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File: Aurelia Keep.hold (8.2 KB)
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Not too long a hold (a mere 13 puzzle rooms) but I tried to make each room different enough that it's worth playing despite its short length.

CuriousShyRabbit
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3170
Registered: 10-14-2006
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Here's a lovely new bite-sized hold from Pinnacle. As described, test your manipulation skills and efficiency with a pleasing mixture of classic and TCB elements. I found these rooms tricky but not obscure. Recommended.

mxvladi
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2505
Registered: 02-11-2008
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Conquered.(still can't find secret room in Storm, though ) EDIT: Nevermind, mastered the hold!

A pretty good hold with many good medium-difficulty manipulation and effeciency puzzles. I liked that timers in effeciency puzzles were tight. I like solving effeciency puzzles with tight timers.

My favourite rooms:



6 for brains and 9 for fun.

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[Last edited by mxvladi at 07-20-2009 03:21 PM : 6, not 5 brains]

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

Mastered as well. It's a little intimidating in terms of difficulty--I wandered back and forth among the first three rooms for a little while thinking, "Maybe I'll see how to solve at least one of them"--but one shouldn't really be scared off. Everything's there for a reason, and a little experimentation should get you through it.

It's also nice that it has a little of everything: some hot tiles, some swordless manipulation, a little serpent manipulation. It didn't necessarily cohere as a Grand Unified Theme, but does quite nicely in terms of variety.

Also, I've just learned more about post-rock as a genre than I ever knew before. Thank you, I think, for going with "Aurelia Keep" instead of "LYSFLATH!" as the title of the hold. (Look it up.)

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

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

This is a good hold of the old-school monster manipulation sort - no unusual scripting, goals, or themes, just clear a well-spread variety of rooms of very similar difficulty and quality.

The puzzles are tricky but entirely fair and tightly constructed: everything is there for a reason, and while efficiency puzzles require trial-and-error to some extent, nearly all the rooms emphasize careful thought and planning. The second level is particularly good!

From an architectural standpoint, two things stand out as particularly exemplary. First, Pinnacle made the smart decision to scale back the initial plans for the hold rather than pad it with filler, which makes for a much better hold overall; quality is more important than quantity. Second, this hold is remarkably free of tedious manipulation of any sort - each room has exactly what it needs for the puzzle, no more, no less.

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larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1917
Registered: 12-09-2004
IP: Logged

Great hold!

Every room is a well designed puzzle. Also a nice difficulty where I needed some effort but finally managed each room w/o hints.

jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged

Nice, short and interesting hold. Some comments below, secreted for minor spoilage (but I have tried to not overdo it).

So the first level has five required rooms on it:



The second level has six required rooms.



Overall, I really enjoyed playing through this one.

I give it an 8 for fun and 4 brains.

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"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck