Level reviews

"If you asked an AI program to create a level based off of nothing but a developer test room accessible only through console commands, then the end result would probably look something like this. I struggle to find the right words to describe the visual cacophony that awaits around every corner; how can I explain the psychological effects of seeing the same dizzyingly bright corridors and rooms over and over, with seemingly no end? Honestly, the graphics stand out in such a way that it'll probably be all you ever remember, but for all the wrong reasons. I also find it difficult to interpret the title - Google tells me that Kamifukuoka used to be a city in Japan, until it was merged in 2005 with a nearby town and renamed to something different. With that in mind, this could very well be inspired by a real place, presumably a laboratory, but it's simply impossible to imagine that being the case, since this level lies far beyond anything resembling realism. To say something positive, I'll admit there is fun to be had through all the combat - there are grenades lying everywhere like they're supposed to be part of the scenery, and it is incredibly satisfying to blast every single enemy you meet before they can even react to your arrival on scene, with no concern of conserving ammo… So if you've ever wondered what the body parts of a scorpion would look like once you've blown it to pieces, perhaps this is the level for you!" - Ejecta

"My eyes started to strain while I was playing the level. Repetitive textures, misplaced objects, stretched polygons and textures, misuse of lighting, etc., made this game really boring and tiresome. I wish the builder had worked more on this game, in that case it could have been turned into a good game after all. Thanks." - Mehrbod

"What a level so tedious and boring. Hundreds of pickups you'll never use (it was enough for me the grenade gun with the grenade ammo to kill all what I found), some rolling spiked ball traps, find some items to open doors and few more. The worst was that there are a lot of square rooms with nothing to do, sometimes only to pick up ammo or guns and another times simply empty; only to waste the time. The architecture is very simple with a lot of wafer thin walls, and the textures elongated in many rooms. If you like the pickups and easily kill enemies perhaps it's a level worth to play for you. Not for me." - Jose

"Going through the same-looking rooms and passages over and over again became irritating and boring. The passages were long, many empty rooms with stretched textures. Lighting is flat, and in other rooms is very dark. You have to find many puzzle pieces in order to open doors. There are also lots of pick-ups: weapons, medipacks and ammo. They are more than enough to kill all the enemies in this level. 'Found' 1 'secret', but that 'secret' has to be 'found' to progress in the level. Not recommended." - alan

"I surprised myself quite a bit by trudging through this hopelessly mistextured, ill-constructed, lazily copy-and-pasted mess until the bitter end; I guess the level acquires some sort of hypnotic quality (especially when you're tired). Still, it does some things right. These things are: 1.) No backtracking required. Yes, it looks confusing with its all-samey rooms, but it turns out to be actually entirely linear (although, to be fair, it'll probably be hell if you miss a pickup along the way, so don't); 2.) Enemies. Loads of them, and correspondingly enough guns and ammo to fight a war (way more than you can ever hope to use in this level, or any level really). If you usually take care to conserve your ammo like you should, no such inhibitions need apply here. One lonely ninja? Bring out the big gun! It does get old after while, as the level is not exactly a shining example of diversity in gameplay, but there are still 3.) occasional absurdities to help you pass the time, like the jeep parked in an unlikely spot, the one instance where a horde of ninjas is accompanied by a solitary small scorpion (blast it with a grenade!), or the cluster of three consecutive doors near the end. All things considered, not recommended." - Mulf

"This 45 minute level looks and plays like an early rushed effort. The textures are incredibly stretched, wafer thin walls are abundant, atmosphere is lacking and there's not much going on gameplay-wise. A lot of back and forth, a bit of swimming, ninja and mummy shooting/avoidance and a couple of artefacts to locate. Unless you want to weigh down Lara's backpack with all of the items you'll no doubt find, there's nothing else to see here." - Ryan

"It seems like the gameplay was slightly better than the aesthetics in this level. The grenade ammo was enough to deal with hordes of ninjas and mummies, the first set of boulders posed a greater challenge to the player than the second set of boulders, and key items can easily be overlooked until Lara came across a door with a keyhole. I also noticed a pattern where aside from the first pool, most pools had to be avoided unless the player didn't mind going back to square one of the level. There were a lot of stretched textures, paper-thin walls, as well as copies of rooms, hallways and floors. Furthermore, the lighting was either plain or excessively dark. The end did look nicer with the pyramid though." - Sakusha

"There's a reason that I have still (after all these years) not bothered playing some of the earliest custom levels:their review reputation precedes them.This was one of those custom adventures which had sat resolutely at the bottom of my 'will have to play sometime' list; but,surprisingly,I actually found it rather entertaining. Perhaps it was the variety and overabundance of ammo pickups,which gave a degree of entertainment to the massed killings;or the copy/paste style of level construction,which lent a faint Groundhog Day feel to the whole level;or some cute rolling-boulder traps.Whatever it was,I had a good chuckle...and that was despite the huge amounts of running down blandly lit and textured corridors;the wafer-thin walls;the plethora of empty rooms. It would be hard to recommend,but it provided a degree of entertainment nonetheless." - Orbit Dream

