Reviewer's comments |
"I was sure I had already reviewed this; had I not wittily punned on the title - losing a base that huge looks rather like carelessness, or something to that effect? No, it turns out, I had not; it was in fact Orbit Dream who had done the punning. Well, great minds and all that.
Anyway - : I find it difficult to gauge what the builder thought he was going to achieve by placing one oversized roombox after another, with absolutely no hint of gameplay in any one of them; and past the first two of these rooms, with no further hint of design either. There is one possible indication of advanced planning, and that is the infamous shimmy crack which you can't reach when you first see it and to which you later return via a circuitous route, but for what? Only to end up at the exit of another underwater tunnel, with a dead-end corridor ahead that you can't even climb up to. Nor is the shimmy crack the only interminable thing here deserving of notoriety; there's a ladder and a few underwater tunnels that should absolutely get equal billing. The builder forgot to turn off - transparent' and - double-sided' after he was done texturing the water surfaces; but really, who cares. My guess is that the builder devised this in its entirety within the Level Editor, without ever actually seeing what he was building in-game, presumably intending to insert some sort of gameplay at a later stage. Alas, to this he never got round. One symbolic point for the odd ninja placed here and there." - Mulf (15-Mar-2021) |
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"Again taking a look at the walkthrough to see that there's not a finish trigger, again huge and empty rooms with nothing to do textured with the same texture tile, again not enough ammo for the extra weapon, again no cameras or musics, again... In this level even there are not switches to pull, only advance and advance until you reach a dead end at the back of an underwater passage. Place some shadows in several places doesn't create a good lighting. The worst were the very long ladder, the very long shimmy and the very long underwater tunnels. All for nothing, only shoot red ninjas here and there. Not worth to play." - Jose (14-Dec-2017) |
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"The base is so damn huge! You simply run
through endlessly long corridors, climb ladders
(some short, one excruciatingly long), perform
a ridiculously long shimmy and shoot ninjas in
blandly textured environments, only to find
there's no proper finish trigger. I regret to
say that I was bored with this one." - Ryan (25-Oct-2016) |
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"Huge empty rooms, endlessly long corridors/monkey swing and precious little to do except shoot ninjas. Oh, and no finish trigger. Yes, it's a prime example of a debut (and only) level, rushed out by an enthusiastic but obviously inexperienced builder in the early days of the level editor." - Jay (13-Jul-2016) |
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"Computers at the very beginning give some atmosphere, and you can't forget it till the very end of the level, even if the farther you go, the worse textures (acceptable, but sometimes stretched, and in most of the game boring and monotonous) and lights (changed only in the beginning and in one part of the ending) you see. There is no puzzles, and gameplay comprises of speedy proceeding from one room to another through extremely long corridors filled with air, water and an invisible ladder. Also, normal climb animation is missing and you have to use Lara's hands only to get to the top of that ladder, what results in tiring feeling of climbing Empire State Building with no security. What is more, there is one ridiculously long crack you have to grab to shimmy to the other side of the far oversized, empty base. After that all you can't finish this level, because the author has commited two mistakes in the place where you resurface for the last time - you can't get out of the water because of too high bank, and even if you dozy up there, you find a ramp ending on a wall only, without a finish trigger at its end. SUMMARY: One of the most stretched gameplays ever. Play it only if you like bases AND are TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY BORED." - DJ Full (11-Oct-2010) |
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"Here is everything gigantic, long and stretched. And with it the Review could already end. But I dare to doubt, that this so short Review was accepted. So over again a little more in detail.
Here is everything gigantic, long and stretched. One runs here from one gigantic room to another , admires the always resemble and partly stretched textures, must climb a long ladder upwards, must shimmy a looong way, must still dive a few longer distances and admires the absolutely empty rooms. Occasionally one may shot down a few Baddies and is after a quarter hour happy and gladly at the level end.
