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LB Advent Calendar 2007 - Dijon by illyaine

Akcy 8 9 9 10
Ampersand 7 8 8 9
ColeMoles 8 9 8 10
DJ Full 7 8 8 8
dmdibl 9 8 9 10
drguycrain 7 7 9 9
eTux 6 8 10 9
Gerty 7 8 8 8
guss18 8 9 9 9
Ivan 8 8 9 10
Jack& 8 8 10 10
Jay 8 8 9 10
John 7 6 9 10
Jorge22 9 8 10 10
Jose 8 8 10 10
Kristina 9 8 9 10
Loupar 7 7 7 9
manarch2 6 8 9 9
MichaelP 8 8 9 10
Minox 8 8 9 10
mugs 9 8 9 10
Mytly 7 7 9 9
Obig 8 9 9 10
Phil 8 8 9 9
Ruben 9 8 10 10
Ryan 8 8 10 10
Shandroid 8 8 9 9
Spike 7 8 9 9
Thorir 8 8 8 8
Treeble 7 8 7 9
Vaughnage 10 7 9 8
 
release date: 01-Dec-2007
# of downloads: 247

average rating: 8.51
review count: 31
 
review this level

file size: 22.40 MB
file type: TR4
class: Xmas
 


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Reviewer's comments
"Feels big with facades, massive with long corridors making you feel the weight around you, and eerie with spare objects. You might not recognize it's a Xmas level - the snowmen rather feel like frozen castle inhabitants so it's almost liminal, and quite unique. Gameplay is simple except from where, as it shouldn't be in an open map, three interactions are in a single room so I only found two and got stuck for 45 minutes, uff (a thing to learn both for builders and me). The place to use the torch will also stay a mystery for many - I myself luckily found it because, from the high roof, I saw the cube pickup clipping through the floor. Also, the long, slow activities... yeah this looks better than it plays. I don't think this level is for everyone, so let's flag it as "challenging" and "optional"." - DJ Full (22-Sep-2024)
"Starting off in small snowy village set at night this level begins with some light exploring and platforming as we find switches, items and maneuver blocks for progression etc, we find a torch to light up but i had to look at walkthrough to figure out where to put it exactly because that point on the floor is not in slightest obvious at all! As we progress past the village area we find ourselves in a very tall and gorgeous looking castle, where we have to climb and platform across the rooftops and ledges and looking down at small village below as we do so with that nighttime wintery snowy atmosphere, well the experience was superb! Later on as we make our way around the other accessible areas of the castle, the gameplay remains much the same with blocks to move, items and switches to find and plenty of shimmying and climbing around in lovely looking courtyards and cathedral/church looking areas and the level in general remains a lot of the time quite easy to understand where to go or what to do next apart from that mean switch hidden on the back of a tree and maybe which parts of the roofs are accessible. Overall this level maybe in lacking in variety of gameplay, puzzles or even traps or enemies but it makes up for that with all the fun exploration and platforming around such gorgeous looking areas and architecture." - John (13-May-2023)
"Well, the flybys in this level were certainly wow moments, particularly the one introducing the castle. This is a beautiful level, set around a quaint peaceful village and the surrounding castle. Beautiful lighting, textures and music choices. Gameplay is good, except for the long shimmy sequences and backtracking." - Ryan (15-Jun-2016)
"The first half of this 35 minute level was absolutely lovely and pleasant. Lara explores a beautiful winter village, adores the castle from below and wonders if she might enter it and see - whatever might be in there. Gameplay is enjoyable too, with a series of decent tasks. Melting the ice wasn't such a great idea since the place where the torch has to be thrown wasn't such a great idea, but seeing the levelinfo pic I was kind of prepared. Textures and lighting were placed near-perfectly and in general I couldn't have been much more pleased visually. And then, Lara actually enters the castle - I thought despite of the already great start now the fun really begins and expected some great interior rooms. Well I couldn't have been much more wrong. Once you arrive at the top of the castle (which is after a few minutes of running and climbing long passages) the "platforming" part of the level started and it was really uninspired and I thought the ladders weren't really fairly marked, but the rest of the level goes way beyond the edge of tedium with incredibly long crawlspaces, ladders, pushblocks, more crawlspaces and more ladders, which ruined the fun for me in this level. And all that only for getting the motorbike? Sorry but it seems the builder lost interest in the game while designing the gameplay, and only wanted to finish it quickly. Apart from that, there are no more real eye-candy moments inside the castle, since the textures didn't really differ from the outside ones. In my opinion the shadows in this level were way too strong especially in the unexplorable snow areas when looking down from the castle and on the castle walls itself, but there's enough care for the atmosphere to not let it down on par with the gameplay. Found no secrets in 35 minutes." - manarch2 (29-May-2013)
"It's nice that Illyaine's levels are still available on his own site, even though they have been removed from trle.net. I downloaded this one because I needed something simple and pretty to play, and Xmas levels usually have both qualities. Certainly, the 'pretty' aspect is quite prominent in this level: the lovely snowy village and the huge castle towering above it are very impressive (according to the story, it's a church, but it looks like a castle to me). There are some gorgeous interior rooms later in the level as well. Several flybys throughout the level show off the grand architecture beautifully.
