Levels listed...
TR5 - 31
TR4 - 3141
TR3 - 177
TR2 - 133
TR1 - 61
72381 reviews (20.4/level)
3532 (99.7%) walkthroughs
445 Hall of Fame levels
1221 levels rated >= 8
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release date: |
19-Aug-2022 |
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# of downloads: |
236 |
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average rating: |
7.53 |
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review count: |
9 |
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review this level |
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file size: |
145.00 MB |
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file type: |
TR2 |
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class: |
Shooter |
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| Reviewer's comments |
"The Guardian of the Talion Returns (GOTR) is billed by Cumulonimbus as a “shooter”, and
this description is by no means misleading. After playing through the 5 levels of this
set, it becomes apparent that this is the work of a competent Editor with the primary
purpose of providing a minimally interrupted stream of combative violence.
In turn, this objective broadly dictates the style in which the levels are constructed to
provide this experience as richly as possible. This mostly takes the form of levels with
large, open-plan spaces and, with the exception of the second level, access to most of the
level’s buildings, rooms, and environments early on in order to provide a tapestry of
varied shooting galleries and movement options when tackling the waves of resistance
rolling in Lara’s direction.
As a result of this, in order to ensure players are compelled to explore the entirety of
the otherwise largely optional level maps and spaces (and trigger the full apportionment
of punishment intended for them), each of the levels tend to feature one or two doors
which require a daunting number of keys (or equivalent) and/or switches to be thrown in
order to open them.
GOTR pushes the Tomb Raider engine to just about its limits in regard to the sheer
quantity and density of enemies triggered. This is especially noticeable in the first
level, where clusters of enemies and their trigger points may have considerable distance
between them. This can lead to instances where enemies may glitch in and out of existence,
or a save game attempt with no immediate sign of unwelcome company in attendance can
trigger an unceremonious crash.
GOTRs difficulty without doubt comes almost exclusively from the intensity of battles it
throws you into, with platforming and puzzles kept relatively straightforward and fool-
proof.
The first level (set in Venice) was for me the most challenging. This is because the game
hits its combat stride just about immediately, whilst Lara still needed time and distance
to accumulate a proper suite of suitably heavy hardware. As a result, whilst in the first
level I worryingly burned through all of my medipacks at one stage, I ended up with 20 of
the large variety to spare alone by the time I was starting the final level.
Level design is broadly excellent for what this game sets out to achieve, in the context
of its genre. There’s some wonderful examples of foreshadowing, and the more linear design
of “The Wreck” combined with the design of this level and superb end battle, which I can
only describe as a literal curtain raiser, made this my favourite of them all.
Often, finding that final switch or key I’d missed led to quite a lot of circuitous
traipsing around areas of the level I thought I’d completed. However, it also forced me to
eek out every secret and pick up in the process, so that has to be a plus for the design
aspect.
An inevitable toll on the player for a game so high in body-count is that keeping track of
which bodies you have and haven’t scoured can be difficult. This is especially so when
attaining a new elevation or area triggers a fresh throng of aggressors in an area that
already hosted an earlier massacre.
So, is GOTR all guns blazing? Not quite. Music triggers often replay when their locations
are revisited which jars the continuity somewhat, and there’s no narrative or obvious
connection between the levels either. If you’re not too keen on TR2 combat, then it should
be very apparent that this won’t be quite your thing.
That said, I enjoyed this set immensely. Receiving a reliably continuous barrage in each
level removes a lot of the tension that the original game created with its more sparing
and unpredictable injections of human foes, but it creates a thrilling dynamic of its own.
This isn’t the style you’d want every TRLE game to take, but I’m very grateful that this
one exists ." - Danjo86 (19-Jan-2023) |
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| "Well, a very good effort but not an adventure for my taste. Too many enemies to shoot and no puzzles to solve. Of course I liked the good architecture and texturization, but it was not enough to enjoy a good levelset like this. Of course, there are a lot of pickups to advance withouth problems, but the whole set was tedious and bored for me. Perhaps if you are a pure shooter this adventure can be nice for you, but not for me. Sorry." - Jose (24-Sep-2022) |
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| "This is a wild ride. Holy heavens! Spent around 5 hours in here and mowed my way through 397 baddies. 10,906 shots fired. I played slow and strategically through most of the levelset, but near the end of the Ice Temple I said what the heck and jumped in with guns blazing. Chewed through 6.5 med packs in the final level - 15 total throughout all 5 levels. Ran out of M16, uzi, and shotgun ammo. I too ran into the annoying 'save game too large for buffer' error. This usually happened when I had the shotgun drawn around an area where baddies were roaming. So I stopped saving while holding the shotgun, and didn't save during firefights as a rule, which saved me from frustration.
