| Reviewer's comments |
"A very impressive ship design, no doubt, but I have to admit that even following the author's provided wakthrough I found myself roaming into the wrong directions now and then — perhaps I am losing my touch, after all. At first I was under the impression this would turn up to be a "train" level, except on a ship, due to the long and narrow shape, but while that's not the case I was still pleasantly surprised with the undertow (and being dragged under the ship while looking for an opening for a secret is something I don't remember having done). With that ship format, you inevitably get a surrounding blackness and the end of the world is right there, with barely half a dozen of water tiles surrounding the ship, but as you spend just as much time indoors as you do outdoors, it quickly becomes a non-issue. There's a fair share of backtracking to be done as you look for the three tagged switches and a handful of keys, some nice pushblock puzzles in tight spots, and there's a nice sense of progression as you get access to more and more areas of the ship but, like I said, when it's time to backtrack I found myself struggling a bit. 60 minutes, 3 secrets. 12/21" - Treeble (13-Dec-2021) |
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| "Truly brilliantly constructed and a much
more enjoyable experience than the
preceding levels in this trilogy
(Alexandreda Aqueduct and Twin Towers).
It's not for the fainthearted though. The
ship environment depicted here is
undoubtedly expansive and entails an
enormous amount of exploration inside and
around. There's also rather a lot of
backtracking to perform, so it actually
might help to steal a couple of glances at
the walkthrough to get oriented correctly.
Either that or have a superhuman memory
(anyone?). The button puzzle in the engine
room also proved a bit confusing, but I
got through it with trial and error so I
must have done something right. Enemies
were also a bit sporadically placed, but
spiced things up nonetheless. Apart from
those minor gripes, this was a joy to
play. The (active) ship setting is
supremely crafted and textured and the
gameplay is puzzling and engaging
throughout. I loved the block puzzles and
the way that you were able to manipulate a
crane in order to gain access to an area
below was inspired. Solid raiding for
raiders of all abilities." - Ryan (15-Feb-2019) |
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| "There is a lot of going back and forth because you have to switch on three
switches to get yellow key and disk. The final requires the armor which was
very hard to find. I liked brightness and athmosphere. The camerawork is
good but rooms could be more different than now (very similar). I needed
walkthrough. Puzzles are excellent. Recommendable." - vienna (31-Aug-2016) |
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| "Good attemp for a ship level, with a good design (except for the sea area, too short) good texturization, good architecture and nice tasks... All was right until you use the button to open the three doors in the inner dinning room: then you can choose any route (why not???) and it involves a lot of backtracking, backtracking and backtracking, visiting the same places a lot of times 'cause you have not the items you need; the machinery room is very confused even if you go there with the fuse, with all that buttons and cameras you never know when you can abandone the room. It could be a good level, but the gameplay is too "obscure". Sorry." - Jose (29-Feb-2012) |
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| "This is a real gem from one of our Hall of Fame builders who unfortunately has not been heard from for a while. All of the action takes place on a vessel, not a sunken derelict but a modern ship in current use. It's something of a shooter as well, as enemies seem to come at you from around every corner. The sequence in the engine room, where you have to perform a variety of tasks to get the engines started, is especially well done. All told, it took me a bit more than two hours to finish the level, even with the help of the walkthrough written and provided by the builder. Something he said in the walkthrough resonated so well with me that I deem it worthy of being quoted verbatim here: "Dark levels are a pet hate of mine, if I load a level and I can't see what Lara is doing I'll delete that sucker faster than you can say, 'Light Switch'. Notice how this level takes place at night but you can still see what you're doing; you too can create the impression of darkness without actually making it dark." Amen to that, brother. This is a throughly satisfying raid that players of all skill levels should enjoy." - Phil (07-Dec-2011) |
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| "This is surely a good level to play. But you must pay attention to everything, because if you miss one thing, you can never finish this level. You have to run around the ship searching for keys. This is definetly not an easy level. The puzzles are pretty difficult to solve. After some time this level got boring. There are always a lot of guards to kill. The objects were almost all from older games. The secrets however were well hidden. The atmosphere of a ship was good. There are a few original sounds. The cameras were all good placed. The lightning was (almost) everywhere the same. The textures were however all well placed, but still, every room looked almost the same to me. You could place some more water around the ship, it could give you a feeling of the open sea. But never mind all my comments, if you like ship levels, if you like shooting levels, if you like hard levels: This level has got it all!!" - Danja (30-May-2007) |
