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Me too, I played that demo for weeks while I waited for my full game to arrive. I can't remember having trouble
with the trailer puzzle. But I had lots of fun getting past the rocks, accidentally finding out the end-level-trigger
could be disabled by saving/loading, getting past the rex, finding the canal/trench shaping and not yet knowing
what it was... Good times

Yeah, I agree that the demo was a lot of fun, though it wasn't actually my first Tres experience (oddly that honour goes to TC Isle). I think the reason the demo feels more touched-up than the rest of the game is that it's such a small level and area, plus the developers likely figured they needed to make the demo as interesting as possible in order to bolster sales.
I also recall finding the Geo Plant area in TresEd and assuming that it must be a level that came later in the game, only to find out later that it wasn't anywhere, which only mystified me further until I learned about the existence of Pine Valley.

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Current Project: Cloning Facility | My Release Thread

I would say my order would be:

1: JR- I loved how open this level felt and it was where the game first captured my imagination and impressed me with the scale of what they were trying to accomplish.

2: IJ- Jungle vibes and variety of the terrain. The large open area after the cliffs is interesting.

3: PH- I find this area fascinating and was glad to learn that an area existed that filled in the obvious gap between JR and IJ.

4: IT- Also nostalgic for me. Lots to see and discover. The abandoned, empty aesthetic really captures the atmosphere of the game well.

5: Lab- Interesting as well, plenty of little places to explore. T-Rex in the warehouse area is fun

6:BE- The level that started it all. Special place for where the journey began.

7: AS1- Challenging, I can appreciate the Albertosaurs and Tribe C raptors as well and the element of making it to the end of the level with the toxic rifle makes game play unique in several ways. Does feel empty and is regrettable.

8: PV- Very interesting as a lost level, forest environment is a nice change of pace after the IT and Plains area. It is sad that it was cut, and look forward to seeing how it is integrated into future builds (Isla Sorna).

9: AS2- While the mountain was somewhat interesting, much of this level felt rushed and empty. The endless swarm of raptors bothered me.

10: SUM- Lackluster finish that didn't come close to what the game deserved. I remember being let down when the final cutscene played as well.

IJ is my favorite by far. I think the guns to carnivore ratio is near perfect. It's the first level with a T. Rex, an Albertosaurus, and tribe B raptors and the way you encounter them is so memorable. The terrain is very varied with interesting features like the dried creek, the jeep on the edge of the cliff, the valley, the waterfall, the raptor infested boneyard, the Biosyn helicopter, the cliff jump into the pond, and the smuggler plane. I do think the spike in difficulty from JR to IJ is a little too steep, I remember getting stuck on IJ when I first played the game, which resulted in me not liking it, but I've grown to love it.

The town and the lab are tied for 2nd place, they are fun, little, highly detailed areas full of mystery and puzzles.

Then there is good old JR, this was my favorite level as a teenager. It's a fun adventure in the woods.

The rest of the levels are alright: BE serves its function as a tutorial level. AS and AS2 are long and mostly empty levels filled with carnivores, they are repetitive, but still enjoyable. The best part of AS are the Maya ruins, but I wish they could have had a bigger role to make the level more interesting. Summit is a small level that tries to be like IT, but there isn't much to explore and it just assaults you with raptors, not very fun.

Glad we're mostly in agreement, Nick! It seems the general consensus is fairly similar, in that we all enjoy IJ, JR, IT and to some extent LAB, and that nobody really seems to like SUM all that much. I wonder whether the developers ever thought about all of the best levels being in the first half of the game? I guess the early game had the most time put into it so that may have something to do with it.

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Current Project: Cloning Facility | My Release Thread

That would also be my guess. The last 3 levels look like they were rushed at the last minute; they are mostly empty, reuse a lot of assets from other levels, lack detail, guns are just laying on the ground on your path, there is very little environmental storytelling, most of the buildings have no interiors, and the walkway heading up to the helipad uses modular metal plates instead of a custom model. There are also very few pre-release screenshots of those levels, which further indicates that they weren't in development for very long.

That makes sense. The terrain editing in the two AS levels also makes it evident that both of those levels were intended to be much larger in the same way that JR was also heavily shrunken down - I wonder what plans (if any) they had for those areas. The windmill station buildings did have interiors at one point (B96) if I remember correctly - I'm guessing they removed the interiors in favour of framerate since they were undecorated and mostly useless.

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Current Project: Cloning Facility | My Release Thread

I, for one, find SUM to be a great level. It may be small but in my original playing of the game, it was the only time the raptors posed a serious heart-pounding threat to me, and took forever just to get across the windmills. I'm also very fond of the way in which the assets of the level lack the corrosion of other levels; I love the usual Tres dilapidation, and this level enhances the game's effect by providing a final contrast, to show briefly what all the original facilities once looked like.

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->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

I never really noticed the less worn-down state of the Summit facilities, to be honest. Usually by the time I've reached SUM I'm a little bit sick of the constant Raptor attacks from AS1 and AS2. I don't find the scenery especially exciting, either - not much to look at other than the windmills, and final boss area surrounded by electric fences seems really thrown together and out-of-place.

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Current Project: Cloning Facility | My Release Thread

Yes, that happened to me as well! I somehow got into a situation where I jumped from the crates and saved, but died upon impact. When I reloaded, the end level trigger was gone, but Anne's character model could still move in diagonal angles, So I twisted around the stage and ended up getting all the way to the sea area.

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You guys are saying that AT 31 doesn't work in savegames? : S

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->Tres2020 Starter Kit

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said. ... "There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."
"I see it." [said Sarah]
...
"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"
"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."
~Michael Crichton

Not that I've ever seen, although it might have something to do with the "fast level load" feature that you can disable in ATX and CE. Using that feature can break triggers.

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Current Project: Cloning Facility | My Release Thread