Level reviews

"I take a sort of professional interest in TR4 continuations, and this is the sole reason that I persevered in ploughing through a level that lost me right at the start due to its ostentatious display of disregard to itself as well as to players. The builder just discovered the - random floor up' function, used it on most of his rooms, and left it at thatâ€"no further editing required, presumably; nevermind that as a consequence, many room vertices don't meet, so you get to see black holes all over the place. That's the insult. The injury is that it is a continuation of TR4 only in name. I suspect the builder thought it would explain the dilapidated look of the place if he claimed an entire pyramid fell on top of it, but the place is presumably thousands of years old anyway, no such explanation is required. Thus, what you get here amounts to nothing more than a standard settomb levelâ€"or would, if there was even of shred of imagination to be detected in the whole sorry affair. But there isn't, so all you do is run around the place, picking up some randomly distributed puzzle pieces, inserting them, and shooting some jackals; then run around some more, rinse and repeat. In fact I don't remember to be called upon performing even so much as a jump; running about this ugly place is all there is to it. And shooting jackals. You get to shoot a lot of jackals. Eventuallyâ€"the level is fairly short, but it feels much longerâ€"you reach a room built to look like an arena for some kind of boss fight, where you get to shoot some more jackals. The end. Recommended in no way whatsoever." - Mulf

"The level of the missing triangle textures and the ilegal slopes. It seems that the author used one of the features from the level editor so the floors were not flat and randomly raised the floor tiles, but after that he never aplied all the textures to the lateral surfaces. Nothing remarkable here, pulling a lot of levers to open doors, place some cartouches and shoot dogs and red scorpions in nude rooms with a poor aspect. Not cameras or musics, some bulb shadows here and there and no secrets. Not entertaining." - Jose

"I wasn't very impressed by this level. It appears not to have been tested enough, all of the missing textures, numerous illegal slopes and dogs and scorpions materialising out of thin air. The gameplay isn't that engaging, mainly involving lever pulling and running down dark tunnels, with the possible exception of a column jumping sequence partway through." - Ryan

"I'm really not keen on those uneven floors with missing textures - it's really disconcerting somehow. Textures are a bit slapdash here altogether and it's very dark in places. Gameplay is not very gripping and, dog lovers beware, shooting man's best friend constitutes a large part of said gameplay so you get to hear those pathetic yelps rather more than you might care to. You might want to pass on some of this builder's earlier levels and instead try his later ones - there's some good stuff going on there." - Jay

"The level begins where TR4 has stopped. Lara is caught in the pyramid and must find a way outward. And immediately at first it becomes really irritating. Missing textures, stretched textures and illegally slopes let hardly arise play fun. Besides, many dogs still irritate. However, this makes amends later. Except the dogs. They swarm constantly around Lara. Lara must find, actually, only a few cartouches and press some lever to open various doors. A part of a cartouche can be overlooked, because it lies half sunk in a stone heap. Result: Up to the first half the level has quite failed, then it becomes better." - Scottie

"Just when I thought I'd played all of the 'what happened to Lara immediately after the end of TRLR' levels,I discover this one on the same theme from back in the mists of time. Pedros was (I use the past-tense cautiously,as it's been quite a few years since he released a level)a prodigious but somewhat undisciplined builder - occasionally brilliant;at other times,slapdash;and I subsequently never had the feeling that he cared to check his work very much after he'd finished building,as this level amply demonstrates.There are missing textures and 'sticky' slopes absolutely everywhere;texturisation itself is rushed and haphazard;many rooms are pointless;lighting is generally uninspired (when in doubt,insert a bunch of shadow bulbs)or irrelevantly colourful;and Gameplay consists merely of finding a cartouche or a lever to open a nearby door.No tricky jumps or atmosphere,and a complete absence of puzzles.The only strong point is the use of dogs,which attack rather unexpectedly at times. For that reason (and that reason alone) you may want to take a look...it is otherwise somewhat lacklustre." - Orbit Dream

"Having just played the same author's "The Castle", I must say I'm not surprised nor impressed at all with this one, either. The whole setting is broken with several illegal slopes and texturing isn't quite interesting. You have to search for a few cartouches to make your way out of the pyramid she was trapped under in TR4 - a good concept, though it's been better explored in many other levels. 25 minutes. 01/07" - Treeble

"Well this is one of the most confusing levels I've ever played. It's all very settomb but all very confusing at least for me but then again I usually get myself into these messes and full of silly bugs and Piotr went crazy with the illegal slopes. If the idea was to confuse and hide it worked a charm so much so that I was on the point of quitting several times and the only thing that kept me going is that I'm stubborn and I felt I couldn't talk about this if I just left it. Well I finished eventually and I admit I used dozy because this level is huge and there's a lot of backtracking to do which is way beyond the call of even the determined raider. The result for me was not fun but I'll admit that this is probably the type of level that appeals to lots of players. And in the end I have to consider that this is a very old level and look forward to what Piotr produced in his later builder career." - CC

"Usually there's always something interesting about a Piotr-level but I'm afraid not this time. Wafer thin walls missing textures a kazillion dogs to shoot (at the end appearing out of nowhere too) and not much of gameplay. Then again it's one of his first so not too important as a level more than a try-out. Strange swim pose Lara takes in this one (with her hands next to her body) so I had to use the DOZY cheat to get her out of the water again. Why nevertheless you may want to play it: the little pyramid and the small colourful room just before it was nicely done." - bERT