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| "I had started this level a while ago, got confused as hell and dropped it. It was one of the rare ship levels and I was determined to finish it, so re-downloaded recently and started replaying. I immediatly guessed that there had been an update, because I noticed Lara's new (well, old rather) outfit, that had replaced the one in version 1. This time, while still being quite confused on many occasions, I did finish it though, and thought I have a handful of gripes, I have to admitt this is the best ship level I've played to date and even solely for that is a must-play. I can just imagine how difficult it must've been to keep all the rooms and ideas sealed into the Neptune's hull, and it has worked incredibly well, so kudos to that. Ok the ocean and the black distance walls do look pretty bad, and not mentioning the end of the world you can see, jumping into the ocean to find the entrance into the ship wasn't the most realistic of touches either, but you can do only so much with the editor, and I'll say it again - the ship is pretty amazing! Having a sense of orientation is helpful, cause at times, even when there are camera-hints you're not really sure what you should be doing, or where you need to go - especially if the thing you just did sets off something at the opposite end of the ship. Reaching the end, and finding out you've missed either bit of the trikey, the code disc or the armor is rather frustrating. I was fortunate enough to only miss the disc, and thus didn't have to backtrack too far to get it, as I had missed it on a desk nearby. The old trick with the code disk on the desk! I also have to say that the secrets have me completely eluded - thus I found none at all. A thing I wasn't so happy about, was that the switch that was supposed to make the retireval of the 2nd blue key safe, didn't work and the funnel was still on flames. It might have been something I did wrongly, but it takes two to tango, so I'll go and think that the author is partially to blame for letting something like this happen too. But not wanting to replay the whole level, when I already hardly orientated on it as it was, and having a decent ammount of medipacks, I resolved to setting Lara ablaze and diving into the ocean and then reentering the ship through the hole by the propellers (Ok, so it DID have some use!) and was well off till the end, with even 1 medipack still left. Anyway - enough about me - do play this level - but better do it in one go and without playing anything else in between to keep the layout of the ship well in mind. Highly recommended as the best ship level we have currently - not without faults, but definetly a good level to play, nonetheless!" - eTux (21-Aug-2005) |
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| "Here's a great ship level from Leroy. Lara's in a stowaway but not without cause (as if someone with as much money as her would sneak into a crate rather than pay for 1st class VIP treatment lol). The legendary Alexander's armour has been stolen from the London museum so Lara sneaks aboard this ship holding it so she can get it back. She also has to take control of the ship so she can bring it back (isn't she talented being able to drive a ship lol). This is the 3rd part of a trilogy. It is a great level with clever ideas. It looks like a mix between TR2's offshore rig/diving area and TR5's sub/base levels. There is a lot of going back and forth and it's easy to get stuck I used the walkthrough a fair bit. The sea didn't look very realistic it was just a square of water with a boat on top. But the author explained in his walkthrough that he wanted the water to disappear off into the night but was unable so that's good to hear that he attempted it. Some people wouldn't think to use clever ideas like that! I did enjoy the level it looked very realistic. There were quite a few guards but obviously you need loads of people on a ship. The beginning was clever too the flyby of the ship then Lara inside a crate (lucky there was a crowbar!) which is in a storeroom. The difficulty is medium but some parts are tricky. A great level recommended!" - Aims (01-Jun-2004) |
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| "I think Leroy did a good job making so much gameplay in such a small area! It's set aboard a ship and Lara has to find the stolen armour of Alexander and take control of the ship. Notice that the level won't end if you don't perform those two actions. There is a lot of running around back and forth to find ways to open up doors but that is to be expected I think aboard a not very large ship. I would have liked a little bit more of a view from the ship though it feels as if it is inside a room..." - G.Croft (10-Feb-2004) |
