Red Alert level is a disaster

[DarkMoe]

Been a TR fan since 1996, played the original 5 games tons of times, specially the first 3. Today I beat Chronicles again after doing it in 2000, 2010 and now. I remembered bits of the last industry levels, almost nothing of the last one.

Red alert, wow .. what were they thinking ? Apart from all the bugs that plague this level if you save and load in the wrong place (happened to me while fighting the first cyborg, room got flooded again), there are tons of design issues.

Introducing the grappling hook mechanic in the middle of the last level with no tutorial, no hints, no nothing ? The green dot when you aim at the only roof tile that it works is so tiny that I completely missed it, even after beating this level without help 20 years ago.

Then you have to guess that to continue the level, you have to backtrack to the very start of it and fire another rope to a random stair piece. Seems so random, specially because you have to get back into that crawlspace with the camera locked on the roof, and guessing where was the exact spot to return.

Also in the lit room where you use the hook for the first time, you have to aim the rope to the not so obvious wall next to the actual door you have to go. Problem is they didn't put a shimmy space like in every game of the saga, the wall just has some very mismatched texture and you have to deduce that you can climb onto that.

The puzzle with trapping the second cyborg and poisoning was hard, not sure how can the poison kill a robot, but it was a fun puzzle (when everything worked and there were no more bugs),

Ah, just a little rant, this level is the worse of the classic TR maps, What do you think about it ?

[BoloWolf]

I played it recently as well. I don't understand how they managed to have bugs like this. I suppose this level needed a lot of special scripts and couldn't be done in the level editor like other levels.

Your criticism is valid. Another issue I remember is that broken wall you need to kick. Shooting it doesn't work.

[DarkMoe]

right, just at the start, that crawlspace you can kick but not shoot, and inside there's a small fire that is completely harmless, not what we were taught in previous levels/games where fire is very lethal

[Mac]

Red alert is one of the most praised level of classic TR games. I believe is the "gem" in the overshadowed and disliked Chronicles.

[drag00nwarri0r_13]

Remember where if you save in a certain spot the grate shuts and will not open?

[Shindo Yo]

I never managed to finish this game because of the door that never opens in the place of the first cyborg. TR fan here too, Chronicles is a very strange game. When I got to play and finish it the more the game passed the more tiring and boring the game was, the part ''Gallows Tree, Labyrinth and Old Mill'' are among the levels of the entire classic franchise that I hate with all my strength, when I played remember the strength I had to do not abandon the game so tiring that these levels are. I repeated the last level a few times and always the door was closed, it was so tiring that I deleted the game. I tried to play and finish it after some time and in the middle of the game I gave up for the same reason of being too tiring and never played again.

[NiTROACTiVE]

Yeah, as much as I liked this level, it has some serious problems with bugs when it comes to saving the game. Thank god I knew about the bugs in advance, as I made many save files as I played the final level.

Also, I wonder if there's any game patches that prevent this serious savegame bug from happening again?

[shadowgravy]

I got almost to the end of Red Alert but Cyborg #2 wouldn't follow me past the gaps. I gave up after estimated 50 reloads from the bar area. I'm guessing this was savebug related.

[Infinite_Data]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

I got almost to the end of Red Alert but Cyborg #2 wouldn't follow me past the gaps. I gave up after estimated 50 reloads from the bar area. I'm guessing this was savebug related.

The second cyborg breaks if you save anywhere in the bar area. That means that if you want your save to have a chance of working, it has to be at least from before you enter the big corridor with the floor gaps where the helicopter shoots at you. I was able to "fix" him by reloading to just before entering that sequence. So you need to run past the chopper, press the button, then run back the same way without saving. Once you've managed to trap the cyborg in the gas room, I believe it's safe to save again.

[shadowgravy]

I replayed the entire game (pretty easy once you know the levels) and I heeded the save bug for the bar. I saved the moment Lara exits the corner room after she first encounters the second cyborg, and it didn't cause the bug to happen. This helped because it took me a few attempts to outrun the cyborg to the switch.

[der.dida83]

ummm, TR4 does this all the time (not explaining things and having you guess your way through)... that aspect is nothing new to TR5.

I liked that level overall, but the saving-bugs are pretty bad and having to backtrack through the laser-barriere without any indication you have to do so, also sucks.

[chakkman]

Originally posted by der.dida83:

ummm, TR4 does this all the time (not explaining things and having you guess your way through)... that aspect is nothing new to TR5.

It's pretty dominant in TR5 though, especially in the last 3 levels.

Totally agree with the OP. The game is fine until the last 3 levels, and then it simply becomes a mess.

[CZBGR Icepick]

I agree, OP.

Red Alert was such disrespect, at least with my first attempt with the way I was playing. Even the HK is underpowered here unless you get a headshot. The combat mechanics are abysmal. Can't crouch while shooting? Major downgrade! Even at that, it makes no sense to me why Lara doesn't have her classic pistols where she needs to shoot.

The first cyborg was the first inconvenience as far as combat goes. The bar is a terrible place. If I were having a second go at it, I would keep going with the way I was playing until the cyborg, and just let loose, this time taking medpacks sparingly enough for more breathing room. But the bugs from then on are the least of my problems.