Level reviews

"Amazing. Missed this absolute gem first time around. Brad has packed in so much varied gameplay, TR lore and humour into a Xmas-themed set of levels which was definitely not the peace-and-goodwill-to-all kind. There are some really great Xmas levels out there, but IMHO this has got to be right up there, if not the best. All 10s from me." - Adrian

"Clearly deserves its ranking! This game is exhilarating, full of "wow" moments from the very beginning. I was hooked right away! There is something really cosy and at the same time full of adventure. Play it whether you love or hate Xmas! If you're into Xmas/winter cosiness, you will be delighted by the atmospheres but if you hate Santa Claus and his crew you will rejoice in running around shooting elves (the kittens can be spared!) and uncovering Santa's naughtiness. The game is packed with inside jokes for TR connoisseurs, and alongside Xmas-themed music there's also some tracks from TR3, always a joy to hear for me. And a lot of surprises--animated NPCs, unique non-linear puzzles, huge environments... Excellent professional voice acting and high-quality dialogue and story, and the overall sound design is really well handled (it's worth playing on a sound system), plenty of humour, Lara is really the Lara we love. There is a whole part of the game where you play in co-op with another character, Jasper. At first you'll have co-op puzzles where you have to work together to activate mechanisms (like in TR4 training level), which makes for very interesting gameplay, but then (I'll stay vague to avoid spoiling) there's another section where Jasper becomes just a voice talking to you and I really loved it--i must say years ago I happened to try and play Tomb Raider Legend and was shocked by Lara being "guided" by the guys back home. Well maybe it's just me, but I felt this interaction with Jasper was mostly a great parody of this concept of Lara being fed advice by some diminutive whisperer. So if Legend left you traumatized, this might be the cure ;) Don't forget to read the readme file as there's some useful tips (I wouldn't have understood how to use Lucille otherwise). The difficulty is, I would say... "perfect", from medium to challenging depending on the sections. Well thumbs up for this excellent production!!" - OrFractal

"what a masterpiece of game, the forest level is one of the most beautiful designed levels ive ever seen. 10/10 this game is a unbelievable masterpiece and a must play" - Raider278

"While this is a Christmas themed Tomb Raider 4 set, there's a lot of variety, and all the themes used (which include things like BTB Northern Legends and Steampunk) are modified or added to so they support the theme further. The lighting and texturing are excellent throughout, and frequently some of the best I've seen. The third forest level in particular feels more dense and believable than even newer TEN levels. There's also tons of custom object work for the Christmas theme, with both modified old objects and entirely original ones, with plenty of surprises. There's also plenty of actually pretty good voice acting for the story. The presentation is top-tier throughout and some of the of the best I've seen for any custom level.
The five main levels (along with a couple of extras for story and bosses) are all quite large, although the even numbered levels seem to intentionally be shorter and more linear in comparison. The first level is a large town, which introduces the theme and story, along with making full use of the space to create a convincing place. The second is some ruins, with some surprise trips to the past, but said trips have plenty of additions and aren't just copy-pastes with a modified theme. The third feels like the centre-piece level as you explore a giant forest that's so huge it feels like it breaking what's possible in the engine. The fourth is a mine with the main section involving maybe the best use of a Guide I've seen, and the finale in Santa's lair manages to smoothly mix some VCI elements in on top of more great theme work and plenty of combat. On that note there's plenty of combat throughout, but it's very forgiving with ammo for the Grenade Launcher you start with (as well as health), and the secrets provide something even better at the end.
Despite the size of the levels there are generally a decent amount of clues to the main routes, although you can potentially overlook them. There's also plenty of interlinking and shortcuts so it's rare that backtracking is too long despite how massive everything is. The secrets also add another factor to the design of the levels, and there are some pretty interesting diversions to find them that involve whole extra areas and challenges as well. Although it did lead to one of my frustrations as I had to replay most of level four due to missing one near the start, despite the layout meaning a shortcut at least back to the starting area could have been provided, but this is optional in the end. It's pretty difficult at times and a couple of tasks can be a little frustrating, and the Minecarts are as trial-and-error as ever, but that doesn't take away from how good most of it is. The story is also supported very well, with both the voice acting and various map events supporting the story. It doesn't take itself very seriously and the theme is also supported by plenty of jokes and easter eggs along the way. This is currently the highest rated non-HOF set and TRLE and it's well deserved; even aside from the theme it's one of the best sets I've ever played, and one of the must-plays even if you don't care for Christmas maps, if you don't mind some pretty difficult and complex design anyway." - Mman

