trle.net
Your host for all Tomb Raider Custom Levels ever released!

Levels listed...
TR5 - 31
TR4 - 3141
TR3 - 177
TR2 - 133
TR1 - 61

72376 reviews (20.4/level)
3532 (99.7%) walkthroughs
445 Hall of Fame levels
1221 levels rated >= 8

TR Fan Site

 


The Lost Kingdom of Shangri-La by Jose

dinne 6 6 7 7
DJ Full 7 8 8 7
g12STL 5 5 6 10
Jay 8 8 8 8
Kubsy 5 6 5 4
manarch2 8 7 6 6
Phil 8 8 9 8
Ryan 8 8 8 8
vandit 3 5 3 4
 
release date: 31-Jul-2021
# of downloads: 107

average rating: 6.69
review count: 9
 
review this level

file size: 92.20 MB
file type: TR4
class: Oriental
 


author profile(s):
email(s):

Reviewer's comments
"Lara’s making some extremely odd masculine grunting noises as she’s leaping about, but luckily it doesn’t seem to affect her agility. There’s some rather extenuated shimmying to do, which seemed a bit overdone, but overall I enjoyed this level very much, especially the disappearing/ reappearing tiles sequence, and thought the gameplay well balanced and inventive." - Jay (15-Mar-2024)
"Though I can guess why, I think it's a bit underrated. I particularly liked the jade key puzzle." - DJ Full (18-Mar-2023)
"From Garden of the 4 seasons (AgentXP) you know what is possible with the BtB Tibet wad. This author uses the same wad. At the beginning I noticed some strange male sounds from Lara (when she pulls herself up), intentional or did he forget to adjust these sounds(?), sounds funny at the beginning but annoying after a few times. The starting area with the skidoo starts unfortunately very weak, the block architecture of the river, the incorrectly animated water textures, generally the hopping there is no fun. I also found the snow ramp that sets Lara back more confusing than entertaining. When shooting with the revolver for the snowball, you strangely have to shoot the stone things several times until they break, that should actually work the first time. Then you come to a kind of outdoor garden, the puzzles here were okay, the bell here I had to look for a while, because there was no clue for it. I also found it unnatural to unlock the three stacked keyholes in the mud. The better area of the level is inside the walls, but unfortunately this section is extremely jerky, optimization would have been appropriate here. Getting the 4 seraphs for the main temple was the main task here, and that works without a hitch. The TR3 music in the house with the movable blocks seems out of place. In the underwater cave I found the climbing wall to leave the area again, too unrecognizable despite camera hint, the leaves are barely recognizable. And in the house with the teeth spikes, the gate has 1 square collision when it closes, making it unnecessarily difficult to jump past. Also, I found it unnecessarily confusing that you had to use the 4 seraphs "diagonally", at a 45° angle, why not like always in TR? In the last room, I had to reload the savegame a few times because the second boss enemy froze several times. Too bad that the architecture, especially at the beginning is so simple. The same with the lighting and also many textures with wallpaper effect can be admired in this level. It is surprising that an author, who has rated so many good and bad levels, publishes such a 08/15 level and apparently also does not think much of optimization? Too bad, I had expected more because I actually like the Tibet BtB, I got nothing special." - vandit (26-Oct-2021)
"This level is from a reviewer who reviewed 3/4 of the levels on this site (or maybe even more?) So I was expecting something spectacular considering also that Jose's previous levels are highly rated. However, I was quite disappointed with this release and here's why:

Gameplay & Puzzles: The main objective is to get to the center of the map, and I think this is a nice and simple idea. However I did not like the gameplay, as mostly it's just pulling the levers and getting the keys but accompanied with platforming in order to reach a certain lever or key, putting the key under quicksand was quite smart but I think it's not that friendly as a player would die before reaching the keyhole so it took a few tries to get there. There's also no puzzles which was quite disappointing.

Enemies, Objects & Secrets: I think the secrets were quite hidden which was nice, there are some object placed in the map however I would populate a bit more so that the map doesn't feel empty and flat.

Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: I think atmosphere is a huge drawback in this game because again the map is very flat (outside places) and empty (you were able to see the end of the world). Also the yellow fog made no sense and it added ugliness to the area.

