Tomb Raider Custom Levels

[Blín D'ñero]

Over the Rainbow by Kitkat. You have to move a barrel (which is a closed object by nature), to reveal a huge lever. That is rediculous. I only noticed that because when i turned Lara around, it moved the camera through the barrel's texture, so i saw this metallic handle sticking inside. A really good Tomb Raider puzzle does not need this kind of 'magic'. Just clumsy, not a promising start of a level. I hope it will get better.

[...]
And it does indeed get better. But not very much.
I rate it 6 / 10

[Blín D'ñero]

Currently playing One World. This is top notch. I hope it stays that way.

[Blín D'ñero]

And it did. It's not good, it's a masterpiece. Now here are timed runs, within very tight margins, done right.
Awesome level. I rate it 10+ / 10.

[Blín D'ñero]

Return to the Loch is brilliant!
Innovative use of some sort of tombraider-classic-physics magic i'd never seen before: throwing a second burning torch where the first is (in that opening where crouching is not possible), it either bounces the first back to Lara when the throw isn't done right, or pushes the first one and itself through that uncrouchable opening to where i need it, at the other side. Still don't know why there were 4 torches while you only need 2; but "more than 1" is what gave me the hint i needed.
I rate this level 10+ / 10.

[Blín D'ñero]

Finished Catacombs Reloaded. Somewhat weak at the start but gets better along the way; disappointing are the many little design weaknesses; nevertheless it manages to captivate from start to finish with its acrobatic adventures and challenges. Can't decide if my rating is 7 / 10 or 8 / 10...
Oh heck, i'll put it this way: it has a potential 8 but should have been worked out better in the details, so
i rate it 7 / 10

[Blín D'ñero]

Further Over The Rainbow is better than part one (Skribblerz Stonez 2). Skills are improved. But still irritating flaws, for instance: knifetraps killing Lara even though she's standing on a safe tile (also when she picks up the key on another safe tile), but after reloading that 'bug' is gone and it works properly. The pole-swing sequence (funny) is unprecise: from a standing jump the turning point from her grab is slightly under the poles and it ends with a headbump and fall; It only succeeds from a running jump where Lara's grab is a good deal above the poles, ending with a non-existing (or transparent?) 7th pole above the platform.
Shitload of traps and long corridors compensate for the fact that design and decorations of rooms are still rather poor and monotonous. Nevertheless, it's definitively fun playing.
I rate it 7.5 / 10

[Blín D'ñero]

Playing Tempest Keep. Which is marvellous, with many surprising creative details. Very well done rocks structures to climb along making quite a varied and adventurous path! Captivating from the first second.
The environment is so well done, exploring never gets tedious. Finding the paths to go, and the connections between the puzzles (and traps), is subtle and well-balanced. Maybe apart from -in the first part- that ledge that should have been placed a little higher because Lara is able to reach its edge jumping, but she isn't allowed to grab because you 'are supposed' to figure out the other, legal way (very good path btw!)
One annoying bug though, in the second part, the underwater room, the sideroom, the trap with the three big moving blocks. Lara can easily get stuck on the triangular sandhills. Then she can't walk. She can turn around her axis, or take crawl position on the spot, so that her head or legs *would get crushed* by the stones but they're not: stuck Lara is invulnerable, and looking around the camera moves outside the map.
Reload savegame.
Also, Lara can just swim through the moving blocks (as long as she doesn't swim to the wall where the blocks turn, otherwise she'll die immediately), which is weird.
And next, in the room above, one of the three skeletons got stuck running on the very spot where he awoke. Later the big blue 'wasp' flies in and out of the rocks (same as in other levels Lara's rope swinging goes in and out walls) so it is invisible and gone but next second attacking Lara in the neck.

But those are only minuscule flaws, that don't take anything off this very strong pure Tomb Raider level in the slightest.
I rate it 10 / 10.

[Blín D'ñero]

In Aza's Kronicles Of Kage 2 (The Skribblerz Stonez 3.5), again like in his Kage 1, i hate what he did to Lara. A tribal dude in a carnavals suit. Also the voice is disaster: a boy's with a sore throat. I feel like quitting. I don't care about this character and hate how it grunts. He forgot the sighs when coming out of the water; they're still the original female.

[Blín D'ñero]

Glad i didn't quit, because it is a decent level! With quite some challenging paths that take time to figure out; it's a true Tomb Raider game.
One bug though: backtracking causes previously opened gates to become closed again and NO way around them. The large gate to the main room with the 3 horizontal pointy pillars around it... if you backtrack to the entrance of the level, the gate is closed again and impossible to re-open.
The adjacent room in the West that -after you killed the one-eyed monster- gives access to not only a pointy pillar's turning wheel and a steep tile causing the overview flyby; from that level you reach the monkeyswing to the pointy pillar in the North. I was there, but figured i had missed something so decided backtracking down to the earth. The way back was blocked, and because killing One-eye is the trigger to destroy that block but now he's already dead you're stuck.
Prepared for this kind of nonsense i always save in multiple slots, so i could reload a previous savegame.

This is a good level. Still it should have been with a genuine Lara.
Nevertheless, i rate it worthy of 8 / 10

[Blín D'ñero]

Now playing "Beyond The Scion" by EssGee. It's got some new moves too! Forward roll, amongst others.

Which aren't all that well implemented unfortunately.
"hang from ledge + pull up" looks outright rediculous in its rubber-like dynamics.
Something very abnormal to the way she pulls a lever as well (mechanical upperbody bobbing [A quick, jerky movement of the head or body]).
Most annoying is: while hanging from a ledge, if you keep the down button pressed you may unwillingly find Lara backflipping. That button used to do nothing in that position, but now with some completely useless new moves added, so watch out.

Rope swinging, particarly the lining-up before the jump to the next rope is unprecise, thus unpredictable. Because now apparently neither the normal-camera nor the look-camera is straight behind Lara.

Sloppyness in challenges: the timed platforms to lower the cage, Lara is allowed to climb up through a moving platform, though when passed and letting go to land on it she just falls through... (unless she climbs one extra step first and is not immediately burnt by the timed burner); eventually i managed, but annoyed. If you're not 'in time' by the law of the levelbuilder, the solid (stone or metal) platform Lara stands on loses its solidity, so Lara falls through it before it has even retracted from under her feet.
Worse is the next one in the lava room, the way back (after pulling the first lever) i only managed by run/jumping right through the moving blocks like magic!

This level pretends to be challenging and honestly it is, but its shape is not convincing.
Btw, it's partly a copy from Anniversary isn't it? I seem ro recognize very similar elements here.

When arriving at the table holding a floating Scion Lara doesn't attempt to grab it, but when i steer her a few meters away, with her back to the Scion, she makes gestures as if she's trying to grab it... in thin air! with her back towards it! meters away from it! When Natla has finished her speech, Lara draws gun and aims right besides her at thin air.

To get to a secret i see a huge crack in the wall but can't reach it. Turns out that the "grabbability" of the crack already starts 1½ blocks earlier, before the actual crack. Lara is supposed to jump and grab there.

Finding a way out, there are boulders... quite hard to get passed those, because Lara either finds herself between two stopped boulders or IN one of them. Eventually i managed to grab the side of the pit, but why aren't the boulders solid as they should.

Next room (with adjacent room with water pool and underwater lever etc)... is a copy of Anniversary.
I find that i have no pleasure playing this custom level at all. Therefore i'm just quitting it now.
And rate it 5 / 10.