Level reviews

"The intro makes it clear that Lara is heading a mission, uncommonly accompanied by four companions. Less clear is the objective of that mission, though applying your knowledge of the genre, you may assume that it is to make it through the eponymous base alive, and that's good enough for the present purposes.
The SAS you're about to meet here have a number of unusual traits: clearly appreciative of history, they've set up their base in an abandoned ancient structure; and refusing to go digital, they've furnished it agreeably with bookshelves and writing desks and potted plants. I have a feeling we could have come to a mutual understanding under different circumstances, but as it is, we're going to have to tackle them and their sentry guns and the one dog they keep (this, too, is unusual; one would assume it's the regiment's mascot. Whether or not you meet this dog seems to depend on whether you jump into a certain shallow pool of water or not). The mission is complicated by the fact that they also keep a number of nasty big beetles and scorpions, who appear to have turned the tables on them, as the creative placement of dead bodies indicates. Lara's role is that of the clever one who finds the levers and switches that open the various doors, while her companions do the legwork of suppressing the opposition. This they do quite efficiently; even though they became confused at some point, unable to make further progress; some walking into walls, one of them waltzing back to the very start of the level. This, however, is excusable on the grounds that there are a great many doors which all look the same, to the extent that towards the end support by one or two camera units would have been appreciated.
With the mission accomplished, I have to say it was a jolly romp. We all made it through alive, even liberating a prisoner in the process. It was lively throughout and sustained interest much better than the builder's own remake or the intervening Merchant Center, to both of which this level is superior." - Mulf

"What a pleasant surprise this level was. I'm not normally the biggest fan of base levels but this one is less of a full on shooter so I rather liked this one. Lara manages to recruit some allies in this level, so the guards are easily taken care of. What proved more of a toll on her health were the wasps and scorpions and by then my ammo was at a premium so I had to suck up a few medipacks along the way. It's fairly entertaining even without anything too cerebral and doesn't outstay its welcome. Give it a go." - Ryan

"I must say it made a nice change for Lara to have some allies and, certainly in the first part of this 25 minute adventure she barely needs to get her pistols out, apart from shooting out gratings. Once she loses sight of her friends however she does have to deal with giant scorpions, flying bugs, some SAS and a demigod, not to mention running the gamut of sentry guns, so it's hardly a holiday. Otherwise, it's pretty straightforward fare, with no timed runs or puzzles, but it's fast paced, doesn't outstay its welcome and I rather enjoyed it." - Jay

"A short level made with many small rooms where your goal is to open and open many doors to reach the exit. The doors can be opened with wall switches or keys, you must also shoot a couple of buttons and avoid some sentry guns, but that's all. The remaining gameplay is shoot a lot of enemies and pick up guns, medipacks and ammo. Sometimes when you return to previous rooms, a door have opened, but there are not cameras to show that circumstance. Even so is not a bad level, 'cause the ornated environments with good look and the fluid gameplay. If you are a shooter, this level could be good for you." - Jose

"A good thing that levels based on shooting are short in general. This one does clock under 20 minutes, and was entertaining the time it lasted. There is no brain teasing and no tricky action to perform either, making of this raid a pleasant albeit a bit pointless experience. The level is solidly build , in an Egyptian setting in which SAS have installed their base. Lara is helped by friendly soldiers to get rid of them, and will also have to deal with some other enemies as well, at one point there is several big beetles in a small room , and later big scorpions in a larger one , that was fun. The author has made a good job and has placed suitable objects for the decor of the rooms." - eRIC

"I couldn't remember why I didn't review this level when it came out and looking at the date is a golden oldie. The start is indeed a sight to see, Lara in her bright red suit and with four companions. There isn't that much ammo to find, although a shotgun and revolver and even a crossbow is provided as the enemies in here are of the bigger size and you might want to use those at a certain point. So in the beginning it is wise to be helped a bit, the real hard work is for Lara alone much later. The only enemy that was not in its place was a demi-god. The level is short and sweet and there is no way you can get stuck. 19-10-2005" - Gerty

"This is so short a level that my walkthrough barely made it into the third page. It's fairly linear and straightforward, and it has the nice touch of a quartet of friendly mercenaries going off to battle for you from the very beginning. The only spot that held me up was the room with two sentry guns that start pouring lead into you while you're still stuck in a crawlspace. I kept looking for ways to bypass those guns and proceed, but I was finally told that you need to grit your teeth and run past a hail of bullets and flame throwing hell into a hole with water down at the bottom. Kind of rough on the health, but the rest of the level was perfectly logical. A nice little level for beginning raiders." - Phil

