DireKrow's Playthroughs & Reviews

[DireKrow]

DireKrow's Playthroughs & Reviews

For me, one of my favorite parts of playing through games is getting the opportunity to talk about it with people. To share my reactions, and to see other people's reactions. Rarely will I play a game and then keep my experience to myself. I want to share it, talk to people about what I like and don't like, hear what surprised people or what troubled them. It's a big part of why, when I play through a pack, I'm so chatty about it. I constantly talk about where I'm at in the discord, and try to leave comments in the threads when I'm done. While my thoughts might not be the most insightful - I'm only a novice solver and designer - I still consider it an important way for me to gather my thoughts on something. Plus, I really want to let the authors know that I've actively engaged with their work. I don't take their time and effort for granted. I know I'd absolutely love to talk to someone who played through my levels, and what it was like to solve them for the first time.

One of the best ways to see reactions and feedback is through video playthroughs. Unfortunately, there's a myriad of factors which really get in the way of my ability to do those (no mic at the moment, very shy, poor internet, living situation makes recording difficult, no video editing experience), so I'm going to settle for the next best thing. For some of the packs I play through for the first time, I'm going to attempt a Screenshot Let's Play. I'll play through the levels in the pack for the first time and share my first impressions, the experience, thought processes and struggles I went through in arriving at the solution. Then at the end, I'll give a mini review of the level. Every few levels will get its own post and all of the posts for each pack will be indexed here.

The full screenshot let's plays will be referred to as Playthroughs. These will be focused more on my experience playing the level and my thought process in solving the level. The other style you'll see here, Reviews, will just be a traditional paragraph or two explaining what I thought of the level after I finish it. Some packs I play will be 100% Reviews, some will be 100% Playthroughs, some might be a mix of the two. We'll see how it goes.

I want to promote discussion with this too. If you've played the levels before and want to share your own thoughts on them as I play through them, feel free! If you haven't played them before, then use this as opportunity to play through it yourself. That'd be even better. Being new to the community, I'm in the unique position where I can experience many classic packs for the first time.

Packs I've Completed:

Spoiler

Lemmings
Oh No! More Lemmings
Xmas Lemmings 91 & 92
Holiday Lemmings 93 + 94
Covox Lemmings
Prima Lemmings
Extra Lemmings Levels
Lemmings Redux
Lemmings Plus I
Lemminas
---
Lemmings 3D
Lemmings Plus 3D

Post Index

Spoiler

MazuLems
Part 1 (Mazu 1-3 Playthrough)
Part 2 (Mazu 4-6 Playthrough)
Part 3 (Mazu 7-9 Playthrough)
Part 4 (Mazu 10-12 Playthrough)
Part 5 (Mazu 13-15 Playthrough)

Holiday Lemmings Plus
Part 1 (Glimmer 1-6 Review)

Lemmings Plus II
Part 1 (Nice 1-10 Review)

[DireKrow]

MazuLems — Part 1 (Playthrough)



MazuLems is an old level pack by Martin Zurlinden, originally for DOS Lemmings. It has since been converted to NeoLemmix through the efforts of mobius and namida. A couple of features aren't supported by current versions of NL, so some of puzzles aren't quite the same as they used to be, but it seems like it is still largely as the author intended. I've been told this pack is very approachable for relatively new players, and is regarded as a classic in the realm of custom lemmings content. Hopefully it lives up to expectation! At 32 levels, it's relatively small, so it seemed like a good candidate for trying out this review format.

MazuLems 1 — A Giant Leap for Lemmingkind

Spoiler

Skills: 3 Climbers, 3 Bombers, 3 Blockers, 5 Builders, 2 Bashers
Save Requirement: 48/50
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

Just looking at the layout, this level seems quite straightforward. There's a single gap to cross and an OWB to break, two obstacles that are very familiar to anyone who played through the original game. Since this is the first level in the pack, I'm not expecting the available skills to make things too difficult.



I do notice a couple of wrinkles. First, I need a way to turn a lemming around in front of the exit, so they can bash through the OWB. Second, I notice I can only lose two lemmings, despite having three blockers. That means if I use all three, I'll have to save one of them somehow. The gap in the middle of the level looks to require 3 builders to cross, which means I have 2 spare for other things. The OWB requires a basher, which leaves me with one of those spare. That's perfect, since I can use the extra basher and one of the extra builders to save the 3rd blocker.

Ideally, I'd prepare the entire path before letting the crowd go. However, that's not possible in this case, because I need two workers with one of them on a delay and I see no easy way to arrange that. So instead, I'll have to let the crowd go once the bridge is built and stop them from falling in the lava using a blocker. The plan is to do something like this:



A put my plan into action. I let one lemming slip past, who builds over the lava, then contain the crowd with a blocker on a small builder bridge...



I release the crowd by bashing through the bridge the blocker was standing on. Meanwhile, the first worker climbs over the OWB and becomes a blocker near the exit, in preparation for the second worker.



A final blocker stops the crowd from falling into the lava, the second worker bashes through the OWB and the way to the exit is cleared by bombing the blocker.



Solved! The first of many. It's rare that my initial solution ends up working out like this.