The first part of the level involves opening a way into the castle. There are a couple of simple pushblock puzzles, and a very obscure puzzle involving melting the snow in a completely unmarked spot in the village. Once you get inside, you can roam through some long empty corridors, and do some more interesting platforming high up on the outer walls of the castle. There's also a long, dull block pushing exercise inside the castle and some artefact hunting. Ultimately, Lara finds a way to liberate a quadbike in the village, and drives off on it. It's possible to take the quadbike into the castle grounds and even partly inside the castle, which is what I thought was supposed to be done. Turns out, Lara goes through all that trouble just to be able to drive up a slope in the same square where she finds the quadbike.
Overall: A charming little winter-themed level, though it lacks a bit in the gameplay department. Recommended." - Mytly (07-May-2013)
"1 hour full of gameplay, beautiful environment good tasks, no enemies. The adventure takes place in a castle, temple and surroundings. The level is not linear, have to obtain the Talisman, the Cross and the Ruby Cube. While we have to collect the crossbar and the fire torch. With the last of em, have to get fired an area. Good tasks, need to open your eyes wildly to find the right way. I found some creating fails. If you dont pull down the switch on the wall, before the pushing of the chunk in the corridor than, if you gone down for the medipack you cant get back there. In the upper dark corridor, i didnt know to get inside the temple, maybe it isnt possible ? We received an excellent, really TR adventure from the creator with beautiful textures. I didnt missed the enemies, first time i didnt understood that why we have the pistols, but in the end we need it, for some destroys :) You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version), savegames and pictures here: http://treditor.hu/trle/treditor/17/dijon.htm" - Obig (05-May-2012)
"Impressive Christmas level! In a cozy, snowy village, you find a HUGE castle Lara has to climb! After climbing to the top, you'll have a fantastic view! Not particulary difficult, the only difficulty I faced was throwing a burning torch onto the snow it melt. Plenty of risky jumps and climbing from a great hight in this level! The level is really, really beutiful and I reccomend this for everyone!" - Thorir (29-Sep-2008)
"Well that was a definite wow at my end when I saw that castle in the fly by. And although you have to travel way up to roofs, in a way it is a pity we couldn't see more of the inside of that castle. There are some tedious moments as the long shimmying and do not forget the block pushing but it is a nice start to get into the Xmas spirit." - Gerty (09-Mar-2008)
"A beautiful level with loads of atmosphere. An imposing fortress (church?) dominates a town, visible from every part of it. Here Lara does death-defying climbing, which always get to me, true high-altitude jumps and shimmies on castle walls. The level opens with a pleasant village to explore. There are jump switches and blocks to push and stand on. Lara gets up to the roof to find the torch. Light the torch, but where to use it? Ever since the "Sanctuary of Water, Fire, and Ice," authors think it is all right to throw a torch onto snow or ice and watch the ice burn. This makes no sense. Scatter some wood about so Lara knows where to throw the torch; throwing the torch on snow where the snowmen are looking isn't obvious. So leaving the torch for the end (gives ruby cube), Lara went on to the nerve-wracking castle wall climbs. But at one point if she tries to shimmy to the far side of the castle she is blocked by an invisible wall: drop lower and the invisible wall is still there, detracting somewhat from the illusion of reality. Most people probably never tried this stunt, and so never noticed this barrier. I liked the acrobatics to finally reach the crowbar and the cross. Has a good artistic visual flair for the Advent season, and was a level that I truly enjoyed playing." - dmdibl (30-Jan-2008)
"It's one of the best Christmas levels I've played in 2007. Every puzzle is a nice surprise and along with the new objects and beautiful textures the builder has created a very nice atmosphere for the player. The whole level, except from the beginning which is outside in the snow, is taking place around and inside a castle. Of course there are moveable objects and items to find but all in good measure. The climbing procedure is very interesting in this level and even the simple torch puzzle didn't tire me at all. The thing that amazes me with such levels is when the builders can achieve great gameplay without inserting any enemies due to the peaceful period of Christmas/Easter etc. every time. This is the case here and I have to congratulate Christoph for a job well done." - Kristina (26-Jan-2008)
