Level reviews

"I saw a trailer on social media, it looked nice and I immediately wanted to play it. The premise was intriguing, Lara being stuck in a sort of Egyptian limbo from which she had to get out somehow, by solving puzzles and eliminating enemies. Little did I know that I was going on a bumpy ride! Oh the mechanics of these puzzles and objects lack finesse, there were some unatainable items like ammo because of the debris and small areas from which I was stuck surrounded by mummies. In theory the story behind this level got me engaged and I couldn't put my keyboard away, because I was ted to finish the level but in all honesty I felt like I was trudging through sinking sands. Gameplay was tedious and required some well calculated moves because Lara's animation set had different parametres and wasn't fun to fail many times, mind you trial and error is only for a few. Lastly, I think the lighting and textures suffered from many problems, I was fooled by the screenshots here on trle, cause what I got was a whole different story. A little more care for the atmosphere and lighting was needed to pull a higher rating." - young Lara Croft

"Well, I suppose this project is one of those in which reviewers simply struggle to pick the right number from the provided reviewing categories, and it is all the controversial thoughts to blame. I can personally assure you that this game deserved a way higher score since it is entirely obvious how much effort has been done to design the awe-inspiring atmosphere of this entertaining adventure. On the other hand, it wasn't a good idea at all not to provide any weapons/ammo/enough flare from the beginning to put the players in a state of frustration, which forces most of them to rage-quit out of the game and judge this game unjustified. Please give this one a go, as it gives you the vibes of the events happened to Miss Croft after her disappearance. Recommended. Thanks a lot!" - Mehrbod

"------------THIS REVIEW HAVE SPOILERS, SO PLEASE ONLY READ THIS AFTER FINISH THE LEVEL------------ This is the first level of a starter builder, an interesting game with a great atmosphere but have some problems that really disturb the experience. The Gameplay and Puzzles (Level Design in General): This level have a great lack of care in this department. In great part of the playthrough, you will be walking in long and empty corridors, what leaves the exploration a little repetitive and disinteresting. You rarely encounter a really challenging or inspired segment, the unique parts that are really interesting are some platforming sections, the boss fight and the final sequence with the Tomb crumbling. And it's not just that, we have more. The first problem that reserve to me a lot of problem are with the bats, seriously, what happened here. This enemies are extremely hard to kill, because for some reason Lara miss great part of the shots with the old pistol, and then gave to much damage to her. But luckily, are a very few of them in the level, because, if have a bigger number of these, this could be a lot more annoying. In the first segment with giant scorpions, I accidentally fall down a ramp in a ramp that makes me trapped behind a block that I needed to load the game, because as impossible to get out. Other unhappy problem that I encountered in my playthrough, it's in 2 segments that it's impossible to catch a pickup because a debris falls in you. One in the room that you catch the Dual Desert Eagles in the left cage with the demigod, you have a X-Scorpion Ammo in the right side of the Golden Ankh. And the other, is in the room with fire that blocks you to catch one of the golden hourglasses, in the second entry in the left side you will have another X-Scorpion Ammo and the two are impossible to catch because of the ceiling that fall in your head. This is not a trap or an interesting gameplay idea, it's an unfair thing that just brings frustration to the player. And my final note is in the segment that you need of the second Golden Ankh to access, you have a corridor, and in the end of it, you have nothing, any player could get stuck in there. Because, to get out, are needed to climb a wall that are identical to the others of the corridor, and you can't see the hole that have in the ceiling above the wall because of the excessive darkness. I need to watch a Youtube video of it to pass, because I was stuck in there and can't get out anyway. And talking about the darkness, this don't trouble me so much, but I confess that this level is really too much dark. Besides that, the game has some good ideas and don't know what to do with him. In the game you have a new mechanic, that I particularly I've never seen in any other level. That are a Horus statue that every time you touch you heal all your health. That idea of a healing point is very unique, but if you have healing items, all are big medipacks that fill all your life and they are abundant, why of the heling points even exist? They are practically useless. I used the them just one time, I can easily finish the game without that with no problem. And other, this game is extremely easy. (And you will understand later…) I see some people complaining about the lack of ammunition. But I personally don't have any problem with that, because if you explore the level you will find ammo everywhere, the same goes for ancient medicine and torches. And because of the abundant healing items, weapons, ammo and the healing points, this game becomes extremely easy. The idea of having limited ammo, I don't see a level until today that use this resource rightly, and Afterlife doesn't do that. think with me, with the creepy atmosphere, the limited ammo used correctly can be a perfect combination. if you have to ration your ammunition, having choosing cautiously what enemy you will kill and needed to run from some enemies to save items, you will can create a survivor horror felling that will combine with the propose and will turn the deep exploration more rewarding. But it's just my thoughts about how the limited ammo could be used in this level. Atmosphere, Sounds and Camera: Great, with no doubt the triumph of this project is the atmosphere, because this game really evoked fear and scared me. The game builds the eerie and oppressor environment according with the player advance. Utilizing jump scares, but not abusing of them, like "The Ring" level does. And the sounds are very important in this construction, the not created by the builder are very well chosen and the originals are excellent, the sound of the mummies are really frightening, the quotes of Seth are a little generic but is well made. The soundtrack is good too, the tracks combine perfectly with each moment, and the idea of having a different ambient music for each area of the level are very welcomed. Lighting & Textures: The texturize are well done, with textures of great quality without stretched or buggy ones. The lightning is good but are too dark, with more light spots I think that will be more comfortable for players eyes. Enemies, Objects & Secrets: Now to finish I have some last criticisms with something, the objects in general are good, the not created by the author ones but are well chosen. But the Lara model, are strange but with various flat textures in her shirt. I liked of her new animations but the falling animation is terrible. And in my opinion the worst is the one that plays when Lara touches the ground after a jump, she becomes paralyzed by certain time period, this is pretty irritating in combat, because you end up taking damage for free from the enemies and can't do anything. To finish, some items are hard to catch, because they are below objects with a not so accurate collision. Conclusion: Tomb Raider Afterlife (Part 1) are a solid entrance of a new member in the community, a decent level but with a lot of design problems. This game is practically a walking simulator in a spooky tomb with some jump scares. I hope johny evolve so much in the second chapter and fix great part of the problems of this game, principally with the level design. And because of all of this my final rating is: 6.5 (Passable)" - Kyle Radames

