Level reviews

"The readme for this level states the author tried to make it as non-linear as possible, so that led me straight to the walkthrough, which might have rendered this level less challenging than indeed but still quite enjoyable. At first I wasn't too keen on the strong red tint used throughout the level, combined with some dark areas here and there, but I eventually understood the author was trying to recreate a sunset feel with it and started to appreciate it more that way. Gameplay revolves around finding four guardian keys - a couple of which are hidden alongside secrets - to eventually reach the ultimate prize before quickly dealing with the TR4 dragon in the end. Fun level. 40 minutes, 5 secrets. 03/21" - Treeble

"Lara's decked out in a rather natty outfit for this little Oriental level. The aim here is to ultimately acquire four guardian keys scattered throughout the level by performing a variety of tasks including avoiding pillars that shun you to one side, fire emitters, spike traps and ninjas that will try to thwart you. It is quite dark in places, but plentiful amounts of flares are provided. Not bad at all. I finished in exactly 30 minutes." - Ryan

"This is a nice older level that took me just under an hour to play. It's a bit dark in spots, but not enough to spoil my enjoyment of the gaming experience. The six secrets give you nothing but a pretty artifact and the satisfaction of finding them. The dragon at the end is rather easy to elude, as the builder has provided plenty of protective areas to hide behind. Along the way you have to find four Guardian Keys to access the final area. Lots of fun, and one to be played (or replayed, as the case may be)." - Phil

"For an author who doesn't use that much customization in his levels, StormChaser has managed to develop a distinctive style that sets him apart from other builders and makes his efforts recognizable no matter what setting he chooses as a canvas. This Far East inspired level was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but still ended up being a fun level to play for the 40 minutes of net gaming it lasts. Though the author's intention seemed to be to make this game somewhat non-linear, I found it a bit too maze-like for my liking (the inclusion of an actual water maze didn't improve my impressions) in places. Though the non-linearity is not that bad here as you set off in the search for the key, the 4 guardian keys and the dragon masks (secrets), it can be a bit confusing - especially when you stumble upon gameplay relevant items within the secrets. My opinion firmly remains that the 2 should not be mixed, but I suppose the handling of the situation in this level was not the worst scenario. There are some nice areas, namely the temple where you get the Hypostyle key, the dragon slide, the dragon bridge and the main tower near the start, but on the whole - the geometry is blocky, there are a number of texture mistakes that make the game look sort of 'untidy', but I found the strong dark red lighting that permeates through most areas of the game was my least favourite aspect. That put aside - the author's levels are still like a pair of comfortable slippers where you pretty much know what to expect, so anyone familiar with the author's style should feel right at home here, but I personally found it a bit too chaotic for my liking this time." - eTux

"I think this was one of the easiest level released by the author. In this oriental raid, the lighting is on the red and dark side, there is good objects, the movable blocks are easy to spot and the exploration flows well ; things get spiced half way through with a curved run on pillars and an interesting squashed blocks room. Plus you have to enter the dragon's lair at the end. A good one hour entertainment that won't irritate you." - eRIC

"This is a compact little level played in the dark red glow of an oriental evening sky, over a large pagoda type temple building, with pool of friendly fish and deadly butterflies. Lara is searching for an ancient parchment. The garden areas are lovely and peaceful as there is nothing else to do there. The log levers are certainly in keeping with the environment. Not so the ninjas! and giant mosquitos. Basically we make our way around this building complex, high and low, searching for keys, four of which open the way to the most peculiar looking one-eyed dragon and it's guardian locusts that live in a sinister dark cave that is probably the most atmospheric dragon encounter I've seen. To get our keys we have to negotiate various traps, a few block pushing exercises, and some very interesting climbing, shimmying and jumping. One large lava cave has a good-looking four-way wooden bridge setup. Another large room looks ominous with it's moving blocks that have no textures on top. Also a boulder run, underwater maze, and terrific looking slide down a slimy green slope towards a fire breathing dragon's head. All told, this is a relatively easy romp through a gorgeous, if dark, oriental level. And of course Lara is wearing a cute hat and outfit that looks the part. The good thing about this level is how it's all interconnected and if you happen to miss one of the keys, which more than likely will happen as it's well hidden in plain sight, you can go back a second time to retrieve it." - CC