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| "Aboard the Neptune is an entertaining adventure. Lara has to find keys and push many switches in order to reach the bridge and use a disk. But after doing all you can't finish the level unless you have found the armor (cleverly hidden into a crate). I had to read the walkthrough but finally I got the armor and finished the level. Found 2 secrets in almost 2 hrs of net gaming time. The ship is nicely done but the sea is terrible; I missed some more work here." - Loupar (25-Dec-2003) |
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| "It's been an excellent idea to sneak on board in a cargo crate that gave a good disposition from the very start. Which remained through all the level a good demonstration of a cargo vessel: the appearance is quite functional /as it should be/ not too many employees many abandoned rooms where Lara can be up to no good undisturbed. The puzzles are fair and fit in the environment." - Akcy (07-Nov-2003) |
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| "This was such a disappointment afterwards and I was really looking forwards to play a ship level. Although some part did look good the gameplay was tedious and that is an understatement. Having started this the date it came out I was lost completely and never got my bearings. Playing it for the 4th time around even with a walkthrough I got lost again even when I followed the walkthrough to the letter. Had to do it all over and although some parts are still not clear I did finish it. This is a big NO-NO in my book. Sorry Leroy getting stranded after getting through a timed door is not fair. Also not fair is the running around one had to do with no indication what to do next. No camera work when you need one and getting cameras when it is rather obvious. A lot of other things started to annoy me after the tenth time around this ship. A shame really as there is some great jumping to do to get all those engines going. Puzzles are great and the whole look was great as well. 15-09-2003" - Gerty (22-Sep-2003) |
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| "Finding the piece of armour that was stolen and brought on a ship that's what you have to do. Not that you're finished when you found it you still have to find a way to get on the bridge. It's not an easy level but very well done. There's a lot of running around (like a headless chicken in my case) and if you have any sense of direction it will be a lot easier I think because I did see where the blue and yellow keys should go but once I got them it took a lot of running to find the receptacles again so if you have a good memory that helps a lot too. The pieces of Trikey-key are very well hidden so search very thoroughly everywhere. The secret is hidden even better I never found it. If you like ship levels this is certainly one you should play so have fun." - Josi (27-Jul-2003) |
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| "Oh dear! What a mess. I would have never finished this level without taking a look at the forum for help. Where do I begin from the many doors that need a card to open and I was searching like mad for it but couldn't find it from the moving blocks puzzle and the search for that second half of the VCI key I couldn't find or from the room with the machines. A timed run and quite a few closed doors at first gave me the idea that this was not going to be a walk in the park but I didn't imagine it was that bad. Now to be fair the setting is nice the ship well built but what do I do with it when I can't find my way in it. There is nothing that will come easy in this level not even one key so if you want to play it bear in mind that it's not for beginners in fact it's not even for TR veterans without much patience." - Kristina (26-Jun-2003) |
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| "Before starting this level I read the reviews from the other players and thought 'How can these people get lost on a tiny little ship!?'. Hours later as I wandered between decks looking for keys and cards trying to figure out how to get back to an area I had just been in I was saying 'I wonder how these people finally found their way off this #@*% ship!?' It's beautifully built with great attention to detail but it should have been laid out so that it was easier to get around even after just finishing the level I'm not sure if I could play it again any faster than I did the first time. That said I really enjoyed myself most of the time - the puzzles are clever and make full use of the room available and with the various things to do and see it was hard to get bored and as more areas of the ship became available it was fun to explore for what to do next. Your objective is to find the piece of armour which is very near where you start and then find the key to open the door to the bridge and use a disc to take command of the ship. I found only one secret this time and in all my time searching the ship from top to bottom I didn't see a single bathroom - no wonder these sailors were so grouchy!" - RaiderGirl (23-Jun-2003) |