"In the beginning I died to those OP bats at least 20 times until I found the weapon, and even after that it was hard to kill everything that spawned in the meantime, because Lara's evasive animations are slowed down... just make absolutely sure the pistol is unskippable, because the Horus statue draws attention away of it. But otherwise, the beginning is challenging, creative, and despite of limited ammo you get so much of it you don't feel disarmed. Following enemy combinations were even more unexpected and spooky, also thanks to fitting music (voiceovers also appreciated) but the final battle can vary depending on how much ammo you picked up, and even though I probably got all I still almost didn't make it - and there's no failsafe respawning bullets just in case... Gotta mention the unpleasant lighting, just like in case of countless other builders - exclusively warm lights are broken with exclusively warm or black shading which gets tiring to the eyes very quickly (somehow the color wheel is still arcane knowledge to many who try to build a world before they learn painting... I mentioned it so often but it never changes because there's always a new builder who doesn't know this basic stuff, it's like fighting a hydra again). One minor issue was the hourglass puzzle - if you miss it and leave, the place gets reburn (yes, reBURN not reborn) and you need to repeat the entire location to extinguish it again. A fail in testing not in building, I would say.... otherwise this is a very solid debut level, that's certain. Next time let's add some proper focus and secondary plan and have it 100% epic because something tells me this builder will make it possible..." - DJ Full

"A rather wasted experience from such a beautiful environment. Gameplaywise, I can say that it is quite terrible, with a rather linear run, very few decent platforming, and its impossibility to kill a single bat without getting your health bar to half. I appreciate the atmosphere, and the well done texturing, and I also like how Lara sounds here, even though I must say that hearing her mumbling "alright I'll take it" everytime we pick an item is even way more annoying than an "aha". While the places are beautiful and well textured, the lighting isn't done very well. I must also say that the animations used look cool but they are too stiff and put some discomfort into the gameplay. What's more to say, I'm just hoping that the builder will keep creating levels with his/her good sense in place building and fix the other things." - Nephilim

"This ambitious first effort left me with rather mixed feelings, and if not for a few poor builder choices, this could have been an even more enjoyable experience. It's certainly competently put together, but the gameplay is something you either love or hate. There's no real puzzles as such as it's mostly based around exploring this dark tomb, shooting enemies along the way. But there lies the dividing factor: your ammo is limited, so if you are not conservative, you may have a difficult time getting through this. There may be a bit of leeway that allows you to miss a few shots, but otherwise you really need to be careful. I luckily never ran out, but did think that the bats were rather stubborn, and the Seth battle was just tedious. I also wasn't a fan of the altered running animation (not too much of a problem, though), or the excessive darkness and unexciting, empty surroundings. That said, I did like the way the cutscenes were put together, the custom weapons made a nice change and the escape sequence was nicely executed, but make sure you have enough health to get through as I had to cheat slightly by slipping under the rock. This isn't the most player friendly level out there, but there is visible potential here. Just a little more consideration for the players next time..." - Ryan

