Level reviews

"Good level gone bad. I guess the builder increased the draw distance but not the other limits so the game crashes like crazy even with not many objects used and feeling quite empty. To load the second level I had to patch the exe from scratch so yes, the fix was several clicks away instead of filling the level with abundant fixed cameras. The second level has a major design flaw where you can use a ball in a wrong slot and miss over half of the content. Then if you didn't find the secret revolver, there's a big chance you will solve the penultimate puzzle spamming medikits with a blood thirsty mutant on your tail. On the bright side, there is good music but it's not enough to save this level until it's fixed. Optional." - DJ Full

"I'm on two minds regarding this release. On the one hand, I quite liked the overall design of the city in the first part, with the mazey roads and what not, but ultimately I felt like navigating this on my own would have been a terrible nightmare (thank god we have a dedicated walkthrough staff). The second part was a little less to my liking and the scale seems a bit off, when you find yourself running back and forth across the same paths it becomes obvious when you're just sprinting down huge hallways. That being said, however, the atmosphere is quite dense and on brand from this builder from the little I recall from their other offerings. Not sure whether it was intentional or not, but doors and swinging axes in the second part use creature sound effects. 70 minutes, 5 secrets. 06/24" - Treeble

"A strange set of two levels, where Lara goes from one to the other, and then returns right back to where she started to end the adventure. Gameplay is mostly shooting a bunch of monsters while escorting keys and other items to their resting places, with a lot of backtracking in between. There are a lot of functional issues here: Boulders that drop through a solid ceiling to crush you with no warning. Axes with weird sound effects that quickly get irritating. Doors that open when you step in front of a key hole, without using the key. A pool area that makes you permanently stuck if you jump down into it too early. Pushable pillars that have no use. A puzzle item that can be used in two places, but one of those makes the other redundant. Camera cues that focus on Lara instead of the door opening, or camera cues that focus on an enemy without telling you that a door also opened somewhere. Glitchy animated textures that make it difficult to tell where you can stand. It's a shame, some of these issues break down what otherwise would have been a decently spooky atmosphere and an interesting premise, but I can't recommend this one as it is. 1 hour 7 minutes." - JesseG

"This two-parter should keep you occupied for around an hour and half or so (each of the parts being of roughly equal length). There's quite a bit of running around and backtracking to do, and the areas are quite spread out, so it's easy to get disoriented looking for your next goal. I was also a bit ticked off by the fixed camera angles (I can somewhat understand the reasoning for having them in the first level, but by the second level it was just annoying) and the monotone, gloomy dark corners. Having said that, there's quite a lot to accomplish in terms of traps and (somewhat easy) puzzles, and I found the enemy attacks to be well placed and the audio files to be well used in supporting the atmosphere." - Ryan

"There's plenty to do in this two-part release, each of which took me about an hour to complete, even with the help of Dutchy's well-drafted walkthrough. The game is literally riddled with annoying fixed cameras, most of which can be voided with the look key. That, and the pervasive darkness which obliged me to manufacture unlimited flares so I could figure out where to go, leads me to deduct one point from each of the last two scoring categories. Another negative feature is the hard-to-read compass that indicates West when it should indicate East, and vice versa. Still, there's much to like here, where you explore a spooky and deserted town and some of its buildings and other-worldly occupants, avoiding some devious traps in the process. Recommended." - Phil

"The town Lara has been taken to seems to be doomed indeed (and gloomy too). Besides some bugs and shooting guards she encounters strange creatures trying to hit her with their sharp blades. But most of those creatures were rather easy to get rid of, because they are so tall they cannot make it into low passages and openings, so they stuck there and Lara could stay in her place safely and shoot the guys quite easily. And what was this submarine-like thing, was it an enemy too? I don't know. In order to be on the safe side I preferred to swim away instead of finding out about it. Gameplay-wise it is mostly running around this town looking out for items, keys and switches to open plenty of doors. You might think that a roof key opens a door to the roof? No way, it makes a trash can appear instead. Strange thing. As said before the level is quite gloomy not to say very dark in parts.
In part 2 there were no enemies except for one Atlantean creature near the end, but still a lot of running to and fro, climbing and jumping, even past swinging blades. The atmosphere was better and more creepy than in part 1 and the lighting still gloomy, but thankfully not that dark. But I did not like all those fixed cams. I have an understanding for using them in part one to prevent the game from crashing. But they were overly used in the 2nd part too and that was rather annoying, as well as camera work in general could have been improved, they often were not of much help." - Jerry