Review

Pros: Perfect as an introduction level. Simple, easy to understand, but not completely trivial. Feels fairly tightly designed. Good refresher puzzle.
Cons: Useless third bomber. Nothing sticks out as novel or memorable.
Look: Aesthetically, the addition of the blue bricks provides some visual interest without making it look too busy. It's nothing amazing, but it shows effort has been put into making sure the levels aren't boring to look at.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 2 — Stairway to Heaven

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 10 Blockers, 1 Builder, 10 Bashers, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 60/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 70

Playthrough

As with the last level, the layout seems simple. There's a pit to build over and a ledge to climb up. What's the catch? Well, when I glance down at my skill pane, it becomes clear:



...There's only one builder. I actually love this setup, it's one of my favourites. Present a puzzle which looks easy and would be easy using certain skills, but then deny the player that obvious solution and force them to think up another way. As a note, I think this is one of the strengths of revisit levels in the original and packs inspired by the original. Okay, so that means I'm going to have to dig my way up in one of these spots:



A miner seems like it'd work perfectly in the right-hand spot. But... I just noticed I also have no miners! Well, not to worry, we have plenty of diggers and bashers for making a staircase. It IS in the level name, after all. I'm going to attempt to make the staircase through the pyramid, rather than near the exit. Firstly, this saves me having to find a way to stop any of the crowd from falling into the hole. Secondly, it looks like a single builder might have trouble making it up the first ledge anyway. And thirdly, it's easier to turn around the worker lemming on the terrain below the exit, than it is to turn them around AT the exit. So, that results in this plan:



I start by assigning a climber and allowing the rest of the crowd to fall into the pit.



Luckily, there's a convenient overhang on the bubbles here and back near the entry hatch, so I don't have to worry about my climber falling off the world. When they turn, I build a staircase by alternating bashers and diggers.



Will it work?



Yes, it did! Building to the exit completed the solution.

Review

Pros: Conceptually good, featuring an atypical approach to a typical obstacle. Efficient it terms of being a satisfying puzzle from a simple structure.
Cons: Useless bombers and no practical use for the floaters. Very easy if you already know the trick.
Look: Level looks good. It's not my favorite tileset, but they did well to make everything 'look right'. I like that you can see part of the central pyramid all the way down to the bottom of the screen.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 3 — The Pool

Spoiler

Skills: 1 Climber, 2 Blockers, 5 Builders, 4 Bashers, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 49/50
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 75

Playthrough

Looking at the layout, the complexity has ramped up considerably compared to the previous two levels. There is 5 obstacles to overcome, rather than 2, and each have multiple potential ways to get past them.



Obstacle 2 (the pipes that look like a roman numeral 5) is the most gnarly looking, as it involves building and destructive skills. Obstacle 3 could also pose a problem if building off the top results in a fatal fall on the other side. I note that I can skip Obstacles 2 and 3 by digging underneath, however the steel wall at 4 makes it hard to recover the crowd from that position, especially without a miner. A couple of builders could also resolve Obstacle 4 and 5 at the same time.

At this stage I don't know if I'm going to be tight on skills. Maybe I have plenty, but maybe I have to be very strategic with where I use them. First though, I want to try an experiment. I want to see if the lemmings can walk through the pipes at Obstacle 2, and if they end up on top when they do.



They do not walk through the pipe. Alright, do they climb up to the top if I destroy the first pipe?



They do! However, it turns out that my fears were realized:



Building from the top results in a fatal fall. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work even if I stretched the bridge and interrupted the builder with a basher. Okay, so what about from the bottom ledge?



It turns out this bridge works, but there's still a problem:



I only have 5 builders, and it takes all 5 to set this up. That leaves me with nothing to use to cross the next pit. As far as I can tell, I need to get the crowd over to the right-hand side of the acid using no more than 4 builders.

Since it's not an option to use 3 builders over the acid, can I make it so the 2 builder approach doesn't result in a fatal fall? I try digging at the end of the pipe and stretching the bridge...



...Still no dice. Alright, I'm going to consider the other option instead: going underneath. Going under requires no builders at all, however the gap on the other side is so thin that I'd definitely need to use more than 5 builders to boost the crowd up and out of it. I could improve my chances by widening the pit, however the only good way to widen the pit would be using a digger. I have to use the digger to actually get the crowd over there in the first place, so that doesn't work.

What I just noticed is that I have a climber. Could I send one lemming underneath, have them climb out of the pit, then prepare the path over the top for the rest of the lemmings? That would almost certainly result in that lemming being unable to reach the exit, but I am allowed one death in the save requirement. I'm thinking something like this:



Upon attempting this solution, I discovered it was a little harder than it sounds. For one, there's a very brief moment where the first builder hovers over a fatal fall. Often, a lemming slips through and dies:



This was honestly a pretty annoying discovery, because I'm confident that this is a working solution, but I had to alter the timing of the builder and adjust the RR slightly to time it so that no lemming would fall through the gap. That doesn't "feel" intended to me, but I don't know. Was I supposed to do that? Was it some kind of oversight in the conversion? Is my solution wrong? Currently, I have no idea.

Another detail I discovered was that the digger that goes under the acid was going to have to be the last lemming remaining beneath the bridge, otherwise other lemmings would fall into the pit too and get stuck.

Finally, finding a good spot for the blocker was difficult, somewhere I could bash through without ruining the path for the crowd. I eventually settled on putting them right on the edge of the pipe, where it meets the build bridge.

Once I avoided the splat and only one lemming remained in the pit, I had them dig+bash under the acid, climb up and prepare the path for the other lemmings:



Perfect. Now all I have to do is bash the blocker free and...



...Oops. Yeah, the blocker was in the wrong spot and prevented the basher from stepping up onto the top step of the bridge. Fortunately, after redoing the solution and moving the blocker a couple of pixels further back, I was able to free the blocker as intended, and...



...finally solve the level! It used every skill, which makes me think I did the right thing, but that weirdness with the splatting lemming makes me think otherwise. If you have a solution which avoids flirting with death like that, do let me know! I am open to providing new feedback or changing scores if I found out I did something in a bad way.

Addendum

Thanks to Proxima for pointing out that the troubles with my solution could have been avoided with a couple of small tweaks.

Rather than putting a blocker on the pipes and bashing them free, the crowd can be contained by simply not choosing to build the second half of that first bridge until the path has been prepared by the climber. Consequently, the digger needs to be moved to inside the first pyramid, so that you're not making an exposed pit that the crowd will run into.

Second, the luck can be taken out of timing the second half of the bridge by turning the release rate up to 99 and using the last lemming in the train as the builder. Very clever. That's much more elegant than the way I was doing it. Here's what it looks like in action:



The other great thing about this solution is that it lets you save 1 basher and 2 blockers:



Job well done.