Result: Only for people, who play everything" - Scottie (02-May-2009) |
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"It's rather repetitive to play levels like this. I am sure that every one of us has come across one at least once: huge and empty rooms stretched textures lack of work overall. This one uses Nevada textures (although the rooms you'll see will look pretty much the same) and it seemed to me that Lara's goal was to exit this 'base'. What I found funny was: there was a working unmarked climbable wall but the marked climbable walls didn't work. Long climbs long shimmies and long runs across from room to room. There wasn't even a single button/lever to operate! A few red ninjas that are easily dispatched using the pistols and some acrobatics and you'll come to a desert area. Reach the lake and find out there's nothing else to do (I even dozied to go up that passage Lara wouldn't climb from the water but there was nothing up there). 10 minutes. 11/04" - Treeble (13-Nov-2004) |
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"What can I say about this level? The textures are stretched the finishing trigger doesn't exist there are a few paper-thin walls the rooms are unusually bright the water doesn't have a healthy blue color there isn't any atmosphere a few useless pickups are lying around (uzi ammo a pair of uzis and two large medipacks) the water textures aren't animated there is a horizon bug which replaces a portion of the room in front of Lara and the rooms are enormous. Gameplay consists of killing 5 ninjas and nothing else. After finding a 'hidden' ladder you reach an area that you may call an exit because there is nothing else to do. Besides you must've already seen the exit from the bottom of a huge room at some point in this level. I am surprised that anyone could lose such a gigantic base (unless its former owner was blind of course)." - Sakusha (15-Aug-2004) |
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"Mmmm. What to say. At least someone went to the trouble of creating something. However it must have been a first attempt. Very big not much to do plenty of the controversial wafer-thin-walls and some Ninjas. No puzzles levers or head scratching. There I said it." - Jez (10-Feb-2004) |
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"Everything to extremes long swims high climbs long shimmeys wide spaces long corridors huge rooms. No wonder they conveniently 'lost' it no one would work there. Oh it's a base alright a big boring one. If it was reasonably sized the player would go through this like a dose of salts. By the way was there an end trigger or not at the top of the last slope?" - CC (19-Nov-2003) |
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"Nice one to boost your review count for me it was a something to do between a lot of base levels I am playing at the moment. The weather is lousy for this time of year so what more can I say...... 14-05-2003" - Gerty (18-May-2003) |
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"I don't know how anyone could lose this base as it's so damn huge. You will experience the longest most boring shimmy in the history of shimmies...and that is the level's highlight. It's downhill from there." - Orbit Dream (03-Dec-2002) |
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"Actually I have to think long and hard to find anything positive to say about this level. It starts out not too bad and in the first two rooms the author even made a little effort with the textures. But soon afterwards in gets very bleak and boxy indeed and the trouble is that it goes on for some time. I don't know how some people could finish this level in 7 minutes. The long climb and the subsequent endless shimmying took me 5 minutes alone." - Dimpfelmoser (02-Dec-2002) |
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"I'm not sure why this level was even released. It looks more like someone was just playing around with the editor to see how big they could make the rooms. Gameplay consists of running through many large empty rooms running down long hallways swimming down long passages climbing tall ladders and a long shimmy that was around 20 tiles wide! There are a few ninjas to kill and I found no weapons but did find at least 5 health packs. I found no finish trigger just finally got somewhere and couldn't go anymore. Just out of curiosity I went back to the beginning and looked at the walkway up high on the rocks. One end led to a long sloping shaft that ended suddenly and the other led to a long hallway that led to a large room with nothing in it." - RaiderGirl (24-Jul-2002) |
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"With large empty rooms some ninjas a quick swim and a vast open area where you end the level I assume in an inescapable pit this was a very bland and non-thrilling 15 minutes level." - Sash (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Definitely a first attempt and another one of the levels in the race for 'Who can create the biggest possible room without anything to do it'. Totally linear gameplay (if you can even call it that) a few ninjas and many texturing errors make this a pretty boring 15 minutes experience." - Michael (21-Jun-2002) |
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"This level (a first for me) was boring. There were just HUGE rooms with nothing to do long ladders to climb even longer water filled tunnels to swim through and I wondered what it was all for? The only excitement was a few of those red ninjas but at the end I simply ran away from them rather than do battle. For 15 minutes of boredom try this one folks." - Torry (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Unfortunately I cannot rate this Level any other way. There is no action no puzzles nothing but huge empty rooms long and straight walkways an endless climb and some (straight ahead) swimming plus lots of texturing errors. And the worst: there is no finish trigger. A first attempt of a novice editor not more." - Qwendo (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Big squared mono-textured rooms attached by long long corridors in a linear game play. A test level probably." - Josep (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Run through a big room kill a ninja pick up a medipack run down a long corridor swim down a long corridor kill more ninjas more medipacks climb shimmy kill pick up swim. There...that's the entire level... no need to download it. Approx time: 7 minutes." - Wendee (21-Jun-2002) |
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"Lucky I had Wendee's walkthrough or I wouldn't have made my way through this level. Jokes aside this is a very boring level. There are a large amount of long hallways long climbs and long swims. The texturing is terrible and a lot of the textures are transparent. The ninjas seem completely out of place and there's no need to kill them you can just run away from them. Fortunately the level only takes five to ten minutes to finish. Of course there isn't a finish-trigger but after I had swum noticed that I couldn't get up from the water and DOZYd through a hallway without an exit I exited the game. And it says in Wendee's walkthrough that it ends there anyway." - Magnus (21-Jun-2002) |
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"I am lost for words. Nothing absolutely nothing in this level. No puzzles no secrets no weapons no objects. Big rooms textured with one tile all over and in some corners parts of them are missing. There are some coloured rooms but what I don't understand is how can a surface appear white when you emerge therefore can't see the bottom and change colour while in water for instance. Anyway a few ninjas and climbs not to mention the missing finishing trigger. Not worth it." - Kristina (21-Jun-2002) |
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