"This is a rather creepy atmospheric double-level where each part will take about 45 minutes of net gaming time - if you do find your way around in a reaonable fashion that is, as it is at times rather non-linear and you may end up visiting places several times unnecessarily. Still, I liked the city setting with the fog and the sewers just as much as the church interior type setting in the second part, so did not mind running around in this place a little more than I maybe needed to. You encounter some resistance in terms of enemies (wasps, guards and these scary poisonous mutants) and in terms of fixed cameras, which often you can 'look-key' out of but not always and especially on the roofs I thought this was rather annoying. Speaking of cameras, often the camera hints are there but a bit cryptic, ie not particularly helpful. Lighting is actually not bad at all but spoiled by a few unnecessarily dark (or rather pitch black) areas and textures while well chosen and applied in general, at times seem carelessly applied. And then there is of course the huge shortcut in part 2, which allows you to skip about half the level. so if you think that was rather short, then place the first orb on the other receptacle first. Found 5 of the apparently only 4 secrets =)" - MichaelP

"A creepy place, full of fog, big and poisonous monsters, dark areas and dangerous places. I didn't like the annoying fixed cameras and return to the same places many times, sometimes a very long distance. There are few puzzles, a game based about pulling switches and place objects, but there are good details too. In second level you can take a shortcut to the final room losing a good part of the gameplay (?). There are some cool music themes, but in my game sometimes the background music dissapeared. I found four secrets, but I couldn't hear the secret chime when picked them up. The final boss is very easy to kill. The best for me were lights and textures." - Jose

"Imo this is the best release from the builder, despite I encoutered a few issues with puzzles. In the first level, the door that normally needed the Doom part opened when I stepped on the square without placing the artefact. And in the second level, I found an extra Evil Crystal in the room with the monster, when normally we have to climb the poles and a rope to get it, well I got both for the same prize :] Not that that took anything of the enjoyment as these issues were not at the detriment of the progression for the player. There are many fixed cameras but I got used to them after a while ; a few textures not well applied but the levels look quite good. In both levels , after a bit of fruitless exploration , things fell into place rather easily and without too much backtracking. There are many things I liked in these levels , for example the mirrored rooms in the 2nd level, the one with the fence to shoot and the one that shows where are the safe tiles in the next. Globally I preferred the first level but both were to my liking. I don't know where MpGrill finds his audio tracks but some are really atmospheric and beautiful ! 2 hours 10 mn / 4 Secrets" - eRIC

"Ok... not sure what this was all about apart that I found it most confusing. Nasty fixed camera work in the first level, that is explained in the readme but that was no excuse to have them even more in the second level. It made me sick to my stomach so that I only could play in short bursts. The utter lack of a cut scene, just to show you why you just used a lever or a switch is just plain nasty. This level is quite huge so you are running from left to right and back again and then you probably will find out you choose the wrong path. Also the back and fro was just unnessesary prolonging gameplay and for what? It could have been a great level but it wasn't for me. Enemys were nicely placed, luckily you started out with loads of flares although you really don't need them in those numbers. The healthbar colours are a pet peeve of mine as it is very hard to see when the light is blinking and that had me reloading a tad to much for my licking. What is bloody wrong with the old fanshioned healthbar anyway....??? Pushing a statue with a vase on top through a solid wall was plain sloppy as was the swing on the rope through walls and floors as well. There is a shortcut in this level, what is a pity, with a bit more testing that would have come to the builders attention, as you can skip a major part of the second level. Texture wise, some are rather eclectic in a way, some also need attention. There are paperthin walls and the lighting in most parts was well done. I also have question marks at certain places because one time I could slay the enemy with one shot and the other time it took me quite a few shots. Also the fire in the fireplace, one time Lara was on fire and the other time I just could step into the fire and nothing happened, strange." - Gerty

