Level reviews

"I thought the gameplay in this level was fantastic with a perfect blend of exploration, platforming, timed tasks and traps to keep you throughly entertained, the highlights for me being the timed tasks and traps and the torch challenge. Despite the location set in South America, visually I also got Angkor Wat vibes but the builder certainly isn't afraid to mix lots of different textures with coloured lights and glowing orbs and despite a lot of them being quite low quality it certainly made a refreshing style change for what to normally expect and I especially liked the gold lava rivers and the variety of it all . Enemies consisted of irritating parrots and tribesmen and as we make our through to the latter stages we even get raptors and a dragon! If you like swimming or water you'll be pleased as there is plenty of areas to explore underwater with a few simple tasks and traps and even a boat to ride briefly. Overall a throughly enjoyable level with great variety in both gameplay and visual elements and for me personally bonus points for not having to use a walkthrough once!" - John

"This is quite a colorful debut level, and not a bad one at that either. There's a fair share of timed runs (none of which is difficult), but quite a few bits that had me reloading such as the rolling balls (especially the one in the underwater passage). It's not much of a Peru level as you'd expect although some of the textures are there, but visually this is still quite a beauty to look at, and I especially loved all the blue hues used in the lighting around the place. Not so keen on the "inverted godrays", for the lack of a better way to describe it but I suspect the author used those to highlight points of interest in the map. The final battle was rather weird, I think the boss can only be hit during certain animations but you can totally cheese the fight by not crossing the door to his small arena. I chuckled when I realized the werid shaped locusts were actually Lara's leg mesh though. All in all, I had a good time here. 45 minutes, 3 secrets. 12/22" - Treeble

"As the walkthrough notes, there's quite a few timed runs in this level, so this won't be the most relaxing raid for players, but none of them required that many tries for me. Other challenges Lara faces here are boulders, spikes, and flames, and the gameplay is pretty engaging overall. My one nitpick is the trap sequence that must be completed twice due to required backtracking from one of the emeralds. The visuals are pleasing due to good use of fog bulbs and colored lights. Definitely one of the strongest contributions to Baptism of Fire. 41 minutes." - JesseG

"A great debut again. Gameplay was fun and contained more timed runs than one could imagine. Thankfully they are doable eventually. I also enjoyed the (very short) boat ride and the torch puzzle. The secrets were also unique. Maybe the music was a bit too upbeat for my liking, but that's a personal preference. Well done!" - Ryan

"This was gorgeous! Just gorgeous. I was always enchanted by its surroundings, its music, its sparkles... There's really nothing wrong to point out on the 3 topics regarding the decoration of the level. JUST one thing. The fact that it only has one music, and that sometimes, two songs start playing at the same time on the background. Since giving a score of 10 usually means "this topic was perfect" i can't do it because of that small detail. On the game play and puzzles matter, it was rather easy to pass. Had a REALLY good traps and rooms challenges, but it didn't really had any puzzles into it. Also, the spike/rope move at the beginning was horrible. It's a matter of pure luck, it doesn't matter if you are a rookie or master player. Timing the rope right with the spikes it's just frustrating, as it is really hard to achieve. Completely recommend this level to play it for an hour or so - it will really call out your soft side with the beautiful level design." - Zhyttya

"One of the best games i played so far on TRLE. It has a great atmosphere, the textures are lovely and everything just fits together. Every room is a room, loved the detail about fire and ice! The enemies were spot on and just the right amount. Over all gameplay was simple but efficient, even if there is one part with the rope that its REALLY annoying because of the mechanic it self.. its a bit more luck to pass it than skill it self. There are no real puzzles but there is always some challenge in every little thing what makes it really enjoyable. One of the things that i loved the most is that there is no repetition, there is almost one different mechanic for each "area" for the puzzle.. If i have to be "picky" the only think that annoyed me was the fact that the lovely music was very limited and the fact that sometimes you have two playing at the same time. I will highly recommend this level above a lot of the ones that are on the hall of fame!" - Leeth