"Really a good debut from a promising builder. The areas have a very good look with many details to recreate the Egyptian environments. Finally I found enough ammo to finish the game, but the extreme darkness in many rooms totally ruined the gameplay. As GMac said: "you can turn off your computer and it's the same". Not enough flares to light the way, I only found some packs near the end. Not enough medipacks to finish the game, even with the help of those healt-statues, I finished only with a small ammount of health in the bar and no medipacks in the inventory, and the players really need it for the last fall when sliding to the breakable tile. I think if the builder add some puzzles, place more flares and medipacks and increase the general lighting in the black rooms (the underground maze with all those mummies was really nasty) the game could be much better. The best was the great atmosphere and the new objects. We'll see the next release. Encouragement!" - Jose

"A level that is partially destroyed with the authors wrong Idea on how to create the gameplay. I'll start with all the good aspects of the game. I liked the cutscenes integrated into the game that were made really good. I liked less the clumsy animations and, of course, the jump animation which had a very weird lag and that made fighting the enemies more frustrating than it should. The overall design is incredible ! The light and object placement was just fascinating. It's not that much colorful or a rainbow unicorn puke, but it fulfils its purpose. Rooms were nicely stacked up with objects. Some of the rooms felt a little bit empty and lifeless, but mostly the rooms were full of life and atmospheric. The atmosphere was very intriguing meaning that it makes you want to explore more and more. Some parts were just breathtaking in aspects of atmosphere ( like the horde of zombies ). A plus was the obscure feeling of a suspense. To conclude the first par of the review, for now everything except the gameplay were done amazingly good. Now let's get to the gameplay. Overall, it's very basic on most parts. One big problem I had were the enemies that were too strong and too frequent. I had to reload around 20 times to get past an ordinary bat ! Yes, a bat ! The limited ammo was not something I was annoyed by, but it rather made things more interesting. The traps and gameplay tasks were very basic. There were enormous many pickups. It's not a gameplay for the score ˝2˝some reviewers gave. Overall, something I did enjoyed, but that made me very frustrating to finish. Waiting for a second part. Recommended." - Gorty

"This is certainly a level that is not suitable for every player and if your patience is rather low I wouldn't necessarily advise you to to play it as it just has too many flaws/frustrating parts. Apart from most of the animations which feel just as stiff as in TRAOD and make it rather difficult to control Lara to say the least, pitch black areas (in particular mazes) and some (in my opinion) rather illogical things as having to destroy a sacrophagus with your weapons in order to obtain a puzzle piece and limited ammunition on all of the available guns, this level doesn't seem to be tested properly as well (if at all). Otherwise the outcome might have been a bit different. Nonetheless there were quite a few things I really liked about this level such as the overall atmosphere. To me it was indeed convincing considering that Lara is trapped beneath a pyramid (although some of the scary bits you encounter throughout the game were rather unsuitable in my opinion.). You actually have to use torches here to progress which is something I usually don't do in Tomb Raider unless it's absolutely necessary. I did like the layout of some key rooms as well such as the one where you obtain the first Golden Ankh. The variety of certain audio tracks from different Tomb Raider Games helped in establishing a fairly good atmosphere though I did notice some tracks not playing properly here and there (the audio folder features quite a ton of tracks which cannot be heard at all ingame). There were quite a few flaws in regards to Texturing such as wallpaper effects or stretched textures. Gameplay-wise this level is rather simple and not so intuitive as you mostly navigate through the level whilst collecting a few puzzle items, killing some enemies here and there which eventually leads you to the boss fight at the near end. Personally I didn't have any problem with running out of ammo completely because I avoided most of the enemies but if you haven't played this level yet you have to take into consideration that you shouldn't waste any precious ammo (apart from the Old Pistol which is rather useless in combat as it requires more than 10 shots if I remember correctly to kill just 1 bat!). I do believe that this level could have been a tad better if it was tested properly and a few design/gameplay choices were adjusted to the better. Verdict: If you've got the patience go for it, you may find it as enjoyable as I did. I am looking forward to playing the next part." - KingdomHearts