"Well, with zero doubt I can say - the castle and village are absolutely stunning and just have to be seen to be believed. The environment is pleasantly peaceful as you'd expect from an advent calendar level, the various touches like the foggy grounds, the falling snow and fitting use of objects add greatly to the already convincing atmosphere. What didn't convince me was the gameplay. I wasn't really expecting a masterpiece, as the simplicity of the advent calendar levels is kind of their trademark, and not a bad one to have at that, but the game here seemed to drag including some of the most tedious gameplay elements possible, like pushable object puzzles, shimmying and climbing - and I wasn't sure if I did some things as I was supposed to. Of course the main focus of the level here seems to be on the architecture, so I assume the gameplay was kind of built around that, which usually works the other way around when building levels, but I guess it kind of works here. I only wish there would've been more to do with the cool bike you get at the end." - eTux (25-Jan-2008)
"The highlight of this level, as noted by other reviewers, is the huge building. It's not there merely for show, either, as you get to explore large portions of the interior and get a good sense of its immensity. There's an annoyingly tedious block puzzle near the end that dampened my ardor somewhat, but this is a pleasant little level that took me over an hour to complete. Perfect for this blissful Christmas season. Recommended." - Phil (19-Dec-2007)
"As usual from this author, the level has a very good environment with perfect architecture and very nice textured. The big castle is marvellous and impressive. There are not enemies, very few pickups and tasks are not difficult, but it's easy you miss a jumpswitch and have to look for it through very huge areas. It cost me a lot to figure out where to use the torch too. Enjoyable anyway." - Jose (19-Dec-2007)
"Another absolutly amazing level bought to us by Christoph! as soon as you start this level you know your in for a treat, you walk into a little village and a flyby shows u an amazing veiw of an absolutly HUGE castle beautifully decorated, nothing to hard to do here, nothing to hard to miss, an easy and enjoyable adventure, just as chrismas levels are meant to be, authough with that huge castle i did expect more gameplay than i got, but still, highly recommend the download!" - ColeMoles (15-Dec-2007)
"Not christoph's best work, but it does get the job done very well. Nice foot sounds under laras feet while she walks. The puzzles were fun and entertaining for my family, and me as well. The textures were very nice, but could have been better. The lighting was very dymanic though, and very trusting on my way to the end. Overall, and very nice little level to play on the christmas days, or even when its not." - Vaughnage (13-Dec-2007)
"I've never managed to play through all of each year's Advent levels before, so I thought I'd give it a try this time despite having fallen behind already! 'Dijon' is a wonderful festive offering, definitely worthy of starting off 2007's Calendar. The setting is beautiful and has all the ingredients that make a good gaming environment, in my book at least: a huge castle swathed in mist, a sleeping town of half-timbered buildings, dark little chapels and echoing marble floors. All good stuff, perfectly complemented by some lovely flyby sequences. The level itself is not too difficult, with climbing, jumping and block puzzles providing much of the gameplay. You may find yourself doing quite a bit of wandering about, as some of the tasks are fairly obscure and the way ahead isn't always certain, but there are also a few clever moments that I enjoyed. Overall it's a fun trip and beautifully wintry, and I'd recommend it on its relentless good looks alone. Completed in fifty minutes." - Ampersand (12-Dec-2007)
"I like a lot to play the levels by christoph ,i still liked Dijon. It is magnificient in these colors (blue grey ) ,textures and game play , although lara climb up often to the ladder . I often casted a glance towards the up ,to admire .Hear the step of lara is pleasant , and give a lot plausibility .If you have not still play this level ,download it rapidly." - Minox (11-Dec-2007)
