"The colosseum" analysis.

Scottlee · 10-07-07, 16:39

After reasonable beginnings with Streets of Rome and Trojan's Markets, the game coughs up its first rotten egg in the shape of THE Colosseum. I say again, THE Colosseum. You wouldn't want to get this underwhelming effort mixed up with the classic level of the (almost) same name from 1996. The creative laziness eminating from the title echoes itself in the action, with most of what we play through feeling lacklustre and rushed. This is a disappointing end to a section which previously had been just about holding its own against the rest of the series.

We begin with an easy secret and a dash across a lava pit. The makers probably thought they were being badass chucking some lava in as early as the third level. I just thought it was lazy, especially bearing in mind the gladiatorial Roman setting. I don't remember the bit in Gladiator where the senators expressed concern at a lava-spill the size of the Red Sea coursing beneath the city. Must have been in the deleted scenes. As cliched as spikes already were even in the year 2000, they still would have been more appropriate for The Colosseum setting than lava. You might think I'm being picky but when we're doing something as straightforward as running across collapsing tiles, small details can make or break the moment.

Whilst we're on the subject of the tiles, why is it when there's lava involved nobody thinks to build a sturdy, iron-clad, double-grated walkway that if needed to could remain standing even in the face of a nuclear explosion? Instead it's always a rickety old crumbling girly bridge that looks like it was put together with a bit of glue and some sticky-back plastic, guaranteed to fall apart the moment a pigeon lands on it. They could make a commerical for this scene where Lara runs across the walkway only it doesn't collapse, at which point the voiceover announces "Wickes...Just the job!"

The lion pit still has lions in it (of course it does!), which might suggest those bones on the wall once belonged to an extremely chubby young Roman who had enough flab on him to feed a family of hungry cubs for centuries. Maybe that's why they condemned him, because he was so fat? They were very prejudiced back in those days. Chubby slow-moving men would have been no use in the battle arena. I think his name was probably "Fatsimus Auerilius", and nobody liked him very much, except the lions.

We get attacked by snarling gladiators soon after this. The stadium is empty and the emperor has no games scheduled for the afternoon, but the gladiators have turned up anyway and kitted themselves out in their finest combat gear. One of them is the size of the troll and fires lightning bolts. Despite this, I think Russell Crowe could have taken him. A timed puzzle proceeds this, the type that occasionally gets people making threads on the subject even though they already know what to do, they're just rubbish at it.

The level's biggest crime is showing us the centre of the arena but not letting us explore it. That's just infuriating. The biggest charm of the original Colosseum was that we could actually go inside the stadium and have a look around. Here we're kept at arm's length and shoehorned in the direction of a boss fight we already did in the previous level. Lazy. And infuriating.

To make matters worse, Pierre turns up at the end of the level in yet another pantomime FMV. This time we have Lara stooping as low as to shout "Boo", not to mention the slow realisation by the player that the precipice is surely no more than about thirty feet off the ground. It's almost a surprise the camera didn't follow Pierre on his way down accompanied by a whistling sound effect. There could even have been an exploding cloud of smoke when he hit the bottom revealing the outline of Pierre's outstretched body on the stony ground below (suggesting he had somehow managed to go straight through it). Now that would have been funny.

In case I didn't mention it before, our goal was to find the Philosopher's Stone in this level. When I got my hands on it though I really didn't feel like I'd earned it. A more appropriate reward for completing this mess would have been The BlackSmith's Stone, or The Unemployed Person's Stone, or a '20% off "Gladiator the movie" coupon', or maybe just a Mars Bar. Sorry but hell hath no fury like a raider scorned. Get me onto the next level before I start crying. 5/10

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TRM's Tomb Tidbits
"Gladiators were professional fighters in ancient Rome who fought against each other, wild animals, and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators. These fights took place in arenas in many cities from the Roman Republic period through the Roman Empire. The origin of the gladiatorial games is not known for certain. There are two theories: that the Romans adopted gladiatorial fights from the Etruscans, and that the games came from Campania and Lucania. The first recorded gladiatorial combats took place in Rome in 264 BC, at the start of the First Punic War against Carthage.