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| "This level is an interesting one. It takes place on a ship. First I run about long till I managed to find all the 4 Keys and the Code Disc. For the first time I found only one secret: the Grenade Gun. The added sounds are great and the textures fit well to the level. The enemies are soldiers and sailors. There's a timed run but is not particularly difficult. I was get jammed by the engine-house for a while I spent some time on finding out what to do. This level is a splendid one I recommend it to everybody. The scenes are particulars. There's only one thing I don't understand: there's an underwater passage in the wall in the end of the ship. You can't swim back from there it must be a trap but why is it there? Possibly the level would have been continued from here? :-)" - Obig (22-Jun-2003) |
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| "This level is set on a ship which was designed with much care. Lara has the task to find a number of items (a chip card and keys) and they are hidden well. Puzzles were tricky at times also due to the lack of cameras. Lara find here way if you look around carefully ;) At the end she knows the ship inside and out including some well hidden corners :) I found one secret. Enemies were suitable for a ship sound was also suitably added. Lara ends the level with a disc that she has to find. For me a recommendable level and partly very entertaining." - Navi (15-Jun-2003) |
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| "I love the beginning of this level with Lara breaking out of a crate in which she has obviously stowed away - rather a clever touch I thought although it just goes to show that you should always read an author's readme otherwise you might have thought the whole thing had glitched. I really was most impressed with the look and feel of the ship; in fact the whole thing feels so authentic you may just be in trouble if you're prone to seasickness. It's a lovely light level too which is always a plus point with me. Gameplay wise it can become quite confusing but Leroy has now provided a walkthrough so help is readily to hand. Your ultimate goal is to find a piece of armour and to accomplish this you have to search quite a large ship hindered along the way by guards and some excellently well re-textured ninjas. There are keys to find and levers to throw and unless you refer to the walkthrough from time to time you could do a very great deal of backtracking. You even get to swim under the ship avoiding currents and propellers - thankfully there are no sharks in these waters. Good entertainment in a really superbly well done setting. 13.06.2003" - Jay (15-Jun-2003) |
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| "'Aboard the Neptune' I read is part three in an on-going adventure. I will be playing parts 1 and 2 as soon as possible and hoping they are as much fun as 'Aboard the Neptune'. In principle this sounds like a pretty boring game. Lara is on a ship searching for a set or armor. Ships! Ugh. Claustrophobia with a capital boring. But what the heck I'll give it a shot. This is a lot of fun and a very well thought out story. The beginning is a blast imho. Lara has smuggled her way onto the ship in a shipping container. All is black! Strike a flare find the crowbar break out of the container and then begin the search for the armor. Interesting Lara notes most of the doors are locked. And therein lies a lot of the challenge finding the passkey to the doors. There are bad guys who are well placed to make life uncomfortable but Lara can dispense with them with the pistols and a bit of dexterity. There are a couple of puzzles but they will not cause your hair to turn white (if you have any hair - I have but a little). The challenge is the game. The ship becomes a maze of sorts and you must run from end to end within and without the ship accomplishing your goal. About halfway through the game Lara is once again in what appears to be a dark shipping container. Should she break out? Would the designer repeat himself? No on both counts. The first time through is really challenging or it was for me. Once the devilish mind of the designer Leroy Perkins is understood and 'Aboard the Neptune' is attempted for a second time it is quite logical and flows very well. Mr. Perkins did give a few things away that I believe he shouldn't have. For example there is the perfect place at the stern from which Lara should drop into the water. And dropping from this point makes it much easier for her to accomplish her underwater deeds than if she jumps into the sea from the side (as I had her do). Well done Mr. Perkins. I had a great deal of fun playing 'Aboard the Neptune' and recommend it highly to all." - Dougsan (07-Jun-2003) |
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| "Court calls jury member Happy bERT what's your verdict? - Your honor as a happy chap I want to say that I immensely enjoyed running around in such a realistic boat setting best I've played so far great engine room decks crane the rusty underwater level. Even with the restrictions of the level editor the outside is made very closely approaching reality. I give this one full marks only for the patience of this creator to make such a complex level 10-10-10-10. Now eVIL bERT what's your verdict? - Ok you woopsy let me first say you look ridiculous with that wig your holy righteousness. Ok now about the level what the bl**dy h*ll was that cr*p all about? As soon as I reached that friggin' engine room I went nuts and started the level all over again I mean where are the cameras when you need them and why