"Not the cosy Christmas TRLE one would expect, but a masterful adventure nonetheless. Challenging, but not overly so, it is manageable by the average player, but definitely not the beginner. Very long and complex, but quite enjoyable and rewarding. Hard not to give all 10s. Highly recommended for whenever you're not in a hurry." - billie2001

"A true masterpiece. It has everything you could dream of having in a classic TR game and more, all the classic elements are used in brilliant ways, but there are also new ones, for example co-op puzzles. There’s also a variety of huge locations, each one was a surprise, every time I thought the game could not get more creative I was proven wrong. I was also surprised with an engaging storyline complete with plot twists, quality cutscenes, dubbing, humor, references to memes, and, of course, Christmas songs with perfect timing. I won’t spoil too much about the locations (play and see for yourself!), I’ll just say they made me remember what I loved so much about all the Christmas movies I watched when I was little and never should have stopped watching. Among these big levels there is also a smaller one that I particularly appreciated, it’s a snowy reimagining of one of the original TR levels, at first I thought “oh cool, it’s the same level with a new look” but the gameplay was also significantly different. I loved it because I had the vague idea of what to do, but the tasks were very different from the original, so it was a mix of familiar and new. A must-play epic adventure worth to defrost many times, I don’t know if I’ll wait until next Christmas…" - Leti

"SPOILER ALERT! My reviews tend to be very detailed in what I saw and enjoyed so if you think this will spoil it for you stop reading now! Playing version dated Jan 3, 2025. What I liked about the level: 1) Thank you to the builder for giving camera shots when picking up keys. All builders should do this please especially when the levels are built vast and open. 2) Thank you also for placing pickups in most shatterables. Nothing more frustrating than finding one pickup in one shatterable then tons of empty ones. 3) Nice timer on the flares. 4) Love it when interconnected areas meet up with previously explored territory. 5) Nice sloped jump to ladder sequence. 6) MINECARTS! With an animated track and a candy cane for a wrench… I’m in heaven. 7) Small thing but loved the parkay wood flooring texture. 8) Nice touch having branches as swingpoles. 9) Love it when boulders open doors instead of keys. 10) Spectacular underground mining area with amazing excavator machine object. 11) Not fond of enemies but I just LOVE when the builder limits the SAS enemies boundaries giving the player the option to shoot them safely from a distance.12) The workshop room with wood paneling, light fixture reflections, cathedral wood ceiling and wood flooring is simply stunning. 13) Equally stunning is the warehouse with skylights and exquisitely accurate lighting. Nicely done! 14) Conveyor belt traversing was so much fun even with the lasers specifically because it required PATIENCE which I absolutely love. 15) Fantastic ending! Worth fighting for. What I didn’t like or thought could be improved: 1) My game crashed when approaching the bar from the front. TIP: I was able to circumvent by approaching the bar from either side. 2) Just a biased observation but seeing Lara in a skimpy outfit in the snow was uncomfortable to say the least, lol. I was even looking if the builder added the choice of winter gear. 3) Timed switches should have timer indicators and ideally camera shots of the goal of the timed run. 4) Would have preferred a camera hint triggered near the trap door to show the bell. No way would have known shooting the bell moves a pool table. 5) Would have put more torches in case player loses them along the way. 6) Had to use a medipack before lighting the cannon as I was on very low health and died every time. Would suggest having Lara jump back twice in the cutscene to avoid any health loss. 7) Just a wishlist but would have loved to rotate the “Rotisserie Lara” to drop the keys and save her from barbeque death. 8) Not a big thing but the in game type font for numbers was a bit hard to determine. 9) It is possible to pull the chains without letting go making the cages raise too much and become unreachable requiring a reload. 10) Loved the elf village but would have preferred much lighter atmosphere to assist gameplay progression. 11) Found the treetop route by the broken bridge too obscure and had to consult both written and video walkthroughs to find it. 12) Not sure why there was a safe block in the lava room with no way to get back out. Would have preferred just lava to avoid confusion and avoid a reload to a previous savegame. 13) I always thought killing dogs was mean but kittens?? lol 14) Just a wishlist but would have loved to have opened just one present. 15) After beating the Horseman boss, one of the sandbags fell onto the item before I could pick it up. Perhaps deactivating the sandbags after the boss is dead may help. 16) Ah… another boss fight beaten, cutscene triggered but I still died and had to repeat the boss fight. 17) Final fight sequence quite tough. TIP: Saving as much grenade gun ammo as possible until the final boss fights helped me beat them. Conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed this level. Despite being very long, it kept my attention the whole time and made me want to continue playing until the end. Despite the “wishlist” of items, this level deserves full marks even for just the fantastic minecart sequences alone. To the builder, please continue building levels with such attention to detail showing your clear love of building. From this one humble player, thank you. Suitable for average TR players." - Lizard Queen

