Level reviews

"Another night-time raid, but this one centered around young Lara in a creepy TR5 Black Isle type of level. Despite the excessive darkness, the setting works and is filled with little neat touches, but as far as gameplay goes this is very unfriendly towards the player. Be it the fixed cameras, the darkness itself (it was only 20 minutes in that I accidentally discovered Lara can glow in the dark - ie, there are no flares in the inventory but she gets surrounded by green, lol, apparently something added in a later revision of the level), or the way enemies work with insta-kill attacks, it's just not very fun to play I'm afraid. The sea hag even has that dreaded added underwater collision so if she gets close you can't swim anywhere and you are doomed. I also experienced some technical issues, such as random crashes and that weird save bug where if you reload too many times the same slot it goes into a super slow-motion mode and requires a fresh launch of tomb4. If you do take this on, definitely keep Dutchy's walkthrough at hand. 45 minutes, 2 secrets. 11/25" - Treeble

"There are relatively few Ireland levels out there with Young Lara and even fewer of these are good ones. This is definitely a good one. But it is not without problems that should really be noted. The overall idea is really awesome and creative. The game follows a kind of stroyline as Lara slowly opens up the place and there are several very creative ideas that give old known tasks a new twist: Great use of waterwheels, the enemy chase scenes with a dog and a sea hag, the creaking floor, the catapult shot into the church window to name a few. At the same time - the innovaton is also a bit of a challange as there is very little hinting at what needs to be accomplished next and how, so you will often revert to guessing, stuck threads or walkthroughs in oder to be able to move on. It is also a difficult level in places by means of the classic tasks. A timed run that will take a bit of practice for example, a quite ambitious torch jump sequence. Nothing really wrong with those, as they are quite achievable within a limited amounts of attempts. But - there is a banana jump needed for progression, which could easily have been avoided in the design, and - the worst one - there is a diagonal pixel perfect jump in the church (that you even have to do twice) and which again could easily have been designed to be easier on the player instead of being lucky to finally make it after 50 tries or so. Also, the final scene, while not being too hard to conquer, feels unfair to the player, as it is in the end rather about luck that you manage to avoid being hit and then after the door another dog is placed, which leaves a sour taste in the players mouth, as in the end the builder teases us here instead of allowing for a fair fight in the finale. So, all in all, this very interesting and creative adventure goes a little too far in the builder showing off instead of bringing the player along, but if new ideas intrigue you then it is definitely a must play." - MichaelP

"This is a TR5 Ireland-style level, including young Lara and no weapons. The style is well-done with a decently realised village and church and the ruined buildings around the outskirts. It doesn't really do anything new with the theme (outside of some very creative object use to convey backstory), but it looks good and does the horror theme well. Maybe I missed some easier ways, but there seemed to be various quite tricky jumps and precise environmental navigation required. There's also some creative puzzle item use that can require some slightly lateral thinking, but it can generally be worked out if you have a basic idea of what's required. The way one area insta-killed with fall damage despite blatantly being a short fall felt like it could be handled much more elegantly, but it's confined to one small part at least. Certain insta-kill enemies were slightly frustrating too as they're the hardest to dodge, but they only make up a small part of the level at least. The level being built into a mystery also resulted in kind of an anti-climax (even if there is a climax challenge-wise) as it just sort of ends without any resolution, which is unfortunate given some of the great sequences to build up a story earlier in the level. A good level overall despite some disappointing aspects, but perhaps not one for beginners." - Mman

"I really like TR5's Ireland levels as well as I really liked this one. The concept is very simple, Lara-goes-in-a-deadly-place-because-she-cannot-stay-away-from-them, but with a twist! Lara is still a teen (or a child?). The level does a great job with the atmosphere that feels and looks spooky, although the author exaggerated quite a bit with darkness, that would have of course be fine if only Lara had flares! The Gameplay is separated into 'zones' in which tasks are presented and cleared in order to go forward, and never backwards ... I gotta say I found the challenges quite infamous at some points and darkness didn't help that much ... Enemies were few, and Lara could not protect herself but escape, it worked fine ... until the very last moment I won't spoil you ... Does a great job into creating nostalgia of how scary tomb raider could get! Give it a try! Wolfy Regards." - Wolf7

