trle.net
Your host for all Tomb Raider Custom Levels ever released!

Levels listed...
TR5 - 31
TR4 - 3137
TR3 - 177
TR2 - 132
TR1 - 60

72203 reviews (20.4/level)
3528 (99.7%) walkthroughs
442 Hall of Fame levels
1216 levels rated >= 8

TR Fan Site

 


Catacombs of the Lost by Verios

Akcy 6 7 7 8
alan 6 5 7 6
bERT 6 5 6 6
Casual Raider 7 5 6 7
ColeMoles 5 4 6 5
Dimpfelmoser 7 6 9 8
Ejecta 5 5 6 6
eRIC 5 5 7 7
eTux 3 4 5 5
Gerty 7 6 8 9
Jay 6 6 7 7
Jose 3 5 4 5
Kristina 7 7 8 8
Loren 5 7 7 6
Magnus 6 5 6 6
Mehrbod 7 7 7 8
MichaelP 6 6 8 8
Orbit Dream 6 5 7 7
Phil 6 6 7 7
RaiderGirl 7 6 7 9
Ruediger 5 5 5 5
Ryan 5 5 7 6
Sash 7 6 8 9
The Aussie Adventurer 5 5 6 7
Tombaholic 6 6 7 7
Treeble 5 6 5 6
Yoav 7 7 8 8
 
