Reviewer's comments |
"It's probably not a good idea to play this right after Max's Symbol of the World, but the cathedral in this one would have failed to convince anybody anyway; including its builder, whom I can't imagine labouring under the misapprehension that he was creating a plausible setting for his game. He uses the Cleopal wad with TR3 London textures, the latter wallpapered and rather haphazardly applied, and also mixing the ancient and the modern in an odd way (this in addition to the Egyptian doors and columns of the wad). The water textures aren't animated, which is perhaps surprising given the setting of a semi-submerged cathedral and the large amount (and size) of the bodies of water you encounter - but then, it's the kind of level in which water jets originate from thin air. On the other hand, it's also one of the few among the levels using textures from "All Hallows" whose builder recognised the organ pipes as such and used these textures appropriately, so there's that.
It's a straightforward and painless 30-minute course through areas which, despite some unusual geometry, look mostly square and flat and are rather too large. Due to this and the pervasive absence of lighting, there's not much of an atmosphere to speak of; the all-encompassing black void you encounter early on can work, but here it doesn't. There's not a lot to do either, as the level is all about spotting jumpswitches and collecting puzzle items. The climb-through ceiling near the beginning (which is marked) is what comes closest to an actual puzzle.
The level's strength is its enemy placement. Skeletons, harpies and demigods often appear in mixed groups and tend to be triggered in places that play to their strengths. Unfortunately, this is undone by the copious arsenal that you acquire and which is complemented by a large number of medipacks (you're likely to finish the level with more supplies in your backpack than you'd usually get to pick up over the course of an entire level much larger than this one). The level had its best moment when one lonely skeleton was triggered far away and then came running in my direction, quite a long way really, allowing me to muse about the eagerness with which it was heading towards its certain doom." - Mulf (28-Mar-2021) |
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"Personally I found this level overrated. I mean I have seen
many better levels with less scores so I was surprised when
I looked at its score after I played. The beginnings are a
total failure in the texturing area, you are entering a
two-dimensional cathedral standing on top of nowhere.
Gradually the design increases and reaches its apex in the
underwater cathedral area, which is a real improvement. But
the gameplay starts bad and never improves, it is all about
finding switches and items. Increasing action tries to make
up for the gameplay but never does in my opinion. Well,
this one didn't do for me." - Nomad (15-Jun-2019) |
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"This is another one that would be suitable
for beginners, with straightforward
gameplay progression in a mostly pleasant,
if rather empty setting. Just a bit of
exploration, a hunt for a couple of
artefacts and a bit of swimming to contend
with, plus a few fights with demigods,
harpies and skeletons, but ammo and
medipacks are plentifully scattered around
so they shouldn't prove too much of a
hindrance." - Ryan (17-Nov-2018) |
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"A linear level at first, when you enter the cathedral
there's a bit more to explore. Rooms are boxy, empty, huge,
textured repetitively. Although the cathedral looks a bit
better. Enemies are skeletons, harpies, demigods and you
can take care of them easily with the weapons provided.
There aren't any cameras or sound. Not recommended." - alan (05-Apr-2018) |
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"Pretty straightforward gameplay in pleasant surroundings, especially the actual cathedral. Lots of skeletons about, but explosives are liberally provided. Demigods and harpies can readily be taken out with pistols, so you'll end up with loads of goodies in the backpack." - Jay (04-Mar-2016) |
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"A lineal level easy to play. Very huge and empty rooms with no worked texturization where you can only run, run and run doing nothing except pick up ammo or medipacks. Once in a while you must use a reach-in switch and that's all the gameplay I found. Unmarked ladders and monkeyswings, excessive enemies inside the cathedral; at least I found enough guns and ammo. Not worth to play for me." - Jose (13-Nov-2015) |
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"Best I would shake staticon so long, until his thinning hair was fallen from his head! On the one hand the level looks really first-class. Above all the half being underwater cathedral is a real highlight. But then so many textures are absent, that one would like to turn away with shudder. It is not amusing at all if one plays with normal brightness and the sky is untextured pitch-black. There is plenty opponents. There is Demigods, harpies and skeletons. But Lara finds so much ammunition which she could blow out the life light of every opponent two times. And than she still has enough for a new passageway. Medipacks also enough existed more than. There are not difficult riddles here. All Jumpswitches, the Pharos Pillar and the scroll, that opens the door at the level end, are easy to be found. Playing time was about 25 minutes. I would higher value this level with pleasure, but, unfortunately, any more is not in it." - Scottie (18-Jun-2009) |
