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Old 28-01-17, 06:46   #21
Zreen001
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Ok, videos for Tomb of the Nelomgals and Beneath the Forbidden City are uploaded and linked in the first post.

My question I pose to all of you is:
Which format do you prefer (or want me to tweak?)

The first format, (though second-listed), for Tomb of the Nelomgols is what I call the Optimal Playthrough. It shows nearly 90% of the gameplay, while cutting out backtracks or getting lost and focuses on new material and transitions from A to B. Also deaths.

The second format, (listed first... I know, confusing), for Beneath the Forbidden City is what I call the Highlight Playthrough. It shows about 60% of the gameplay involved, focusing only on the best features of the level without spoiling as much as the Optimal Playthrough gives. Also deaths. Due to the nature of the format, it's about two-thirds shorter than the Optimal Playthrough.

Give them each a watch and tell me which format you prefer for the rest of the levels, or if you like both for different reasons, or absolutely hate both. If you'd like me to tweak something, or use an entirely new format.
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Old 04-02-17, 06:27   #22
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As some of you may have noticed, I've been editing my posts to include the recorded videos accompanying each not-review.
Feel free to watch them, and if you want to see the channel:
ZreenPlays

"Anthology" level sets, as in, packages or separate level uploads that make up a series of four or more levels will not have a video accompanying them until I reach the last level uploaded of that set.
However, I will still make not-reviews of individual pieces if they were uploaded separately and not as a package- just not with video until the end.
This includes things like The Rescue, Tarragona, Techno Egyptians, and Astrodelica, to name a few.
They'll still get not-reviews when they show up, just no video, like I said, until the end.

I've put this info in the op post as well.

Do note: I'm not playing these on a gaming pc, apologies if fullscreen lessens your experience due to resolution.
All I wish to do is preserve these levels in video form and raise awareness for these older levels.

Happy raiding!
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Old 11-04-17, 23:28   #23
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Not much *new* activity on this thread because I've been busy recording gameplay for the various levels I'm playing (which takes a bit more time than just playing it outright then talking about it).

Anyway, after 14 cumulative hours over 10 days and then another week of editing into gameplay segments, here's my not-review of the Hall of Famer,
"Tarragona" by Josep Borrut.

Tarragona 1+2 - Escipions Tower/Escipions Caves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQjG7U0yxc0
STORY: Starts off with Lara exploring the ruins of Tarragona near Catalonia. There, she finds Escipion's Tower and an intricate series of caves and caverns where a bunch of artifacts lead her to the next area.
GAMEPLAY: Basic tomb raider gameplay (in a good way). Find this, pull that, go here, go there, climb that, swim this... it was a good start to the series with a surprising amount of difficulty. The swimming portion with the curving tunnels were probably the hardest, but that can be said for any water puzzle.
VISUALS: Amazing work for such an early level! I felt like I was actually there at times, there were details that seemed lifted straight from as if a Tarragona archaeological dig.

Tarragona 4 - Devil's Lair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXNO7BwEwqA
STORY: At the start of the next level, Devil's Bridge, there's a small cave Lara finds that brings her to an optional challenge level that actually prepares her for several gameplay mechanics later in the series. She must survive the Devil's Lair!
GAMEPLAY: Wow. This was hard. Navigating your way through a complex series of jumps, monkey swings, water puzzles (grr), a grand pillar complex, and a pyramid takes quite a long time, and required several breaks from me to actually get through it all. Fun once past all that, and it also prepares for later levels.
VISUALS: Devil's Lair. What do you expect? Lava, fire everywhere, some water, a small patch of trapped-souls-quicksand, the works. Also a random hut where the Devil supposedly lives? (with the chimney full of lava, too)

Tarragona 3 - Devil's Bridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhtk7mIlnOI
STORY: Either ignoring Devil's Lair or upon finishing it, Lara explores the area around Devil's Bridge, coming across a hydro dam, a ravine, and a hidden base next to what looks like a miniature Escipion's Tower.
GAMEPLAY: Extremely annoying camera in the beginning of the level, fixed cameras nearly everywhere concerning the first Bridge area. Past that there wasn't a problem with cameras. The use of the dam to fill the previously-deadly ravine was cool touch that added realism to the game. The bike segment was also fun, driving through mining tunnels, using the nitro, etc.
VISUALS: Beautiful texture combinations, as thought out as the first couple levels. The water has a nice blueness to it.

Tarragona 5 - The Underground Empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZp6ja4pwOQ
STORY: Lara explores the base's sewer system until she reaches a storage/hanger for underwater subs of some kind.
GAMEPLAY: This level has three parts of gameplay emphasis. First is the sewers where you're going through a whole bunch of water segments, finding out where to go. Once you're in the actual base, things shift to climbing around ladders, boxes, and cranes. Finally, the jeep portion was very fun to play.
VISUALS: Lacking in the sewers, everything looked the same (likely intentonal), much more colorful in the hangar base. The subs were very interesting both outside and inside.

