Level reviews

"A small level set in a station which happens to start in a couple of very, very dark rooms and no pistols or flares. You have to use the binoculars in the crawlspace to figure out where Mulf is telling you to go to in his humorous walkthrough. He pretty much highlights all issues, including misplaced textures and floating objects, the only thing I'd add to the mix was the civilian (who at first phased straight through the wall) came back flickering all over the place when I was doing all the backtracking. Still, even with all the padding, this is short and can be easily finished within a quick session. 20 minutes. 11/23" - Treeble

"A very simplistic jaunt through a rather loosely defined airport, whose customers seem to masquerade as phantoms (in that they occasionally phase through walls). The main thing you really do here is find the various keys (sometimes left around by previously killed guards, all of whom seem to be called "Zack") and ultimately acquire the artifact at the end. The objects (presumably from the Revenge of Osiris series), are placed nicely with a few odd glitches in places, but the setting is overall bland, unpleasing and too gloomy in places and overall it's just not very involving and probably not worth the trouble of downloading." - Ryan

"Funny enough I did like the idea in this level, a pity that it was rather raw around the edges so to speak. It sadly boils down to find an object and use it somewhere else. Big rooms and not much to do in them and starting in the dark and then finding your way still in the dark with no flares, nah… not my cup of tea." - Gerty

"If you begin with pitch-black shading and zero flares the rest is very unlikely to feel worse - and indeed, even floating vending machines, ferns growing on concrete, flickering furniture, buggy drawers and a NPC becoming one with a wall didn't manage to surpass that initial horror. Still I granted two points for objects and another two for enemies, both quite fitting, even though they are unable to prevent empty feeling of the oversized scenery - which feels like a very, very failed remake of Agnes's airport. But again, despite of some paperthin work the place still resembles the meant one, and sound was also good even though the author didn't clear two overlapping audios. But the strongest point, a very rare and promising, is the lighting, and we can also get away with the final prize - so while the game isn't finished it's surely concluded and leaves me not as much afraid to play the next episode as I was when I began." - DJ Full

"Typically I do play the shorter Levels out there fairly quickly after their release, but somehow I missed this one. Well it was short and fairly uneventful indeed at about 20 minutes of running back and forth in an airport setting, shooting a series of guards and a few dogs. There are many objects used and some work quite well, while others are placed oddly and not functioning correctly. A quick one for the lunch break and the most entertaining element was to read through Mulf's walkthrough..." - MichaelP

"There are many defects in this level, but it's playable anyway. You'll find paper walls, no propperly tinted objects, wrong animations, etc. Gameplay consists about find the weapons to deal with the enemies and then look for small objects very hard to see to open some doors. Advice: check carefully the died enemies. Many rooms are too dark and architecture is quite simple. On the other hand, there is a convincent atmosphere (where are the cameras?) and texturization is not so bad. Better than the previous level from this author but still with novice touches." - Jose

"The screenshots posted for this level make it look plausible. Things are well-lit and clear (the floating vending machines aren't identifiable as such), Lara searches a drawer for a pickup (of course the buggy animations aren't evident in the picture), there is an interesting car park (according to other reviewers these objects were taken from another custom level), and the last screenshot shows a gun battle (Lara has the shotgun here, so in my game the battle was over before it began). In play the beginning is bad, with Lara stumbling through a contrived darkness without flares or guns. This creates an apprehension about this author's intentions. Apparently the author checked wrong boxes in the level editor so that objects throughout the level aren't affected by ambient lighting. Objects such as pickups aren't lit correctly, so it was hard to find an essential pickup dropped by a fallen soldier on a dark floor. A health-boost crystal should be glowing, but instead merges with solid darkness and can only be found using the binoculars. A chest of drawers glows brightly in an otherwise dark room. The experience of this level is troubling. Takes 30 minutes to play." - dmdibl

"The level is set in an airport and is reminiscent Reign of chaos of Agnes, the animating are the same, then also taken from Leloo in Revenge of Osiris. It begins in the dark, and the player has no flares or guns, only binoculars to navigate. Overcome this difficulty after 5-10 minutes of play, everything flows in a linear way. The textures are for the most part well applied even if not enthusiastic. The player spends 30-45 minutes pleasantly." - Taras

"So the most obvious question was did it feel like a real experience. Sadly, it didn't, but I did enjoy the level, so that always counts for something I assume. The overall game play wasn't bad but some aspects weren't the best. Why did it feel like I was playing a typical base level when it could have been so much more than just a typical base level. This level had a lot of potential. The objects were okay but some where either illogically placed or incorrectly placed. (If you played the level, you know exactly the places). I used to love base levels before I was a custom level builder so I kept an unbiased review on atmosphere and etc. The ambience wasn't the best but it had a hint of reality which I really liked especially when Lara had to travel outside to finish off the level. The camera work in the title didn't make me have too many expectations for the rest of the game so it's always a must that a builder have at least a decent title to give players some expectations of your game. Finally, the lighting. It wasn't horrible, I've seen worse, but it obviously needed some refinement. The darkness wasn't the best thing to do in the beginning of the level. 1.) No flares... 2.) No guns to shoot your way through the darkness which I personally don't approve off anyway. I have to use the binoculars to make sure I wasn't walking into any lasers or something (bad experiences with base/labs levels. The texture was okay but there's room for improvement. Overall, this level has potential. All he/she made were a few beginner mistakes but then I saw some intermediate tasks which I highly enjoyed. I hope to see more from the builder especially along the lines of base levels." - Larabiker301