Review

Pros: Challenging, but not overwhelming. Makes good use of the level's overall structure, including multiple routes. Satisfying solution.
Cons: Design does not make it obvious enough when certain approaches are incorrect. Left side would be improved without the fatal fall. Weirdly difficult compared to the levels before and after.
Look: The level looks pretty good overall. I like how features to aid in the solution and prevent backroutes, such as the steel and the holes in the lower part of the terrain, blend seamlessly with the environment. The large, unused space to the left of the level is weird. The pipe formation on the left of the acid pit sticks out awkwardly.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay

Since this is the first time I'm doing this, please let me know if you have any feedback about the format itself. Should I have less screenshots, more screenshots? Smaller screenshots, larger screenshots? Should I spend less or more time talking about something in particular? That sort of thing.

[WillLem]

This is a great way of providing a level review! It allows at-a-glance coverage of an entire level, whilst also providing detail in how you arrived at a solution. Incidentally, it's also similar to the way that level solutions are presented in the Prima Publishing Lemmings Companion, but you obviously go into much more detail and describe the process as you go along, which is more engaging and entertaining than simply reading a solution.

I'd say this is definitely a worthwhile alternative to the standard LP format. Whilst it perhaps doesn't capture the in-the-moment decision making, it still provides a showcase for the overall thought process whilst bringing attention to the specific key areas of a level which affect its solution.

I also love the annotations.

I enjoyed reading through this, and I now definitely want to have a go at MazuLems!

[Proxima]

Yes, this is a great format. It takes a lot less time to read these posts than to watch a video, and if you're willing to take the time, we get the same blow-by-blow account of not just the solution, but the thought process leading to it, which is excellent reading material for anyone new to the game wanting to understand how to approach a Lemmings puzzle, as well as entertaining to read for more experienced players (and would be invaluable feedback for the pack author).

I played MazuLems in Lix a few years back, though obviously some levels didn't work the same there, so I'm playing through the pack in NL now and trying to stay a little ahead of you. I also have a slight head start in that some of the levels appear in Revenge of the Lemmings, including 1 and 3, so your first post didn't spoil anything for me

It is indeed a classic pack from the early days of Lemmings custom level design. The only downside to recommending it to newcomers is that the levels are blatantly not in difficulty order. I think they were in a different (also non-difficulty) order in Lix... but I don't know much about the history of the pack or how the current ordering came about.

Some notes on Level 3:

Spoiler

This one is very tough for its place, and was one of the last levels I solved. You can deal with the splat issue without depending on luck, by making the first lemming dig in between the two triangles (he will be your worker lemming); then putting the RR to 99 after two lemmings are out so the crowd bunch up (because they have a wide space to roam in, there will still be a large gap between the last lemming and when the first lemming returns); then make the last lemming build the second bridge.

Also, if you wait on the second bridge until after the climber has done his work, the blocker and basher are no longer needed.

[DireKrow]

Added an addendum to Level 3 showing off the intended solution. Proxima asked some things on the discord, but I actually feel that the answers are worth putting here.

Firstly, are you eventually planning to do reviews on the packs you've completed, like LPI?

No, at least not using this format. The fact it's a blind playthrough is an important aspect.

Are you rating the level as a puzzle?

A mix of how much I enjoyed it and the quality of the puzzle. 5/10 means "indifferent / mixed / forgettable", while >5 means I had a positive reaction and <5 meaning I had a negative reaction. Expect the majority of levels to get 5-8, with 9s and 10s reserved for things I'd consider LOTY candidates. That said, this is very much in flux, I'm still figuring out exactly how I want to do it myself. All of the ranks so far are subject to change.

I'm wondering if a Fun-type level that was really good at being a Fun-type level would get a high mark.

Yeah, I'm doing my best to not arbitrarily rank stuff higher or lower for being difficult. That said, I do feel there is a natural tendency for some of the harder levels to get higher marks, just because they tend to have more exciting puzzles. But for example, this is why I rated the first level 7/10 despite it being a pretty simple puzzle - because while it's not innovative, I think it suits its role quite well.

The first update was a lot of work, more than I was expecting, so I'm currently pondering ways to streamline the process a bit.

[DireKrow]

MazuLems — Part 2 (Playthrough)

MazuLems 4 — Can You Dig It?

Spoiler

Skills: 2 Climbers, 2 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 1 Builders, 10 Bashers, 4 Miners, 3 Diggers
Save Requirement: 40/40
Time Limit: 1:00
Release Rate: 75

Playthrough

The level layout looks simple, but what really causes alarm is the time limit. One minute? That's a tiny amount of time! So the goal of the puzzle is definitely finding the fastest route.

The way I see it, there's two ways I can send the crowd in this level: left or right.



If I send the crowd left, they still have to walk all the way to the right of the steel platform, bounce off the rock, and walk all the way back. It doesn't save much time in travel, but only requires me to overcome 2 obstacles. If I send the crowd right, I'll have to overcome 4 obstacles. That's a lot more work. Surely sending the crowd left would be better, then?

Well... maybe not. I have no blockers and only 1 builder. The rock formation on the left can't be climbed, either. So if a worker bashes through the rock and builds to the exit, how do I stop the crowd from falling off? It feels like I need to trap the crowd on the right and then bash through the OWB to release them. Something like this:



I bash through the rock formation on the metal platform. While it's being dug out, one lemming turns around - they become my worker. I have them bash and build to the exit, positioning the bridge such that they turn around when they finish. Finally, they walk back and free the crowd...



But there's not enough time! I need a faster solution. Interestingly, there's not even enough time for all of the lemmings to spawn, which means I'll have to turn the release rate up. Keep this in mind for later.

Since sending the crowd to the right was too slow, I decide to try sending them left. I needed some way to trap the crowd without a blocker. Diggers and miners can hold or turn crowds...