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"Another pedestrian, workmanlike level from the early Staticon. Somehow the environs here weren't as pleasing to my eye as some of the others have been. Still, it's one of those linear, onward and forward type of levels that make it difficult to get stuck. I agree with the other reviewers that the cathedral itself was quite impressive, and you have to cover quite a bit of surrounding territory just to get inside. The only glitch I experienced was the rope-climbing animation inside the catheral. When I jumped and grabbed the rope, Lara assumed the motorbike riding position and refused to budge, obliging me to fly across to the next area in order to finish the level. These Staticon offerings are perfect time-killers for a pleasant raid of a half hour or so, without fear of game-stopping moves or elaborate puzzles. Recommended for beginning raiders." - Phil (19-Nov-2008) |
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"First, I have to admit that I was stuck for 20 minutes in the beginning due to me not understanding you had to jump up through a texture and use a switch *doh!* After that it felt like a simple try to make a cathedral level..not good at all..BUT all of a sudden you jumped on rooftops, found a huge (and I mean HUGE!) outdoor area which really impressed me. And if that's not enough, the inside was really amazing! A lot of fighting to finally get the music scroll and end the level. The textures in this level are ok, so is the lighting. But it is worth playing this level just to get to the end and see the nice architecture in the inside of the cathedral. Not to be missed. The gameplay is pretty straight forward and not hard. Still not secrets found hehe. Way to go, Kevin. I really liked this level!" - QRS (15-Apr-2006) |
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"As in the other levels by the author there's not much to do here. Some levers to pull some enemies to kill... Nothing challenging. The level was still quite enjoyable though. Some of the rooms were quite visually impressive but most of the rooms were too large. I don't enjoy spending a minute to get to the other side of a room just to find out that there was nothing to do there. The level ended quite suddenly after less than ten minutes which was a shame since I was enjoying the level quite a bit at that point. Easy linear but still with its own merits." - Magnus (29-Jan-2004) |
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"I played four levels by this author already and enjoyed two of them (McGreer Doom Temples) whereas two others were not my cup of tea (Scottish Ruin Psychedelic Caverns). I don't think there is something like an always recognizable style in them each is pretty much an individual try. How does this one tip the scales then? To the better side! Although 'Cathedral of the Fallen' has a few unfortunate things along the way like texturing climbable walls and monkey swings the same way as normal walls or making skeleton warriors as dangerous as mice by giving Lara the grenade gun right at the beginning there are stunning moments. For example when you first see the star-shaped platform in the middle of the abyss. You make a jump into nothingness and then 2 harpies appear before you try the jump to the corridor on the other side which looks so dangerously far away with that blackness all around - great! Never thought one could use untextured areas to such an advantage. The absence of music somehow even adds to the effect. And the cathedral itself is H.U.G.E. half sunken into water with a few arches around - memorable sight. Inside you fight two demigods which are the only serious enemies. The gameplay is despite a few lengths quite exciting. IMHO you shouldn't miss this if you are into levels a bit out of the ordinary." - RĂ¼diger (08-Nov-2003) |
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"Very very strange beginnings. On a 'bridge' with a very long drops on either side through strange rooms out to a church roof in the middle of nothingness and a fall into nothingness if you miss that jump up. But eventually you come out to a very impressive half-sunken cathedral in a huge pool. And the interior of the cathedral itself is very well done. A few enemies skeletons harpies and demigod and you find the scroll. You don't need instructions everything is quite easy including the enemies and you fall straight into the next level City of Broken Dreams." - CC (08-Aug-2003) |
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"Great level with interesting puzzles. Lots of skeletons some harpies and a demigod. Not too hard. I liked very much the lovely fountains. The beautiful cathedral is impressive. Enjoyable to play." - Cuqui (24-Dec-2002) |
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"This cathedral is so huge it could fit the entire population of Europe in it! I think scale is the biggest problem here but otherwise a nice little enjoyable level to relax with. The grenade gun was useful for killing the skeletons. But the best fun I had was repeatedly throwing Lara of the sides of the cathedral to her death." - TrueRaider (18-Aug-2002) |
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"The first half of this 30 minutes level is spent making your way to the nicely designed cathedral which is not a difficult job although there is a precariously placed battle with 2 deadly golden birds atop a high steeply domed platform and the second half is spent working out how to open the enormous cathedrals doors and then battling a mixture of enemies in the partially submerged underwater three storied church. These encounters with enemies though are not that deadly as there is along the way countless pick ups especially with explosive ammo so you are extremely well armed but I guess if you want a challenge you should try just fighting them with the pistols and shotgun which I think is all that should have been available." - Sash (21-Jun-2002) |