"Lara is traveling to the Far East in order to gain another relic the Sacred Scroll. The Sacred Scroll was hidden deep into a cave and its guardian is a malign dragon. The textures of the level are beautiful and mysterious red lights efface the surroundings. During our adventure we have to collect some Guardian Keys with them we'll be able to get down to the deepest caverns. The enemies are some poisonous butterflies and giant wasps and a whole army of ninjas. But we also have plenty of ammunition. The arch-enemy is the dragon himself but he's far not as dangerous as ugly. But because of the locusts he releases we can't help suffering some injuries. The level is not linear we can collect the Guardian Keys in any sequences. There are some challenges that need some skills and an easy timed run too. We can also collect six secrets on our way but the game counts only 5 of them. Peter Tedstone created a very good adventure for us I like his levels. You can find a Hungarian walkthrough (as we don't have English version) savegames and pictures here: http://www.treditor.hu/15/dragon_s_lair.htm " - Obig

"You can kind of recognize it as a Storm Chaser level - all the trademarks are there: about an hour of gameplay searching of multiple objects in a rather nicely designed environment some decent searching and exploring required and a theme to the secrets (6 golden tokens one of which does not register as a secret). Plus you get a nice hat for Lara and a really beautiful horizon in this oriental setting. It is not linear but the distances are not all that large so you should be able to manage easily without covering too much unnecessary ground. The red-brownish and rather dark lighting did get on my nerves a bit after a while as indeed you need to often run around with a lit flare but the oriental textures and objects make up for it. In terms of gameplay I am not sure if I enjoyed the rather maze like feeling all that much but the quest for the four guardian keys is still fun and you get a not too hard timed run a few of those squishing blocks to deal with. Enemies are a whole bunch of black ninjas some wasps and butterflies. Near the end you find a set of cool static dragon heads the crucial parchment and a 'real' dragon to evade. Solid fun unless you are not observant or patient as it can easily become a bit tedious." - Michael

"This is another of the good levels from Storm Chaser. It's not very difficult to end and has a very important thing (for me) that other levels have not: few switches. (I hate go along all the level pull 100 switches to open another 100 passages. It's boring). So the gameplay is very good although the puzzles are less good. It could have some more ammo for shotgun. Enemies are correct and the secrets easy to find (some much too easy). The sounds are well and the textures good but the level is a little dark for me. Definitively a good level everybody will like to play." - Jose

"A nice oriental setting this with Lara in a natty hat I haven't seen before and some new floor levers re-textured to look like logs - nice. Be warned this is a dark level and you will certainly need the flares which are plentifully supplied. There are lots of ninjas and some Tinnos wasps about as you explore various areas in search of four guardian keys. My favourite was the room with the crushing blocks I thought that was rather inventive. What I really want to know though is why the ninja who pushed Lara into some flames didn't catch on fire himself? The final artefact you need to find is a sacred parchment and you'll probably be sorry you picked it up since it triggers a dragon. Actually it's not the dragons I mind so much it's those blasted locusts - I really HATE them. Not a long level nothing too difficult but good fun if you don't mind dark levels." - Jay

"Quite interesting level which has a lot of modified objects and textures taken from previous Tomb Raiders (particularly from TR2). Some enemies switches and levers are totally changed. All these things are good and improve the fine atmosphere in level. Dragon's Lair by Peter is a non-linear level where you can choose the way of completing the objectives (speaking of them your mission is to find four gems unlock the secret Dragon's temple and obtain an ancient manuscript). In the end Lara will have to face a demon (probably dragon) and escape as it cannot be killed in any way. All stuff I mentioned is in my opinion well created and funny but the weak point of the level are textures - they would be ok if Peter didn't repeat the same ones so frequently - for example the walls in a corridor are textured with the same ones which is a bit monotonous. Also several places are deaf. The final verdict: Dragon's Lair is interesting and entertaining level and offers many amusing moments during playing but the author could work harder with textures in some places. Anyway good job!" - Gerbil