...but with only one builder, I have no way to interrupt these workers. Converting a digger/miner to a basher doesn't work for example, because the OWB won't stop them when they go right, and the crowd would come out below the bridge if they go left.

There didn't seem to be a way to get a single worker ahead of the crowd, either. I can turn a worker quickly by having them build for 1 tile and mining through it on the starting platform, but then I'll have no builder to reach the exit with.

This brought my attention back to the first solution I tried. Can I follow the same route, but faster? The main inefficiency is the time between when the bridge is built and when the crowd is released. As soon as the bridge is built, the crowd can reach the exit. Ideally, they should be right there to walk up it the instant that happens, rather than having to wait for the worker to walk all the way over to the OWB.

That's when I got an idea...



By setting the release rate to 85 for the first few lemmings, two turn around while the tunnel dug out.



The second turns around again while the tunnel toward the exit is being dug. This means the first worker is free to build the bridge while the second goes to free the crowd. The best of both worlds.



Success! With only a couple of seconds to spare.

A detail I like is the release rate being deliberately set too low for all of the lemmings to make it out of the hatch before time runs out. I'm a fan of using this as a suggestion that changing the release rate is an intended part of the solution. Similarly, if I see a puzzle with an RR of 1, it also signals to me that RR manipulation may be required.

Review

Pros: Meaningful use of a timer. Not overbearing - a clever optimization is enough.
Cons: Lots of unnecessary skills, particularly the bombers.
Look: The blandest looking level in the pack so far. It's not bad, but it's definitely not its strong point.
Score: 5/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 5 — Two Minute Warning

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 10 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 20/20
Time Limit: 2:00
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

Another timed level? I probably wouldn't have put these back to back. The hatch is close to the exit, but the pillar of steel makes things more complicated, forcing the player to go the long way around. With only 2 minutes, there's not much time to dawdle. There's a ton of skills though, so I feel like I can do pretty much anything that works. Maybe, like this...?



Hm, that doesn't seem quite right. Building into sloped ceilings and bashing through them is very challenging. So is building out of them. That makes me doubt if the 2nd and 3rd bridges in that picture would even work. Even more puzzling, however, is the end. If I build and bash into the rock formation, the crowd will come out very high up above the exit. How will I get them down?

While I was pondering that, I decided to check the steel for holes:



Looks tight. No way through. As an aside, I think it's a good idea to check new levels you make in clear physics mode if you don't already. Make sure there's no unwanted holes in the terrain or gaps in steel. If you don't check, someone will exploit the problems you missed.

What this did make me notice, however, was that the left side of the crystal structure was climeable, while the right side acted as a slope that lemmings could walk down. Could I fix the oddities in my proposed solution using a couple of climbers? One climber could build the bridges, while the other bashed through the crystal and build towards the exit, like this:



I decided to try this solution out. I assigned two climbers and had one build from the crystal formation on the right to the rock island above the entry hatch. In the process, I decided to make the one who builds that bridge also be the one who bashes the crystal down and heads towards the exit, since the first build makes them turn around anyway.

When it came time to build towards the hanging rocks in the middle of the level, there was a problem:



As expected, building and bashing into it proved to be impossible. No matter where I started the build, the basher would destroy the last tile of the bridge and fall down. This wasn't going to work.

However, all is not lost. I noticed that the crystal formation on the left had a surface that a lemming could land on and climb up. What if, instead of building into the rocks, I let a lemming fall down, climb up, then build from the tip of the crystal? That way the crowd would go under the hanging rocks, rather than through.



It worked! A floater was spent to avoid the splat, but this V-shaped bridge should do the job. At the same time, I bashed through the base of the crystal to free the crowd. One last build...



...and we see we've solved the level with a few seconds to spare.

The level looked more intimidating than it ended up being. I feel fortunate that I noticed what I needed to, when I needed to.

Review

Pros: The \/ bridge is a nice builder trick. I like the rewards you get for observing the terrain.
Cons: Timer doesn't add much to the solution or puzzle. The abundance of skills also doesn't add much, since you end up relying heavily on the builders in the end anyway.
Look: Nice. The rock formations fit naturally, the crystal structures are appealing and even the steel naturally blends with the environment. No complaints.
Score: 5/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 6 — The China Syndrome

Spoiler

Skills: 4 Climbers, 2 Builders, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 46/50
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 75

Playthrough

One wall stands between the entry and the exit. However, my only source of terrain removal is diggers. That makes things complicated. That means I need to get multiple lemmings above the wall and have them all dig down. If there's no way to stop them, they'll go through until they fall off the bottom of the screen. That means the crowd had to cross before that happens.



I'm allowed to lose 4 lemmings and I note that I have 4 climbers. Seems like I need to save everyone aside from them. The plan is to stagger the diggers slightly so it creates a 'moving staircase' that the crowd can climb up, before it sinks below the ledge with the exit on it.



The crowd is very spread out, so I have a bad feeling about this...



A few made it over, but it's clear this isn't going to work. The staircase descends too quickly and the crowd starts falling down.

I notice that I have a spare builder. Could I perhaps have the first digger build a bridge to the other side before the staircase drops below the ledge?



It actually seems like with really good timing and making the staircase as steep as you can that this approach might work. It doesn't feel like the intended way to do this, though. I'll try something else.

I tried a few more things like varying the timings of the diggers, but nothing really helped, so I needed a new approach. How could I make use of the spare builder?

The staircase leading up to the exit is pretty conspicuous, and the hole in front of it is where the lemmings are falling into. Is it possible for me to plug the hole in some way? I could have the last digger do their job ahead of time and build over the gap, so that any lemmings that fall down will instead land on the staircase and walk to the exit.



I decided to give it a shot. There was also this small change:



Just to make it easier to time the remaining 3 climbers. I have so many spare diggers, I may as well~



The moment of truth approaches, will this work?