release date: 28-Dec-2000
# of downloads: 74

average rating: 6.25
review count: 27
 
review this level

file size: 14.79 MB
file type: TR4
class: Egypt
 


author profile(s):
email(s):
Mgardiner73@hotmail.com

Reviewer's comments
"This level was a mixed bag for me, 50/50 and its all because when comparing the first half of the level to the latter half. The first half of the level has good atmosphere, lighting and textures, (although it can be quite hard to find out what textures are actually ladders). Then we get to the second half and that ambient lighting disappears, textures get stretched, rectangle rooms are made with nothing to do and long drawn out climbs or ledge hanging. You can actually lock yourself twice in this level being unable to complete, one by falling in a hole where boulders are meant to fall and the other by not getting the Pharos knot before falling through another hole. Then the builder has made a mistake, you can actually complete this level skipping 3/4 of the rooms you need to go through by just placing the first horseman's gem in the right slot, if you do this you can run through the first door and unfortunately the level designer placed the end trigger just before the second locked door. So yeah, mixed bag but the first half was enjoyable to playthrough. Definitely a step up from the builders previous level." - ColeMoles (22-Feb-2022)
"A pretty enjoyable catacombs level, decorated with some fancy lighting and the use of original textures. The gameplay and puzzles were nice, Enemies and objects and traps were designed perfectly fine, Atmosphere was commendable, since it brought memories from the past of TR series to my minds, finally, lighting and textures were absolutely nice, I can say it was even better than the original Catacombs.TR4 level. Well done! Recommended level. Thank you." - Mehrbod (02-Sep-2018)
"Intially I enjoyed this level, with its vibrant colours and well-decorated rooms, but towards the end I was feeling irritated by its tedious and seemingly unfinished state. There aren’t any puzzles or tricky parts per se; your main objective is to find some key items to open a door to the end, and trekking through the catacombs is your way of doing so. At first, the tasks mostly just consist of climbing or jumping up and down and all around, perhaps pulling a switch or pushing a button, maybe even avoiding some traps (my favourite was the deadly spikes hiding beneath an enticing medipack) before pressing on. This is actually quite fun for a while, but there are a few big areas with only one thing to do or one thing to pick up, which to me feels like a lost opportunity to extend gameplay in a meaningful fashion; one particularly egregious example involves a long, rectangular room with wacky lighting, random peaks in the floor that look like the builder’s first experience with the LE tools which was left in for some unknown reason, and a room-spanning monkey swing which exposes awful missing texturing to the player: Why not make the effort to devise some puzzles or challenging sequences to fill such a large space? It simply seems like laziness to me over anything else. Another thing that annoyed me was all those darn skeletons: Since you’re immediately given the equipment to deal with them, as well as some explosive ammo soon after, they will never present a challenge; it gets repetitive quickly, especially considering they’re the only enemies in the game beyond a handful of mummies. The placement of pickups tends to be tasteful, but I think fewer of them could have helped increase the difficulty. Also, it’s possible to pass a point of no return without a key item, something that could’ve easily been safeguarded against with, say, a gate that only opened when the item was picked up for example. The long, simply awesome dive into this inescapable area is actually the last decent part of the level in my opinion; You then have to travel a boring maze, full of empty copy-pasted segments and neverending hallways - but before becoming intolerable, you return to the area with the closed door, two gems in tow. I felt this was a cop out of tying things up properly, a rushed and uninspired final challenge. Yet while gameplay was somewhat lackluster, one element of level building that I personally thought the builder excelled at was in furnishing rooms with ornamental objects - you can see at the beginning that they put care and consideration into making it all seem as real as possible, and this continues until near the end. Dazzling neon lights, placed in intervals between mellow lighting, and other colourful effects give a unique feel to the atmosphere, although it seems there is only one flyby and no cameras with which to recognise all this work. Textures are sometimes applied well and tend to be varied nicely, but at other times they are stretched all along the walls, and ladder textures are frequent - very confusing! To conclude, this TRLE was intially promising, if a let-down by the end, and a fairly worthwhile experience. However, I would only recommend it if you have nothing else you’d rather play first." - Ejecta (13-Aug-2018)
"Here's a level from the Dawn of the Level Editor, released 17 years ago as of this writing. It's rather crude and basic, as if it were the builder's first effort (although it was actually his second), but it provides nearly 30 minutes of raiding entertainment as you make your way up long ladders only to fall a harrowing distance into a pool of water. This happens a couple of times. You get a crossbow with explosive arrows fairly early on, so that you get exact revenge on the skeletons and occasional mummy that bar your path along the way. Certainly nothing to rave about, but playable." - Phil (08-Dec-2017)
"I liked the colorful catacombs in this level. You must find some items to open doors, make some jumping and climbing, rope swinging, avoiding traps and killing skeletons. I didn't like the so long ladders, shimmies and monkey swings. The most exciting parts for me were falling from very high distances to the water. The first gem to open the door to the end was easy to find, but it was harder to get the second one. The catacombs look good at the beginning, but near the maze everything becomes repetitive and with flat lighting. The final rooms needed more improvement but the gameplay was OK." - alan (29-Jun-2017)
"This pleasant Catacombs level dates back to December 2000, when the Level Editor was just getting started. Obviously, this looks rather primitive by comparison, but I enjoyed some of the gameplay ideas, like the column jumps and rope swings. I didn't particularly like the lengthy ladder climbs, shimmies or monkey swings that needlessly extended playing time. Some of the multicoloured lighting effects were pretty, but the texturing is very stretched and misshapen in most places. A mixed bag overall, but don't let my review deter you." - Ryan (16-Sep-2016)
"Not a good level for me 'cause the author lets you advance through the game even without the necessary items, there are very few tasks to do in huge rooms and I didn't found puzzles, evenmore it's easy to find dead ends and backtracking a lot. Mummies and skeletons are well placed, but you only need to use explosive ammo and no more. I missed cameras when pressing the big buttons and some more musics here and there. Lights are worked but the textures are applied in a "strange" way, a lot of times very elongated, specially in the long ladders. You can take a try, but you'll find nothing funny here." - Jose (14-Apr-2015)