"From the title, I was expecting something a touch more exciting, but call it 'lab' all you want, it remains resolutely Egyptian and, apart from battling hordes of ninjas, somewhat uneventful. It's not particularly well made, with abundant wafer thin walls and areas that look exactly the same. There are a few artefacts to find, but mostly the pickups consist of copious amounts of guns, ammo and medipacks so any challenge that might have been presented by all the enemies is entirely nullified. This is definitely one of the old levels that needs to remain decently buried in the past." - Jay

"It is a great pity, that the levelbuilder has worked so slovenly. Sometimes the textures are stretched, sometimes they are normal. All walls are paper-thin. Up to few exceptions all rooms are illuminated brightly. And what must one make here now? One must go many stairs up or down and go through long ways, from where one can search small rooms on the left and on the right. Occasionally Lara can gather so many weapons, ammunition, Flares and Medipacks, which she gets backache of it. At the end it goes outward to a small pyramid and then one is at the level end. Opponents are many Baddies which appears sometimes in herds and mummies. It is a great pity, the levelbuilder has worked so slovenly. With a bit more care it would have given certainly pleasure, but thus it was just bores and irritatingly." - Scottie

"I was surprised by the tut1 file, as the title suggested a lab. Instead this is in Egyptian setting, but the whole place is repetitive and rather uninspired, with lots of thin walls and streched textures, non-existent lighting. Some of the boring rooms are empty and some ridiculusly full of pickups. The ninjas attacking in pack towards the end was fun though, I ran back to the round gate and all of them fell into the pit as they tried to follow, then a single grenade did the trick." - Akcy

"The first thing you notice on this level is that it's so out of scale. Either Lara's as small as a quarter or this lab, if it's based on a true building, is really huge. The thing is, the whole thing is built under the tut1 limits and it becomes quite tedious to roam around huge and mostly empty rooms, killing baddies along the way. Luckily every now and then you reach a huge area filled with ammo and weapons (I think you get 4 or 5 grenade launchers on this level!). Texturing is very poor and lighting is non existant. The level ends as you reach a pyramid on the outside of the "lab". 30 minutes. 01/07" - Treeble

"At the start, I had my doubts about how fun this level would be. It has a very slow start and looks quite bland. After a small while you basically move though, which would seem, a building built out of cards. Most of the walls are paper thin and gives the feels as though your played though a pyramid built from a deck of playing cards. This level is mainly about killing lots of mummies and ninja while finding artifacts you need. The amount of ammo in this level, will mean you'll have no trouble getting rid of any resistance. I could only really recommend this level if you enjoy a good killing spree. If I had to give this level a grade I would give it a D, a fail mark." - The Aussie Adventurer

"Poor Lara - don't know how much running she has here and a good rest will be necessary lol. You get the ordinary in this level: shooting ninjas and mummies is the right thing to do running from empty room to another and trying to understand what a few jeeps on stairs between the floors are doing there. Eye Pieces and Cartouche as usual objects. I'm playing this level a second time after three years so it was easy for me to finish without getting stuck." - Yoav

"Gameplay is OK in this level if you can ignore the boring layout paper thin walls textures huge empty rooms - what is this place anyway? It certainly isn't a lab or anything remotely like one. Can't even call it a temple. Lots of rooms lots of stairs. There's a huge outside area that was the most interesting but even that didn't inspire admiration. Unbelievable amount of ninjas and mummies but there's plenty of ammo and plenty of weapons especially grenade guns. Finding the eyepieces hands and cartouche pieces is not easy because of the vast areas you have cover and similar looking rooms on different levels of this 'building'. I only found 3 grenade guns 2 shotguns 2 uzis revolver and crossbow. I don't know if you don't mind searching in an Egyptian environment and shooting a lot then I suppose the level is ok. The best fun I had was letting Lara drop through all the floors to a pool below and the same in the outside area just for a laugh I swan dived into the tiny water hole." - CC

"This is one of those levels of which you immediately think it's going to be dead boring by the looks of it but in the end turns out to be a little fun. The author sure succeeds in disorientating the player by the different floors with similar looking rooms. That's mainly the gameplay through which you have to find the pieces of the symbol of Horus cartouche and also the two hands of Sirius and Orion. Because of the stubbornness of the level editor here and there you can reach places before they were meant to be (in one instance a jeep blocks a staircase but without much difficulty you can pass it). Texture wise this one won't win a reward (stretched textures here and there) but in many rooms they are adequate and there are a lot of wafer thin walls but you may call them built Japanese style and therefore intentional (I may have watched too many Godzilla movies...). In one place (with all the spiked boulders) I had the impression of playing one of those hard core Japanese levels but in a light version. Why you should play this level: the author cares for you the player if you get tired of the level there is a one square hole on any of the floors where you can dive through to have a splash way down deep in the water (rather original me thinks lol)!" - bERT

