Level reviews

"Nice and short secret military base themed level. It seemed complex at first, but I didn't have to backtrace much, while still not being boringly easy or uninteresting, which I liked. There are no annoying moving laser traps either (they get old fast). Some trouble with finding the final missing items towards the end. Didn't like the final "escape" much (just running away from the enemy through boring tunnels). Gameplay is sometimes weird: why could I collect multiple objects of the same type, like the radio, which I apparently didn't need anyway? Conclusion: probably a bit on the mediocre side, but recommendable if you like this type of level." - tuxraider

"The lab and the spawners utilize objects in a quite creative way but multiple quests aren't elaborate enough to induce the sense of reward from picking up all the items contained. Also, the level is easy unless you miss something - in such case you will recheck all the pitchforks in search of the missed one. As a result I finished tired despite of the builder's efforts. Not recommended for an impatient day. Otherwise, why not." - DJ Full

"A decently designed game with some fancy enemies and objects in a for that time rather special setting, but all in all there's not too much exciting to say about this one. The gameplay is fluent but very simple, a lot of to and fro to get a large bunch of cards and CDs and there's not much to speak of in terms of puzzles, platforming or the like, it is more like a classic shooter. The architecture felt a bit too simple and boxy, many rooms are sparsely designed and texturing is a bit boring, yet also rather cleanly applied and the lighting has its certain something. I wished there had been more work in terms of audio and cameras as well. Overall not a bad effort but not very remarkable either - found the three extremely easy to unmissable secrets in 25 minutes..." - manarch2

"Solid classic StormChaser level, providing the start to a story that could be taken to fruition soon enough.

This is an almost 17 year-old level, so there isn't a lot left to say. The gameplay is not revolutionary, which is also true for the looks of the level, or the sound/music and atmosphere. Still, it delivers. You get interesting rooms and many enemy encounters, which I loved. It never got to be too much for me, it was just right. There was one exception.

I found a game-ending bug (which could be related to the save/load issues identified in the walkthrough for the subway track) that took away from my enjoyment, as I had to replay 90% of the level, after being stuck through no fault of mine for hours. I think I let one of the guards die over the subway track. The swipe card left by that dead guard disappeared instead of getting picked up by me, so I could never get one of the needed CDs.

Despite this bug that crippled my fun, the level is short and sweet enough to warrant my full endorsement. Just keep the subway track in mind - don't save there, and pick up that card straight away! You'll be there for an hour and find it in the sweet spot for difficulty. Not quite for beginners, and not quite for thrill-seekers, however it should be good fun for everyone else.

Peter, I'm eagerly awaiting the second part to this adventure! Thank you for creating this short and simple, but very effective story concept. Congratulations on getting it right with the mixture of exploration and intense battles!" - MigMarado

"A bit of an unusual setting from an author who's more known for his castle based adventures, but this facility manages to stay true and consisten with his other offerings. There were a few nice touches here and there, such as the assembling machine and the indoor train, but otherwise it is pretty much what you'd expect of such setting. The sentry guns were a bit odd, not only hard to spot but also rather silent. 40 minutes, 3 secrets. 10/21" - Treeble

"What brought me to Stormchaser's level page was a post he made in the "Custom Level Pet Peeves" topic in the "Chat about a Level" forum. I wanted to see if he followed his own pet peeves or not, lol. So here I am. I chose to play his last TR4 level built. What I liked about the level. 1) I always like sliding down a long slope to start off a level and then having to jump to do something before continuing. I liked how there were smaller sloped walls to jump back and forth on. Even if this wasn't what was intended to be done, it was fun to do. 2) I love the "INTRUDER DETECTED" alert trigger voice. Nice detail. 3) Awesome semi-transparent rolling ball that seems to have adhered itself to the ceiling after it finished rolling. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but still very cool indeed! 4) Very nice semi-transparent block puzzle, which I quite enjoyed figuring out without feeling it was tedious at all. That's quite an accomplishment regarding push block puzzles, I think. What I didn't like about the level: 1) Gun turrets!! Builders who use these must have a secret vendetta against players. 2) Crawling into a crawlspace only to have a Guardian start shooting you helplessly in the back! Yes, the builder does have a vendetta towards players!! 3) Using SO many medipacks in a level. On average, I try to conserve health as much as possible while playing levels but could not avoid it in this one. I used TWELVE medipacks!!! All in all, it was enjoyable. I would recommend this to players who like running from gun turrets while trying to figure out what to do, battling Guardians and taking lots of damage to one's health etc. but it's not exactly to my particular liking." - Lizard Queen