"This level picked my interest as I like Egypt theme. The story is well presented, bringing us back to AOD intro. This game focuses on showing us how Lara escaped the collapse of the pyramidÂ's tunnel at the end of TR4. Lara seemingly lost her backpack in the fall and doesnÂ't have any medipacks (you can only at designated glowing Horus statues at first) which makes sense. She has no guns either and any weapons she finds later have limited ammo, so you need to fire sparingly. I have found the bats especially annoying for this reason as it takes too long to kill them (the bat at the end made me laugh, though, good thing she didnÂ't drop dead during a cutscene, haha!). However, I think my main gripe would be the new animations, especially the head bobbing, which made me feel dizzy and my game experience suffered because of it. I much prefer the original smooth walk/run with barely any head bobbing and I hope this will be remedied in part2. There are several dark areas but there is a good supply of flares so I did not have issues. BG track unfortunately cuts out after any music cue plays and you need to go back to the trigger doorway to make it start again. The end run was a bit trial and error, I think IÂ'd enjoy just sprinting through instead of slow jumping backwards and forwards. The boss took all of my ammo, but luckily you wonÂ't need any after that. The final escape is tricky but possible with careful planning (make sure you have full health after the boss or healing item, otherwise you wonÂ't survive a certain fall). I still had fun playing this level, though, and looking forward to the next adventure! Not bad at all for a beginning creator!" - Raina Audron

"Sorry but this level is just for those who enjoy getting a decent headache. It is done by a relatively skilled builder, I agree, but the outcome is just painful. This game easily features a good dozen of details you should definately include in your level to make it as frustrating as possible for players. For once, this level is very, very dark and without flares it would be impossible to navigate through (let alone that you can easily miss some or all of the flare pickups...). Next, the delayed animations which are as usual a big peeve not only of mine are even worse in this game, making otherwise simple run-jumps to senselessly difficult affairs and also making some of the fights quite annoying. The only nice animation was that fast ladder-climb, but the rest should definately go into any builder's recycle bin. In all the darkness, the builder even included some fresh gameplay ideas like... mazes! The "best" one was the mummy maze where you had to kill one of more than a dozen to get the ankh item. There are no puzzles and the platforming elements and minor trap sequences are fairly tedious due to the animation, so there is really not a single halfway decent gameplay element in the entire level. Maybe there is enough ammo provided to fight all those enemies, but with all the darkness and also the disturbing enemies it's very hard to find enough to kill Seth; I admit that I couldn't although I didn't kill most of the other enemies and went back through earlier parts of the level to pick up all ammo I could find (very nice: the ammo you can't pick up due to debris killing you if you try) - so that was the end of the level for me and I really had enough (watched the rest on Youtube). Without caring of the gameplay-relevant darkness, the lighting is rather believable as such and the architecture of some rooms is okay, but the texturing is quite shabby with many, many streched, squeezed or misrotated tiles. Objects are also sometimes not well or realistically placed but that was nothing that serious. The sound was aptly chosen if a little too dramatic and loud, as well as the few atmospheric encounters with ghosts and some cutscenes are present too which aren't badly made. On the whole, though, this game is not recommendable at all. Some players seem to have enjoyed it, but I sadly can't follow their opinions at all. I can only recommend the builder to find a good beta testing team and actually spending more time on making a fun and player-friendly gameplay rather than ... this. 30 minutes until I had to quit, no secrets to find." - manarch2

"A really great level with an awesome egyptian atmosphere. Can be very scary sometimes (the mummies for ig and I had a few heart attacks with the ghosts) I loved the atmosphere, the textures, it looks like an improved version of the original Tomb Raider's Egyptian levels. The storyline is quite what I imagine of the sequel of TR4, I can't wait to see the rest ! I was sometimes annoyed by the animations (for exemple after a jump, or when she runs the camera is jumpy). Also I couldn't finish the last boss, even after replaying the level without killing anything else to save some ammo. There is not enough ammo across the game... I think I collected 99% of them but still couldn't finish it ! <3 All right I'll take it, all right I'll take it, all right I'll take it <3" - Teeth

