Level reviews

"For a first effort, this is quite well constructed and enjoyable, and seeing this builder's later works, it's no surprise. The Oriental environments are well crafted, but a little overdone on the darkness side of things (although enough quantities of flares are provided). The gameplay is generally linear with nothing too complicated, which I suppose is a good appetiser as you run into your good friend the bull a bit later in the game. I nearly always have trouble with these and this is no exception, although he did eventually do as he was told and break the eye symbols. The ending was rather odd as well, and I'm sure a normal finish trigger would have sufficed, but this is nonetheless a good little effort, and it will keep you occupied for around half an hour." - Ryan

"A nice built level in an oriental setting, very dark in places, few red ninjas to shoot and an encounter with a bull. I found that you can reach the end trigger without even doing all the thing with the bull and the guardian keys: from the upper floor overlooking the big area of the bull just walk to the edge, turn around, hop backwards holding action but then release and Lara will land on the second floor. From there you can go to the other big room with pillars, jump and shimmy till you pull up on a black block, which will transport Lara to another dimension with no escape. There's a second mini-level to get another golden vraeus, it just consists in shimmying, jumping past a blade trap and pulling a lever. The best of this level are the textures, music and cameras." - alan

"A fine and challenging level with immortal bull included. What I enjoyed most of this level was the textures and the use of the Xian Temple's walls. Even though it is most of the time dark and gloomy it is an interesring level with lots of places to go. The main goal for this one is to gather two golden vraeus (or something like that) and several Guardian Keys and you're done. There's no ending trigger whatsoever." - Gonxii

"An oriental style level makes quite a pleasant change amongst levels of this age and it is rather atmospheric in a gloomy sort of way. Mainly exploration based, no puzzles, few enemies and some gentle platforming make for a relaxing raid, until ... How did I manage to completely overlook the significance of the title? Yes, our old friend the dozy bull is called into service to break several panels, which is generally a fairly frustrating exercise, although I've had worse encounters than this - he was fairly well behaved and co-operative for once. This builder went on to make some really excellent levels and it's definitely easy to see that future potential in this, his debut level." - Jay

"I liked the solid architecture and also the good taste applying textures and lights, but the level is too dark and it has too many paper walls in that sense. No hard tasks, few enemies to kill and enough medipacks to restore the health when fighting with the bull. Cameras are well worked too, but the background music when you find the bull is not appropriate to continue playing to the end of the level. The finish trigger lets Lara stucked out of the world." - Jose

"This redoubtable builder has been silent for more than 11 years, and this one was his debut release. Too bad he didn't take the time along the way to polish it up a bit, mainly by adding some decent lighting and a finish trigger. The gameplay was quite invigorating, and I found that the right way to train the eponymous bull was to run all the way across the vast room to the first eye trigger so it would follow me in a straight line, run all the way back for the second one, and so on. The surroundings are quite well rendered, so it's too bad they're shrouded in near perpetual darkness. Cher has provided a compact but fully documented walkthrough that carries the player through this 30-minute adventure. Many seasoned builders would be proud to have this one on their resume, which makes Tomo's maiden voyage all the more remarkable. Sure wish he would come back out of the woodwork." - Phil

"It's clear within just a few minutes of playing-time,that the builder of this debut level has talent.A deceptively deadly corridor;a clever use of a flipped-room to emulate the opening up of a Dragon's mouth;the glimpses of places yet to be visited and tantalisingly close but impossible to reach.Gamplay progression throughout is smooth and always interesting,while textures are applied with imagination. It's the darkness that does you in,though.Having to light a flare every thirty seconds is not particularly pleasurable,even though plenty are provided;and a lot of imaginative architecture is obscured by the constant gloom.Added to this a few gameplay cul-de-sacs (a deadly-blade corridor which seemed to serve no purpose;more key pick-ups than were actually needed;the puzzlingly inconclusive ending)and it seems fairly obvious that the builder was simply using this debut level as an excercise in order to progress to bigger and better things.Which he did,so that's all right. It's undoubtedly entertaining and accomplished as far as it goes;and it whiles away 35 minutes pleasently enough." - Orbit Dream