"Here is a nice spooky level in two parts that could have done with much better beta testing. To start with, I couldn't manage to save the game, so I almost had to bin it, until I found that for some weird reason the game could not be saved in slots 0 and 1. Problem solved then. I could also complain about the exaggeration in third person views but I really didn't care that much because I'd already been warned in the readme and that was easily solvable with just a touch on the look key - and that didn't ever bring me any crashing problems. The only time when it was kind of a nuisance was when Lara was up on the rooftops, but even then I didn't really care. I didn't like so much all tha back and fro that overwhelms the first level, set in some abandoned town with burning cars and monsters on the loose. But I still enjoyed it, even though a few details, such as a ladder totally hidden in the dark could be considered somewhat unfair. But it's easy enough, the atmosphere is ok, and it is therefore rateable as fluent. On the second level, Lara finds herself inside a building where she must find a few spheres and solve a few puzzles that will allow her to get back to the city and escape the town of the doomed. Unfortunately, I must say that I was able to skip most of the level by finding only one sphere and from there make my way back to the surface - that can't have been properly beta tested! Of course, you may ask why don't I simply go back and do things right? Why then? Because the author himself didn't do things right in the very first place? Or maybe because I have some Christmas levels waiting now and I guess they're a nice option after a trip to hell. So, my final word, the levels are nice and playable, just enough spooky but I don't really need more, and do take care not to go down a ramp when you have only one sphere or you'll find yourself missing on most of the second level like I did. That's it." - Jorge22

"The preponderance, no matter what the reason, for fixed camera angles in this level I found to be utterly annoying. Indeed, it seemed to me as if they were more a deliberate annoyance, rather than some anti-crash device, such was their excessive use. But then, I am a very anti-fixed camera player anyway. Fixing cameras to this extent induces the sense that the player is not in control here, which takes much of the enjoyment out of things for me, and it's a further annoyance when such fixed angles cause the player to kill Lara by running her off a long drop simply because the camera prevents you from seeing the hazard. I was happy to find that I was able to 'look' out of many of these fixed angles without a single crash, only to have my relief cut short by the snapping in of another at a mere turn in some other direction. The first level I found somewhat bewildering for it's lack of helpful camera hints and anti-intuitive switch/door setup, which typically resulted in plenty of 'back and forth over awkward distance' in order to somehow find the door you'd actually opened by flicking the switch at the other end of the map. Enemies (TR3 mutants) were largely a joke for their running in circles and into walls, but I tend to find enemies an overall annoyance I can do without anyway, so that proved helpful. One guard did actually give me a fright because I didn't see him at all in the dark until Lara was almost right on top of him and he started shooting, so, strangely perhaps, I consider that placement well done by the builder. One simple aspect I did enjoy about the first level was the amount of bins to shatter. Yes, little things and all that, but I'm sure many a custom level player gets some cheap thrill out of merely having objects to shatter. To that end, the first part of this level set is like a Greek party! The background sound of the first level was somewhat contradictory, in that the tension which was supposed to be induced in the player by the presence of the ominous sound of thunder, in keeping with the general idea of the level, was oddly mixed with the very relaxing sea sound of the coastal levels, so any hoped for tension was essentially cancelled out. Being very happy to be done with the first, moving on to the next level proved a better experience. It seemed to me that the whole construction of the second level was much more of an achievement overall. Though there was much more darkness, which can be an annoyance in itself, it was entirely appropriate. The lighting too was greatly improved over the first level. This time the builder gives the player many more camera hints with each switch flicked. So though there is a similar kind of 'back and forth' running around as the first level, at least this time one knows where one is going. Again, as in the first, there was one enemy which gave me a fright, appearing as it did so suddenly, and perhaps it was my killing it so quickly that caused what seemed to be buggy operation of the switches in that room. The pushables toward the end of the level I found to be an annoyance, but must say that I do think the setup is successful because it does fox the player, which I suppose was the intent. Musical incidences were well chosen, I thought, being somewhat 'cool', but not overly pretentious, or out of character for the level. Coming on to the final level, which is a return to the first at nightfall, is, I think, a waste of time. There is little to nothing to do there, other than to kill another two directionless mutants and find the exit door (aside from an apparantly sub-waste-of-time involving a door, a pool with a 'robotic crocodile' and coming back to where you were in the first place with nothing achieved). In short then, level 1 annoying. Level 2 very enjoyable and reasonably well made. Level 3 pointless. Thanks to the level builder for taking the time to try to create another adventure for us to play." - Czar