"First of all, congratulations on your first upload Mordyga! And what an amazing game! The feeling of Chronicles is very well felt throughout the game, the overall athmosphere of the inside and outside areas are extremelly well done. I must say that I with respect disagree with the other reviewers commenting on the fact that the game is too dark, for an Ireland level it does make sense to add darkness to the game. Regarding the cinematics I am very impressed! Textures well applied and enemies nicely imagined. What I noticed, however, was the "building rush" into the end of the game, as if the builder gave up on the final tweaks and the story itself (I was starting to think the story was building towards breaking demonic spells, but it all ended up with Lara running away... from many enemies). On another note this game has a lot of bugs and unwanted paths (I did pass beyond the tower by using a bugged secret path without the use of keys...of course I returned back to do the natural way). In the end, I did enjoy this game and it will be in my memory for some time" - LOTRKingluis

"Very dark level, (but why do builders make them levels so dark?) Very tiring to play, flares and binoculars would have been very useful, especially to see the pushables instead of looking blindly. The camera could not be deactivated and should have been timed, which would have made it possible to see the crawlspace more quickly. Apart from these inconveniences there are some good ideas with some jumps not always easy to perform, and the pleasure of playing with the young Lara. Congratulations to this new builder who promises a lot." - Drakan

"Really a very good debut. Excellent architecture and very good texturization, but the ambience is too dark and many rooms are totally black, so I had to play this level by night. Not a level for beginners, 'cause there are some tricky tasks like the banana jump or another hard jumps I found; but there are also some nice touches, like the hound dog chasing Lara or the slow walk onto the cracked floor with spikes below. A pain the not-stable exe file, the game crashed several times. Anyway if you like tetric levels you may take a try with this one. Good work, Mordyga, but the next time try to bring us some more light." - Jose

"There's a good bit to like in this level, but also much to dislike. Whenever the predominant word in the reviews is "dark," I always wait until a walkthrough is available before making any attempt to download and play. This is especially true when the level in question is a Young Lara level, where flares are neither available nor can be cheated into existence. Even the indomitable Dutchy had to be cajoled into tackling the walkthrough duties, and at that he nearly abandoned the project until he came across a computer monitor that yielded sufficient light for him to get by. Playing the level was an ordeal for me, but I actually found myself having a good time and appreciating the builder's craft until quite near the end (after picking up and lighting the torch), when I found it impossible to proceed due to the consistent crashes every time I tried to hit the escape key to get my bearings or to save my game. I tried a tomb4.exe from another CaC level, but that didn't help, so I was about to bin the level until I thought of renaming my most recent savegame to savegame.0. Somehow that did the trick, so I was able to finish. This is actually a good level with many innovative qualities. I humbly suggest that the builder remove this level temporarily from circulation and either tweak it to add sufficient lighting, or that he make it something other than a Young Lara level. That, and provide a stable executable that isn't prone to crashes (at least in the lower slots). As it is, not many people will be able to play it to conclusion." - Phil

"This game could be good. The puzzle are interesting and some are new for me. The rooms, the village and other locations are good building. You can't kill the enemies, but you have to run faster. Some jumps are very hard, but another player helped me with one action. The sound was good. But the big problem was the missing light. Lara has not torches and the binoculars. You can't see enough and that make the game so hard to play." - Eelkemama

"At first I never could reload any savegame and it was also pretty buggy playing on a different computer with a lot of crashes in between, but finally I could finish this level. It easily could be one of the best or even the best offering from the contest but it seems the builder didn't carefully consider some things. The crashes are one thing that might or might not occur, but the consistent darkness in the majority of the areas that makes it almost impossible to play this level in even sparsely lit rooms together with the questionable choice of no provided flares nor binoculars is highly annoying. I understand some rooms can be darker to add to the atmosphere, but why do all rooms have roughly the same drab lighting? It's also rather monotonous if you ask me. Else than that, the gameplay has some really high moments, every task is quite inspired and the builder has really done a good job here. Even most platforming tasks are a nice challenge here, carefully finding your way to progress in this level, and the (rather tight - which is fine) timed runs, puzzles and especially enemies you have to avoid or get rid of are really providing for a different and rather entertaining; if not for the other mentioned things, I'd given it a 9 in the first category as it's really brilliantly put together on the whole. The object and puzzle design is partially inspired of the Ireland levels from TR 5 but presented freshly and without any resemblance of a remake, and there are plenty of very nice scenes. The atmosphere is rather well done with great use of sounds and decent camera work; sometimes the map edges of the outside areas are not so well done with rather paperthin textures used here. The texturing is pretty nice and the lighting is at least rather realistic, but that's sadly not always enough. Anyway, even in this state this level is showing great talent and I think with a bit more consideration of players the builder can produce a Hall of Fame level next. Found the three nice secrets in 40 minutes." - manarch2