"A classic catacomb level, quite pleasant to look at in parts, albeit somewhat sloppily built, with stretched and missing textures. Simply, easily achieved tasks and skeletons to blow up make it quite a soothing little level in a strange sort of way. Everything is rather 'overdone' though with endless corridors and irritatingly lengthy climbs, shimmies and monkey swings." - Jay (11-Jun-2014)
"Though textures are rather well placed there are some bugged/missing near the end of the level. The place has quite nice structure, I really liked the head fountains placed in the rooms. Gameplay isn't hard and thanks to getting crossbow you can deal with army of undead. Personally I don't like catacombs levels but this one was rather fun." - Casual Raider (17-Jul-2013)
"This level is a bit of a mixed bag. It's a somewhat atypical catacomb experience as far as looks go, which was not unwelcome for me. The use of lighting and room geometry to create nice looking, vibrant settings here is outstanding, but unfortunately not universally so. The room with faces and fiery columns especially feel inspired, even more so for a level of its time. Textures, however, are applied rather sloppily and inconsistently - and at the start the choice for climbable textures was somewhat odd. But if it has any redeeming qualities even for a nowadays' player as far as looks go - the tasks are a bit of a drag. For some reason it was difficult for me to get going here - but after I got hold of the knot and gem it picked up a bit. The moments with the boulders and some skeleton chases are nice, but overall it drags a lot, feels like lacking structure and I was not such a huge fan of the unmarked spike-traps and burner pool. Overall - some of its rooms still are pretty enough to be worth a visit, but the game as such leaves much to be desired in tasks." - eTux (30-Oct-2011)
"This is the Catacomb of the Lost Keys methinks, as we find but never use them. No complicated tasks, just jumping over big rooms, a few traps occasionally, so gameplay is fluent. Enemies are skellies and mummies, and we're given plenty of explosives, so they pose no treat. Too bad for the flare bug, and the streched and missing textures towards the end, because otherwise the level looks pretty good. A simple little level, but offers nice entertainment." - Akcy (12-Sep-2007)
"What were you doing back in December 2000? My memory is very hazy,and so much has happened since then (in the world and with Custom Levels).This adventure dates from within the very first few weeks of the LE's release,and it makes you wonder what level-building accomplishments Verios would have achieved had he stayed the course.This is not your average Catacomb adventure as the rooms are large,grandiose,brightly colourful and designed with flair. (They also transform into a Jungle environment at one point,although for no particular reason).Progression is smooth,fast-moving and generally very enjoyable. What most lets it down,though,is the texturing;which betrays it's 'rushed out' nature.Many of the climbing textures are horrendously stretched or missing altogether,and the atmosphere suffers as a result. The map design is interesting. From a Hub room you set off on a quest for two diamonds and at one point you experience a magnificent,deep and spectacular plunge to the second diamond's resting place.You wonder,after this,how you'll get back to the hub room again.The builder clearly thought the same...the answer is that you run down endless corridors and climb endlessly tall ladders.This pretty much kills the Gameplay,as the return journey should have been just as enjoyable as the outward but the builder clearly ran out of inspiration. Nontheless,this was a fun and generally enjoyable 30 minute level and one that has withstood the ravages of time better than many others of its era." - Orbit Dream (05-Feb-2007)
"Catacombs... I still wonder what makes that wad so popular. Despite having played some great Catacomb.wad levels, including some of the BtB'05, most of these levels still don't please me. This is no exception. The very first room looked really promising, but in that same room you're given two unmarked climbable walls. There are a lot of stretched textures, too, and the level slowly morphs into a jungle with a pointless pyramid in the middle of the main area and a gate key which reamins unused until the end of the level, which is not very far off fortunately. There are long climbable walls and a very boring and long shimmy to get around a deep pit - in moments like these I wish I could just tap the 'interact' key to make Lara get across quicklier. 25 minutes. 01/07" - Treeble (28-Jan-2007)
"This is a pretty good looking level that has been created, however, the gameplay is lacking and so is the design. I found the enemies to be pointless and not much of a challange. The level design was a bit unorganised and seemed that it didn't flow properly. The biggest selling point is the lighting and the look of the level. The scenery is well done and matches the level. If I had to give this level a grade, I would give it a C+, a high pass mark." - The Aussie Adventurer (17-Jan-2006)
""Dark Jungle" from the same author was great fun playing, however this is less the case with this later level of his, because you encounter one crucial mistake: oversizing the rooms. The immense height and width of rooms is only twice used to a good effect: in a ropeswing sequence and in a jump into water far, far below. Otherwise it is just an average catacomb level with colourful lights added. The skeletons were no threat due to explosive ammo and two (!) crossbows I found." - Ruediger (14-Nov-2005)
"Illegal slopes stretched textures climbable walls that don't look climbable and two boring last minutes. There I think that's everything I didn't like in this level. Otherwise it's quite interesting with a little twist when the setting changes. The level isn't challenging and only lasts for fifteen minutes but I still enjoyed playing it. It wasn't the best level I've played but lately I've played so many really bad levels that this level is a nice change of pace." - Magnus (29-Jan-2004)
"Level opens quite well with a little fly-by in a small colourful room with water on each side. After that there's some lever searching and pillar jumping to do in now and then very big and high rooms but somehow this level feels like the author got tired a bit or lazy. There are a lot of stretched textures illegal slopes badly combined textures wafer thin walls and such. Why are there two laser views? Nevertheless there is a lot of looking and running around to do that will keep you busy for a while certainly once you notice you only have one gem and you need a second one. Here and there you will encounter a nasty trap (spikes up your backside mainly). Sometimes however very tedious (very long shimmy very long climbs very long corridors back to the central room where you have to place the gems). But blasting away a lot of skeletons and mummies is always a bit of fun. There's one area that looked quite nice: the one with the pyramid structure in very 'hard' yellow colours and green textures above. All in all a 'near' average level to play in between." - bERT (26-Jan-2004)