"Well this was more like a temple area regarding textures, and with guards, wasps, scorpions and dogs as enemies there's a bit of a fight ahead. The first thing is you will get some friendly helpers to pick off those guards for you, but all isn't that simple when there are a few sentry guns to deal with as well. Basically you will be finding levers and keys to open doors, plus a couple of buttons to shoot to open the way to proceed. There's a prisoner to rescue and a final shoot out with a demi god, then you're done here. A very short level indeed, but fun to play, and nicely put together." - Moonpooka

"At last on my 2nd attempt I have succeeded in installing this level and what a fun experience it was (the level that is; not the installation). This must surely be one of the most enjoyable short adventures yet built as the whole thing zooms along at a tremendous speed with loads of frantic and often hilarious action along the way (relish Lara's Arab assistants doing most of her work for her!) However fun though it was I really can't rate the Gameplay aspect any higher as (despite the pace) it was all very straightforward; and as for the Atmosphere and Textures..well if you pause and take time to look around you during the proceedings (an unlikely circumstance admittedly) it really is rather rough around the edges; the location is never convincing the choice of enemies too eclectic and the whole architecture has a rather 'speed-built' feel to it which all preclude from scoring it too highly. But I must impress that scores really aren't important here so just play this fun little adventure and enjoy yourself!" - Orbit Dream

"Now this is something new; a SAS-base in a pyramid! I can almost see the advertising: 'Tomb Builder' - Build your own base inside a pyramid or in an ancient temple! Want an office inside the sphinx? You've got it! Only one thousand millions per square metre!' Or something like that. Well at least this level surprised me since I certainly wasn't expecting a level like that. There are some SAS-men too but not too many. Besides you get a couple of friendly soldiers that 'help' you (personally I think that they're only in the way). The level is very easy and I completed it in about ten minutes. The texturing is good (Egyptian texturing remember?) but it seems very out of place. All in all a short level that is worth playing only for its different use of Egyptian texturing." - Magnus

"I liked this a lot. Imagine an office/base level set in Egypt. To me it looks lovely and I liked Lara's red top the leg parts though don't look good. I love the start with Lara standing amid four gunclad buddies ready to break in with great music. These guys take care of the guards leaving Lara to search for the keys she needs to open the place up. Couldn't figure out how to get past the two machine guns from the crawlspace I mean I had a lasersight so was there something to shoot first. But in the end I just ran for it and even though Lara caught fire she landed in water so all was well. I found a second lasersight later on which made more sense. Great touch of the giant beetles flying like flys around the corpse of a soldier. In hindsight gameplay is very easy but a couple of times during the level I was stuck for a while. Did anyone see the guy floating in mid air above the demigod? Yes I liked this a lot." - CC

"It's a shoot 'em up level and I hated it. The setting is Egyptian with doors and a few other objects from a base. I really think the style was bad and you cjust can't mix those two elements in that way. Maybe other authors have succeeded in combining the Egyptian element with the lab/base one but this isn't one of them. SAS guards big scorpions sentry guns and flying beetles are the enemies and there isn't enough ammo given. Fifteen minutes in it and I disliked it from the first minute. The only thing I liked was the friendly soldiers that helped Lara defeat her enemies. I wouldn't recommend this level." - Kristina

"For a short level this was a lot of fun which considering the name surprised me a bit. I was expecting only a shoot 'em up level and was glad to find much more. I like the way the level started out with the dramatic music and Lara's bodyguards standing around her but apparently I'm the only one that did not like the new red catsuit. Anyway the four bodyguards follow Lara around to some areas allowing her to do her job and they will kill the enemies for her (soldiers dogs scorpions). Part of the fun for me was trying to kill the soldiers before they had to without hitting one of my men. Puzzles consist mainly of opening doors pushing buttons and using keys but with the cages of giant scorpions giant beetles machine guns and the demigod it was quite exciting at times and I loved the way the rooms were built textured and decorated." - RaiderGirl