...Almost! A few lemmings still couldn't make it before the first digger fell off the bottom of the screen. Fortunately, I think I can resolve this. If I set the release rate to 99 as soon as the level starts, the crowd won't be as spread out. If I time it so the first lemming in the crowd arrives just as the diggers are in position, hopefully the whole crowd can cross.



This crowd looks much better. But will the solution work?



Success! The three remaining diggers cannot be saved, but I cross the line with 47/50, one more than I needed to save. I wonder if I did something the author didn't intend, or if the 46/50 requirement was just a bait to make people think all 4 climbers had to die, as I did initially?

Review

Pros: Looks simple but has a surprise amount of nuance.  The puzzle knows what it wants to be. The solution I discovered has a nice twist on a familiar idea.
Cons: A little gimmicky and not my favourite kind of puzzle, but that's mostly a matter of personal taste.
Look: Looks fine. The like the inclusion of the chains. The platforms being slightly misaligned with different length staircases going to them messes with me, but it's probably an intentional design decision.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay

[Proxima]

Level 4: I originally solved this the same way as you (which I feel fairly sure is intended), but it is possible to do it the other way. Replay attached.

Level 6:

Spoiler

My solution was to tighten the crowd up by building between the wall and the hooks on the far left, then digging to release them.

[Dullstar]

I have to agree that

Spoiler

removing the fatal fall left of the acid pit

on level 3 would improve it. I nearly solved it but my solution didn't work by like two frames and one or two pixels above max safe fall distance, which is always the most annoying way to fail a level, because you never really know if you're totally barking up the wrong tree and your solution will never work, or if you have to spend absurd amounts of time making minor tweaks to get it to work. It's also why, as a general rule, if I find something in one of my levels that can fail based on the lemming spacing, I'll often go ahead and lock the release rate just to reduce the number of variables influencing the spacing. I don't think that was an option when this pack was made, though.

[DireKrow]

I've done some thinking about my rating system and decided to adjust it. I've changed the numbers for previous levels to suit the new system. Just so people aren't scared by the numbers of giving:

5/10 indicates that I'm indifferent towards it or have a mixed opinion. Generally this will be levels that are one of the follow:
- Sound as a puzzle but had things that bothered me
- Decent but forgettable (the kind of things people would call "pack filler" by modern standards)
- Levels that are really cool but not fun to play
- Levels that are fun to play but underwhelming as puzzles

If I give it >5, it means I enjoyed it, had a positive reaction or felt there was more to enjoy than not. If I give it <5, it means I didn't enjoy it, had a negative reaction or felt there were noticeable flaws. Expect most levels to get 4-7 out of 10, with 8s being reserved for puzzles I particularly enjoyed and 9-10s for absolute highlights and loty-standard stuff.

For things like Mazu, I am keeping in mind that these are old packs with tricks and designs that were novel at the time. However, I do want to use the same rating scale for everything if I can, which means I inevitably have to compare it to modern packs too. Bare that in mind if it seems like I'm being harsh.

[DireKrow]

MazuLems — Part 3 (Playthrough)

MazuLems 7 — Crystal Clear Lemmings

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 3 Bombers, 1 Blocker, 4 Builders, 1 Basher, 1 Miner, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 56/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 60

Playthrough

This one seems to be about getting the lemmings down from a high ledge. A classic puzzle. No floaters though, which means I'll probably have to use the terrain itself. I notice there's that big crystal hanging down over an elevated section of ground. Seems like a good spot to have a pioneer dig down.



Once I start testing this idea, I realize that stepping up onto that thin ledge in the starting area probably isn't the best approach. Instead, I send two climbers up the left wall:



The first will bomb, allowing the second to build and bash through the ceiling to get into position for the dig.



Success. Now the pioneer builds towards the crowd and I bomb the blocker. Easy.



...Ah, but it's now I realize I overlooked something. When I try to mine the crystal on the right, the crowd is going to bounce off of it while it's still being dug out, and I have no way to save them. It looks like I have to clear that crystal ahead of time.

The first thing I thought to do was to use two pioneers. It took a couple of tries, but I managed to time it so that the second climber would land on terrain right before the digger finishes their dig, preventing both of them from splatting.



However, when I had one of them mine into the crystal and then bomb so they wouldn't go all of the way through, I discovered that part of the plan had some issues too:



Yep, the bomber makes the pit too deep for the crowd to walk up.

It's at this point though, luckily, I realized I was way overcomplicating this puzzle. The bridge that catches the crowd didn't need to be 3 builders long. I could do a 2 builder bridge and still catch the crowd, which gave me a spare builder. I could use that to interrupt the miner. Since doing it this way doesn't sacrifice them, I only need to use one pioneer now. They mine first, turn, then build the bridge.



Solved with a spare bomber.

One of the biggest problems I face as a solver is that I frequently overcomplicate solutions. If I try something and it almost works, I am inclined to do the same thing again but "more complicated" to try and patch the problems, rather than looking at a simple change I could have made elsewhere to resolve the issue. But, at least these reviews serve as a way for me to reflect on that and also share my struggles with others.

Review

Pros: Good, quick puzzle. Strong sense of purpose and identity. I like the use of terrain.
Cons: Simple, easy and not terribly innovative. Timing the bombing of the blocker to avoid lemmings going the wrong way is sketchy.
Look: It's a bit simple but certainly not bad. The terrain is aesthetically appealing enough. I find crystal to be the hardest of the original styles to work with.
Score: 5/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 8 — Achtung Lemming

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Bombers, 4 Builders, 1 Basher
Save Requirement: 57/60
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

I've heard this is a hard level, so I'm a little nervous. It looks small. Not complicated, but it does involve one way blocks and a trap. It looks like the kind of level where you need to delay the crowd enough while the path is prepared.

I note that I can trap the crowd in the pit and free them with a basher, but... wait a second. The three spots I can see where I would need a builder all seem quite small. Couldn't I just... go for it?



That works. Building over the trap also works. However, what I didn't notice is that fatal fall immediately following the trap. That forces me to use another builder...