"How you feel about this level will entirely depend on how you felt about the original TR Chronicles 'Black Isle' trio. I personally always felt they were some of the most atmospheric of all TR levels, despite the constraints of playing as Young Lara. Certainly all the elements are here - the amazing sound files, the necessary inventiveness of having no conventional weapons, the creepy atmosphere and enemies etc. The downside is the darkness of the level, given that there are no flares, binoculars or guns to provide some form of illumination so, unless you elect to play at night, you may well struggle to see in places. For me, it was worth it for the outstanding atmosphere. It's not really one for beginners either, as there are a couple of tricky jumps to achieve, but if you like the genre you really need to try this. Given that it's a debut level, I really can't wait to see what the builder comes up with next." - Jay

"A level where we play as young Lara, with some sites to explore, though sometimes you can't see quite well due to the darkness, and that's a little frustrating. I liked the atmosphere in the outside, rainy and with the weak sunlight far away. Some of the enemies here, like the dogs and the creature of the water well, are deadly with only a touch, and since you can't kill them, you must run away from them. Other thing I liked is the variety of puzzles you can find here like burning things with a torch, pushing blocks, levers, look for items to create new tools and continue on. However, your main task is to find a way out of the village. There's also a clever way to kill a mummy which I liked as well. But then things get creepy and mysterious as you get out of the maze, since screams and laughs can be heard at some points. It's like in the village lived a girl that died for some reason and now is haunting everyone there... So it's an entertaining level, nice atmosphere, sometimes challenging, creepy, but too dark in some rooms. I recommend it anyway, found 2 of 3 well hidden secrets." - alan

"I'm half the way with the levels of this Create a Classic event, and this will be my first review. What we get here is a really enjoyable, but yet challenging Young Lara adventure with lots of reminiscent TR5 elements. Just at the very start you'll see yourself in the middle of a "Black Isle" type environment with a very well recreated atmosphere. The enemies here are quite a bit original and scary at the same time, as you'll eventually meet some sort of demonic dog that will kill you as soon as it touches you (or you touch it). You have to find a way to leave the lonely village and when you're about to do it, you'll also meet more than just one deadly dog as well as a couple of fire wraiths and some skeletons which will make the escape way epic. About the ending itself, I both liked and disliked since you're forced to use the village key while dodging the incredibly fast movements of these dogs plus the wraiths, so there's a luck factor involved in there that I don't like at all. Secrets were very well hidden in my opinion and I saw myself forced to play the level more than three times to find them all, which I finally did (after quite some time). In short, this is a very well crafted and kind of a remake of the "Old Mill" level from TR Chronicles with quite a few innovative aspects as well as some very challenging moments. Despite the lack of flares since this is a Young Lara level (and thus they're never available), I recommend you to give it a try as you're likely to enjoy as much as I did. Nice debut level by a prominent builder and I'm looking forward to see what this builder comes up with." - MrJavi94

"This is a Young Lara adventure, so prepare to have your medipacks rationed and your binoculars and flares taken away from you. This is a 103 minute long variation of the original TR Chronicles Black Isle levels and yes, it's dark. Lara gets to divert currents away from water pools, avoid sea hags, demonic dogs and sea hags that are pretty much instant death and use a catapult to break into a church. I found it a bit too tricky at times and ran out of medipacks just before the level's climax, but if you're up for it, give it a go. Found 2 of 3 secrets." - Ryan

