Yes! We played through the first level so many times we found a way to beat it in ~90 seconds. If you lure out the guard on the right, the first in the game who protects the entrance to level 2, you can climb up through a false ceiling and drop down behind him. You never get the sword, but on level two you're assumed to have taken it and so you have it with you. This meant we could get a playthrough in once every hour or so of playing the first level...