[This is one of a set of hold reviews I'm writing. For more information, on scoring etc, see
here]
General Description
This a great hold from the AE era. There are a lot of flaws, but to give the architect his due, a lot has changed since then - now it's fairly well established that things like walls and doors under tar make for a bad puzzle. Furthermore, there are a set of established tropes (simple mimic manipulation puzzles, puzzles based around manipulation of monsters to block off serpents, roach queen horde rooms to name a few) that we have now seen again and again and don't feel exciting or original anymore. So we see a lot in this hold that we've seen since, but there's still a lot going for this hold, so I'll go through in a bit more detail.
The first 2 levels are mostly hack-and-slash, with not too many creative puzzles.
Level 3 gets more puzzly, and while there's still a lot of hack-and-slash, it's more interesting – involving limitations on sword direction/movement and we start to see some more ingenuity in the puzzles, including a clever invisibility potion room.
Level 4 has continues to have a few clever puzzles, but is let down by some more hack-and-slash and the (now) unforgivable use of walls and doors hidden under tar.
Level 5 is basically a maze based around the same concept – nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but it's a fairly original idea and the maze itself isn't too bad.
Level 6 reverts to hack-and-slash again, but there's still a couple of good puzzles in there too.
Level 7 is an excellent mazy kind of level which uses tar to create passages that can only be traversed in certain directions. This leads to some clever rooms requiring multiple re-entries.
Level 8, although it contains a couple of silly rooms where you're being chased around by a snake with no real control over where you have to go has some excellent and very original puzzles, including a very clever room involving mimics on trapdoors.
Level 9 finishes the hold on a high note. Abandoning hack-and-slash, the architect gives a set of superb more lynchpin-like puzzles. Shame there wasn't more of this throughout.
Good Points
Numerous original and ingenious puzzles, the more impressive for the fact it's an AE hold. Clever uses of mimics and tar. Good use of humour.
Some warp rooms if you're fed up of a particular level (I wouldn't really recommend them though, I missed out on some of the best rooms the first time I played this hold).
Bad Points
A lot of hack-and-slash and rooms involving trapdoors, doors and walls hidden under tar. Uneven difficulty.
Special or distinguishing features
Nothing other the originality of some its puzzles, using AE elements alone.
Creativity: 9/10
Lynchpins: 2/10
Story: 2/10
Hack and Slash: 8/10
Efficiency: 1/10
Snake charming: 0.5/10
Tar-osity: 6/10
Overall: 8/10
Difficulty: 6/10
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[Last edited by Jacob at 05-03-2009 03:26 AM]
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This one comes after the blue door. But this one I'm getting stuck on. How do you stop the goblins from going in the force arrows?