...and some lemmings die. But it's no problem, I can allow 3 deaths!



...Unfortunately, even using the basher to stall the lemmings, there isn't quite enough time to make it. The puzzle is not that simple.

For attempt 2, I turn the release rate up to 99 and allow all of the lemmings to drain into the pit. I then have the last one build. They're going to be my worker.



But that doesn't quite work either. There's no way to turn the worker around after finishing the path, so there's no way to free the crowd.

Next, I modify the plan by building in such a way that one lemming is prevented from falling into the pit:



But even doing this, I can't quite get the timing to work out. I always end up with this:



Another possibility I consider is allowing a few lemmings past then bombing the first bridge, so the remainder fall in the pit. This way, I can get two workers on the right (after some splat deaths), while keeping the rest of the crowd safe.



That part worked, but I soon discovered something I had yet to consider up to this point:



There's no way to save the basher. I can only allow 2 crowd deaths, not 3. Dang.

From here, I tried all sorts of things. Bashing in various places to delay the crowd. Allowing some of the crowd to fall in the pit and not others. Adjusting the release rate. Nothing worked. All up, I spent around half an hour on various failed solutions:



At this point I stepped away for a bit. During the break, I actually had a realization: I'd been misdirected. The secret to finding the solution was in one of the obstacles being a trap. If I sacrificed a lemming to the trap to allow another worker past, I would be able to save a builder.



And what can I do with that builder? It enables to me to have the same worker dig the tunnel to the crowd AND build the bridge to the end, while also saving that lemming:



So I set the release rate to 99 and built such that exactly two lemmings would escape falling in the pit. The first walks into the trap, allowing the second past. They go ahead and prepare the path as shown. Finally, the crowd is freed using a bomber.



Success! And with an extra lemming. Phew, that was tricky.

I'm glad the solution turned out to be a case of misdirection. I appreciate this a lot more than the alternative: carefully micromanaging the RR and assignment of skills to buy just enough time for the final builder. I find those sorts of puzzles to be rather annoying, personally.

But the misdirection itself was clever, I felt. One of your only skills is builders and there's clearly a bunch of other obstacles - pits and long falls - which you HAVE to avoid using those builders. By slipping the trap in there, it feels natural to build over that too. But instead, you have to recognize there's another way around it.

Despite struggling with it to the point that I got a bit frustrated, I actually think in the end, this is my favourite puzzle in the pack so far.

Addendum

Although my solution was close to the intended one, it had one piece of extreme precision: The correct builder had to plucked out of the crowd at the start of the puzzle, such that it'd barely reach over the pit and allow exactly one other lemming to cross. Doing that on the DOS original, without the ability to framestep, rewind, assign skills while paused, or see skill shadows, would suck. I suspected there was a better way to do it... and there is, at the cost of a lemming.



You can briefly turn the release rate up to bunch two lemmings, then bomb the builder so that the crowd falls in the pit. The rest of the solution is the same. Much less difficult to execute.


Review

Pros: Love the use of misdirection in the main trick. Challenging with a satisfying solution.
Cons: Not obvious enough that you had to contain the crowd. I wasted a lot of time exploring solutions which almost worked but didn't, which was a tad frustrating.
Look: For a simple layout in a simple style, I think this level looks appealing. Things like the layering of the metal, the varied alignment of the blocks and the wooden X give it an organic look, rather than clinical.
Score: 7/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 9 — Holy Cow!

Spoiler

Skills: 2 Climbers, 2 Floaters, 2 Bombers, 6 Builders, 1 Miner, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 16/20
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

I see at least three obstacles to overcome. Considering the skills I have on offer, I'm going to either be digging down through or building over the top. The pair of pipes on top of the wall in the middle are interesting. Could I possibly dig down between then and bomb to destroy that wall?

Without reading too much into how many of each skill I have, I was thinking something like this:



I decided to start trying things to see what happens. I often do that in large, complicated levels. Before I figure out how to solve it, I need an idea of what will and won't work. What are my options?

For example, it turns out mining at the start won't work if I want to avoid the pit on the left. It's too slow and a lemming turns around:



I can lose 4 lemmings though, so I keep going.



Turns out bombing there does work. That's cool. Surely that's part of the solution... why else would those big pipes be there?

Unfortunately, a single bomber is not enough to get through the barrier on the right. The solution won't be this simple. Let's try something new:



An athlete can go over the wall at the start while the crowd drains into the pit on the left. I have so many builders, surely I can just build the crowd out of the pit once the path has been prepared?



Turns out that doesn't work. You need 7 builders to get the crowd out of the pit and over the wall, but I only have 6. That means no matter what, I need to use a destructive skill of some kind to get the crowd from the hatch to the ground on the right.

One idea that came from this discovery was:



This only uses one builder in preventing the fatal fall, not two. That means I can use the spare builder to get the crowd over the wall.

Unfortunately...



...one miner is not enough to complete the solution from here. I need even more builders to boost the miner up or something.

At this point, I start getting stuck. There's three barriers, but I only have enough digging supplies to destroy two of them. A digger+bomber can remove the middle wall, but two bombers are required to clear the left wall. Even digging down...



...the bomber's radius doesn't quite reach.

I tried a whole lot of stuff at this point. Fruitlessly. For almost an hour. Finally though, I got an idea. I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it sooner, because it's actually one of my favourite tricks!

I can set up a builder bridge between the middle and right barriers, then mine down the bridge, like so:



This allows me destroy two barriers with one miner! Perfect. However... as you can see in the screenshot, I use a bomber to set this up. That means all I have left over is 1 digger and 1 bomber, which is not enough to get the crowd past the first barrier on the left.

And so... I called it a day.

---

So, about a week later I return to the puzzle and realize that I was actually 90% of the way there. If I could just save that bomber, I'd be able to free the crowd and the whole solution would work out. Well, it turns out you can:



Yep, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but you can just use another build to boost the height of the bridge. No climb+bomb nessecary. The miner still comes out too low with this set up, so I have to interrupt the miner with another builder at the right time to create a step. It works, though!

