LEVEL BEST

[MoanaLiza]

It was Leo's Challenge by the way for those of you who don't know! When he met Hordriss on a bridge, and spellcasted the sword spell. I noticed how the sword didn't even touch Hordriss or did I miss something, was there a force field or something to that effect?

[KaM]

I think the sword spell here was more to threaten that to strike Hordriss down - one would never excourage violence, one knows? - Except for S4 blasing Malice in the eye with fire.

My favourite level 3 would be torn between S3 and 7. The former was undefeated - so it becomes one of the few real strengths of challenge the program had. On saying that, since only one quarter of the teams made it there, the failure rate for the level itself was quite modest, and it gave level 3 that added impetus each time, because it was not explored enough to know immediately what was coming next.

The backdrops for S3 were all fantastic, especially the L3 clue room and Morghanna's ledge. One always knew there'd be some real nastiness at some stage, be it cavernweights, hobgoblins or just the good old opposition showing their evil faces. It defeated 2 outstanding teams who, it could be argued, would have waltzed to victory in other series', especially 4.

However, one slight drawback of S3's level 3, is that both Leo and Martin managed to actually survive the worst of the level, and it was just the rather difficult general knowledge questions that led them to defeat. Mind you, the fact they did survive what was thrown at them was perhaps a testimony to their abilities of the game rather than leniency factor.

S7, and Goth in it's beauty. The whole macabre element to this was absolutely fantastic - the graphics were superb, and the atmosphere, with portcullises and sewers really gave it that rather pulsating edge - rather like the claustrophobic dwarf tunnels. There was only one cutting edge puzzle to this, the 'Play your Cards Right' - but this was long, and difficult, and the right kind of puzzle (that defeated most but was beaten by a rare couple) - but there was always a separate task in Level 3 for the exceptional teams, and what wasn't thrown at Barry's team, I shudder to think. Even corridor of blades made a cameo or two.

Still, this was proof to me that the development of KM could still capture that magic somewhere along the line that made the likes of S3 so special, and it built on the mass improvements that S6 held over the previous two year counterparts.

[Beef]

I'm probably going to sound a bit on my own here.....but i really liked series 5. I liked that whole winteria thing, and just generally the series had intorduced things like causeways and blockers. However that would still be my second fave after series 3. That series lookes really tough, i just wish someone had completed it! There were so many difficult rooms especially the stained glass room. It was so much meaner than any other series!

[Pickle123]

yeah, series 5 was a vast improvment on 4 IMO if even only for the fact that the script was more varied. of course that wasnt the only reason but you get my drift...

welcome Beef, nice of you to join us

[Moocowthingy]

I think series 3 as a whole had a lot more action than most series.  Every room seemed to have some kind of danger in it.  Although no one beat this series I still think it was great.

Its a long time since I saw many of the series but Id like to see series 2 again from memory.

[KaM]

Hey up.

Well, very interesting perspective sir, on the S5 front. S5 was definitely a huge step up on S4 in terms of gameplay, I do believe that. S4 had many revolutionary ideas, such as the inclusion of the eye shield and so much outside footage, but unfortunately to the extent that the gameplay was maimed for it. S5 tidied this up, and yet also added many fundamental extra features - you mentioned the causeways - and there's also the emergence of a certain Smirkenorff.

Yes, the one thing that did impress me about S5 was the surreallistic 'theme' of 'Winteria' - the idea of breaking from the traditional dungeon mould a little bit further. Ok, I think the final challenge of S5 was pathetic, but daring to add a theme was included, in my opinion, in the latter stages of Ben's quest in S6 - an indication of the final showdown as such. Juliet Henry-Massy was fantastic, icy and heroic for her respective roles, and yet the role of Aesandre was very well 'preserved' to hold some unpredictability about the way the series panned out, unlike the sometimes drole repetition seen constantly the previous year.

But I do believe that S5, while not the finished article, had excellent features (Winteria, the causeways, Smirks, Juliet and both her characters) and led the way for the immense S6 and S7, the excellence of which I do think panned from ideas tried in S5.

[Malefact]

Series 5 also gave us Lord Fear, Sylvester Hands, Scarkill, spyglasses and scrolls. The only thing that doesn't make it one of my absolute favourite series is that it moves rather slowly sometimes. Series 6 changed all that, of course.

Thinking about it, series 5 was an even braver move than series 4 because of all the changes. It was radically different from what was being done as little as two years previously.