Lighting & Textures: Lighting is very flat in this level and there are no shadows and atmosphere really to make it look beautiful this makes the level look very dull and not engaging. The textures were wallpapered across the area. Summary: In summary, an ok attempt since his last level released in 2019. However, I was still dissapointed with this level especially when the reviewer has written a review for thousands of levels on trle.net. I do hope that Jose will take time in his next release and won't rush his levels." - Kubsy (22-Sep-2021)
"The prominent feature of this level is the enjoyable but straightforward gameplay without much space for exploration. There are some quirky gameplay ideas (the mud or the spike tasks) some already seen but still fun ones (e.g. the alternating platforms, the breaktile parcours or the timed run with the fires). Still this felt a little meager on the whole - you just run from one small task to the other and move on, so that immersion seldom comes up. The looks of this level are very functional with very large and boxy areas and a lack of atmosphere, especially in the first areas. The river part felt wallpapered and rather empty; at least the village section looked somewhat better in that regard and object design is quite decent as well. The three secrets were nice to find, not too easy this time. Overall a gameplaywise appealing level that could've benefited from more work in terms of architecture and textures. Finished in 30 minutes." - manarch2 (23-Aug-2021)
"If, as indicated in the forum, this level was compiled by using the BtB Tibet package, it seemed to me to bear little resemblance to the competition entries. The surroundings here appeared grainier and less well defined, but that could be just my poor memory at work. On the other hand, everything is so well illuminated that the desire to use a flare never crossed my mind. My playing time was about an hour and a quarter, well within the "medium" range (I consider only levels of a half hour or less as being "short"), and although there's a varied assortment of enemies the primary gameplay element is the use of your thinking skills. You first make your way around the outer perimeter of the compound performing a number of tasks to open the entrance doors. Once inside, you visit four pagodas in search of the seraphs that open the door to the central temple. You then embark on a timed exercise with four switches to obtain a key without being set aflame. And that's where the most glaring flaw of this level manifests itself. Using the key is supposed to awaken two hammergods, but most players report that one of them remains inert, thus preventing completion of the level. If there were no remedy for this you would lose only a few seconds of playing time, which is inconsequential, but the solution is to save just before using the key, then reload and insert the key once again. Why this works is beyond me, but my real question is why have two hammergods in the first place. Maybe there's a technical reason for this, but it seems to me that once the issue became known the logical response would have been simply to remove one of the hammergods from the final release. Ah, well, no matter. The level has some interesting twists and turns and is certainly a fun raid, so I can recommend it to players of all skill levels." - Phil (11-Aug-2021)
"This TRLE had some great puzzle elements to it but a lot of it was really repetitive and odd nonetheless. Even though there were only two major areas, they required a lot of problem-solving skills to proceed to the next area and finish the game. I've experienced a game-breaking bug on the final battle where one of the enemies did not animate at all, not even taking damage. So I was unable to finish that last bit. Overall gameplay was not bad but it got monotonous after proceeding to the second area of the level. Also, Lara's voice sounds were extremely strange (comedic in my opinion) but not fitting for the game. This level has some challenges that may not be for beginners but it is a decent level nonetheless. Good work!" - g12STL (03-Aug-2021)
"This is a belated addition to the wonderful Back to Basics 2020 contest, and a very decent and enjoyable one it is too. A few minor annoyances do unfortunately creep in (slightly mismatched sounds, frame rate drop in the central area, a couple of crudely textured outside areas and an unfortunate bug with the final boss segment which I thankfully avoided upon reloading), but the overall experience is positive and sufficiently enjoyable. The variety of tasks on offer should please any raider (I particularly enjoyed the alternating platforms puzzle), although the snowmobile jump was probably a bit too tricky for its own good. Definitely worth a go." - Ryan (03-Aug-2021)
"The level starts from the other side of a river then follows through a "rings" structure where the main goal is to reach the very central place. This concept seems nice but it offers lots of issues in gameplay and visuals so in the end it doesn't really sparkle: the execution is often uninspired, often "too" creative but not refined, and often beginner-alike.
This level shows indeed a collection of the most common beginner mistakes: cracks everywhere (the level welcomes you with some hugely noticeable ones), big squared areas, solutions are found sometimes before the puzzles (that voids them), 3 skips, tapefixing, a maze (not a "mistake" but beginners tend to use mazes a lot), missing camera hints, trespassable floor, forced damage, strange design (literally there is 1 lava tile in the snow and other strange choices that make the game often quite "unserious"), wrongly pitched sounds (which are anyway very funny because Lara takes some overload of testosterone while climbing up a ledge or when saying "no"). At least I didn't find any softlock, just a bug at the end of the boss battle but quitting and restarting the game solves it. I'm not sure about backtrack in the ring outside the fortress area, because there are a couple of skips there and they don't seem intentional, so probably the intended way requires to play that ring twice.
On the other hand, this level offers some creative moments: you've to sink in the mud to use a keyhole (but required a lot of forced damage), some nice platforming is found through the village roofs and small little challenges here and there can be pleasant. However, some of them are unintuitive if not misleading (the hint about walking slowly totally is, and the area where you have to push blocks down a pit is also nonsensical or not intuitive anyway, no marked tiles are found) and the pickups that spawn when a task is completed without camera hints quite ruin the enjoyability of these ideas.
A level full of ups and downs, disorganized sometimes, with peaks of great creativity alongside with peaks of laziness. The same applies to architecture and general aesthetics: often, the architecture consists in big squares with truly basic geometry around, while sometimes it's instead more organic. Textures are generally ok but the builder almost never cared about fixing cracks and colors/lighting are sometimes questionable, like the extremely electric blue waters or random yellow fog. Some usage of the elements is also often on the line between creative and questionable (like collecting 2 times a golden plaque, collecting 2 times the revolver and lasersight, collecting 5 bowls to trigger something but they're never used and we already learn they are puzzle items because we give one to a monk previously so this feels quite strange, and a truly badly placed jump switch for a temple that's not really a "challenge" but more like bad design trying to make it look like something smart and tapefixed with a hint that is nothing more than misleading).
The central area looks better than the rest although it's very very laggy (and I don't have a potato pc), but sometimes areas have a very squared look with tapefixing around to not let Lara go (like burning her) instead of working on a better geometry and level design. The last room with the tents look airy and nice, a good place for a conclusion. Lighting is sometimes flat. Best area: central village; Worst area: river (very uninspired and blocky).
An overall good adventure worth playing, generally easy/medium (when intuitive), not frustrating (when inutitive), but with some naive feeling and lot of room for improvement.
(Not hiding I'm quite disappointed considering this builder is a reviewer who played more than 3000 levels and should know better than me about these issues. But this won't affect my rating)." - dinne (01-Aug-2021)