Tarragona 6 - Algernon's Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYDf2ArKd5E
STORY: Lara discovers what the base was researching: a large blue crystal.
GAMEPLAY: This was probably the least amount of gameplay in the series. Parts that stand out, however, is the maze (normally I hate mazes, but Mr. Borrut used cameras to guide you through it), then there's a large rolling ball segment that reminded me a lot of the India levels in TR3, and finally the water maze (again, cameras helped) which I'd already been familiar with back in Devil's Lair.
VISUALS: Interesting, but overall lacking. The maze was cool, though, so was the large blue crystal and its... interesting properties.

-plot spoilers beyond this point-

Tarragona 7 - Civilisations Crossroads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZ2whbgb3w
STORY: Lara finds herself in the middle of some strange base with aliens and reptile soldiers, and tries to find a way to get onto a space ship.
GAMEPLAY: A lot of standard tomb raider stuff again, except this time in more of a fantastical scifi setting. First faceoffs against the aliens and raptor soldiers were a huge surprise, I was NOT expecting that to happen. And then the end. I do have to warn players that the game does crash upon loading the next level after this, however a roundabout explanation says Lara lost her things on the way to the next level so you can get to the level from the main menu but you'd lose most of your stuff.
VISUALS: Interesting dynamic between rock and base.

Tarragona 8+9 - Final Countdown / Caves of Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91wdWJnZ4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHmX9T8Vc1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knlOwSXBtSU
STORY: Lara's equipment's gone and she has to make do with what's left as she travels around the alien starship in a space suit. She changes the coordinates for the ship's engines and finds herself in a massive space battle against other aliens. She makes her way through both ships, battling security systems and soldiers until she can find an escape shuttle to take her to those coordinates she input earlier. But does she really go home?
GAMEPLAY: In Final Countdown, most of the gameplay revolved around getting from A to B while also going to C and D in the process. The map helped, though I needed to use the walkthrough to find out that it was underneath a pillow just slightly moved from all the other pillows.
Caves of Steel was just... immense. First part had me frantically trying to get out of there while being chased by those Iris wraith security drones, then finding out which direction to push the snake. The next area was like the climbing elevator shaft segment of Chronicles' VCI except 10x as big and complicated. I'm surprised I didn't end up having to use the walkthrough for any of that, I was fairly close a lot of times. Really enjoyed the use of the lasers, too. The elevators later was a nice calmness compared to before that (though I did have to use a walkthrough to find a specific crawl place I needed). Then came blowing everything up. That was fun. Returning to the alien ship all wrecked and destroyed reminded me of the natural progression of events Mr. Borrut did with the hyrdo dam in Devil's Bridge. Returning to Lara's Home was a huge surprise as well as what happened to the butler. (now I know where he got the idea for the ending of his Lara at the Movies level).
VISUALS: Final Countdown was very interesting. A ship in space, with a bunch of stars outside. Most interesting looking places have to be the control bridge and the coordinates room where you choose a galaxy, type of star, and which planet (how you get to Earth). The change on the way back was very interesting as well, as well as before when everything's blowing up.
Caves of Steel was very very interesting compared to that. Huge sprawling "caverns" and "cave systems" of metal and ladders and lasers and all that gave the appearance of something marvelously planned and executed. It gave it almost a psiko-look to things. The elevator room was pretty, too.

Last edited by Zreen001; 11-04-17 at 23:39.
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Old 18-05-17, 19:03   #24
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Island of Silver Moon - Emoo - Sep 2002
Midnight Lagoon
Volcano
Mystic Madness/Maze
Underneath the Volcano

Thanks to Dutchy for his wonderful walkthrough and answering a gamebreaking question I had near the end.

This was a fun set, longer than I thought it'd be, but still quite fun.
Midnight Lagoon was calm-ish, I enjoyed the slight non-linearity of it, though it could do with some more cameras.
Volcano was a great homage to early TR trap rooms and puzzles.
Mystic Madness took quite a bit to get used to, and the Maze level addition to it was very intriguing.
Underneath the Volcano is a relatively shorter level, but still filled with traps and platforming like Volcano did. There's a potential gamebreaker near the end, however, that could stop players in their tracks if done wrong (like I did at first).

Good set of levels. Enjoyed most of it.
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Old 19-06-17, 17:40   #25
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Lost Mountains of Heroic Madness - Mulf - Oct 2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rdKJ9XcRUM

I enjoyed this only other level set by Mulf, its generally one level split into two, with great contrasts between exploring huge open areas and small cramped spaces. I enjoyed the openness of it all, though there seems to be a much easier way to go one way than another (doing the top first, then the middle section, then the bottom.) Really enjoyed this one.
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Old 20-06-17, 14:30   #26
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You must be having loads of fun replaying those gems, good luck on your goal!
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