I thought the levels were nicely done - they were fun to explore and laid out in a way that makes sense for a shooter-style game. I think that I enjoyed levels 2 and 5 the most. The Venice level felt very clunky and 'big' with some strange-feeling architecture, and as much as I love the Venice theme, this first level was my least favorite. There was no real flow between the levels, or a storyline explaining to the reader why Lara was visiting these different locations (other than the TRII and TRII Gold nostalgia, of course). That said, you did keep me glued to my PC with a controller in my hand for the better part of a Saturday. :D Who wants to do laundry, anyway!
The TR II engine is fairly limited, all things considered, but it feels very appropriate to a shooter-style game, so kudos for working with it. The bears were buggy - I thought they were immortal until I let off the trigger and Lara lost interest while it continued to plow frantically into a wall. I also ran into several instances of enemies phasing in and out due to engine overload. Watching the monks go into fighting stance, then hopping backwards to 'disappear' an enemy and see them relax elicited a few giggles, though I'm sure that wasn't the builder's intention. I was also annoyed with the magically appearing enemies that blinked into existence in plain sight.
My scores are a bit all over the board with this one. Gameplay is fairly straightforward and loud, with bullets blazing and bodies falling. Most of the secrets are almost in plain sight, so it wasn't a real challenge to go a-hunting them. The focus is on surving the waves of enemies, picking up keys and key items, and pulling levers. The recurring music triggers were a bit grating (especially in the hotel level), though the cameras were fine. Atmosphere in the ship, the outpost, and the ice temple was good, but the background ambience in the hotel was not really on point, and Venice was just a bit odd, all around. Lighting and textures were decent and on par for what one would expect with a TR II level.
Ultimately, I think this builder has delivered a solid levelset, has a lot of potential, and I look forward to their future releases. :-) Thank you for the madness! Now I think I'm going to need a pint of something stout to cool down." - Chel (24-Sep-2022) |
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| "Whew, where to start with this one. These
must be the most lopsided scores I've
assigned in a good while. Suffice to say
that this is a gaming experience that gave
me many conflicting feelings. My overall
impression is that you have to be willing to
enjoy this one to get much out of it. I
somewhat did...and somewhat didn't. Allow me
to elaborate if I can. First and foremost,
unless you are up for massacring boatloads
upon boatloads of enemies through five
levels that all follow a similar pattern,
the gameplay really doesn't have much to
offer besides that. Levels 1, 4 and 5
(despite the latter being the shortest of
the entire set) are the worst offenders in
this regard, with enemies spawning at random
pretty much every time you pull a switch or
use a key item, not to mention they glitch
in and out of existence due to the sheer
amount of them (thankfully I encountered no
crashes). Supplies may have been plentiful,
but it was still incredibly repetitive and
draining. That said, it was nice how a
couple of levels had you arriving at
familiar places but from previously
unexplored angles and you get some neat
views through windows and grates at other
areas. Secrets weren't too bad either. In
terms of atmosphere and immersion, it's also
a rather mixed bag. The music choices were
quite nostalgic, but they seemed to repeat
themselves every time Lara stepped in a
certain location, plus a couple of the
cameras froze after certain events. That
said, I did appreciate the change of
sceneries despite there being no obvious
link between the different locations.
Textures aren't too bad if a little on the
crude side. I still don't know where I stand
on this one. Maybe you'll have better luck.