"I really liked the very impressive setting of this first level of the 2007 LB Calendar and very much enjoyed running around the village and the castle for 45 minutes, collecting the cross and the ruby cube to reach the bike to leave this place. And despite the fact that there are several rather tedious elements of gameplay (long block pushing, long shimmy along the roof and long way just runnnig to get to the roofs of the castle), the overall structure and the ideas with the torch puzzle and the crowbar are well done and the camera guidance and the snowmen will help you through the adventure quite well. Wonderful location, great flybys! Don't miss out on this level." - MichaelP (10-Dec-2007)
"A beautiful level . Christoph`s architecure is always fantasic. I am not sure if he has built this huge castle just for the fun of cruising around in christmas time or of it may be included in one of his masterpieces to come which all TRLE Fans are waiting for !" - Ruben (08-Dec-2007)
"The level is set in beautifully designed village with the two huge buildings overlooking it, they were just WOW, fantasticly built. My only complain comes from right there, in such a majestic setting I could easily imagined 3-4 hours of gameplay. Anyways, the gameplay we have is relaxed, but interesting with some good box pushing puzzles, climbs and jumps, and a too well disguised burnable floor, I noticed it only by chance. The atmosphere of a winter village is very realistic, and the castle is definitely worth to take a look at." - Akcy (07-Dec-2007)
"I loved the atmosphere very much in this lovely little Christmas level. The blue and gray textures, falling snow and icy mist really added to the atmosphere. Gameplay was fun, but I did have a bit of trouble with a movable block that didn't want to move again later. Another savegame fixed that problem. Definitely keep several savegames as you might need them. I would have liked to see a few more Christmasy things (there were a few snowmen and candy cane thing with presents around it). There was some nice Christmas music and Tomb Raider standby tunes too. This level was very beautiful and worthy of a look." - Shandroid (06-Dec-2007)
"Lara traverses a beautiful French village and church in search of a few items needed to retrieve her three-wheeler. this level is visually stunning. the first flyby scene is really incredible. and what's so impressive is the grand scale of things. the church is really just huge--at least eight or nine stories tall. i wish that the village buildings had been used in the gameplay more. and it seemed like there was a lot of non-game-play space in the church as well. plenty is used in both places, its just that the design is so terribly impressive that it seems strange that a significant bit of the space and size is, practically speaking, really only for visual effect. i suppose even for visual effects sake, i wish that i would've gotten to see inside the village homes and the chapels of the church and so forth. gameplay had a bit too much lengthy back tracking for my taste some of the most important criteria for me in assessing a level are explorability and replay-ability. i'd say this level does pretty well in those categories. and anyone should play it at least one just for the ooo's and ah's of the scenery." - drguycrain (04-Dec-2007)
"i dunno how to start with this review ......is very relaxed level without any foes very nice graphics and smooth gameplay... the castle was very nice builded i recomand to any TR fan not need too much skills i mean not hard jumps and puzzles but very relaxed gameplay .......otherway i was think a bit before to review any level from now on cos i reviewed another level at wich i give low mark at gameplay cos was very frustrating and that review was never posted here .............. well not the case now cos i enjoy this level .....at my opinion every review should be posted even iff is different from majority off reviews cos each player have his own opinion ,,,,,,, greetings for the builder good job christoph......." - Jack& (04-Dec-2007)
"Yay, it's that time of year again when all the wonderful builders at the Levelbase bring us delightful Advent levels to make Christmas really special. This is a very beautiful level and the snow is falling, which I always love because it's pretty much the only time I get to see snow these days. Climbing around on the very high rooftops is inclined to induce vertigo, but the view is certainly spectacular. There are of course no enemies to spoil the enjoyable exploration and the whole thing is just a lovely, fun introduction to the Advent season." - Jay (03-Dec-2007)
