Section 8

[aquaMat]

Exactly, Toybox !!

The room you described (with the hidden ladder) I could NEVER have mastered without the hints from this thread, and I consider myself a very experienced player !!
(On that platform I lost a zillion lives by trying to jump on

potential invisible floors

that -of course- weren't there.....)

And -as far as I remember- there is another of those secret exits in the room after that (even if somewhat easier...).

BUT: I also must state that - usually - I am a great fan of secret passages etc. in MM, so I love it.... but I also remember very well the storm of complaints I earned for using secret passages in DoD....and DoD was labelled HARD by the way.

So to sum it up: while it's fine with me....and I very much enjoyed section 8, I can see players with

normal

playing skills having a fair amount of trouble mastering that section.  But as I and someone else said earlier: maybe it isn't tragic when the difficulty level rises within Catacombs.....  and also: let's not forget that one charasteristic that made the original 2 levels of Catacombs unique and interesting was the use of little caveats in the walls (that usually had money or other rewards in them), which could only be accessed via little secret passages (sometimes in front of bricks, tricking the eye etc.).

So after all....Brell might be closer to the Catacombs concept as one might assume at first glance !!