"This level I downloaded a while ago from Slownicles and came as an exe. Well thank you very much I was well in the game and found out that Lara couldn't swim and couldn't pick up items under water. Couldn't even get out of the water so I had to use the fly cheat. I just exited the game as I was mighty peeved. Started this up a day later and decided to end the game without a fresh download. Sorry to say but this game has so many bugs that for gameplay it is worthless. If this was Piotr's first level but it isn't. 20-01-2003" - Gerty

"A nice level with not so many puzzles though. Two cartouches and one guardian key. A lot and I mean a lot of dogs and a few scorpions. Unfortunately the thin walls are everywhere and one walkthrough texture is bad. After pushing a few levers to open doors and the final battle with dogs the level ends. Twenty five minutes with not much to do." - Kristina

"The illegal slopes where really irritating; the more as they seemed to be put there on purpose. Also the missing textures spoil the atmosphere to some degree and the enemies became rather predictable. I was surprised to read that it took the other revierwers 45 minutes to make it through this but when I checked I discovered that indeed this was roughly the time I had spend in this Settomb. What did I do there all those long minutes? Walk down the cave-like hallways push some levers do one swim and a handful of jumps pick up some crucial items and too much ammo. It's not very exciting really and the only thrill for me was jumping into the pyramid. I didn't die a single time in this one as there are no traps no challenging battles and no tricky moves over deadly tiles. Especially in the second half the gameplay is totally linear which makes it on of the easiest levels I've ever played." - Dimpfelmoser

"This level is more about exploration than puzzle solving I mean there is a few traps like lava and deadly jumps and a a lot of 'pulling lever to open door' and a few slopes and pillars to jump from and to but mostly you spend alot of time exploring rooms to find levers and puzzle pieces to progress in the level. In the later stages there is alot of climbing and corridors to run down and a little bit of swimming the level was fun to explore in but there wasn't enough variety in the gameplay you end up doing the same things over and over again. As for textures and lighting well that was very good except for all the untextured illegal slopes at the beginning that was bad and most of these slopes you get stuck stepping on and have to reload lighting was very good and some coloured lighting was added in this level which was nice to see. But also there was some other bugs like the dogs that could walk on lava and materalise in front of your eyes that was strange to see. The level had some nice effects like the golden pyramid and the coloured lighting as I mentioned earlier. Cameras could have been used a lot more more puzzles would have been nice and bugs should have been fixed to make it more likeable." - John

"For Lara it is a journey to come back to the light she has to find her way in many rooms and corridors with the settomb textures killing a lot of dogs and scorpions. In the first part: exploration to find 2 cartouches and a guardian key no traps except many illegal slopes in two rooms. Then the game becomes completely straightforward in bigger rooms and corridors with sometimes some good jumps over pillars. One last cartouche to pickup and the final fight against 7 or 8 dogs was enjoyable." - eRIC

"I haven't seen so many design bugs since 'Ruins of Kazak' in any level! I think the start of the level consists only of them. Luckily it improves later but I wouldn't call this a good level. It reminds me of a lot debut levels of many authors but since Piotr has had quite a lot levels before this one I don't know why there were so many bugs! Other reviewers have already summed up most of the faults and I don't think I can add anything more. It's not that there's nothing good in this level at all I liked the colored lights and the final battle with dogs (even if they appeared out of thin air sometimes) but I just can't find enough reasons to play this level at all!" - eTux

"The first part of this is easy enough. It's a little hard to get over the uneven ground and don't ask me why all these dogs are trapped under the pyramid but all you have to do is find and place two cartouche's and the Guardian Key and then you're off to the next part. This is the area I got bored with really quickly. The large maze-like poorly textured area was confusing for me so I just found myself running around for a while thinking about how much more enjoyable the first part had been. Piotr is a master when it comes to lighting and I almost would download his levels to see what colors of lighting he's used but the level itself wasn't quite as good as I'd expected." - RaiderGirl

"Here is another level that starts off where Lara ended in Last Revelation. The first third of this level seems to be riddled with slight bugs such as an illegal slope being able to reach a cartouche by climbing through a wall that should only be attainable after going for a long swim after using another cartouche and a dog being able to walk on lava without being killed there are also quite a few missing textures on some small sloped areas many paper thin walls and a room that has stairs going nowhere as well as a hole in the wall that holds nothing but an empty short hall. Happily though the rest of the level improved quite a bit with color being used nicely especially with the golden sandy pyramid and texturally with the quite authentically dilapidated look in places. Okay so there's nothing too difficult in this 45 minutes level but it sure is nice saving Lara from that crumbling pyramid once again!" - Sash

"Yes indeed quite a few bugs as described by Sash in this level. And those many dogs are most impressive animals as they can not only walk on lava but also appear out of thin air quite often - right in front of you. But still those 45 minutes of gameplay a filled with some fun exploring through mazelike paths and walkways and a bit of jumping practice from pillar to pillar and the colourful lighting in the later part of the level is a nice touch. Also fun battling 9 dogs at once but not a big challenge with the shotgun." - Michael

"Sorry to say there are just a few too many shortcomings in this one to sweep under the rug: missing textures illegal slopes thin walls etc. The level is populated by mystical dogs that walk on lava and appear out of thin air before your eyes. And oddly enough both dogs and scorpions carry around cartons of shotgun shells which they conveniently drop when Lara kills them. The 40 minutes of gameplay centers around pushing levers to open doors and picking up cartouches. On the upside at least Lara makes it out of the pyramid she was trapped in at the end of TRIV." - Tombaholic