"This certainly is a production, no question about it. Undoubtedly the most ambitious of any of the Advent levels to date, it clocked in at nearly nine hours of total playing time for me after bits and pieces that spanned an entire week. I was awe-inspired by the gameplay, the surroundings and the overall excellence of the first two levels, but then I started to get an understanding of the wet blanket thrown by José over the previously perfect numbers in the posted reviews. While José found issues with the builder's gameplay choices, my frustrations lay at the opposite end of the ratings spectrum. In my estimation, in compiling this otherwise stellar release, the builder disregarded an important part of the mix: his players. Even though I had manufactured unlimited flares for myself during the early going, the third level was so dark and so complex (and therefore confusing) that I nearby binned the game at that point. Even with the help of the meticulous written walk provided by José I found mere words here to be inadequate, so I finished the level by playing right along behind one of the videos. I'm glad I stuck with it, as the next level was a thing of sheer beauty with the extended interaction between Lara and her guide. The work as a whole reflects professional competence, but it would have been so much more fun to play (at least for me) had the lighting been more player-friendly throughout. I'm aware that many players like it this way and think that it adds a more realistic atmosphere to the playing experience, but I'm not one of them. Despite my reservations, I'm confident that this marvelous production is destined for early Hall of Fame honors." - Phil

"Not very agree with the previous reviewers as far as the gameplay is concerned. I was testing this adventure a lot of hours and I notified the builder about certain hard tasks I found in several levels. Personally I like to think to solve puzzles and not try to do very hard tasks dozens of times when I know what I have to do to continue playing. Besides, some levels are too much no-lineal, so the player has to explore running around and around very huge areas a lot of time to find the way to continue playing. At the other hand, the architecture and texturization are fantastic, the lighting, the cameras, the texts in game... Really a very good work from one of the best builders in the history of the Tomb Raider custom levels. But how I said, this adventure is not for all the TR fans, but only for expert players. Brad, perhaps you can think about this before you build your next adventure (I hope you can continue building in the future; please!)" - Jose

"I’ll be honest I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I downloaded this level, instead of a average Christmas raid this turned out to be one huge magnificent adventure with not just one but 7 levels! The story told through fun and funny cutscenes and dialogues is about Lara trying to track down Santa in the North Pole after she finds out she’s not getting any Xmas presents this year. This game has humongous variety in the gameplay whether it’s running around stunning little snowy villages, riding around trap filled exhilarating mine cart caves, exploring enchanting forests or infiltrating Santa’s hideout vci stealth style I was just having a blast with all the fun tasks, traps and activities. My personal highlights was the story and humour, the mine cart rides, the puzzles involving the guide jasper, of course the defrosting and elimination of Mariah that was funny and lastly just the whole visual experience, it’s just stunning, everything has just been created with so much love, care and detail that comes across as so professional. This is definitely a game I’d happily replay next Christmas, it captures theme so well with its music, atmosphere and sprit and I loved the ending cutscene with the dancing! Perfect!" - John

"Quite amazing. Probably not for beginners because it gets very tough. Very Christmas themed, so it should be played only in December. It's very long, but I had much fun playing it. Some minor flaws.