using cameras when everything's bl**dy obvious? Is this really the same author whom with his previous Aqueduct level promised progressive levels? This must have been made by his evil twin brother no? Endlessly running back and forth and then still we had that first trikey to find and where do you think? Yes in the bl**dy forum after near 20 hours (yes you're reading it right 20 real time hours) of gaming and getting sick and tired of it! Four big fat zeros that's my vote! And I'll be happy to give him my foot too but not where he likes it! Judge bERT will now pronounce the final verdict all rise! - After much deliberation I judge bERT have come to this conclusion. Though we understand the sheer frustration of eVIL bERT he too will have to understand that introducing subtle but not always very clear hints can be frustrating at first but is no reason to start insulting hard working level creators like dear Mister Perkins. We therefore hold the appreciation for gameplay at a medium rate of 6. Enemies were a bit bleakly introduced as in Aqueduct but the two secrets our players found where rather good (grenade thrower and ammunition) as was the Armour piece which seemingly was not a secret therefore 7 same as for the third category. For the sheer work we'll give the full 10 for lighting and textures. Now eVIL bERT as for your bad behaviour I'm sentencing you to follow a five week emotion control course with my wife Helga Dominatrix. As for Mr Perkins you may build on as a free man!" - bERT (06-Jun-2003) |
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| "Definitely as others have said this is a well-designed ship which you get to see all of from the tip of the funnels on top to a dip under the ship where you can find either entry or death. There are also some really nice little things to do on this ship the engine room with many jumps springs to mind as well as some small but interesting movable block puzzles and a couple of easy timed runs but the main thing that stayed with me when I finished was the sheer frustration of manoeuvring around this ship especially when it came to getting from inside the ship to different sections of the outer decks as I seemed to make those treks many many times but yet still had to always stop to think and make sure I was going the right way. This started to get old very quickly and the fact that each time I found a key or pressed a button I then had to go on a long journey to get to the place it triggered or that I would use the key on. This though won't bother some I'm sure but for me it was a big downside and I lost a lot of interest and just wanted to end it and finally did after 70 minutes. I have to tip my hat though at Leroy as he promised to make the secrets harder seemingly because of a comment I made in a previous review and I only found one the grenade gun so to Leroy 'Ya got me!'" - Sash (05-Jun-2003) |
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| "I had so much wanted to like this level as we rarely get to see a Shipboard adventure. Alas this particular custom outing irritated me more than any other I have yet played. Let's take each category in order: Gameplay. I have huge problems with levels set in a realistic location yet which contain utterly implausible gameplay. Egyptian temples in a fantasy environment are one thing but a Ship at sea with such an absurdly complex interior layout is quite another. This has to be the most complicated ship in its fleet and one with understandably the most grumpy crew. Imagine this: You need a key to open a vital door (one which leads to its important cargo). Where do you place the key? In a locked room? No too obvious. In a well-guarded area? No too easy. How about placing it on top of the smoking funnel? And in order to turn off the smoke you need (via a terribly roundabout route) to switch ON all the ships engines. Where on earth is the logic in this? Elsewhere in the level we are presented with equally ludicrous concepts such as a key which is located in a room only accessible by swimming underneath the ship; a steaming moving ship. Against this admittedly are moments of delicious inspiration (activating the crane in order to monkey swing into the Cargo Hold for example). Camera clues are sometimes helpful sometimes pointless often missing altogether at the moments when you need them most. This results in that well known occurrence the 'criss-crossing the entire level for the absolute umpteenth time in a desperate and increasingly depressing search for something that may or may not have happened somewhere' phenomena. Enemies: These are interesting; but the ship on the whole is a fairly empty place; presumably because owing to the aforementioned problems it's the least popular afloat. Atmosphere: This isn't bad at all. In fact the empty corridors and shipboard ambience are well captured. Lighting and Textures: these are everywhere impeccable and the look of the vessel is lovingly captured with absolute perfection! A superb construction achievement. So there you have it. A smashing-looking location with gameplay as slow and infuriating as a Test Cricket match. And like a Cricket match those who love this style of game will lap this up; those who don't (namely me) should stay well away." - Orbit Dream (03-Jun-2003) |
