Level reviews

"Playing the revised version. A fairly standard tut1-esque adventure, not particularly enthralling or anything special to write home about but it's short and fast paced so it keeps you engaged. The lack of weapons spiced things up a bit, especially because you get a harpoon gun long before laying your hands on the unlimited ammo pistols, but otherwise it was all fair and simple fun. 30 minutes, 2 secrets. 06/26" - Treeble

"I wish I had played the older version because I see I'm missing out, for instance the ankh, much more belonging in Egypt than the gold idol it's now swapped to. But the walkhtru tells me the bulk is the same, so just substract 2 points I added for fixed bugs and you'll see the possible old rating. I see the main flaw of this game is simply lack of focus - the proof is I barely remembered this prologue level after finishing the Tinnos ending it's now shipped with. Why this? Possibly because there's barely any function assigned to materials - you look at a wall and can expect any tile of any kind, and usually multiple ones on a single wall. Then you switch a room and see many tiles on a wall again, this time packed in a completely different way. I guess the aim was diversity but in this case it feels like if the whole place was built by a 1000 different Egyptians, from several different provinces having different painting traditions, and if these artists weren't communicating with each other while working on the temple. I imagine the architect returning from vacation in Giza and wondering what on earth has happened here. Lighting is sometimes perfect, something unexistent - sometimes one bulb per room is enough, so it could help to select all the rooms in the editor just before the release, and make them all consistently good. That done not in order to compensate or mask textiring errors, but except from fixing those. Gameplay is much better, made of known elements but you can see contours of prologue, exposition, climax and getaway, also it has that feeling of "going through" I often mention which lacks in many well-executed but single location-enclosed maps. The traps are many but never unfair and I exclusively died because of my own mistakes. Enemies are also used nicely, requiring some precautions but never unfairly ambushing, however a perfect arrangement would be a smooth build-up to the final encounter - which here is a neat conclusion to fight your way out. But what happened to the other characters we hear about? We just find a note and nothing related to it, so the transition to the Antarctic sequel could be smoother." - DJ Full

"A pity that the game was riddled with some odd bugs. It only means that he (or she) has to watch the WAD whenever he uses new objects that aren't in the original TUT level that was used. Missing sounds are also something to pay attention to. Apart from that it could have been a nice game apart from the nasty emitters one has to pass while hanging from a monkey swing. That timed run was really the pits as well. No guns at the start is a big NO in my book, even when I found the Crossbow and plenty of arrows. Also finding a torch in a crawlspace is not really funny. I got through and another notch on my belt so to speak." - Gerty

"Returning to building over three years after his last level was released, I have to say that Ray Croft's latest work is an improvement to some degree, but a step back in others. For one thing, there are many animations and sound effects missing here(which can lead to several awkward situations that may spoil the immersion for some), not helped at all by the fairly unimaginative level design and monotonous, at-times tedious gameplay bringing the general experience down. But on the other side of the coin, texturing, lighting and enemy/object use are a step up in quality from before(even if the water textures themselves still don't animate). And despite the rooms not being very remarkable, the specific elements mentioned at least give off the sense of these Egyptian areas once feeling lived in at times. At the end of the day though, I didn't really find myself enjoying what was happening on screen and had to take breaks, due to how bored I quickly became with this one. Personally I wouldn't recommend going through this release, but your tolerance for passable-quality levels may vary. So best to give it a go if you're curious." - Ceamonks890

"Lots of little glitches get in the way of a properly enjoyable experience:incorrect or missing sounds;peculiar animations;an irritating monkey-swing past a flame.The textures are reasonably placed,while lighting has been used just sufficiently to provide some interesting contrasts - but this level is entirely reliant on its gameplay to keep the player interested;and,despite the variety of activities on offer,it's not quite enough.Straightforward pushable puzzles;a Torch sequence;spikes and blades to avoid,and a timed challenge are all present and correct - but the linearity becomes predictable,and the unambitious architecture deprives the level of any spectacularity. Only the cunning deprivation of sufficient quantities of weapons and medi-packs allows for enough suspense to keep the player absorbed.Ultimately it's perfectly fine for whiling away 45 minutes or so;but it's unlikely to stick in your memory." - Orbit Dream

"In this level, Lara journeys through a cleopal style tomb to acquire... an Ankh (what else?). There are some weird animations for lighting torches and opening crowbar doors and a few absent sounds, but if you can get past that, it's not too bad. The only weapon you'll find is the crossbow (I found shotgun ammo, but no belonging weapon). I made that timed run on the second try surprisingly. There are some spike traps to avoid, blocks to shove around and switches to pull. Pleasant." - Ryan