Gladiators could have been either prisoners of war or criminal slaves condemned to gladiator schools. There were also a number of volunteer gladiators. Prospective gladiators upon entering a gladiator school swore an oath giving their lives to the gods of the underworld and vowing to accept, without protest, humiliation by any means. Volunteers also signed a contract with a gladiator manager stating how often they were to perform, which weapons they would use, and how much they would earn.

The Romans' attitude towards the gladiators was ambiguous: on the one hand they were considered as low as slaves, but on the other hand, some successful gladiators rose to celebrity status and even those of senatorial and equites families seemed to join up as gladiators."

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Thanks to Tomb Raider Master for the pics and the tidbit

Dakaruch · 10-07-07, 16:53

well you're right in some points... (almost everyone of them

) and i guess that this TR was made a little bit in a hurry, because of the HUGE sucess TR4 had! they felt it would need a continuation and made this thing... But the levels of ireland and the VCT are a little better!
although this is one of the easiest TR ever, it is beaten by the easiest TR of them all, TR legends

this level is just too bad...

Corky_123 · 10-07-07, 17:41

I just replayed Chronicals, and while I agree that it is shockingly easy, and its evident that about four minutes of thought went into each level,(galdiators... OK...) I couldn't help but feel that the Rome levels are in their own strange way quite good. Theres no sense of urgency at all (even though Lara says that the gates about to explode). The lack of any great challenges and the pleasant chirping of the birds in the background makes them quite theraputic.
I'm rambling now so I'll stop.

Chocolate · 10-07-07, 18:44

Yeah, I always wondered how the lions managed to keep theirselves fed well daily! Also the same with the tigers in Temple to Xian.

Quote:

Whilst we're on the subject of the tiles, why is it when there's lava involved nobody thinks to build a sturdy, iron-clad, double-grated walkway that if needed to could remain standing even in the face of a nuclear explosion? Instead it's always a rickety old crumbling girly bridge that looks like it was put together with a bit of glue and some sticky-back plastic, guaranteed to fall apart the moment a pigeon lands on it. They could make a commerical for this scene where Lara runs across the walkway only it doesn't collapse, at which point the voiceover announces "Wickes...Just the job!"

The lion pit still has lions in it (of course it does!), which might suggest those bones on the wall once belonged to an extremely chubby young Roman who had enough flab on him to feed a family of hungry cubs for centuries. Maybe that's why they condemned him, because he was so fat? They were very prejudiced back in those days. Chubby slow-moving men would have been no use in the battle arena. I think his name was probably "Fatsimus Auerilius", and nobody liked him very much, except the lions.

Lol

Yay! Russia's next! Only 2 more levels and we'll be on Deepsea Dive... x-)

Dakaruch · 10-07-07, 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocolate

Yay! Russia's next! Only 2 more levels and we'll be on Deepsea Dive... x-)

well there's another level with lots to talk about!!!

Ada the Mental · 11-07-07, 10:47

I can't help but agree with you.
Honestly, watching the arena looking so stunning from those windows and not being able to make your way down there was infuriating, indeed.

And don't let me get started on the timed puzzle. It gets me in punch-everything-in-the-vicinity mode each time I dare play the level.

Tomb Raider Master · 11-07-07, 18:34

Nicely done.

Quote:

I say again, THE Colosseum. You wouldn't want to get this underwhelming effort mixed up with the classic level of the (almost) same name from 1996. The creative laziness eminating from the title echoes itself in the action, with most of what we play through feeling lacklustre and rushed.