"Not a castle this time either - this time Peter's brought us a solidly made base level lasting about 45 minutes in total. I'm not normally a big fan of base levels such as this, but I was kept entertained here which was a plus. It is pretty easy and there is a lot of backtracking to do, but the block puzzle and the battles with the retextured electronic demigods spiced things up. Quite fun, although it is quite dark in places." - Ryan

"This was a prolific and well-regarded builder for several years, but we haven't heard from him since 2005. He is known primarily for his castle levels, but here's one off the beaten track that was his last release to date. It's a well-conceived futuristic raid of about an hour's duration, and Dutchy has provided one of his early walkthroughs. The main bummer is the frequent appearance of turret guns (which, unlike sentry guns, you can't blow up), but for one playing in god mode they present no problems. Many enemies drop important items when they're killed, and you have to be on the lookout for fuse boxes to shoot. It would be nice to have this builder come out of retirement, as he's given us some memorable levels. Recommended." - Phil

"This level in terms of atmosphere is a combination of TR5 Russian levels, and TR2 oil rig levels. Texturing is very high tech in design with computers, and grey metallic colour all over. The main aspects of gameplay are destroying a few futuristic looking SAS, opening some doors, climbing into an alcove and dropping into some water then collecting a CD, then later avoiding some wall mounted machine guns - not easy as you're forced to run past them. You then find a secret area but it turns out isn't secret, a few jumps are required here, avoiding lasers and some flames. Collect a CD which releases a demigod, you fight him then open a door. Then there's a tram line, in one direction, we have a nice pushblock puzzle, and more demigods, and CD, other way lies a production room, and another CD, more demigods abound. The objects initially are mainly standard TR5, but there's some nice containers's with demigods in them. The lighting is quite good in most areas but some areas, lara is black but lights are still on. Some lights turn on and off giving it a hi tech feel. The sound is reasonable, mainly standard TR4, but there's a sci fi sound effect at the beginning, and also an alarm sound saying 'intruder alert', you can't hear the gunshots well though." - sonnyd83

"Peter is well known as an excellent castle builder, so it's really great to see him venturing into another genre - base levels. This is quite perfect in my humble opinion. Appropriate surroundings, pickups and actions. The guards drop their weapons, cards and discs for Lara to pick up, cds are hidden in boxes, secrets are radios, and there is the usual... but in this case more interesting, climbing, crawling in vents, swimming, monkeyswinging, shooting grates and gates, opening doors manually or by a card, switches, etc. Early on we come across dark rooms with deadly lasers, but these are static, so it's not a timing exercise. Under this base we discover a railway station. Again very realistic and my Lara was killed a couple of times jumping across the tracks. A train zooms past each time we come back here, giving the impression that it's a well used station. Also down here is a great looking alien/mutant lab with a moving claw that I watched for a while as it moved from one mutant in a glass cage to clone it in another cage. Mutants (demigods) come alive throughout the level and attack Lara. There are a couple of block pushing puzzles. Lara makes her way to the top of this building as well, jumping around on the roof, finding a steam room with views of the city at night, and more offices/labs to pass, all the while dodging automatic guns in the ceilings. There is one room, almost near the end, where Lara picks up a grenade gun. Soon afterwards we meet Seth, the level boss, shooting bolts at Lara as she tries to open the exit door. I'm not sure if the grenade gun was to blow this guy up, but in my game it didn't work, so it seemed an unnecessary pickup so close to the end. The level itself is quite easy to play if you carefully search each room for hidden pickups and switches. Nice easy going base level for an hour's raid." - CC

"Another fine level from Stormchaser. Few kinds of enemies to shoot (only soldiers and demigods) and I've found few ammo for the guns you have along the level (only uzis and revolver), demigods are hard to kill and shotgun and grenadegun only appears at the end and you almost don't have an opportunity to use it. Gameplay is quite good, not difficult tasks but not original puzzles to solve too. Perhaps I missed some cameras although you don't need it 'cause the game is easy to play, and secrets easy to find too. Great detail the train at the subway station, I remembered the times I played Aldwych levels in TR3. Definitively a good level from a very experienced builder." - Jose