So putting it all together. I assign two athletes then dig a pit to store the crowd in:



I build the bridges I need to build. When the athletes walk back, I bomb them both to free the crowd:



Then I mine down the bridge and perform an animation cancel:



Finally, success! Two extra builders and 28/30 when I only needed 26/30, though? Makes me think I didn't get the intended solution. Either way, that was the hardest puzzle so far for me.

Apparently this was one of the first puzzles ever created that used the mining-down-a-bridge trick. If so, I can imagine this blowing people away when it was first released. It's a wonderful trick. This is a good showcase of that trick too.

That said, I don't like some of the more misleading aspects of the level's design. The pipes on top of the central barrier ended up not indicating anything. Likewise, the pit on the left is completely skipped over. Figuring out the trick is tough enough without being led down the garden path.

Addendum

In the original game, you were forced to use the digger as I had done in my solution. However in NeoLemmix, bombers are instant, which means you can explode two of them right away to free the crowd:



If you then proceed with the rest of the solution:



You end up with an even more impressive saving of 1 climber, 1 floater, 2 builders and 1 digger.

Also it turns out I did obtain the intended solution, more or less. The two extra builders can be used to boost the miner tunnel higher and remove the need for the animation cancel.

Review

Pros: A pioneer of a very cool trick. Challenging, satisfying.
Cons: Terrain is misleading in a way that's not fun. Lining up the miner is really fiddly. Lots of waiting for climbers.
Look: Pretty good. The sculptures either side don't really do it for me, but otherwise no complaints.
Score: 6/10

Solution Replay

Since I was stuck on 9 for a while, I went ahead and solved 10 and 11 in the meantime. So provided 12 doesn't give me too much trouble, I should have the next update within a couple of days.

[Proxima]

I don't have much to add to your excellent reviews of these three levels. You caught on to the trick in Level 7 much sooner than I did For the longest time, I was looking for ways to get the entire crowd down via the large crystal, so for me the eventual solution had that satisfying feeling of solving something that had previously seemed impossible.

Level 8 has an alternative solution, which I found first:

Spoiler

Send three lemmings up to the trap so two go through and become your workers; then you don't need to save the basher.

It's not a level that's harmed in any way by multiple solutions, though: it's hard to find any solution (I'd rank it as one of the hardest in the pack) and all the solutions have satisfying linchpins.

[DireKrow]

MazuLems — Part 4 (Playthrough)

MazuLems 10 — Episode X - The Phantom Exit

Spoiler

Skills: ∞ Climbers, ∞ Floaters, ∞ Bombers, ∞ Blockers, ∞ Builders, ∞ Bashers, ∞ Miners, ∞ Diggers
Save Requirement: 30/40
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 50

Playthrough

See that exit in the level picture? You're not supposed to be able to see that. The gimmick of this level in the original game was the exit being completely invisible. The idea was to have your lemmings wander around and explore until you found it. I have to appreciate that this level tries something different, however as you can see, it doesn't work in NeoLemmix.



That said, the level still offers something unique: Infinite of every classic skill! It's rare that a level gives someone such an opportunity. The exit isn't in the most convenient location, but you can choose to get up there however you want.



I took the most direct route. Gotta love animation cancels. Who needs fencers, anyway?

This makes me wonder if there could be some sort of 'solution competition' rather than a level design competition. Someone makes an open-ended level and people vote on the coolest, most creative or satisfying solution of that level.



The infinite skills are cool, but I still think this is an ill-conceived level. The screenshot above really highlights why. I don't like hidden exit levels to begin with, but this one feels particularly malicious. There is a massive amount of empty space to the right of the exit. Someone could spend a long time going over that area with a fine tooth comb, bashing through the terrain, trying to find the exit, only to turn up nothing. I would even say it's likely. In hidden exit levels, I tend to assume that the location of the exit is near one of the farthest points on the map. Here, the exit is actually very close to the start, so it'd be really easy for someone to miss it in favor of exploring the outer edges of the map. It also creates this weird coinflip situation where either someone is going to go up first and find the exit extremely quickly, or go right first and waste a ton of time. There's no middle ground: either it's over so quick it's almost pointless or it drags on way too long. It's irksome design... to me, at least.

Unsurprisingly, it's my least favorite level so far.

Review

Pros: Being able to play around with infinite skills is neat. Tries something different.
Cons: Hidden exits aren't fun. Invisible exits are even worse. The level layout is explicitly designed to waste the player's time in the original. Gimmick doesn't work in NeoLemmix. Either way, becomes trivial once you know where the exit is.
Look: The terrain is aesthetically pleasing, but pretty samey from left to right.
Score: 1/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 11 — The Lemmyrinth

Spoiler

Skills: 1 Climber, 1 Bomber, 1 Blocker, 30 Builders
Save Requirement: 1/1
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 75

Playthrough

You don't need to think too long about this one. It's a maze. You've probably solved a bunch of puzzles like this before. Not so much in Lemmings itself though! Lemmings 3D has several maze-esque levels, but it's harder to translate the concept to sidescrolling 2D. Cool to see something new. As a puzzle, it's very easy...



...though there's still a couple of routes you really want to avoid going down by accident. It looks like all I have to do is assign a climber and then follow that path to the exit. Seems simple and fun? Though, once I start doing it, I realize it's easier said than done...



The design of the maze is dense enough that building anywhere is difficult. The whole maze is like this. It made what could have been a cute gimmick puzzle into something that was annoying to play. Just to make it up this first step, I had to use three builders...



Yikes, messy. The troubles are that almost every build makes the climber turn around, and that building in the direction of the opening from one 'level' below makes the bridge fall short. So you have to keep building to avoid them climbing up walls you don't want them to. It'd be even worse on the original game where one screw up can potentially mean a restart. There's more to consider too:



Some drops in the maze are fatal, so it's important to build so you climber doesn't climb them and fall to their death. You also can't climb up the outside wall into a bend at the top of a shaft, because there's no way to build off of the wall to make the turn.