Quote:

The lion pit still has lions in it (of course it does!), which might suggest those bones on the wall once belonged to an extremely chubby young Roman who had enough flab on him to feed a family of hungry cubs for centuries. Maybe that's why they condemned him, because he was so fat? They were very prejudiced back in those days. Chubby slow-moving men would have been no use in the battle arena. I think his name was probably "Fatsimus Auerilius", and nobody liked him very much, except the lions.

Quote:

When I got my hands on it though I really didn't feel like I'd earned it. A more appropriate reward for completing this mess would have been The BlackSmith's Stone, or The Unemployed Person's Stone, or a '20% off "Gladiator the movie" coupon', or maybe just a Mars Bar.

LOL!

xdiesp · 11-07-07, 19:53

Latin name of the Coliseum is Amphiteatrum Flavium.

Italian name you see nowadays in Rome is Colosseo, which means of course "colossal".

Titanium · 11-07-07, 22:16

Great review Scott, and a great tidbit TRM.

kryptonite23 · 12-07-07, 10:30

The golden roses there are really easy to find.

10-07-07, 16:39	#1
Scottlee Relic Hunter Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Leeds, England Posts: 7,507	"The colosseum" analysis. After reasonable beginnings with Streets of Rome and Trojan's Markets, the game coughs up its first rotten egg in the shape of THE Colosseum. I say again, THE Colosseum. You wouldn't want to get this underwhelming effort mixed up with the classic level of the (almost) same name from 1996. The creative laziness eminating from the title echoes itself in the action, with most of what we play through feeling lacklustre and rushed. This is a disappointing end to a section which previously had been just about holding its own against the rest of the series. We begin with an easy secret and a dash across a lava pit. The makers probably thought they were being badass chucking some lava in as early as the third level. I just thought it was lazy, especially bearing in mind the gladiatorial Roman setting. I don't remember the bit in Gladiator where the senators expressed concern at a lava-spill the size of the Red Sea coursing beneath the city. Must have been in the deleted scenes. As cliched as spikes already were even in the year 2000, they still would have been more appropriate for The Colosseum setting than lava. You might think I'm being picky but when we're doing something as straightforward as running across collapsing tiles, small details can make or break the moment. Whilst we're on the subject of the tiles, why is it when there's lava involved nobody thinks to build a sturdy, iron-clad, double-grated walkway that if needed to could remain standing even in the face of a nuclear explosion? Instead it's always a rickety old crumbling girly bridge that looks like it was put together with a bit of glue and some sticky-back plastic, guaranteed to fall apart the moment a pigeon lands on it. They could make a commerical for this scene where Lara runs across the walkway only it doesn't collapse, at which point the voiceover announces "Wickes...Just the job!" The lion pit still has lions in it (of course it does!), which might suggest those bones on the wall once belonged to an extremely chubby young Roman who had enough flab on him to feed a family of hungry cubs for centuries. Maybe that's why they condemned him, because he was so fat? They were very prejudiced back in those days. Chubby slow-moving men would have been no use in the battle arena. I think his name was probably "Fatsimus Auerilius", and nobody liked him very much, except the lions. We get attacked by snarling gladiators soon after this. The stadium is empty and the emperor has no games scheduled for the afternoon, but the gladiators have turned up anyway and kitted themselves out in their finest combat gear. One of them is the size of the troll and fires lightning bolts. Despite this, I think Russell Crowe could have taken him. A timed puzzle proceeds this, the type that occasionally gets people making threads on the subject even though they already know what to do, they're just rubbish at it. The level's biggest crime is showing us the centre of the arena but not letting us explore it. That's just infuriating. The biggest charm of the original Colosseum was that we could actually go inside the stadium and have a look around. Here we're kept at arm's length and shoehorned in the direction of a boss fight we already did in the previous level. Lazy. And infuriating. To make matters worse, Pierre turns up at the end of the level in yet another pantomime FMV. This time we have Lara stooping as low as to shout "Boo", not to mention the slow realisation by the player that the precipice is surely no more than about thirty feet off the ground. It's almost a surprise the camera didn't follow Pierre on his way down accompanied by a whistling sound effect. There could even have been an exploding cloud of smoke when he hit the bottom revealing the outline of Pierre's outstretched body on the stony ground below (suggesting he had somehow managed to go straight through it). Now that would have been funny. In case I didn't mention it before, our goal was to find the Philosopher's Stone in this level. When I got my hands on it though I really didn't feel like I'd earned it. A more appropriate reward for completing this mess would have been The BlackSmith's Stone, or The Unemployed Person's Stone, or a '20% off "Gladiator the movie" coupon', or maybe just a Mars Bar. Sorry but hell hath no fury like a raider scorned. Get me onto the next level before I start crying. 5/10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TRM's Tomb Tidbits "Gladiators were professional fighters in ancient Rome who fought against each other, wild animals, and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators. These fights took place in arenas in many cities from the Roman Republic period through the Roman Empire. The origin of the gladiatorial games is not known for certain. There are two theories: that the Romans adopted gladiatorial fights from the Etruscans, and that the games came from Campania and Lucania. The first recorded gladiatorial combats took place in Rome in 264 BC, at the start of the First Punic War against Carthage. Gladiators could have been either prisoners of war or criminal slaves condemned to gladiator schools. There were also a number of volunteer gladiators. Prospective gladiators upon entering a gladiator school swore an oath giving their lives to the gods of the underworld and vowing to accept, without protest, humiliation by any means. Volunteers also signed a contract with a gladiator manager stating how often they were to perform, which weapons they would use, and how much they would earn. The Romans' attitude towards the gladiators was ambiguous: on the one hand they were considered as low as slaves, but on the other hand, some successful gladiators rose to celebrity status and even those of senatorial and equites families seemed to join up as gladiators." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Tomb Raider Master for the pics and the tidbit __________________ For the first time ever I will understand my television Last edited by Scottlee; 10-07-07 at 17:00.

