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Church & House (Demo) by Psxsaves

CC 4 7 8 7
Chronicles5 6 8 8 8
Dimpfelmoser 3 3 8 8
Dougsan 7 4 6 7
eTux 2 4 5 4
Gerty 2 4 5 4
Jay 2 5 6 6
John 4 4 5 6
Jose 2 4 3 6
Kristina 3 2 4 4
MattTR 5 4 8 7
MichaelP 2 5 7 6
Orbit Dream 2 3 6 7
RaiderGirl 4 6 7 8
Ryan 3 4 5 7
Sash 5 7 7 7
Treeble 2 1 1 2
Yoav 5 4 7 7
 
release date: 21-Dec-2002
# of downloads: 73

average rating: 4.99
review count: 18
 
review this level

file size: 16.20 MB
file type: TR4
class: Home
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
psxsaves@yahoo.com

Reviewer's comments
"yeah you can really tell this is a demo with lots of rooms and areas clearly unfinished or with nothing to do in them and then a lack of any gameplay that doesnt involve anything apart from shooting monsters, skeletons and targets, and collecting items, although i did like exploring around and liked the platforming and figuring out how to get to places with angled jumps and shimmy's etc. shooting targets seem to open gates to new areas to explore in the mansion and church areas, and some areas looked lovely especially the church but without no camera hints it can get tedious fast without a walkthrough because the level lacks any direction so your not sure where to go next, the motorbike ride is too short and there is also a lack of sounds in this level, its all very quiet. with a lot more work put into it this level it has great potential" - John (11-Aug-2021)
"I feel like the author may have started with a concept of rebuilding parts of the TR5 title screen and ended up in a hurry to push this out of the door for whatever reason. It's hardly even a Demo as it stands, feels like a very early design as object selection definitely doesn't fit the themes. The manor looks like a construction site at some parts, with lots of walls that are just... there, incomplete. Plus there are other issues, such as the random object placement, such as the keys and receptacles in the church (which you don't even get to use), skeletons are missing their lower limbs. The only real highlight was a small scene of Winston slowly walking by, the lighting made his model stand out but it didn't really serve any purpose whatsoever. 30 minutes. 07/20" - Treeble (26-Jul-2020)
"Apart from running around shooting ahmets and targets, there’s not a great deal going on really. You get a frustratingly short motorbike ride and pick up an entirely redundant laser sight for your pistol, but otherwise it’s exploring a rambling version of Lara’s mansion and a church to shoot the aforementioned targets. Not the most stimulating demo and perhaps it’s as well it was left as such as it would have taken a great deal of expansion and revision to make a decent level." - Jay (05-May-2020)
"It certainly looks good, but as is the case with most demos, very little gameplay develops. In this one, there's a lot of running around shooting targets and opening doors, with a lack of sounds. There doesn't seem to be a finish trigger so just exit when you like." - Ryan (12-Dec-2016)
"The first you notice in this level is the numerous missing sounds; later bad placed doors and finally you realize that you're running around and around shooting targets with no sense (and without revolver + sight; I found them much later). Another odd feature is to see how Winston trespass a solid pillar. I got some artifacts in the church but still got stucked so I had to consult the walkthrough to read that there's not a finish trigger. Definitively a waste of time." - Jose (18-Aug-2016)
"I hope I did everything there was to do in this 'work in progress';but it's difficult to know,as there's no finish trigger and the gameplay completely lacks a sense of direction.There are so many half-completed areas,incorrectly placed doors and un-usable pickups that a strong sense of futility begins to develop.Despite the fact that the church was rather magnificent(and the flying head undoubtedly so!),this really should have remained on the authors hard drive unless or until all the relevant work had been completed.Only for completists like me." - Orbit Dream (09-Sep-2013)
"This builder for sure loves his Ahmets although they are a little strange in this setting. I found it very confusing and also a bit strange how the placing of the gates and iron doors came about in this level. There is target shooting, luckily one can shoot them with Lara's trusted guns. It seems that will trigger some doors. There are no camera's to speak off so it is a lot of running back and fro to find out what you triggered. This is not my kind of level although there were some nice ideas here." - Gerty (18-Oct-2010)
"It's way more then a demo and a bike ride thats for sure... the level was ok, alot of good textures, too many flaws to name them all, but check out the other reviews." - MattTR (18-Dec-2005)
"Well I agree with all other reviews about this demo level but after all if you do not take this level seriously you can enjoy an easy level that looks nice." - Yoav (23-May-2004)
