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File: El Dorado.hold (46.7 KB)
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This is a medium-large hold filled with puzzles and other annoying things.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Here's BoyBlue's long-awaited third installment in the trilogy that began with Edge of the World and continued with Madness in the Spring. Hooray!

This full length hold contains clever linchpin puzzles as well as some hack-and-slash type rooms (each of which has a definite strategy). For many of the linchpin rooms, the player must question initial assumptions. I can't tell you how long I spent trying to outrun a fuse that couldn't be outrun, or trying to extract a snake from a corridor it couldn't come out of. As we'd expect in a BoyBlue hold, the player must also consider unique interactions between various game elements, including movement order.

Even though many of the puzzles in this hold are quite tricky, there are some not-so-tricky ones here too... you just have to find them. The levels are large, so the player has lots of interesting puzzles to choose from when starting out. So grab your sword - and your thinking cap - and give this one a try!

Oh, and the postmastery level is something else.

BoyBlue
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 547
Registered: 03-25-2006
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By the way, I wasn't trying to copy level names from calamarain's Symphony hold. Some of them are similar only because my hold contains references to a particular rock album that happens to be structured as a symphony.

Pinnacle
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1135
Registered: 06-10-2004
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Do you mean

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Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
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In my opinion this hold is a mixture of some of the best rooms you'll ever see, and some that are clever, but quite ordinary. For me the contrast is striking.

The hold is well worth to check out, especially if you are looking for something unique. There are some architects that always delivers things I've never seen before, no matter how many DROD rooms I've played before. BoyBlue is definitly one of them.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
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I'm only ten or so rooms into this hold at the moment, but while the rooms range from brilliant to the occasional annoyance (as advertised), I have yet to see one that's merely ordinary. Thus far, the "clearly impossible" fegundo room and the eye maze, both on the second level, stand out as particularly neat. Yes, it's a hard hold, but the reward-to-effort ratio is pretty high due to the interesting puzzles. Presumably this will continue to hold true as I (slowly) progress through the hold.

That said, my first reaction was "Ow, my eyes!" Was the first level's color scheme really necessary?

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Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1486
Registered: 03-31-2005
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"Ordianry" was a badly choosen word on my part But in some rooms I imediatly saw what to do, and thought. "Oh, that will take time, and be a bit messy." Those were generally not my favorite rooms.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

Oh, sorry. I totally hadn't noticed that you had said "ordinary" - that was meant as a critique of the hold rather than a critique of your post.

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Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

And conquered, but not yet mastered. There's not much to add to my initial impressions; all rooms, beginning to end, are interesting. In most cases, that's good, especially when boyblue throws in a subtle twist to a room that throws it off on a wild tangent: Illusions 2N1E and 1S2W and Finale 3N1E and 3N stand out as having neat solutions, although the Finale level seems slightly less inspired than the others and leaned more towards work than fun at times. Apparent homages to holds as diverse as Dungeon of Broken Orbs and the war holds were also neat to see.

Very nice hold! But definitely hard. Very hard.

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Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
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...and mastered. The secret rooms are a mixed bag; the ones with the rattlesnakes and with the row of roach queens were neat, but I didn't really "get" some of the others. Reaching the postmastery level is definitely worth the effort!

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larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
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Thanks boyblue for another great hold!

All the rooms are interesting and amazingly enough although the rooms are challenging, I found them all doable. El Dorado is a good size hold with plenty-o-fun!

Dr. Murphy
Level: Disabled
Rank Points: 46
Registered: 08-11-2009
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This is for sure an extremely clever hold. There's nothing too complicated in here, just a whole bunch of incredibly simple yet incredibly well-thought-out puzzles.

The two rooms I have solved (the adder and fegundo) (rock golem on pressure plate with brain) were ingenious and were incredibly satisfying to complete!

Great hold, but a little on the hard side of my scale. I'll keep hacking at these puzzles.

9 fun
8 brains

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4793
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

BoyBlue wrote:
By the way, I wasn't trying to copy level names from calamarain's Symphony hold. Some of them are similar only because my hold contains references to a particular rock album that happens to be structured as a symphony.

Since calamarain copied them from Repton 3, I don't think he has any right to object!

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50th Skywatcher