doesn't have much to endear it either with
it mostly consisting of killing countless
guards and acquiring their key pickups.
There's a brief jeep ride at the end and a
couple of burning floor puzzles showed a
little imagination, but nothing to shout
about. Those larger than life eels were a
nice addition but did they have to be so
damned difficult to dispose of (pardon the
alliteration)? I eventually just left them
be and continued on." - Ryan (02-Jun-2018) |
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| "Another lineal level with a fast gameplay, very easy tasks pulling switches or using keys to open doors and shoot some enemies once in a while. At least there is enough ammo for the shotgun and a ride with the jeep at the end, but the architecture is very simple, the textures are bad applied and the rooms are very huge and very empty of objects. There is not an effort to create atmosphere too. Playable but not very entertaining." - Jose (30-Jan-2018) |
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| "Not quite as simplistic as some debut levels with a few easy
challenges but sufficient enough for me to want to see it
through. And of course it has a jeep which is always worth
the wait :D Nice effort." - High Priestess (17-Sep-2016) |
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| "I guess this is the author's first level. Unfortunately it shows, but we all gotta start somewhere. But I congratulate the author for making the first brave steps of level building. It vaguely reminded me of the Super Mario adventures. Niceties aside though, let's get down to the nitty, gritty. This is a simple linear progression through some vast and blandly textured rooms.
There are all the classic 'first-timer' mistakes here like enemies that just appear before your eyes; unmarked safe fire tiles. There are eels the size of killer whales, which just seem TOO big, and I had to laugh when they came swimming toward me in regimented formation. The highlight for me was seeing that nice shiny Jeep to take for a spin. So I burned some rubber at the forest as I headed off in search of my next adventure." - EssGee (10-Mar-2007) |
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| "A really good debut level. The horizon is amazing, the strange moray eels are not really my taste but they are harmless, just keep on swimming. You got some guards to kill and some nice and easy puzzles to solve. The textures are stretched and the rooms huge but it's worth playing it. Would like to see another level by this author in the future." - Tinka (27-Oct-2005) |
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| "A great first attempt the level has some fine objects especially weapons, but the enemies are a headache especially the fishes. I think Rainbow can build better. Anyways taking the initiative is a good thing at least he could build a level." - Anurag (24-Jul-2005) |
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| "I thought the monster eels were a cool enemy. I hope the author has gotten a sense of how the editor works now. We can be hard on new authors as I think we've all played too many levels. But I think this author is probably very young and likes monsters and guns. Maybe I'm wrong about that but I do hope we get to see more." - Duncan (03-Jan-2005) |
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| "I have no idea what those great ugly things were in the water at the beginning of the level but they gave me quite a shock and I wasn't able to kill them. This is obviously a first time level - the textures are a little bland Lara says 'no' as she runs into walls and you need to take care with keys as the same ones have been used so you can only have one in your inventory at a time and you need to use one before picking up another. Other than that it's really a case of shooting a few guards (with some rather good weaponry) and picking up keys with an enjoyable if brief jaunt in the jeep at the end. A short level and not a bad attempt." - Jay (01-Jan-2005) |
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| "I hope you have your running shoes on as that is what you do. Those barracuda's are a pain to kill and he doesn't have one or two noooo noooooooooo LOL For the rest keep your eyes wide open as there are levers to find and keys. Although at a certain point I picked up two Temple keys and one disappeared. I only needed at that point the one but still it gave me a fright. Getting the jeep and driving through the narrow corridors and then later over those boxes in the water is not funny for me so I was glad I could do everything on foot. This is a first of this author and you can see some missing textures horizon disappearing (cause of the huge rooms) and the water surface. Not a bad one mind you but there is still a lot to learn. 22-11-2004" - Gerty (13-Dec-2004) |
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| "20 minutes spent in a debut level with the usual features of a debut level: huge square and rather empty rooms linear gameplay nothing much to do. But it is still worth a look for the hilarious and scary big fish (snakes? Eels?) swimming about some nice weaponry to play with and one of the best horizons I have seen in a level. The Jeep ride also provides a moment of fun and the jeep itself looks cool. You actually get up to 6 keys or so in total but watch out to use one before you pick up the next one. On the other hand you get at least two that you don't really need so you should be ok. And don't bother about a lot of block pushing. They are mainly there to be in your way." - Michael (11-Dec-2004) |
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| "It's a fifteen minutes level with keys to find and a ride in a nice white jeep. The areas are very plain and empty though with traps only a few fire tiles and enemies black ugly creatures. There is much work that has to be done in order to make a fun level but I liked the horizon." - Kristina (09-Dec-2004) |
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| "There are occasional moments of inspiration (the fire-floor lever puzzle) but this was mostly about shooting guards and picking up their discarded keys; until one of them refused to drop an aforementioned key and I was unable to complete the level. I don't believe I was missing much as all the rooms were unnecessarily huge and textured with wallpaper and the atmosphere was therefore completely absent. Nice background panorama though; and those mutant eels were the stuff of which nightmares are made!" - Orbit Dream (06-Dec-2004) |
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| "This seemed like a first attempt at level building as you find very boxy indoor and outdoor areas a basic texturing job and a slight lack of gameplay. The one thing I will say is that I nearly piddled myself when I went swimming and came across the moray eels that are the size of whales they are at least worth checking out. 20 minutes ending with a jeep drive no secrets." - Sash (29-Nov-2004) |
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