"There must be some kind of mistake here. I had to check the reviews to make sure I am playing the right level, as Michelle states I was very confused myself when I loaded the game and I saw an Egyptian world instead of a lab. A very frustrating level too as it needs much searching long runs or walks which is easier for you and all in all is completed in about forty five minutes or so. The jeep made me laugh and wonder as the rest of the players and I found this level not good. Neither the textures or the puzzles made me enjoy it at any time. I leave it up to you to play it or not." - Kristina

"This is more of a 'shooter' level than anything else. There are a number of objects to collect and use along the way but much of your time will be spent shooting ninjas and mummies along with a few scorpions. The rest of the time you'll spend running from large empty room to large empty room trying to figure out what the point of all this is. I was really surprised by the look of the level - I was expecting a modern lab type building instead of an Egypt style building using the tut1 wads. I even read the other reviews to make sure I was playing the correct level. Anyway after shooting many enemies and collecting large amounts of ammo and weapons you reach an outdoor area with a pyramid and it is soon over." - RaiderGirl

"If you are looking for a level that is full of countless rooms with either nothing in them or an absolute myriad of pick ups tons of enemies ninjas and mummies that because of all the pick ups hold no threat and a basic progression that has you only stopping to collect said pick ups or fight said enemies then you'll love this one. There are only a couple of places in this 45 minutes level that actually interested me and they were both of the outside areas but even they didn't hold that much to do so if you are looking for puzzles and diversity in game play then it's best you look elsewhere. Oh yeah by the way there is no lab!" - Sash

"This level is really hard work for Lara. You better have some spare running shoes ready, when you make your way through a 4 floor building trying to find a few puzzle pieces and their receptacles. It took me above 45 minutes to complete without actually to mush accomplished, apart from the running around. You do get several weapons that allow you to deal with baddies and mummys, if you are into shoot-em-ups and the outside area is quite nicely built, but there are far too many paper thin walls, a jeep parking on the stairs between 3rd and 4th floor (?), huge underwater square rooms with stretched textures and a secret which is needed to actually progress further through the level." - Michael

"I had to play this level in one go (and I hate that) as I found it so confusing that I was scared that once I quite I would never find my way again. Right from the beginning there is a bonanza of ammo to find and like that is not enough you will even get your fifth grenade launcher in case you haven't found the other 4. OK there are some pesky mummies and although you could avoid them it is easier to blow them away. They do follow you up the stairs if possible. Ninjas they come in pairs and in the end even in a pack. Probably found more but what I remember: a Hand of Orion 2 pieces of the Cartouche and the two pieces of the Eye of Horus. Was glad I finally finished by that time my head was hurting and I wished the game to high heaven. I know there was a grate somewhere I didn't open with two mummies behind it. This level is vast must have been running up and down the stairs so many times lost count. Some swimming some jumping and a nice boulder trap and a lot of running oops I did mention that didn't I? 29-05-2002" - Gerty

"Strange level: a building with several floors with ramps and stairs that lead to the next upper floor. Each floor is practically the same having a central corridor and little rooms on each side some dark rooms with mummies some bright rooms with baddies some rooms with 20 pickups and some rooms with nothing. This level is not uninteresting and enjoyable in some parts. It is also quite funny to see those pretty ugly textures. It is hard to think that this is the same author as Garden of Twin Arch Bridge. The best thing in this level is some good jumps and a nice trap with many boulders in an outside area. You have to find a few artefacts to progress." - eRIC

"Tomb Raiding can be a real pain in the ass when you have to carry 54 grenades and 5 launchers up and down a four story building. Well I should have been warned. You gotta be suspicious if a level is only reviewed by Sash and Michael. Let's face it those two would review a bag of snails if it has custom level written on it. However this has some excellent moments. The jumps kills and climbs are pretty boring but there are some truly exceptional rooms here. If you are (like me) into Modern Art you're gonna love this. In fact I would advise you to see this main building not so much as a temple but as a National Gallery (where is the difference you might ask and you are right of course). There are some good installations like the Jeep on the stairs or a hall laid out with grass but my absolute favorite is the room with the six packs of torches. So beautiful I never dared to touch them. If you had a thing like this at the Metropolitan or Museum of Modern Art the critics and public alike would go wild for it. Title: Torches on Concrete. All the while you can pretend that the mummies are the museums security staff. They usually behave in exactly the same manner. And then there is the Sculpture Park of course." - Dimpfelmoser