"This latest production from Tedstone Inc is his most ambitious; a good stab at a decent plotline and an attempt to incorporate some novelties into the whole scenario - I especially liked the warning alarm. The repetitive nature of the Gameplay (you basically run back-and-forth from a central room) and the somewhat confusing amount of essential pick-ups that you need to acquire gets a bit tedious after a while;but the frequent fighting with the 'experiments'(retextured hammer-gods) and the Train sequence keep it all spiced up." - Orbit Dream

"I'm not a big fan of lab/base levels but this one was neat. I liked it most cause it was easy and I never got stuck :) A rather short level but a lot of things to do on it. I had a great 40 min playing this level. 2005-06-01" - QRS

"Another sharp and solid level from this author. It shows his skill at allowing good flow and energy without making it dumb and easy. From the start, Lara needs to be on the lookout, for right there is the laser sight, and she would be stuck without it. But if close attention is paid (which can be hard as this one is often too dark), then things should go well. Some very important disks can be hard to find. Enemies are demigods done in wireframe, guards, and machine guns - and I could have lived without the machine guns, but there are plenty of medi-packs. This one is a lot of fun to play. Recommended." - Duncan

"You collect so many discs in this hi-tech base level that at one point I seriously considered opening a second hand disc store but then I realised that the overheads plus a downturn in people buying used non music or movie discs would probably have put me out of business within the month so thought best not to go ahead with it. The Genesis Project that Lara stumbles into has something to do with, well frankly I have no idea but there are some funky looking demigods that seem to be made out of wire mesh and some nastily placed automatic guns to make this a nicely threatening level but, and here comes the ol' base chestnut, there isn't much in the way of puzzles bar one movable cage puzzle, and this is in my opinion what usually lets base levels down. This hour long level will keep you nicely occupied though and it was cool seeing radios used for the 3 secrets, even if the first one is oddly right in the path of progression." - Sash

"I love 'lab' games and this one is very inventive! Lara arrives through the business-end of the lab, via the duct work and right away you know this is a heavily armed place. Those SS men have been busy 'importing' special assistants. You will soon realize that your quest includes the location of four CDs and 3 computer disks in order to make your escape with the data file. I especially liked the sensory alarms that lit up an area and provided voice alerts - and that train passing right beneath Lara was a great touch! This is a fun game and I think you will enjoy it immensely. Thank you Peter!" - Mugs

"Peter is exploring new grounds again and offers us a Base level this time. And it has several of the typical ingredients as you need to collect 7 discs and five access cards along the way and fight a dozen guards, dodge a few ceiling mounted gun turrets and (unfortunately) wonder through many rather bleak and empty corridors. There is an occasional trap to watch out for and generally gameplay is rather straightforward as you seem to go on sidetracks to complete a task and then return to the center. The three secret radios are actually hard to miss and I always wondered why some of those grates were shootable and others were not - some different material, I guess. What I really liked about this level though is how it carries the little story along nicely, as you gradually meet more of those Genesis Project demigods and eventually even the big bad one. There are also some neat lights-on effects and the train area is nicely done. 45 minutes of solid raiding." - Michael

"No, it's not a castle, it's a base - a great big base where some experiments with android soldiers are going on. Ooooer. Apart from the androids (delightfully re-textured demigods) there are soldiers to fight and lots of access cards and discs to find. I particularly liked the section with the train and some of those discs were rather well hidden. The secrets are radios, which makes a change, but I managed to miss one somewhere along the way. Good fun." - Jay

"From the last three or so levels of this author, this is the one I liked the most. Usually I don't like VCI settings but this one was different somehow and fun to play. Lara is searching for CD-ROM disks and has to solve a puzzle with movable blocks, avoid lasers and find Data disks as well. At some point it can get confusing and for some of the gates the trigger wasn't visible plus you have to backtrack to previous areas after acquiring a certain item which can make you get lost. I don't see why he chose demigods as enemies but the last boss, Seth was annoying. I found three secrets." - Kristina

"Funny how I always will think that Peter equals Castles. Of course that is a wrong assumption. He made quite a few castle levels, but did much more than that. This is a base level. They are not my favorites levels to play. In this one find 3 Data Disks and 4 CD-Roms and for fun, three secrets and leave with the Data Crystal. I must have run through this complex so many times, but in the end got the last Data Disk. I liked the idea of the machine making a copy of the demi gods. But Seth (the end boss) is still not my favorite. Had a good laugh at the train as it passed so fast that Lara was dead before I really could have a look what happened. LOL. Nice touch the radio's as a secret. 17-04-2005" - Gerty