"Thank heavens it wasn't just me that got stuck in different parts and couldn't progress. I've just read the other reviews so I don't mind adding what I wrote now. Good opening shot as you run to the church and you get a quick backward view of two ahmets rising from fires to attack you as they do throughout the level. The church is very well done with a lot of Roman textures. The house is thrown together with whatever was to hand from the house wad and looked very awkward i.e. sliding gates for doors no windows on the one hand and stained glass on the other! However it was an interesting looking building but I'd rather it didn't look like 'the' mansion. Make it look like a big villa after all a lot of the rooms look that way already. And it doesn't need three front doors! At the house are soldiers who will kill the ahmets for you if you're lucky. The opening flyby goes up the front of the church to the roof and you see a target the first of many all over the level. In the church I picked up the pharos knot which wouldn't work in the slot picked up keys and a coin that gave me a quick flyby of a skeleton rushing into the dais and transforming in that big gladiators head from Rome with the luminous green eyes and chased Lara around like a wraith. I finally got rid of it in the pool of the house by dozying. It looks like I need a gem and a Hathor head and stand but where are they? I got the bike and went as far as I could on a very interesting biketrack to another closed gate. Please Psxsaves finish this as it looks really good and the ideas are great. It's big enough and you've already put the architecture in place so why not. How can I score gameplay with so many stuck parts I don't know how many enemies overall objects were great textures need looking to but the lighting and cameras were very good and I loved that evening sky with sunset and flashes of lightening." - CC (08-Aug-2003)
"Psxsaves has designed and rendered a truly lovely church (I would say cathedral). The home (mansion really) is another story. As good as the church is the home is bad. Very little is to scale too much license has been taken (there is no second floor railing for example there are WIDE landing at the second floor but not a part of the second floor landing there is a meter wide gap at the bottom of doors but Lara can't crawl under the doors etc.). There is a great deal of potential but since there is no story it is difficult to determine if the potential will be reached. I enjoyed the very convoluted motorbike jumps. VERY tricky and very tricky is good. I will probably never know how much of this level I played. After about 45 minutes I quit knowing I was playing a demo and not liking the mansion at all! Some of what I played I liked very much. I can see a lot of potential to repeat myself. I suggest people play it to see the cathedral and try the jumps but after reaching the mansion I'd give it a rest." - Dougsan (13-Jun-2003)
"Well I admitt defeat on this level as I don't understand it. I think I have seen most of it like the butler's ghostly appearence in the chapel and the room with the lyre you can't get out of once you're in for example. The texturing is not so great mostly either as much as I remember (am reviewing it after quite while since I've been playing this) even if the church was not so bad. I really don't want to continue listing the bad things but I'd advise the author to follow Michael's advice and drop the house out as we've seen SO many of those and if you can't make it special maybe just try to live without it and focus on the church as it seems more promising. And maybe try to make more sense from the gameplay and give the level some real flow since as I said I didn't understand most of it." - eTux (27-Apr-2003)
"The church in this level is just magnificent looking from the outside and the inside isn't bad but it does look a bit empty for it's size and maybe a few rooms could be added for more areas to explore. I loved how the ahmet seemed to appear out of the fires and the crawling demon that turned into a giant flying head totally freaked me out but was interesting at the same time. I couldn't figure out what to do with the keys or token and my pillar didn't fit the receptacle either. I always like mansions in a level so maybe it could be made smaller and easier to explore - there were too many open areas at the ceilings that don't make sense the roll up doors seemed out of place and I couldn't figure out how to open many of them there were three front doors? and the outside areas needed to be cleaned up a bit so they made more sense. I didn't understand the targets scattered throughout the level either - some of them seemed to open doors in the house but what did the rest do? One thing I really liked was how bright the level was so I hope the author keeps it that way. I'll be interested to see where he goes with this one." - RaiderGirl (15-Feb-2003)
"Mike sure isn't the only one with questions! How do you open the gate to let the bike roam free? What did the target where you find the lasersight trigger when shot? Why when you enter the church through the side door there isn't a set of front doors inside where there are front doors outside? What do I do with the keys or the coin? Am I supposed to whittle the Pharaoh's whatever down so it can fit into the slot (or should I just find the creator and shove it up his clacker)? How do you exit the room where you find the crossbow harp etc when the only entrance I found was jumping through the one-way windows? Why do I always want to blast away any friendly allies I meet? Alright that last one is just a sick quirk of mine! Nicely set out and designed there are definitely some nice moments here such as the giant flying Roman head but as a demo this is just way too long and should maybe have just been cleaned up and released as a level as when we play the finished product the first 45 minutes or so will just be a replay of what we've already done." - Sash (09-Jan-2003)
