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Review
The big negatives to Qualopec come with the graphics. Don't give me the "it was only TR1 defence". I've seen enough of the rest of the game to at least know what standards the designers were capable of. The standard they've gone for here is that of placing Lara in a huge dis-used yellow-coloured lego set, and it looks naff. I've never really liked end of section boss levels anyway. I like the more complex and epic parts of the game. Aldwych from TR3 is an example of a good epic level.
Having said that, not all is bad. The confrontation with Larson is the first human encounter of the series and provides almost as big a shock as seeing the T-Rex. It was a competent (if somewhat flukey) decision to have Lara underwater at the time she first experiences the fright of seeing bullets whizz past her ear. However, the conversation that follows in the FMV is a bit under-done. Lara does not grill him enough about Natla's motives for me, and that reference to "Jack-rabbit frog legs" annoyingly stayed in my head for over a day when I first played the game.
Another encounter(s) that doesn't go down so well with me is that with the dinosaurs. In the Lost Valley they were very welcome. Here they seem out of place. In a game full of near perfect animal placement, the Tomb of Qualopec sticks out like Verner Von Croy in a rugby scrum. And those dasterdly darts are back in tow too! I don't mind them in the Tihocan level when they do something orginal and cross back over each other. Here they just do exactly what they did in the caves and its boring.
I liked the part where you drop down into the dog room, though. A careful player with skill can prosper here, and that is what you want on TR. The connoisseur of careful TR-playing will hang off the edge before falling down the hole so they can check out the lay of the land. After doing so he can then evaluate the situation to the point of arriving at the type of conclusion that with me usually involves getting a shotgun out. Haha to all those muppets who fall straight through and get ripped to shreads whilst fumbling around with the pistols.
The puzzle with the moving blocks is the only thing that splits my good and bad silent rating system on this level. Whilst on one hand I like the basic idea of what you have to try and do with the blocks, I have to hold my hand up and gripe about certain details. These are namely the over-use of the skeleton artifacts, the blood on the spikes (???), and most disturbingly, the fact that there seem to be at least two ways you can accomplish your goal on this puzzle.
Tighter programming could have ensured a harder puzzle by virtue of one of those ways being cut off. Going back to the blood on the spikes thing - What the hell did they do that for? Are we meant to believe that people have died on those things and left perfectly adjacent stains on each individual spike? Ugh. The only plausible defence is that past Qualopec residents painted the damn things to scare visitors. But when your visitors are dinosaurs? God only knows. Answers on a postcard.
Uh, what else? The rolling boulder thing is lame if very much forgivable on this level because I think it's the first of the series. The debris falling from the ceiling is a nice touch, as is the moment you shoot down that statuesque guard. It's a bit of a sterile task to do in exchange for the scion (maybe), but at least it's unique. The ending to this level may be unique too. I might be wrong, but I think Qualopec is the only level in the series where you exit via the place you started off. By all means correct me if there is another. Sections like Cairo in Tomb Raider : The Last Revelation dont count by the way. (5/10)
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