I know that I need a lie down now..." - Ryan (18-Sep-2022) |
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| "As the read me says this is a shooter and he ain't wrong. The first level was extremely difficult to get through due to the lack of health packs and appropriate weaponry but as you progressed these items increased and made life just that little bit easier. You generally have multiple opponents to deal with when they attack and heavy fire power is a must. Lots of exploring to do and lots of keys to find. I never experienced any of the "soft locks" that other reviewers mention. The only issue I had where with saves failing and crashing the game but apparently this is due to too may enemies being present so save after the firefight and not before (a little counter intuitive) but it works. I did get stuck a couple of times looking for switches bit found 11 of the 12 secrets. I enjoyed it. A good solid TR2 level." - Torry (22-Aug-2022) |
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| "This extreme shooter undoubtedly had some enjoyable moments, most of them all the moment where the theatre curtain raises, but to be honest this is mostly not particularly well made even in its genre. Enemies mostly do not even attack Lara unless she is facing them (so that using the MP from a distance is effortless), many of them simply appear out of thin air or in closed rooms, there are many bugs with 'flickering' enemies and saving the game often causes crashes (a rather nasty detail at times, despite the builder being aware of it). While the bear was an interesting enemy for TR 2, it was also heavily buggy. And gameplaywise this is really nothing to elaborate on as the gameplay aside of the shooting is kept at a minimum. The looks are okay but they are also secondary to the shooter elements mostly, texturing is often wallpapered and streched. The scale of the hotel was probably the most intriguing level, but not all too much except of a few nice views is made out of it. Sounds and fixed cameras, even action ones, keep repeating every time you step on the trigger tile, but due to the plethora of enemies this is not all too wrong actually ;). I also have killed almost 400 enemies at the end (after 2:35 hours), now I need to calm down ..." - manarch2 (22-Aug-2022) |
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| "A five level adventure packed with action in every step, and if you ask me, there is no better engine for a shooter than Tomb Raider II. It was a little overwhelming at times, but it does get better once you get all the weapons. All levels function the same way: a big open area with lots of room to explore, lots of enemies to fight and lots of keys to be found (except for level 2 which had a more linear approach). Aside from the combat, there are quite remarkable settings that add a lot to the atmosphere and make a good shooter scenario. Storywise, there isn’t much connection between levels, as it jumps from one location to another totally different (aside from levels 4 to 5). But truly it isn’t the kind of level that needs a proper continuity to work. Overall, it has its issues, but this was a fun and refreshing level-set that somehow kept me wanting to play it until the end, and it’s been a while since that happened. If you enjoy a combat challenge, then I recommend it." - Feder (22-Aug-2022) |
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| "The description says the game has no puzzles but every level is a big puzzle - mostly around collecting multiple keys but the maps aren't really big so even if you miss a pickup it doesn't take long to get back on track. Also, they look very cozy, so a pleasure to get stuck in if you are. Secrets are easy enough to get useful for a change. However, at least for this day, there is an inventory bug which can result in two possible softlocks, so in the hotel level you need to always place the keys before the relay box, and in the outpost you need to use yellow cards before the red ones - otherwise the items void and you repeat around 30 minutes. That's why I have to extract a point from the rating, but if the game is fixed, the review will also be." - DJ Full (20-Aug-2022) |
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"In five levels, I've killed 393 enemies. That's 78.6 on average almost three times the average of TR2 (27.6), which already felt like a shooter at times. That said, choosing the TR2 Engine certainly was the best decision for that category as the enemies are quicker than in other games of the franchise and don't wait a minute before engaging, leading to dynamic fights instead of a tedious shooting range.
I must admit that I had more fun than what I was expecting seeing the screenshots. However, the basic design is flawed, and the readme even acknowledges it by warning the player not to save if not enough enemies have been killed. For example, I got this crash to desktop after having just killed four enemies that just arrived and there were still too many around. I think the idea of having enemies roaming in the level and visible through windows or on top of balconies is really cool and makes the level more lively, but triggers should be thought out to avoid any crash issue. Enemies would sometime be triggered from far away so they would surprise the player by suddenly arriving in the room when the fight was supposedly over. It's a good idea but should have been implemented better.
All levels follow more or less the same principle: kill baddies and find keys to open the door to the finish trigger. Venice and The Hotel might be my favourite level as they are very open and you can go pretty much everywhere right from the start. It's unfortunately also those with the most save-crash-to-desktop issue as you cannot be sure to have cleared the previous area enough. A possibility would have been to deactivate enemies if necessary. Those two levels were rather pleasing and less linear than I would expect from a shooter. I would have liked it better if the sky was visible in Venice, but maybe the author ran into memory issues for this. Sometimes the room structure made some enemies behave weirdly and I had the baseball bat gangster climb down into a water canal and just die there as he couldn't swim. Some of the gunmen could also shoot Lara through the floor when she was swimming just below them.
The levels are decently made, being rather simple but each still having their own identity and atmosphere. I liked for example that the author managed to keep the oppressive atmosphere of the sunken ship. There are even some creative visuals with a room with floating furniture and a final fight after raising the curtain of the theatre. The last two levels felt a little less inspired, with natural environments being very blocky and gameplay starting to feel repetitive. Some textures are stretched or squished here and there, some colour choices questionable, but work in this regard is generally decent, while not providing anything breathtaking.
In short, if you like shooters, this is an excellent adventure in that genre, but you can skip it without regret if you're looking for a more Tomb Raider-like experience." - TimJ (20-Aug-2022) |
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