"Arguably the most difficult out of all the Create a Classic levels - I was very hesitant at first with this level as I've never been a fan of the TR5 Ireland levels - however the builder in this level has created a much more interesting a complex level which the further you progress, the better it gets. It contains a really good storyline embedded in the gameplay which really adds to the creepiness of the village you stumble upon. In places, I would say the jumps were incredibly difficult and would probably put a lot of players off - I have to admit I did need to ask for a little help in figuring out one area as the strange jump to get to there just didn't seem possible at first. The one hit kills from the wolves were very frustrating, especially at the end of the game! The atmosphere was fantastic as it actually scared me to progress as I didn't know what to expect - some places were very dark and could have benefited from flares. The builder certainly created some unique ways to kill the zombies! The puzzles were brilliant and uses that nostalgic TR5 feel by not using the most obvious way to put the pieces together (e.g building a pole and using the catapult). I also loved the creaking floorboards that broke if you ran on them! Overall definitely a fantastic level, albeit difficult to complete but would definitely recommend persevering. The only downside is that there didn't seem to be an artifact or relic to find, instead you just end up leaving the village." - smcandrew

"It's a good level in short speak. It uses the objects and textures from the Ireland levels really well, but it's too dark and there are too many difficult jumps, which I find it very annoying and really frustrating." - Gian Carlo

"It was a long time I haven't play an young Lara level. Indeed, there not many young Lara levels in trle world ... So, it was a nice gift to discovered this new one in the Create a classic of the 20 years of Tomb Raider. The adventure remember me the Island of Tr5 because we discovered many enemies and textures of this episode. I have loved how the builder use the objects to create events like a pieces of wood and a hook to optain a parallel bar and many other I don't want spoil ;) . The various enemies give an stressful atmosphere specially the hellhound who attack and kill Lara if it touch her. I have also loved the various flashbacks we can see during the hike like the burning woman or the suicide of the priest who give a gloomy atmosphere to the adventure and so give infos to Lara about what really happened to the village. The two things who disturb me was the level is sometimes very dark and we don't see some pushables and the banana jump (or we can access by another way but I don't found it :( ). Only one secret found ... I will wait the walkthrough because I search everywhere but I don't found the two last. So to conclude a very good young Lara level and one of the best I have played ... maybe a bit hard sometimes. Recommended for everyone ... and if possible the night in the dark ... when you are alone at home ;) ." - Bigfoot

"Immersive like the original, this Irish map uses well-known objects in fresh way to defy repetitivity and merge old with new just like it's supposed to happen. It's also more difficult, and that's good - the problem is a lot of access, including illegal zones I was often discovering before the official path. In one case this may result in getting permanently stuck, in other one a pushblock is so hard it should have some wraith close the door to narrow my search to that room. Misleading as well, the mummy won't follow Lara to the flowing water room if the hole is already open - it would be much better to use a sliding trapdoor instead of flipmap which splits the navigation boxes. Other extra finds didn't damage anything and were even useful, for instance I got the first rose by hopping over the outer rim instead of up the slope which didn't cross my mind; or getting the second rose too early saved health compared to the legal path; or using an alternate roof to climb to the village ladder saves a long shimmy - so I consider all of these an advantage. Unfortunately - sigh - this is possibly a 20th game I play this year which feels without the main objective or conclusion, so in the end it was indeed a "hike" without a clue why I did it all. SUMMARY: A good little level, packed with wow moments and recommendable for anyone, however take the walkthrough for now and mind if the access issues are fixed I will of course revise the rating." - DJ Full

"The builder of this level surely tried to capture the feel of Tomb Raider Chronicles' Ireland section, and I must say, it was a success. There are some old TR Chronicles puzzles and as well the new ones that were done pretty good. There are some timed runs, tricky jumps which all make the game more challenging and more interesting. The ending (and the whole story) lacked some closure, it happened too fast and I'm not sure if I understood it all. There were few 'flashbacks', but I think there could be more! There aren't many enemies, which is good because it adds to the atmosphere, the feel of isolation. I found 2 secrets of 3, they're obviously well hidden. The atmosphere is well done, but I think this level lacked more flyby camera sequences that could, together with good TR Chronicles soundtrack, make immersion even better. Lighting is really good in the outdoor areas, but in some in-door rooms it felt flat or it was too strong - some balance was needed. As this builder proved us, level doesn't have to be too dark to be spooky as good soundtrack, few flashbacks that add to the story all together made this one enjoyable experience." - Raider99