"While very beautiful, this level raises many questions: Why did the church people install gates if you can walk right through them? Why is the church roof made out of thick black steel?, Why does Lara's house have a stained glass window - in the middle of the house? Whatever happened to collision on objects?!!!?!?!!!, Who put all those targets all over the place, and why?, Why are there holes in the church roof?, Why are there VCI logos on the chimneys?... The list goes on. :D There are some funny bits in this level, the above and some others, but on the whole it looks great. Not much gameplay to speak of, if you can find the targets OK. The ahmets look a bit out of place, but are a challenge to kill. I liked that floating head idea- one of the best enemies I've ever seen, coming close to the flying Skeleton from 'Necropolis of Seth'. The cathedral is well-done inside and out, and it really beats the house. The house area is so huge, the 20 squares limit really cuts it off, but I tried to ignore that. Inside the house looks pretty good, except the stained glass window in the middle. I loved the lighting in some parts of this level, there was a small sandy hill that had incredible lighting, as well as the living room in the house. Next to the living room was the incredibly white colonial-looking kitchen, very out of place. This level could use a bit of fixing up in some areas, but overall it looks very nice. Hopefully this will be one of the few 'Demos' that actually gets released in the future. Very nice looking cathedral/house with moderate challenges and easy gameplay. Check it out right now!" - Chronicles5 (30-Dec-2002)
"As said by others this has been released too early - even as a demo. At a minimum you should get the placement of the doors right (in terms of their height but also direction to avoid the invisible blocks and I am not sure about all the sound problems either. As you explore the areas with no apparent purpose I have to say I did like the Church area a lot especially the little chapel with Winston making a ghostlike appearance while the mansion looks rather strange. Many ahmets to kill and a revolver and lasersight to find. Although you can actually shoot all the targets with the pistols only. I did not like all the one-way walkthrough textures as this is highly confusing and unfair and I am not even sure it was always intentional. Bottomline I would not bother playing this now - I would wait for a version that is more 'ready' and maybe an advice to the author: forget about that mansion bit and spend your effort on the Church." - Michael (27-Dec-2002)
"Obviously this is a demo and it's good that its author released it so that we can point out its problems. The walls are thin everywhere and the doors are placed with the gap under them so the wrong way. The outside area has a church indeed and moving forward you see the house. Making a few jumps you get some pick ups and by exploring the key which I found the second time I played it but never found the coin as other players said they did and the bike. But I couldn't find any use of it except making a jump to find out that a door is closed at the other side. Running around in some colourful corridors I got a skeleton on my tail and no weapons to get rid of it so I just went into a crawlspace and got the laser-sight. I wonder what for as the targets around the house and on the church are manageable with just the pistols. I guess it still needs a lot of work especially with the doors and textures. There was no finishing trigger at least none that I found." - Kristina (23-Dec-2002)
"This is not so much a demo in terms of size as you get nearly 100 rooms with lots of areas to explore and many things to do. In fact I wouldn't call it a demo but more a work in progress as I wasn't really able to bring it to an end. I couldn't see any logic as far as gameplay is concerned and after an hour I quit with the gate near the motorcycle still closed and the coin and key still in Lara's backpack. Shall I have missed something I will be happy to rewrite this but from the moment the pharao's pillar didn't fit into the slot I knew there must be something wrong here. And what is a pharao's pillar doing in a church anyway?! Right so you get a huge impressive church and a remodeled version of Lara's mansion. The church is truly magnificent and the author should definitely try to pursue this branch of his project. It doesn't really come together with the nearby mansion but the retextured swimming pool looks great nevertheless; it needs some cleaning though. The gameplay is somewhat arbitrary with targets placed throughout the level that trigger gates somewhere else. There is a really great cut scene when you pick up the key in the church and a demon awakes crawls to the head of stone and that becomes an flying wraith and chases you. It's only spoiled by the fact that it's far too big and sometimes blocks off the view as Lara is trying to run away from it. The roll up gates looked completely out of place in the mansion I'm not so sure about the mutants either and there are a lot of other things that make not much sense (like you get the Egypt Wonderland from the Coastal wad in one of the mansion rooms) but still with a lot of work this could become an excellent level. Go there to have a look at the awe inspiring cathedral." - Dimpfelmoser (23-Dec-2002)