"I get very excited when the Christmas levels are released. I thoroughly enjoyed this level. Atmosphere, lighting & textures were beautiful. The sound of the snow crunching beneath Lara's feet was very realistic. Gameplay pretty straight forward. Only got stuck once , forgot where to use the cross. If you haven't downloaded this yet I only have one question. What are you waiting for?" - guss18 (02-Dec-2007)
"Oh, what fun it is to play these Advent games and what an excellent game to start with. Christoph has prepared a lavish venue for his Dijon village. The textures and lighting are just superb. Lara's quest is for the ultimate ruby that unlocks the gate guarding a motorbike. Her pursuit will take her high up on the rooftops and deep into the snow and ice. Along the way, Christoph has presented a few puzzles for us to scratch our heads over (at least I did). You will enjoy this one !" - Mugs (02-Dec-2007)
"This first 2007 Christmas level by Christoph is certainly more than just a "nice little Christmas level"... The architecture is fantastic, it keeps you busy for a while and it is packed with many very clever puzzles. My only complaint is that it involves a lot of backtracking and can be just a bit too puzzling at times and I found myself stuck before I could think things over and solve the puzzles a couple of times. Other than that, it's simply excellent." - Jorge22 (02-Dec-2007)
"Back to the Advent Calendar and this time with one nice game of Christoph. Lara is in a beautiful village with high towers and roofs. When Lara falls is really terrible... The puzzles are simple but we have to walk a long distance to find all the items we need. Sometimes we can get lost but finally the game can be completed with not too much difficulty. There aren't secrets and only few items (flares and small medipacks). It's a Christmas Level, so there are no enemies. The atmosphere is good and the lighting and textures are the best of the game. It's a very nice and entertaining game." - Loupar (02-Dec-2007)
"Christmas time and New Year will come very soon, for about 30 days. 30 days of nice and good playing TR. Beautifful little town in winter and snowy surrounding warm your feelings. Cute snowman, nice fire lights and huge church with beauty wals, monuments all flys in tiny fog. No enemies and only i remember one shot from guns. Hidden lever for continuing to level action.Only what is miss here is too short for play. About 50min not hard playing, like level before this, which was more hard and mind thinking:) EXcellent start with advent levels and ending of 2007 year. Cheers!" - Ivan (02-Dec-2007)
"This was a nice little Christmas level for the start of the Advent season, and with no enemies to worry about it's a good level to relax in. The presentation was the best part of this level, with excellent texturing and good lighting throughout, although the fact that floor-tiles were frequently used as ladders was a little odd. The atmosphere was also well created, with one or two buildings to explore, as well as the massive castle/cathedral-like structure looming over the village itself. The objects used were also well suited to the level, but I found that one major annoyance was the practically camouflaged burning-floor, and the hint given by some nearby snowmen was vague at best. Apart from this time, there were also many other instances where lots of running around was involved, though not because of my uncertainty of what to do, but simply because there was generally a lot of backtracking involved in the level. It didn't help that this backtracking usually involved re-pushing blocks (and some of the block-pushing tasks were long enough in the first place) or shimmying over large gaps. Other than this, however, the gameplay was well thought out and enjoyable." - Spike (01-Dec-2007)
"It's probably the first December I'm actually playing the advent levels as they come, and this one certainly has its magic. While you're wondering through the snow covered backstreets of this town, you reach a HUGE building then you have to work your way through the rooftops to reach a churchlike area then retrace back to the beginning and ride a bike to the end. I took a few points off the cameras because there's at least one point where you can be stuck forever if you go down to the crowbar in a legal but long way. Turns out you have to trigger a cutscene a few steps further into the alcove before going down. Howver, I loved the snowmen often pointing to places you should look. Nice touch. Happy holidays! 40 minutes. 12/07" - Treeble (01-Dec-2007)