"This level was very good. I felt like an extension of the South Pacific levels from TR3 whick is very good. Enjoyed hunting the artifacts and making my wat through the traps.The downside of the whole level was the texturing. All in all I had a lot of fun, I recommend it." - young Lara Croft

"Am I the only one or did anyone else have the feeling that the start seems oddly familiar - I'm talking about the Heart of Peru level from Horus's Neon God -? Not only in this regard that level seemed to be an "inspiration", but anyway. The gameplay is highly entertaining, with lots of traps to negotiate, smaller puzzles to solve and challenging jumps and lots and lots of timed runs - all rather nicely, if not overly originally, put together. I agree that it often would be better to mark the timed runs as such, and I imagine the level could've opened up eventually at some point, actually being a tad too linear for me. The objects are looking really good and the technical achievements are plenty, but for me the atmosphere was a bit too shiny and there were too many elements which didn't really fit together, neither to the given setting. The rather too bright lighting didn't help here either, but I rather liked the decent texturing (with the occasional misplaced one). So to sum it up, a good 35 minute game that shows the builder's potential to do even better in the future." - manarch2

"The further You go, the better it looks, with neutral part in the beginning, then the hot and cold episodes in the middle, and the final boss fight accompanied by hilarious song. All the places are very realistic, filled with lots of sparks, beams and light, flowing lava and water among the rocky caves of a truly unboxy architecture, and blood writings on the walls do the rest of visual impression. Ambient soundtrack never gets disturbing, and secrets also have their own, customized sample. For secrets themselves, I think anyone of pre-intermediate raiding skill should find them, but they look very pretty and it's a nice feeling to obtain them. There is also another hidden place, not counting as a secret, a little bit harder to find, and it contains M16 - a grenade gun, but very nicely modified to fire series of bullets. Sometimes we can encounter perfectly placed and interesting enemies, so we have an opportunity to use that M16. There are lots of classic traps like spikes and boulders as well, which are never too hard to negotiate, but its their density what keeps us entertained all the time. However, the game lacks one thing some raiders can find significant: there is no puzzles requiring advanced thinking. SUMMARY: Short and easy, but extremely playable. There was no moment I wanted to take a break. Try it." - DJ Full

"This is a nice, fun debut level with fast paced and fairly linear game play, full of good jumps, runs over collapsible tiles, spikes and boulder traps. There were lots of switches to pull and most all of them were timed, but with enough fairness to be easily done even by a less experienced player. It was easy to figure out where to go next and none of the progress was puzzle based, so no one should get stuck in this place for a long time. All key-items were relatively easy to find and there weren't any sneaky concealed crawlspaces or jump switches where one had to look forever. There were a couple of nasty enemies like parrots that appeared almost bullet proof and caused lots of damage, a few raptors, tribesmen and there was also a final boss in form of a giant serpent. That sequence was my least favorite, as this thing was shooting locusts and setting Lara on fire constantly, so the only way to manage that part was with a lot of health packs and constant saving and reloading. I used a total of 7 health packs and I am normally very conservative with those. The level has a good atmosphere but I wasn't so sure about the music used at times, but that part comes mostly down to personal taste. I also had a bit of mixed feelings about the texturing and lighting. The level had very much a TR3 look to it and some areas were wonderfully done, but other areas were a bit harsh looking and brightly lit, especially considering that this is area is mostly underground and should have been rather dark and shady. In conclusion I have to say, that it was a fun filled raid and that the game play is definitely the strong side of this level, which alone makes it worth downloading and playing." - Blue43

"This level is wonderful! We're adventuring to a luxurious magic-filled temple in it. The greenery is also very nice. Even if it's a short level, the gameplay is very entertaining. The traps and the timed runs aren't so hard, they can be done, that's very nice. The ambient is relaxing, I love it. The only negative thing is the parrot-killing. It's awful. Anyway, it's beautiful and awesome, a very relaxing level. Recommended. Nearly perfect, in my opinion." - rtrger