"This level definitely has a nice feel and look about it but it just seemed to fall short of the mark. Reminding me very much of Recon Labs but set in a more Egyptian setting you find the same helpful allies large wasps large scorpions and similar objects throughout this 25 minutes level. The one big disappointment came with the enemies although I liked the fact that the allies helped they seemed to pre-empt each human attack so that I didn't get a chance to kill them myself and when it came to the non human enemies wasps scorpions and demigod at the end they were all easily targeted from a safe position where you could just shoot them like fish in a barrel taking any thrill of danger out of the equation. Still though there was just something that felt really good about this level it's just a shame it was over so soon." - Sash

"I thoroughly enjoyed these 20 quick minutes of gameplay which seemed longer because from a nice start with the short music and the four bodyguards for Lara in her new (very) red catsuit you will be constantly entertained through a bit of action a few nice objects (although a bit of a wild mix of them same for the textures) and fast paced battles with SAS wasps giant scorpions and Seth at the end. Progression is linear and virtually without real puzzles but interesting nonetheless. I found one secret." - Michael

"A pretty straight forward level with a couple of nice touches. Particularly enjoyed the 'friendly' companions that assisted Lara IF you do not shoot them. I think the point of this level was to rescue one of them but I shot the poor bloke in error. Oh well................" - Torry

"The initial flyby on this level was fun showing Lara and a team of troops ready to raid the base. Lara is wearing a different but nice catsuit. There were cages with animals inside like the wasps with their annoying sounds the poison giant scorpions and there was a cage at the end of the level with a troop inside. The level kept my action through its 20 minutes and I can say that it's worth a download for everyone specially for those who liked 'Recon Labs'." - Treeble

"This level has a lot of novel and cool things: a new outfit sprinklers and revolving ceiling fans new enemies and allies that help Lara with hostile guards. For all this I have to rate it highly. Unlike what some of the other reviewers have experienced the giant scorpions rushed right out at Lara and she was soon surrounded making for a good fight. Otherwise these neat elements have been placed within a rather mundane level. The gameplay is fairly simple and the atmosphere and textures are Egypt 101. Still though it won't take long to play and it's worth a look." - Tombaholic

"Wow. From an impressive start this level gets better and better. I love the music sting at the start and Lara's in a funky new red catsuit. This level makes use of several aspects I've not seen before in the fan levels: there are security guards to protect her we have working sprinklers spinning fans on the ceiling and some very nicely designed rooms. Machine gun emplacements complete with flame throwers large scorpions and a neat baddie at the end ... all in all it's pretty excellent stuff. The puzzles are quite good as well except for one area which as I discovered if you miss finding a set of keys you get stuck in as there's no way out without them - you cannot go back! Not good design and the keys are very well hidden - I had to ask for help to locate them so if you don't want to know then don't read this bit backwards: moor gub eht ni draug daed rednu. Personally good though this is much more could have been made of the situation. The large scorpions are a little wasted - we needed a large area for Lara to battle them maybe along with her guards and the ending is disappointingly simple once you work out how the end-baddie cannot get you with his power bolts. Finally the level does not come with any menu updates and so I thought laterally and called it tut1.tr4 accessing it from the 'Tutorial Level' narrative - there are no set-up instructions to help you either. But there's always the red catsuit ..." - David

"I thoroughly enjoyed this level however it was a little shorter than I wanted. It's so nice to see people using new wads and even new outfits for Lara. The gameplay was pretty straightforward the tasks weren't too difficult. But it had a certain quality that kept you interested while playing." - Scott

"I wrote so much praise recently that in order to even the score I selected a level with the ominous titled 'SAS Base' so I could ramble on at great lengths about how boring and predictable everything is but -surprise surprise- I liked this well enough. You start right in the middle of four guards sporting what we used to call a 'Palästinenserfeudel'. Politically unsound no doubt but it made me laugh. Ever so fashion conscious Lara has donned a red cat suit today so that the bloodstains blend in with her overall appearance as you're gonna lose a few gallons during this. Plus this outfit looks most kinky during the crawls. Progression is easy and fast and mainly involves pushing levers and killing the enemies en passant. I particularly cared for the room with the three giant wasps. Gave me a buzz at least. Frankly there is nothing particularly outstanding in neither gameplay atmosphere nor textures but if you've just returned from a really tough quest it's nice to have a kind of holiday before the next Mission Impossible." - Dimpfelmoser