10-07-07, 17:41	#3
Corky_123 Hobbyist Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 57	I just replayed Chronicals, and while I agree that it is shockingly easy, and its evident that about four minutes of thought went into each level,(galdiators... OK...) I couldn't help but feel that the Rome levels are in their own strange way quite good. Theres no sense of urgency at all (even though Lara says that the gates about to explode). The lack of any great challenges and the pleasant chirping of the birds in the background makes them quite theraputic. I'm rambling now so I'll stop. __________________ 'Now lets get off this roof, and I'll buy you a milkshake'.

11-07-07, 10:47	#6
Ada the Mental Relic Hunter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Athens,Greece Posts: 5,464	I can't help but agree with you. Honestly, watching the arena looking so stunning from those windows and not being able to make your way down there was infuriating, indeed. And don't let me get started on the timed puzzle. It gets me in punch-everything-in-the-vicinity mode each time I dare play the level. __________________ "I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own- the usual,"

12-07-07, 10:30	#10
kryptonite23 Tomb Raider Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Manila,Philippines Gender: Male Posts: 23,901	The golden roses there are really easy to find. __________________ ~Pain is Pleasure~

10-07-07, 16:53	#2
Dakaruch Relic Hunter Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 9,608	well you're right in some points... (almost everyone of them ) and i guess that this TR was made a little bit in a hurry, because of the HUGE sucess TR4 had! they felt it would need a continuation and made this thing... But the levels of ireland and the VCT are a little better! although this is one of the easiest TR ever, it is beaten by the easiest TR of them all, TR legends this level is just too bad...

11-07-07, 19:53	#8
xdiesp Student Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 117	Latin name of the Coliseum is Amphiteatrum Flavium. Italian name you see nowadays in Rome is Colosseo, which means of course "colossal".

11-07-07, 22:16	#9
Titanium Tomb Raider Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: England Posts: 13,059	Great review Scott, and a great tidbit TRM.