"=D I really liked this level! Well, right off the bat, I gave gameplay an 8 because I got stumped a lot and there were tons of timed runs, and I love timed runs! The puzzles are very clever and I thought it was all set together excellently. I gave enemies/objects/secrets a 7 because enemies were very rare, and that big boss at the end was annoying! x_x Because first, I think I had a glitch or something and I couldn't get into that room. Then the lotus were so annoying! But overall it was an epic battle! :D Objects were well placed, and secrets weren't that hard to find. Atmosphere was excellent, I loved those sparkly little things scattered around, loved it. Well I was going to give this category a 7 but I changed it to an 8 anyways because everything else was good except the sound. There was this weird hippie kinda music playing in one part lol!! But the cameras were well placed. And finally, lighting/texturing a 7 because it was average to me, nothing huge and overall applied neatly but it could have gone above and beyond. Like some textures were grass textures applied to doors and we had these weird 2D grass walls :S Overall, its an awesome adventure which took me a shocking 90 mins to finish!! :O :O Great job thecentaur...:D" - Victoria

"A truly great level, certainly for a first... All gameplay elements were there, never a boring moment in this level where you go through ancient Peruvian temples to collect artifacts. Even a boat ride is included. There were some moments where I had problems finding my way, but the solution was always closeby. Cleverly constructed timed sequences, jumps and a torch puzzle with a sliding floor. My compliments to the builder, although there was a moment when I couldn't proceed due to a door closing when I hopped back out of the room with the dragon. That trigger should have been a little more inside the room maybe. Nice textures, used very well. Good use of objects. There could have been a bit more camera hints for my taste.. Nevertheless a"must play"" - Dutchy

"Really a level very nice to play, with many timed runs but not too much hard, beautiful and well applied textures, some special effects with the lights, marvellous objects and an interesting gameplay. I liked the TR2 boat but I used it a very short time. The cold waters where you can swim only few time is an attractive feature too. An excellent debut." - Jose

"A fun level, delightful to play, and well-lit in the style of some TR3 levels. Give this one a try. My main complaint was that I wanted more. When the game ends be sure and stick around for the ending fly-by, which takes some minutes showing various artifacts in atmospheric rooms. If only some of the playing sequences had been expanded this would be topnotch. For instance, there is a cold room, with glacial runoff water at the freezing point. Lara takes damage in the water, yet all that is involved is a short swim to collect an artifact (one of three secret relics). And there is a working motorboat. Now, I know from reading TREP discussions how difficult it is to include a working boat in a TR4 level, and yet here we have one. I always expected that someone would eventually solve this problem, and at last we have a working boat! Then all that happens is that Lara rides it across the channel for a few seconds, jumps out, and the boat is never used again. Then there is the room where Lara slides on the floor, though for no reason. Clever, yes, but somewhat pointless. (In TR3 the boat allowed Lara to navigate over freezing water, and something similar could have been done in this level, utilizing both the boat and the damaging cold water. Then Lara could have jumped out and gone sliding across ice floes.) At any rate, it says something about a level if the main complaint is that one ends up wanting more of it. There are some nice effects here, like with the golden mist over the cascading river, or the dragon at the end which for once can be shot. Definitely recommended." - dmdibl

"If you look for a nice level, not difficult , and which has the quality to not be dark, then this one must be right up your alley. It is all straightforward, there is some traps , some timed doors and many switches, in places which are generally not too spacious. The author has implemented his level with some possibilities of the custom exe (good), and many custom objects (not so good) as some of them do not fit very well to give a feeling of convincing places (these odd crystals for example that you can find a plenty in the christmas levels generally , the shiny jump switches, ...), and what is this new fashion with decorating your level with waterfall textures a plenty, even some on the ceiling (!) which not only is unrealistic but is not too pretty either. As for the new audio tracks , I just had to turn off the music after a while. Where are the good natural (and atmospheric) audio tracks ? These things aside, a level very competently done and well textured." - eRIC

