Lemmings Boards > Reviews
DireKrow's Playthroughs & Reviews
DireKrow:
MazuLems — Part 2 (Playthrough)
MazuLems 4 — Can You Dig It?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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 (click to show/hide)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.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version