"A level that should have been tested better, much use of fixed cameras. I think mainly to hide buiding inperfections at least in level 1 as a whole part of the city consisted of wrongly connected rooms so wallş would flicker and disappear. Many textures could have been placed better so it all would have looked much better. You have to backtrack a lot and at least one key didn't need a keyhole I was looking for but a red texture on the wall instead (took me a while to figure that one out). Enemies (the big blokes) just ran into walls and could therefore easily be disposed of. Level 2 has a major shortcut if you happen to use the first puzzle orb (Evil Crystal) in the wrong slot. I was lucky I used in the correct slot so I could play this way better part of the levels. The puzzles weren't too hard, the pushpuzzle near the end didn't succeed to well as I only had to move one block on a tile and stepping on another tile opened all doors to the exit. The atmospere in this second level was good. The soundtrack playing at the pole puzzle for the last Evil Crystal was annoyingly loud and I turned the sound off there. In that room were some shortcuts too as you could shimmy to and climb up through fences. One time the orb appeared in another place as maybe intended and I had to go look for it. There could have been a nice "end" tune when you walked through the bgate to the end of the level. All in all not bad, but I expected more of a 4th build" - Dutchy

"I enjoyed the first level 'The Town of the Doomed' but it was the second level, 'Doomed Halls' that hooked me to the point that I could have happily played for hours more. Unfortunately, the game crashed in what I thought was near the end so I don't know if it was carelessly intended as an ending or a bug. The first level is set in and around a small town and there's lots of exploring and hopping around on rooftops - nicely done. The second is set in a church area, above and below. Good gameflow with a near perfect setting. There's a swinging blade room that is spooky because it is dark and the sounds are so weirdly effective. This is the best I have seen from this builder - he gets better and better." - Bene

"well i just finished this one .......what can i say ....not top one but enjoyable one .... is a city like game like Italian Exploration by Tweety ,just not so beautifuly builded and the enviroments was more simplistic not so eye candy - alot off long coridors - but this one have some hard jumps moustly i like the sloopy fences 4 shaped room with dead floor on middle and safe place only at margins wich needed some skill to get on safe corner without touch the middle deadly floor ..... also some ballancing slicers room not very hard through ... enemyes was some buggs and some alien creatures - wich i dont like on this game was alot off running back and fro moustly at 1 st level (cos is 2 level game ) and the fixed camera views wich was anoying and alot off fixed camera views on this game also i dont like it ... but all in all was 2 hour of fun graphics was mediocre too ...." - Jack&

"I liked this level quite a lot, apart from the always annoying fixed camera angles. Yes, OK the builder explained in his readme why there were so many of the damn things, but it didn't make them any less irritating. Right, that's the whinge out of the way. Otherwise, I found the game to be well rounded and nicely crafted. It's not a difficult level; the only problems you may face really come with the exploration aspect as there is plenty to do and some things are well hidden. The main enemies are those great big mutants thumping about the place, but if you're lucky sometimes they run into walls so you can pot them easily. Good atmosphere, helped by some interesting (and occasionally spooky) sound files, especially in the second part." - Jay