"This author's debut level is a good one at that, with enough variety and fun gameplay to keep most players interested until the end. The use of the speedboat was also a nice touch, if a little short-lived. Visuals are generally good throughout, and is accompanied by generally suitable music (bar the calypso and boss-fight music, which stood out as being odd choices to me), especially the main background audio which was a great choice. I look forward to the author's next level, which will hopefully surpass his debut and be even better." - Spike

"Great debut of this builder and I see potential for a promise of even greater stuff to come. There are some sidelines of course as the lightning was overly bright, special in the beginning. Of course I had to catch the first native I encountered, running around on the bottom of the pool and I also got caught in some nasty illegal slopes that I couldn't get out off, unless I used the re-load button. Saw some stretched textures but that didn't bother me that much. A bit mysterious was that Lara died suddenly when I was swimming and by a re-load I suddenly saw that the water was too cold, although that bar didn't stay on my screen, I now know what I had to deal with. This level is cramped packed with all new stuff, and it is a bit odd to have a freezing cold lake in the first place (in a jungle environment) and then the burning of Lara when she by accident went over a waterfall. Would be nice to have some indication when a lever is timed but all in all I made it through with all the secrets that were nicely hidden btw." - Gerty

"This is a highly likeable level. Good to look at and play. But my small criticism is that I think it's a bit too linear and erm, well, not dirty enough. I hope this makes sense... the water seemed too clean, tunnels too bright and enemies too predictable. And why does it take loads of bullets to kill a flipping parrot? I hope Centaur does not find these small criticisms discouraging because I would very much like to play more levels from this competent and creative builder." - Tim

"Beautiful level i recommend it to all kind of players. Wonderful textures and colours, amazing music which makes the very special atmosphere, surprising and interesting action. Very original and also made in excelent and elegant style. My opinion 40/40 and i look forward to play in the next part !" - ersatz

"Fabulous debut level in so many ways, as this offers you a good looking and entertaining raid of just under an hour with quite some attention to detail and good use of some TREP features along the way. It is maybe a little too linear and switch-after-switch-oriented gameplay and the (few) enemies seem to have been added only as an afterthought, but the boulder and spike traps keep you on your toes and the hunt for the three secrets is definitely worth the effort. Interesting audio choices as well. Maybe almost a little too overdone with some of the colourful objects and while texturing is solid, more could be done with lighting throughout, but these are minor gripes in a very enjoyable experience." - MichaelP

"well a very nice debut level from Centaur (ray) very nice game play with some spike trapps / timed runs (not very tuff but challenging) some natives and dinos and not at least a giant Dragon wich was not easy to kill and a boat ride across a stone narrow platform with sharp turn and some spiked trapp - wich i like very much ......the aim is to get the gems to progress in the game and finaly to get the artefact and go through the shiny coridor and the game ends ........... this builder have a great future in the level building ..keep it up Ray good game worth to downloaded and play it cheers" - Jack&

"What a nice debut level this one was. Gameplay is mainly concentrated on jumping and timed runs and was maybe a bit repetitive sometimes but however really good. I liked also the short ride with a boat and the way you have to light a torch and use it to open a door. Audios were at times a bit strangely chosen and didn't fit best to the situation but it's just a minor complaint. A thing which bothered me more was the environment which looks to my liking a bit too decorative due to abundant use of some certain textures or objects like those light and floating sparkle effects. Anyway I really enjoyed this level very much despite my complaints and I definitely recommend it for everybody because it offers many fun moments to experience." - Samu