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"This level makes good use of all the enemies from the Cleopal WAD (banshees skeletons demigods) but having the grenade gun early and other good weapons later the threat is not that huge. After being stunned on how to proceed right at the beginning when you get into the level it is a fairly straight forward 30 minutes trip with many switches and raising blocks; some of the rooms being just too big and uniform with repetitive texturing but I really liked the roof area and the whole (huge) cathedral area a lot." - Michael (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Continuation of SS McGreer this level find us in a flooded cathedral. The architecture is somewhat strange and the full level is made of easy and simple puzzles. The cathedral itself is very nice inhabited by some demigods and flying creatures. Joining the useless items here we get broken glasses. The beginning of the level is very strange and because of some weird texturization I got stuck for some time but nothing too bad. The level is big and takes about 30 minutes." - Treeble (21-Jun-2002) |
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"What a great level! Lasting only about 40 minutes it is filled with fun clever puzzles you must solve in your attempt to make your way to the cathredral. Meanwhile the scenery is beautiful and quite unique - staticon's added some great textures I haven't seen before and the cathredral itself is magnificent especially the stained glass. But don't slack off or the baddies will get you and there's quite a few in this level. However all the ammo you will need is provided for you if you do a little looking around and they're not a problem. I didn't use a single medi-pack the whole way through. I really enjoyed this level and was sad to see the end so quickly." - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002) |
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"So far the best level of Kevin I played. It was a pity that it ended too soon. The idea is great and you could make much more out of it (in my humble opinion). I liked his idea the textures loved the fountains and the stained glass window is magnificent and even searching for more than enough ammo you had to cover every corner. Btw nice touch finding the glasses - LOL." - Gerty (21-Jun-2002) |
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"This is a short straightforward level finished in about 30 minutes. The puzzles are fairly easy and the pickups are many specially medipacks and different weapons. So it is not difficult to take care of the overabundance of enemies. In the main cathedral room all types of baddies from the WAD appear almost together. The first two big rooms one with a bridge over a deep pit where the level begins and the other soon after which seems to be a huge church roof have a kind of texturing that could be done much better to achieve the same results. The side walls and ceiling are not textured at all to create a dark and infinite atmosphere but it sometimes revealed parts of the connected rooms which caused a strange impression. On the other hand the big lake where the cathedral is immersed and the cathedral itself are very beautiful and authentic. Overall it is a regular level see for yourself." - Fabio Ribeiro (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Dark skies filled with floating buildings. Fountains suspended in the air. A Cathedral partly submerged beneath the waves. Yes it's a Staticon level. This is darker and emptier than his other works despite the amount of enemies (which are easily disposed of with the copious arsenal available). The puzzles are really quite straightforward and the level would have benefited greatly from the addition of music and a few camera sequences especially within the Cathedral itself. However any level which uses the Cleopal wad and contains not a hint of anything Egyptian deserves some credit." - Orbit Dream (21-Jun-2002) |
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"A level with a nice flow in game play. Apart from the fact that doesn't have many puzzles it quite interesting. As items there are only the pharos pillar and the scroll but earlier a hidden spot in the ceiling in the room with the two raised blocks was nice. It's as simple as pushing a lever to flood a room or open a door. The enemies are skeletons harpies and demigods which you get the grenade gun ad the shotgun to blast them with. Unfortunately it looses a lot because of the bad texture placement at many areas and even a walkway is as thin as paper. Twenty minutes of fun." - Kristina (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Not your typical Cleo quest but don't worry you will meet your old friends the skeletons the harpies and the demigods. No big challenge though as the grenade launcher is the first pick up you trip over. Progression is fast and relatively linear; no hidden levers impossible jumps or mean traps (just one climbthrough ceiling square; I do give you an awfull lot of clues don't I?). The big spacey areas are quite impressive and I especially enjoyed my stay in the cathedral. There are some missing textures the tasks at hand are not that original and I could have done with a little puzzle along the way but nevertheless it's a throughoutly enjoyable Level that never gets boring. I finished the game with six big medipacks and 50 explosive arrows but for once I was really happy about it cause I cleverly arranged for this adventure to sequence neatly into Little City and there you need all the help you can get." - Dimpfelmoser (21-Jun-2002) |
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"This is an impressive looking level as far as coloring and scenery goes. Some decent puzzles to solve monkey swing and lots and lots of swimming. You'd expect to encounter the inevitable croc in the level but after gingerly dipping my toes all was safe. The cathedral itself was magnificent beautiful stained glass windows vaulted ceilings. But I seem to be the only one who had a problem with the rope. I loaded built re-loaded re-built always making sure I was using the updated wads but every time Lara jumped on that rope she sat there as if she were standing in some sort of strange Japanese dance step. Somehow I did manage to get her over on that rope and I'll never know how. Other than that though an enjoyable level as you'd expect from Staticon." - Momster (21-Jun-2002) |
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