"What did I like the most in this level? First and foremost the fact that it looked Chinese instead of some Chinese-Egyptian-South Seas-London masquerade as so often happens. Even the buildings in the horizon usually used for London or New York (but also used indiscriminately for any sort of place in LE games) have been retextured to look like pagodas. The lighting is also very 'oriental'. And so is Lara's outfit (a little bit like a colonialist lady if you ask me). That shows that enough care has been put into building the game. The story is simple: Lara has to collect five gold tokens (but I think if she doesn't no harm will come to mankind they are like secrets) and four keys (that she really must) in order to eventually find a way out. Meanwhile she'll do some swimming a little sightseeing very little monkey swinging and some jumping too as well as facing several ninjas along the way and some big mosquitoes that she'll dispose of easily with her shotgun all in the pursuit of the happiness of adventuring. Sometimes you may feel as if you've arrived in some place where things may get tough namely in the room with the moving blocks. But in fact the degree of difficulty is always medium-low. Which in shorter levels is perfectly fine by me. In the end she'll briefly have to face the dragon itself plus its always faithful armies of locusts. I found it funny that even after arriving outside just as she's almost heading back to the main menu the locusts won't leave her alone... Nice level if you want to know. (August 11 2004)" - Jorge22

"A really nicely produced fairly non linear level is what you get with Peter's latest. The setting is kind of an outdoor/indoor oriental temple environment with a central large pagoda and rice paper doors here and there. Now I've recently played a string of levels that have as the penultimate theme a meeting with the giant serpent and those damn locusts and here you also get that terrible worrisome meeting but first you have to go on the hunt for 4 guardian keys strewn through the temple and it's ground this can seem slightly like running in a maze at times but it never got annoying. If like me you want to put as much time between starting the level and confronting the unnerving serpent then you can also look for 6 gold token secrets placed around but don't be surprised if your stats only show you locating 5 as one of them didn't register for me. In the end you grab what you've come in search of an ancient sacred parchment probably written on it says 'stop playing levels with these bloody serpents' and you finish which should take about an hour." - Sash

"What a pretty outfit Lara is wearing that is the first thing I saw starting this level. The readme tells you that this is a non linear game and it is. And luckily not so confusing as some are. It also warns you that it is dark. It is and it isn't and there are plenty of flares to be found. The textures used are mainly of a dark colour but it suited the game very well. In here you are hunting for four Guardian Keys so in the end you can lay your hands on The Sacred Parchment. I had a good chuckle to see the nice re-textured levers as it fooled me the first I encountered. There is much to do and my advice is to look good so you can get the secrets that Peter has hidden here and there. The timed door isn't luckily not too hard just get into the jumping rhythm the squashy blocks however is a different story. That took quite a couple of tries... The jumping in the room with the fire emitters was easier than I thought though. Best thing is that you can see through some lattice work parts of the way you have to go or were you have been. Enemies are butterflies (I hate to shoot those) re-textured ninja's and in the end of course the dragon. Glad I had some spare medipack as the locusts were fiercely hungry. And when you think that you are stuck shoot that might work. Was a bit puzzled by two small gardens in the compound as they had nothing in them except a beautiful willow tree and in the other also some poppy flowers. Found 5 secrets (one without a chime) 19-07-2004" - Gerty

"This one is another level of great beauty. The Japanese element is quite obvious especially with doors and warrior statues around plus the main structure with the pool below. There's a small underwater maze with a token which is supposed to be a secret but didn't chime. You're looking for four guardian keys which reminded me of another level or even levels where Peter had us searching for those keys again. Thus the low rating at the gameplay category although I liked very much the setting there were no puzzles to solve but nice jumps concerning moving blocks you had to avoid and big dragon statues with fires at the end. I found five secrets and enjoyed this level but one of the keys had me searching for a while. Take a look at it it's worth it." - Kristina