"There seems to be a series of excellent little debut levels coming our way lately, and this offering from Centaur doesn't disappoint as well. It's bright, lush, colourful and not particularly challenging, thus easily resulting in an all round fun play. There's always something going on, and for most part the course is fairly linear, so it's hard to get stuck really, but that's not a bad thing. What annoyed me, if anything, was that the author tried to cram in pretty much everything there is into the game. When you encounter everything from the regular timed run and boulder trap to lava, freezing water and Venice speedboats - you may think that the author is trying to pull one bunny too many out of his top hat (though I guess it does help to get it noticed). The lesson to be learned would be that sometimes less is more and that the best result lies in moderation, so no reason to treat the level as your last chance to show off your creativity. I usually don't mind more eclectic texture mixes, but it somehow didn't work with me here and I found it too cartoonish (the glow effect from the crystals and other things aided this as well) and the overall impression - one hard to buy. Also, I found the choice of music to be a bit odd for my liking, the background track sounded somewhat like lift muzak on a particularly long ride, some of the action music started out a bit ahead of the action itself, which confused me - and the boss tune was really a bit too light hearted and robbed that particular moment of any emotional impact it might have had otherwise. That might seem like a lot of critique, but when all is said and done - I did enjoy my time spent here, and comparing to what my usual critique to debut games is, this is still filled with lots of good stuff! Try it!" - eTux

"This is an excellent debut level, and also the first of the Baptism of fire levels i've played. :) Keep up the good work the centaur. I'm looking forward to see more levels by you! :)" - Larson 1988

"If this was built by a 14 year old, it is indeed a great achievement. I agree that many things are used mainly just to show that they can be used but it's alright because mainly isn't totally and they do fit. Lara's in a quest for a final lizzard (serpent?) and to do so she must find a few gems and she can also get some nice secrets while she's at it. The textures are fine and the game is reasonably pretty but the lighting could be more inventive. The objects used are interesting. I would have preferred different music, a bit too light, thus it doesn't add much to the atmosphere. It seems quite straightforward but who am I to say? All in all, there's never really a stuck moment and all the traps and enemies are well doable, even the final serpent boss: all you have to do is not enter the room where it is and shoot it from the outside while taking care not to be hit by the fire (if you enter, death is obvious). Do I recommend it? Yes. Quite a nice ride." - Jorge22

"From the word go, this is a really lovely looking level, even if the giant cobwebs were freaking me out a bit. Even the enemies are good looking, or at any rate the king macaws are - not so sure about the natives or raptors. What with the occasionally rather jolly music and the tropical setting, I felt in quite a holiday mood, well at least until it started raining. This is a debut level and it's most enjoyable. The gameplay is lively and varied; not too difficult but well devised and entertaining, with a boss ending. AND ................. there's a speedboat (briefly). How cool is that? Loved it." - Jay

"Thank you, thank you thank you! FINALLY a level I actually played and enjoyed. FUN FUN FUN. This is highly recommended to everyone. Beginners as well as advanced can all have a great time here. The venture in the Serpent Temple is linear and this is a GOOD THING. A welcome break from having to delve into the psyche of the builder to figure out what I have to do next. Nothing fun about having to refer to a walkthrough a million times. From the very beginning the traps, tricks, and puzzles actually fun to figure out. I think the level was very creative and beautiful looking. My kids liked the sparkles. Baddies were not too bad, save one :)) The music wasn't annoying or over used. I appreciated the apparent cheerful music when Lara was just about to have to do something either tricky or difficult, as if to say "ah well, here I go again!" MORE, mr centaur, Please!" - Wendee

"This is a great debut level. Lots of traps/puzzles to keep you moving and thinking with some varied enemies thrown in for good measure. The objects were chosen well and fitted the setting (some of them made selfmade), and collecting all three of the secret 'relics' is well worth the effort. Cameras and flybys are used well and there is quite a mixture of music to accompany Lara on her adventure, some of it is maybe more jolly than we have come to expect but still pleasent to listen to. Maybe the lighting could have been darker in places but it is better to be a little bright than be in almost pitch blackness fumbling around! I throughly enjoyed this level and I absolutely loved the look of the room with the mirrored floor and falling ceiling. Gorgeous <3 . Give this level a try - You won't be disappointed." - Kitkat