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| "Now according to Leroy this is Part 3 of the series. Part 1 was Alexandreda Aqueduct to find a map to Part 2 Twin Towers to find Alexander's Golden Armour she sends to the British Museum and surprise surprise it's stolen. She learns it's aboard the Neptune and off she goes to get it back. This is turning into quite a little saga so we can expect more I hope. Anyway Lara has stowed away in a crate and she brings a crowbar with her clever girl to break open the crate and make her way out of the cargo hold. She is also wearing what looks like a denim jacket and jeans very nice. She also has a very pleasant face in this level a very benign Mona Lisa smile have a close look. This is not the easiest ship to make you're way around there's a fair bit of searching to do for trapdoors switches crawlspaces keys VCI key security card and of course the Armour. There was a horrifying fall into water under the ship where I was dragged into oblivion. The only funny part of this was seeing a thug running around underwater on the seabed. The aim here is to try and swim against the current to get under the ship and back up into it. The place where you get one half of the VCI key where you raise and lower a block totally eluded me until I read the forum brilliant. The other place I was stuck for a long time was the engine room I totally missed the switch on the far right side because you have to jump around a corner to get to it. There' also a couple of 'very' clever block pushing puzzles. The only thing that looked bad was there was just a small amount of water around the ship and beyond that a very obvious black 'end of the world'. I don't know if there is any way round this and it doesn't in any way take from the level. I'm sure there's a logical and easy way to do this level but I spent so long running around backwards and forwards and got to know that ship so well it felt like home. Enemies are humans two types of soldiers and two types of beefy looking sailors. Very frustrating confusing exciting original brilliant well constructed very believable ship and appropriate lighting. Excellent Leroy. Can' t wait to see what you come up with next." - CC (03-Jun-2003) |
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| "Wow - this is a fabulous level - quite amazing how much one can get lost on something as 'small' as a nice little cruiser like this one. A certain sense of orientation and a good memory will definitely make life easier for you here. My net gaming time weas 1:30 hours but I am sure the level can be completed way below that and you don't even want to know about my actual time spent. Well but now for the details: A nice outfit really well chosen music and suitably added sounds and an excellent start fitting the story line very well. From there you set out exploring finding many many doors switches levers and performing a few interesting moves mastering a timed run crawling through ducts (but not too tedious) deal with small but clever movable block puzzles and all this to eventually find and use two blue and two yellow keys a security pass a TriKey and a code disc. Enemies are two dozen or so bad guys spread about the ship. I especially enjoyed the engine room (great platform action) the crane move was cool and all those 'ah - that's what I need to do'-moments were great. Found only one of the three secrets (grenade gun). So why not a straight ten rating? Because I got very frustrated when running around in circles not knowing what to do next. Camera work was good but at times it showed the obvious and did go amiss when it bas badly needed after pulling a lever. Maybe a bit more variety in the enemies would have helped too. And indeed the 'black box' around the ship ruined the overall atmosphere quite a bit even though that is not the author fault but more a limitation of the editor it still did spoil some of the fun. But all those are minor points compared to the excellent experience you will have on the Neptune - so go get the armor...NOW!" - Michael (02-Jun-2003) |
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| "I cannot believe how fantastic this level is! It has it all tricky and less tricky puzzles the right amount of enemies that even gave me a fright at times perfect lighting and textures brilliant. It starts with a fabulous fly-by sequence giving you a quick overview of the outside along with some funky music. All the rooms were different with amazing textures that were just perfect starting with the cargo holds and up out on deck. The puzzles were the best part for me especially the tricky timed run the engine room and extremely clever smaller puzzles for the other essential items. They were all pretty much original and great fun to play through. I got stuck a few times and took me while to figure out the answer was beneath my nose all the time! The push block puzzles (there are a couple of them) were perfect and not just the simple ones I've seen before. The crafting of the ship is a masterpiece I have no idea how the author got all those rooms inside the ship. This is by far my favourite level ever it will be hard to top this! The level ends with a pretty neat fly-by signaling that you've finally overtaken the ship!" - TrueRaider (02-Jun-2003) |
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