I eventually got there with only 6 builders left over. Fairly tight. Cool idea, but I'd say disappointingly easy to figure out and too tedious to execute in practice. Though... I didn't like the maze levels much in Lemmings 3D either, so I guess I should have saw this coming. Also since there's so much climbing involved, there's also a lot of waiting involved.

Review

Pros: Fairly unique among classic style levels.
Cons: Very easy puzzle, annoying execution. Lots of waiting. Not fun.
Look: I like that they used striped pipes to give it some more visual intrigue, but it still looks too stark and plain. A bit of decoration at the level edges might have helped.
Score: 2/10

Solution Replay

MazuLems 12 — The Brick

Spoiler

Skills: 10 Climbers, 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 10 Blockers, 1 Builder, 10 Bashers, 1 Digger
Save Requirement: 25/30
Time Limit: 1:00
Release Rate: 75

Playthrough

Oh no. I'm not very good at time crunch levels, but I'm especially bad at ones that revolve around finding ways to dig through a big block really quickly. Just a Minute 1 and 2 are my bane. This looks like another one those.

Oh well, let's get started...

I notice that I have plenty of bashers and climbers. The one digger and one builder also catch my attention. The fact I can lose 5 lemmings means that using some blockers is okay, and that some workers being unable to reach the exit in time is not a problem.



The first thing I try is simply bashing through. It doesn't work, of course. Even spending all of my bashers, there isn't even enough time for the bashers to go all the way through before time runs out. That means the digging process itself needs to be sped up somehow. One idea I have is something like this:



So lets assign a climber to dig down and then bash roughly half way along...



And lets compare how it turned out...



Better! The whole tunnel is dug this time, but there's still not enough time for anyone to walk to the exit. We need to go even faster!

Another idea I had: rather than digging down in the middle, I send two climbers over...



...and have one turn the other. That way, the two bashers can meet in the middle.



How will this go?



Meh, by itself, we get a similar result to last time. But that was by itself. What if we combine both of these ideas together using 3 climbers?



Alright, everyone is bashing...



Some of the lemmings reached the exit! That's good, because if any of the crowd lemmings can reach the exit, then in theory all of them can. Why? Because I can trap the crowd in a tight group between two blockers, then release them when the time is right. The couple of lemmings that made it could theoretically be the whole crowd if my timing is good.

This leads me to one of my main complaints about these kinds of time crunch levels, though. As a newbie, there is often no good way to figure out the solution logically. Instead, you have to trial and error a bunch of stuff to find out what is fast, what isn't fast, what's the right timing and position of skills, etc. Even then, it often ends in a case of having to release the crowd at the perfect time, and that usually requires a few attempts. You can have a right idea of how to do it from the get-go, but it still takes a bunch of attempts to get everything to line up correctly. You might even have the right idea, but write it off due to it not working from your poor execution. I'll eventually have more of an intuition for it, but currently, trialing stuff to find the combination of things which just happens to work out isn't where I find the fun in Lemmings.

Another discovery is that if you trap the crowd between two blockers at the start and then bomb the right one to free them later on, the bomber blows a hole in the floor and the crowd falls down. I later found out I could have fixed this by placing the right-most blocker first, but I didn't think of that at the time. So my solution was to boost the blocker off the ground with a builder...



Honestly I don't think having this thin floor on the left side adds much to this puzzle, aside from making execution more difficult.

You can also see the three climbers and the main basher all good to go. We put them all to work...



And after a few attempts, free the crowd at just the right moment...



...to successfully get them to the finish line with only 1 second to spare.

On the bright side, I'm glad the solution ended up being using multiple bashers to combine multiple small tunnels, rather than stacking a lot of bashers together in the same tunnel. It's cleaner and more elegant. Still, happy to have this one behind me. For the record, Just a Minute 2 was one of the last two L1 levels I solved. That should give you an indication of how much I struggle with these sort of ones.

Review

Pros: Solution is cleaner than I was expecting.
Cons: Lots of trial and error to find the right positioning and timing of things. The bomber complications near the start feel unnecessary. Not my preferred kind of level.
Look: While not ugly, it is pretty boring.
Score: 4/10

Solution Replay

[Proxima]

mobius remade "The Lemmyrinth" for Lix as "Path to Mahiman". Originally it just added jumpers, while lowering the number of builders; this made it a lot less annoying because you could jump up to ledges like the one in your screenshot just below the green wiggly line one. Still, not the most interesting level from a puzzle point of view, and at one point we were considering dropping it from the community pack. Eventually, geoo managed to salvage the level by adding one basher, while reducing the jumpers and builders further. Now, it's a puzzle to find the correct place to bash so that the maze is solvable with the limited skillset; a really nice level, in my opinion, even if different from the original author's intention.

"The Brick" has a backroute that's a lot less tight on time, making it easier to execute:

Spoiler

Send up two climbers, then start bashing. Interrupt the basher to make a step; explode the two climbers (one of them should dig a bit first) and you can get everyone above the wall and just have them walk to the exit. My solution reaches the requirement with 11 seconds left.

[WillLem]

Episode X - The Phantom Exit could probably have been improved by having multiple hidden exits (I'd have suggested a minimum of 4 on a level of that size, and evenly spread throughout the map), so the chances of finding one are greater. It then has replay value because you can go back and try to find the other exits.

[ccexplore]

In its current form in Mazulems, that hidden exit level is probably a prime example of the kind of level that would cement a strong dislike of hidden stuff for some people here, in case people are still wondering how that might've come about.  You may say it's a "bad" example, but the fact is, a mediocre level that refrained from hidden stuff may be a little boring, but at least doesn't induce the kind of rage and negative emotion that a mediocre hidden-stuff level could.