• The first level has a great atmosphere and invites to explore. Unfortunately, this seemingly gets more linear as you advance to the next levels and you get closer to Santa. You never return to the starting area (which also means you can't collect secrets), which I found regrettable. In addition the levels with the mine carts are like transitory levels with not that much complexity. I had the feeling that I wanted to reach the destination soon. On the other hand, the final level, Santa's Workshop, seemed worth it.
• It stays visually appealing and well-decorated throughout the game. (Although it might not reach the atmosphere of the first level again.) It's funny. Not a comedy bomb, but a lot of things that shows love for the details. Like the customized game over message.
• The gameplay is well-balanced and flows well. There are many diverse tasks and puzzles to perform. It normally doesn't get boring. Even when I got stuck, I could make progress by looking around some more. I didn't check the WT often. On the other hand, the levels between starting village and Santa's Workshop felt tiring sometimes. Exploring different routes with the mine cart got too much.
• It's challenging. The enemies are very tough. You will see when you get under attack for the first time. It's probably a good idea to conserve ammo and medipacks, though at the end I had enough left. There's tightly timed stuff and complicated gymnastics later on. Beginners may also have trouble if they don't recognize some TR4 gameplay elements (like how to use the toy train.)
• I found one game stopping bug: If you walk ahead of Jasper in Jingle Hell Rock and use the wall-hole pull switch, it can happen that the door closes before Jasper got through. You can't open it again and there seems to be no way to recover. Another but very minor bug was that I could get on top of the snow ridge outside at Santa's Workshop, which I probably wasn't supposed to be able to reach. I could see some untextured edges of the level. At the very end, when Lara has to run so save herself, she got randomly put on fire on one tunnel. I didn't understand what triggered it. Probably not a bug, but very weird.

Giving it all-10s to avoids that my review reduces the current score of all-10s, but it probably deserves it." - tuxraider

"As others have mentioned, this is not your usual fluffy Advent level. What it is however, is an engaging, action-packed, different and most of all truly astounding levelset that took me over 6 hours to complete (and I was sad when it ended). The storyline is that Lara is understandably miffed at not receiving any Christmas presents this year. So she decides to take matters into her own hands (and Lara being Lara, she is not like normal human beings) and goes to track Santa down. The gameplay is surprisingly complex, with each of the 5 main levels offering up all sorts of puzzles, traps and many more besides. Not forgetting the mine cart rides, which had me going for quite a while. The highlights for me had to be: the time keypad puzzle in the first level exploring deeper into the forest in the third level, and teaming up with the guide in the fourth level, although there were many more I could mention. The environments are among the most stunning I've ever seen and the objects are utterly charming. A couple of the rope swings and pole jumps were possibly a little too finicky, but I couldn't deduct points for that. After dishing out revenge in the way she knows best, Lara returns home and has a little party. An absolute joy from start to finish, and definitely one of the top TRLEs of the year for me." - Ryan

"This level set is not only the best Christmas levels I've ever played, but maybe the best custom I ever played in general so far. Me and my husband played this together and it was so fun. It tells a compelling story. Fits in with classic Lara lore. Has tons of Easter eggs and references. The gameplay is top notch. Texturing was perfect. Puzzles were nice to play. The locations were magical. And the ending was perfect. I could play this every Christmas as a tradition with my husband. Thank you to the creator for making this wonderful game. 10/10 across the board from me." - JimmyBeon

"A fantastic xmas levelset with a unusual approach and a funny plot. It's a long one, consisting of 5 large levels + 2 smaller ones. There is no boring moment here but high variety of tasks that will keep you engaged for several hours. Every aspect of the gameplay is present here. We get to ride a minecart, something not used very often in other levels, which was really fun. I also really like the use of the guide, the talks between Lara and him and the very clever cooperative sections - another thing I'd like to see more often in other levels. The plot is quite funny and unusual and unfolds as we progress throughout the game. The design of the locations is done very well. The levels are very well thought-out and some of them are quite big with lots of different paths. My favourite one is probably the third one - a wonderful enchanted forest with very charming atmosphere and unique design. The visuals are top-notch - excellent use of textures, lighting, decorations etc. All in all, I highly recommend this top quality level. It will keep you engaged for several hours." - BlackWolfTR

"An epic Christmas adventure to be had here, I'd highly recommend anyone who hasn't played this should change that immediately! Had an absolute blast playing through this the story premise is humorous and very creative. The levels (there's quite few of them!) are all beautifully crafted and look amazing. Gameplay while challenging was fun and never even came close to outstaying its welcome. Only nitpicks were maybe it was a little on the dark side but more than enough flares are provided so it barely registers for me, and the gameplay and atmosphere wasn't severely affected by it. As said before, get this played! I'd put this up there with my favourite TRLE's I've played!" - Feats

"Milk and toast and cookie make it spooky. Embark on a Santanic mission to save Christmas - or not. Some naughty sequences like sewers and vents could be avoided as they've been summoned more than Mariah, but 90% of this work is on-topic and storytelling is as good as it gets. With a week of 2024 still left, I dare say this the TR game of the year." - DJ Full