"Since our review system has recently come under attack, I've decided to take particular pains in this review to articulate my assessment of the level under discussion more clearly and thoroughly than I would otherwise bother to do (after all, this is only a game and not something on the order of nuclear disarmament), keeping in mind that this is the builder's first release on this site. My overall impression is that Afterlife is a very competently built level, but that it is not very much fun to play. In other words, I liked it and I didn't like it. What does that translate to on the DJ scale, a 1 or a 0? Or maybe 1/2? Sorry, I digress. The level was not much fun for me because it's too dark throughout, and even if it weren't too dark the colorless surroundings aren't particularly pleasing to the eye, and much of my enjoyment of custom levels depends upon their eye candy. You won't find much of that here. On the other hand, the level features some innovative touches that work to keep the player on his toes. Ammunition for the exotically named weapons is limited, and you have an extremely tough boss at the end to deal with, so you need to be discerning in how you use it. Don't shoot every jar or pot looking for pickups, and try to avoid the enemies whenever possible instead of killing them. Before starting to write the walkthrough I was warned of a possible bug, wherein if you use the first Golden Ankh to open the wrong door, you find yourself unable to continue. While playing the level, I discovered that this is not the case, but if you choose the "wrong" door you're obliged to shoot a horde of mummies to make the second Golden Ankh appear. But if you choose the "right" door to begin with, killing the mummies in the second area is unnecessary since you'll have no need for the Golden Ankh in that area. It's a trade-off: Do I kill all the mummies and risk having insufficient ammo to deal with the boss, or do I play the other area first so I can simply run past all those mummies and save that precious ammo? It's like the Hobson's choices we all must deal with in real life, and it was clever of the builder to place such a dilemma before the player. An annoying feature of the level was Lara's comment "I guess I'll take that," or words to that effect, each time she picked up something. That got old very quickly. Others have commented on Lara's prancing animation. That didn't bother me so much, but it did force me to be extra careful making running jumps and grabs across gaps. I didn't deduct points because of this, whereas I definitely deducted points because of the darkness and general monotony of the surroundings. By the way, that's why reviews of custom levels - or anything else, for that matter - are of necessity subjective and not objective. Different things are of different importance to different players. One final observation before I bring this rambling review to a close: fairly early in the level you come to parallel passages with teeth door traps. If you go through the teeth doors in the passage on the right, you can loop around through the other passage without activating the second set of teeth doors. And in that same passage, I was unable to pull back a skeleton to get to an important ammo pickup. These are issues that should have been picked up through beta testing. In summary, I believe this level has been compiled with skill and keen insight, but that its packaging is disappointingly unattractive. I've tried to reflect this assessment in my scores in the various categories, which would be impossible if were limited to a thumbs up or a thumbs down verdict." - Phil

"An Egyptian level incorporating Burial Chamber and Tomb of Sermenket atmospheres, with totally increasing ideas, gameplay and objects. The additional of horror elements makes that simply perfect: puzzles and original gameplay (beware of mummies! Can be destroyed without any problems), some scenes I got scared! Eerie and mysterious atmosphere of Pharaonic Egypt are devoloped in a so wonderful way that I couldn't stop playing! Rarely I find a custom so exciting, so I'm looking forward to playing the second part! A little negative note: unluckily ammos aren't unlimited, so you have to avoid to waste them (in fact I reloaded and replayed the game a few times because of this purpose); the same thing is for medipacks, even if the Horus statue restores energy as you ever want. I want the Part 2! :D" - Talos

"When I started this level I did not think to go very far, I found it dark, and Lara has nothing in her equipment and she has to recover all her artillery and the few kits of life. Fortunately she recovers from life near horus. I finally finished and I do not regret it. The author makes some mistakes as insufficient ammunition.If we eliminate all the enemies before being at the final boss, which is very long to kill, we do not have enough ammo (so a council does not kill all the enemies when it's possible). I had to redo all the level to recover ammunition and manage to kill him. I really do not like this Lara walk and run animation. on the other hand she rises quickly ladders and lateral displacement on the ladders is also fast and it's nice. The bats are long enough to kill. The last flyby is pretty. Congratulations for this 1st level." - Drakan

"I'm pleasantly surprised with this level! Especially considering it's a first for Johny. This little journey begins straight after Lara was buried in Horus' temple, after TR4, with no weapons. Over the progression, you will gain more and more gears and ammo, since Lara will have limited ammunitions for the few guns she will find. Thus, the player can discover a set of personalised moves and animations, which always feels nice in a TRLE. The strongest point of the game is clearly on the graphics and atmosphere, Lara looks great and so does the environment of the temple's ruins, same point for the ambiance that really brings us to feel uneasy at some point, especially considering how dark the temple is. (However, it might a tad too dark at times, sure, you can find quite a few torches and they last very long, but if you run out of them, you will be in a pretty bad position to progress... If not making progress impossible. More of them, or occasional lights on those dark spots could have been great.) Gameplay wise, the journey was really enjoyable overall, even if some traps (especially the collapsing roofs) were really unpredictable, and you would need to die to know where they come from (especially for the last section of the game), oddly enough, the scorpions don't attack Lara as long as you don't shoot them, so I was simply ignoring them. I also felt the limited ammo were JUST RIGHT, maybe too close, to not have enough of them for the whole journey, in particular on the boss fight, but if you save them as much as possible, and use the old pistol for trivial things, you should be good to go for the whole journey. I also really appreciated the reproduction of the room where Lara uses the Amulet of Horus in TR4. TL;DR, Johny's level is very promising and I heavily recommand it if you want to spend a fair hour on a good adventure with a lively/dark ambiance." - Hedteur