"Your main quest in this level is to collect gems which lead up to the final boss and the boss fight is incredibly fun and even the ammo you collect earlier on may not be enough. The builder supplies you with many pickups and various guns. The gameplay was incredibly well thought out and fun to play. There were various paths you could take and you end up taking them all anyway. I couldn't find any secrets but the enemies were used well as were the objects to give a room somemore atmosphere. The sound, although cheerful in wierd places, was used well and added to the enjoyment of the boss fight. The cameras used to show the dinosaurs walking up to you was a nice touch and the atmosphere was great. The texturing was very nice and it was lit very well. All in all a very good, fun level to play that lasts roughly 40 minutes. I hope there are more Baptism of Fire 3 levels." - Cory

"This is a terrific and absolutely action-packed level!Indeed,the phrase 'never a dull moment' applies here in spades.Gameplay is immensely varied and contains all manner of good ideas,although it tends toward linearity at times and is never difficult to follow. What lets it down somewhat are the overabundance of gimmicks - a workable boat (great stuff!) that is used for no more than 5 seconds;a rather pointless slidy floor;breath condensing in a couple of rooms for no obvious reason;a timed-lever activating a raising block even though the platform above it was perfectly reacheable with a simple jump. These seemed to have been included simply to indicate the the builder had made impressive strides in this their first level,regardless of whether or not they actually served a purpose.I also had problems with many of the audio files which wouldn't play for me.The imaginative Gameplay and the well-constructed environments were enough to convince me that this builder has a great future ahead of them without all of the rather distracting bells-and-whistles thrown in for good measure.Whichever way you look at it,though,this provides almost an hour of superb entertainment." - Orbit Dream

""It was as if I walked into a fairy tale." This is a very interesting level with interesting music. The title had me already interested before the game began, it looked as if it were precisely made to fit and it certainly does. The first obstacle was the very first room with the switches. It is always fun to have rooms and puzzles like these. After that came the endless deathtraps for Lara to walk or jump into. Fun:D I really liked the parrot and I say liked because I shot it:D (I thought these were friendly animals :D Gosh I was wrong) I really had fun playing it and I saw some cool ideas. I did not know you could blow up the endboss after shooting it so many times so it was interesting to learn. Also a little ride with the motorboat with tr4 sprites was awesome, I wish it had been a little longer. I give you a high grade for everything except lighting. In my point of view the lighting could have been more colourful and near lava areas it could have been more glowing (added fog to the lavafall which was hot, I wish you had done that everywhere) in overall great level, please play it." - Jeffrey

"First off all this is a seriously fantastic debut from a new, fresh builder. This is the first of this year's "Baptism of Fire" group. I was rather hooked on this level because it carried off the right blend between exploration and puzzle solving. That said there was some things I felt lowered the score. Some traps, though interesting, were slightly difficult and/or frustrating. The rope+spike trap is the best example. It required extremely precise timing with when to jump that put the difficulty of the level up the creek. Before it was enjoyable and easy, at that moment it was hard and frustrating and then again it was back to fun and enjoyable. So a blip there for me. The music choice in some part, I felt, was inappropriate. I lost a lot of atmosphere from the level as soon as the calypso groove was heard. It wasn't the best choice but, this is the builders first attempt so I won't be too hard since we all learn. Enemies were not too difficult and were dispatched rather easily. The end boss was quite enjoyable too and was a nice ending to this great level. The objects were, on the whole, very nice and great to look at. I was not a fan of those sparkles everywhere but that is just a design choice I guess so I cannot really say much about that. Lighting and Texture was very accurate. I didn't see any squashed/stretched or disfigured textures and they nicely blended together creating a very nice and rich environment. At some points the lighting was a little dull but its not something to complain about since nothing was lost or gained from it. Overall, make sure to give this level a go. it made my night playing it and I hope to see some more great levels from the Centaur and the Baptism of Fire group for a while to come. Great work!" - stranger1992