"Long time I have not played an original catacomb level. Nice level not so hard. Need to find two gems and I took a long time to find the second gem. Lovely textures nice level." - Yoav (26-Dec-2003)
"A fairly good effort especially in light of its very early release date. The basic catacomb style is dressed up with some fun color effects as well as some whimsical room modeling. Enemies are more or less cannon fodder and don't contribute anything otherwise. Gameplay is linear and bogs down in a couple places with VERY long shimmies ladder climbs and runs. The best of the three levels released by this author IMHO." - Tombaholic (14-Dec-2003)
"Although there are some nicely designed rooms in this level many seem disjointed and poorly designed. For instance one room has several illegal slopes some rooms have extremely stretched textures some rooms are missing a few textures altogether. The author has placed a number of waterfalls but without placing the waterfall sound. In addition there is a door later in the level that must be opened with a Pharos Knot that Lara has to have collected earlier on. If she arrives at the door without it there is no going back. The author has also included spike traps that pop up without warning (no spike-looking texture) which is one of my pet peeves. Enemies are mostly skeletons with a few mummies thrown in here and there. This is no problem however as the author has provided plenty of explosive ammo. However much of the level is quite dark which is a problem since the author placed only one set of flares and that only after the flare bug had kicked in. The object of this level is to find two Horseman Gems to open a door to finish the level. One of them however is found near the start of the level. The author could have designed more puzzles into the level for Lara to solve to find it though. All-in-all a fairly nice level though." - Loren (11-Dec-2003)
"Guess what this is a catacombs level but with colourful textures. Actually the textures are the usual but the lighting is different and adds colour to them. There is much to do gems to find and a knot. The rest is jumps onto blocks some swinging with ropes although in one room they weren't necessary and spike traps. The spike balls near the end weren't a big challenge either. A cute level give it a try." - Kristina (14-Sep-2003)
"I was in need of a nice level after playing Crash Level then I saw this. What an adventure great. Needing two gems you have a great time looking for them. Actually one of them as the first one is easy to find. Finding the crossbow and laser-sight right at the beginning that can only mean skeletons and that is what you get also a lots mummy or two. Finding later another crossbow and also another laser-sight was a bit overdone but hey who is counting. Some textures were paperthin and in the end the flare bug kicks in but that is only annoying by using the binoculars as you hardly need flares. You do a lot of climbing and a long shimmy and a fall that has to be the longest ever yet. WOW. There are some traps but funny enough the boulders passed over Lara's head before I even could hit the F6 key. Don't forget to go looking for a knot because without it you can't finish the level. Found even some gate keys but Lara left with them. What I do like is that after being up and down left and right in search of that second blue gem you end up right were you need it. 08-01-2003" - Gerty (11-Jan-2003)
"This catacomb level is special because of the lighting and of some really impressive huge rooms. However it is a pity that there are a few thin walls. I have liked very much the first half of the level with some rooms enlightened with red orange or green lights and a few rooms where I was wondering what I had to do. But in the second half it is only about climbing shimmying or monkey swinging without having to think. People can also be stuck if they forget the knot in the room with the 3 ropes (actually I did not use any of those 3 ropes and it was fine I don't think I missed something). I have liked the great and long dive in the waterpool though. Then after finding 2 blue gems Lara returns in a room she had already visited and the level ends on a jungle setting." - eRIC (29-Jul-2002)
"Visually this level just excelled with the use of grand looking immense rooms and stunning coloured lighting effects that is until the last 5 minutes of this 45 minute level when it seemed the creator just couldn't be bothered anymore thankfully though it was only the the last 5 minutes. The aim in this level is to locate two gems to open the end doors one of which is easily found at the beginning but the other takes the player on a long adventurous journey through many beautiful rooms with not that much to do but progress with a few nice moves and to get rid of some roving gangs of skeletons and the occasional mummy. Normally I want more out of the levels I play puzzle wise but I thoroughly enjoyed this as it reassured me that not all catacomb levels need be dull and lifeless looking." - Sash (21-Jun-2002)
"A bit of a pity that this level which starts nicely seems a little unfinished towards the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful water and lighting effects in the first half but in the second half the overall very linear gameplay becomes quite tiring in huge rooms with a lot of running and climbing fighting the occasional skeleton and then even a few paper-thin walls missing textures and the 'flare-bug'. Still worth checking out though." - Michael (21-Jun-2002)
"I enjoyed every second of this visually stunning level. The large number of rooms was colorful spacious and reasonably well lit. I love levels with a lot of water and many rooms here had flowing waterfalls and fountains. There were no hard puzzles this is more of a search and find mission with a few well-placed enemies mostly skeletons. However there are a number of deadly traps including spikes and boulders. Some of the areas are so large it takes a little searching to find what you're after and in some rooms you have to really search to discover what your next move is. Just don't forget to stop and enjoy the view." - RaiderGirl (21-Jun-2002)
"What a gem of a level. The only downside being that it is so short and that it has so many ladder textures that are not climbable. The atmosphere is so brilliant. It is a mix of surreal gothic and classic catacomb style with touches of Disneyland thrown into the bargain. Maybe it's only because I listened to the Ramones' It's Alive while playing this but this seems to me the most fast paced gameplay I encountered in ages. Blasting the skeletons away while hoping over the abyss was great fun there is one neverending plunge that I found breathtaking and even the empty rooms at the end made sense somehow. You have to avoid a couple of boulders and you will be spiked a few times but otherwise it's a fairly healthy quest that isn't too demanding as far as puzzles or jumps are concerned. I'm not quite sure what the two laser sights were for though and what the hell was that skeleton doing with the UZIs?" - Dimpfelmoser (21-Jun-2002)