"People who have played more custom levels than I ever will have claimed that the wad and textures of this level were ripped in their entirety from one of the Revenge of Osiris levels; not having played that level, I had a quick peek at the supposedly original wad and textures and can confirm that this is indeed the case. The sheer brazenness of these unacknowledged (there is no readme) 'borrowings' should have sufficed to award the level more demerits than I was prepared to grudgingly give it points in the first place. However, this would have resulted in a negative score, plus the level evoked fond memories of the classic The England Prison in me 'because of such vestiges of gameplay as can be discerned, but mainly because the builder's apparent belief that he'd spun a gripping tale, coupled with his blindingly obvious ineptitude to pull off anything remotely resembling such a thing, results in a piece of work redolent with such candid naivety as you admire in the performance of children, which same performance, at a little more advanced age, would earn you a life sentence." - Mulf

"Thirty minutes of romping through a vast, echoing airport that appears to be populated by ghosts (women who glide past and disappear into walls) as well as some guards and dogs for enemy action. It's a very straightforward and easily accomplished level, mainly involving running around the aforementioned huge open spaces looking for a variety of keys, discs, security pass etc., before finding the titular artefact and ending the game with a final shootout. I'd mainly recommend this if you really feel like experiencing an airport setting as we don't get many and it may keep you amused enough if you want something entirely undemanding, but don't expect to be particularly stimulated and don't expect a great deal of eye candy in the surroundings either." - Jay

"This mix of TR5, TR3 and AOD elements takes place in a what could be an office block or airport, it's difficult to tell. There are way too many dark spots in this level, but texturing is quite varied. The best features are the objects such as the tables in the dining room, checkout, or photobooths, although there's way too many of those, and some floating vending machines. Gameplay is mainly just searching for keys for doors, finding key cards or disks, going to and fro through the level, and eventually finding an artifact which doesn't have a specific name. It's mainly an exploratory level, so you will have to search in hidden spaces, drawers and dead bodies for items you need. Took me 40 minutes." - sonnyd83

"The excessive darkness right at the start already gave me a bad feeling regarding what this might be all about... Women crossing walls like ghosts, plants crossing walls like spirits, guards, dogs, discs, keys, vast, almost empty rooms and then an artefact in a hole. Not exactly cool. I hate to be this blunt mais j'ai dejà eu de meilleurs 15 minutes dans ma vie." - Jorge22

"I see that this is the builder's second level. His first one (TR2) received abysmal scores, so one might expect more of the same from his second effort. Since I'm almost never the first one to review a level, I'm going to use this opportunity to test a theory I've long held - that the scores of the first few reviews set the pace for those to follow. I know that I've always felt some pressure to avoid deviating far from the "norm" set by the previous reviewers. That being said, while this is by no means an abysmal level, it's no model of innovation either. It's of the base/hotel variety, and although considerable backtracking is required, it's fairly linear and the game map is compact. Much of the gameplay consists of finding artifacts that open your way to find more artifacts, etc., until you finally find that Artefact you've been seeking. There are several opportunities for stumbling along the way, but as long as you keep your eyes open you should be able to progress with little difficulty. Here's another level suitable for young and new raiders who are working on building their skills. And the lighting allows the player to see everything that's going on, which always rates an extra point or two in my book in the lighting category. Play it when you have nothing else to do on a rainy day." - Phil

"The builder seems to have made significant progress in understanding that long levelsets simply don't have to be nice and I think that this level is better than any single level of his debut. That said, it's mainly a rip off from the texture and object set from The Airport from the Revenge of Osiris series, and I must confess some of the objects were still quite well set in scene, like the self-opening outside doors or the moving passagers; however don't see a sense in using the energy bar for Lara grabbing an edge, since you won't hang longer than a few seconds so this is no "threat" at all. Texturewise there were nearly as many mistakes as textures, and lighting is either too dark as at the start or too bright and uniform as in the rest of the level, with some dark corners added that don't add anything. All rooms look very much alike and there were dozens of typical beginner mistakes like wafer thin walls, animation problems, ... oh no I don't like to repeat those things most of the time, so I'll stop here. The level doesn't contain anything worth to see because of the mentioned copies, neither does the gameplay, which mainly consists of running around the airport finding a few key items (some nastily hidden under dead bodies and odd shelf-drawer constructions that were poorly done, as the item that has to be picked up can be seen on the floor) and using them somewhere else to find another key item - this is plainly boring. All in all a poor beginner work lasting 20 minutes - please spend more time in creating a decent level next time, this one doesn't add anything to any player's experience." - manarch2

"I don't wish to dispel Phil's theory so soon,but I don't believe that the next few reviews will match his in terms of praise nor scoring.Taking place in a very loosely defined Airport,this 30 minute level consists almost entirely of picking up assorted key pieces (some trickily dropped by guards who occasionally collapse behind pieces of furniture)and backtracking constantly in order to put them in receptacles located at opposite ends of the Airport from the doors that they open.Everything is blandly lit (aside from the first couple of rooms, which were so dark I thought my Monitor had packed up)and uninterestingly textured.Every so often a lone woman will walk past and disappear into a wall;the music increases in drama as the level progresses,even though potential excitement continually fails to manifest itself;but there are several undeniably effective enemy attacks,although little else to pique the players interest. Not particularly worth recommending." - Orbit Dream