"I haven't played any of this builder's earlier levels, but judging from the scores to date this must be his best one yet. Although it's linear and fairly straightforward, I had a good time here while writing a walkthrough along the way. The surroundings are eye-pleasing with plenty of light so you can see everything, and the only thing that seemed out of place to me was the odd animation on a number of occasions. The timed swim is tough but manageable, and I wonder how you can survive running into a deep shaft with a small amount of water at the bottom while dying if you attempt to safety drop into it. There are some good ideas here, such as playing chicken with a harpy while desperately making your way to the crossbow that will enable you to deal with it. Two laser sights are provided, but I don't recall any instance where its use was required. A fun raid, and therefore recommended." - Phil

"This was a nice Egyptian themed level which I enjoyed exploring. The rooms were nice and bright with only a few minor issues; such as oddly placed textures. Pick-ups are few, so watch your health and thank god the maze was small because I loath mazes. Enemies are harpies, wraith, bat, scorpion, dog and demigods. You'll get to use the laser sight and torch along the way as well as tackle a timed swim; but it's not a tough one. I had a little issue with using the crow bar and torch, my Lara sort of laid on the ground to use these items. I also had some odd clicking noises when under water. Audios were very nice and overall a fun time was had." - Moonpooka

"Really the best level from this author; better architecture and texturization, some fresh ideas for the gameplay and a solid design. I can't give a 5 or higher in the gameplay section 'cause the very hard tasks; after a lot of tries I was not able to do the timed swim in time and I had to download a savegame from the forum; the narrow corridor with the blades was very nasty too, and even when I finally got it, I did it after excessive tries. The remaining tasks were doable and entertaining. I'm also disagree with the absence of guns when you find an enemie (the monkey swing with the harpy), the lonely provided medipack (I've finished the level without medipacks, and I had to take much care with the health bar all the time) and the limited ammo for the crossbow until I found the pistols. I missed some more cameras when pressing buttons too, to create a better atmosphere, even when the triggered things were not too far; and more cd tracks. The texturization is well worked, but not so the lighting. If this author releases more levels in the future (as I saw in the readme file), I'll read the comments in the stuck section first, about the hard tasks to think if it's worth to download the level." - Jose

"It may be because I haven't played Egyptian levels in very long (save for one that bored me despite its excellent design) but I actually liked this little adventure. More on the easy side than on the hard side, except for a really tight timed run in which the builder kindly assisted me (take heed not to make tasks nearly impossible on the player!), the places and ideas seem correct and do flow. So, forgetting all the missing sounds and really weird animations throughout, I guess I can really recommend this one and look forward to the second part." - Jorge22

"Lara explores a booby-trapped egyptian temple to follow the trail to the ora dagger. Gameplay heavily leans toward dodging traps (blades, flames, and spikes) which makes it a bit monotonous, although there are a few simple puzzles thrown in. The rooms are overall quite blocky in nature, although that is not the worst thing for a temple level. This level really needs camera cues to tell the player when doors are opening and what switches are doing, especially in circumstances such as the act of picking up crossbow ammo causing a door to open several stories down. These things on top of many missing sound effects and animations really hurt the atmosphere. There is one camera cue I remember but it had the camera facing away from the door. The texturing is a decent attempt but could use more attention, especially when it comes to trying not to distort the textures. The lighting is very flat for most of the level, but there are a few rooms that have more contrast which is good. 36 minutes." - JesseG

"If you can ignore the bizarre animations, weird underwater sounds and indeed missing or intermittent sounds, there's actually some quite good stuff going on here. It's a bit brutal at times as pistols are initially missing, medipacks are in very short supply and enemies and traps are really out to get Lara. It's not a long level (just over 40 minutes for me), but it does pack in quite a lot of action. Not perfect by any means, but still very playable in many respects." - Jay

"I never get why builders always try to add new technical things and the like when they simply don't master the basics of the editor, resulting in a chaos with all those messed up animations and missing sounds. It all would've been much better if the builder simply left those things out because they are correct (even if old but that really doesn't matter) when they aren't changed. That aside, the 25 minutes in this game were rather fluent and the gameplay is varied, although much time is spent on finding and using levers; at least there's a nice timed run in between and some puzzles too, but also boring tasks like the long monkeyswing. The object design is fairly messy too with objects that simply don't fit to the Egyptian atmosphere. The architecture is okay, nothing great but no serious errors either. The texturing is rather agreeable, yet the choice of textures together with the lighting are fairly bland though and create a very monotonous and almost unicolour feeling at times. It's an okay level and includes at least a few better play sequences but especially with animations and sounds this feels like a rushed effort sadly. Found one secret." - manarch2