"Here disturbs only the relatively short playing time of about 30 minutes. Though it is rather dark here, but not in such a way which one could see nothing at all. And if it is getting sometimes too dark, one still has enough Flares in the luggage. The bull acts sometimes quite stupidly, but that's not the fault from the level builder. A bigger problem is the fact which one can take here an abbreviation. Ordinarily one must collect two Vräen. They open a big door and then one is in the room with the candlesticks at the ceiling. There are the first both counters in which the bull must push and a Pyramidkey. Shortly after level beginning is Lara in the same room, indeed, two floors higher. There is here a possibility to go completely down without health loss. The riddles are rather easy and there are enough camera tips, thus one always knows what one must make. There is no Finish-Trigger, what is a little bit irritating, because one jumps sometime on a block and suddenly everything is black around Lara and nothing more goes. Anyhow is this level one of these pearls which one must play absolutely once." - Scottie

"I wonder why this level is so overlooked. It's been available for 6 years yet it's only received 10 reviews so far, and what's more - it comes from one of today's most renowned builders. Anyway, this is a short adventure which starts off very dark but soon enough it gets clear and it's also pretty straightforward, and it puts Lara on the trail of two vraeus. There are a few mistakes, like waferthin walls, non-animated waterfall, but generally it's gorgeous to look at (when you can see) and fun to play. 30 minutes, 3 secrets. 02/07" - Treeble

"It was a nice atmospheric level without the usual 'guard' textures but an oriental mix. The puzzles aren't many but it's still enjoyable a guardian key vraeus and a beautiful waterfall as a setting. The dragons were a nice idea but my complaint is the darkness I will never understand what is so good about it. Ninjas and bulls are the enemies although the bulls will help you by smashing the usual eye buttons. You will be visiting the second level to get the necessary items and then go back to the first to finish. I looked at the reviews to make sure I didn't make a mistake during installation because of the finishing trigger that is missing. I found it interesting but do yourselves a favour and play it at night." - Kristina

"The first on the list and the last to play but still I did have a good time. Still hate the dark and still hate bulls but I made it. Wasn't too sure if my installment was OK as you need to have the new Wads of the Guards one for the Guard.tom and one for the Temp2.tom so you need to rename the Guard.* into Temp2.* but it worked like a dream. There also isn't a finishing trigger but after climbing a block my screen went black with Lara still there so I took it that was the end. Don't forget that this is quite an 'oldie' so there are some wafer-thin walls and the use of some odd textures. 24-08-2003" - Gerty

"I really love Tomo's levels and I liked this one a lot but it is very very dark. Gameplay is good old-fashioned TRaiding. This time we start in a very dark temple in which we come across an enormous dragon's head. You get to crawl into its mouth. I loved the large area where the bull was. I got a surprise when I landed safely on an invisible block at the waterfall. The blades under the wooden bridge were so easy to pass I wondered why they were there at all - it wasn't that dark. One room has the Egyptian moving claw and laser that opens a pyramid which was good to look at but odd in this oriental level. Getting the bull to hit six eye-tiles was probably the most exciting part of the level. My bull hit all six one after the other. You enter a second level briefly to get a second vraeus and back to the first again to finish. Textures were exotic and colourful but with a few obvious mistakes. The level ends in a most illogical and peculiar way but I liked it all the same." - CC

"It's hard to describe what this level looks like - it's dark and exotic spooky and thrilling and is something only Tomo could have come up with. If I had to compare it to another level I would probably pick The Temple of Xian. There's a bull to play with towards the end and you have to get him to smash six blocks before you're done! By then I was already dreading coming face to face with him - when you pass a couple of doors before that it sounds like the bull is on the other side trying to get out to you. The spooky setting and music plus the traps you come across while searching for the vraeus and Guardian keys make this a truly memorable level." - RaiderGirl

"This consists of two levels. The first taking around 20 minutes and the last depending on how well you play with the bull around 15 minutes. Level one is pitch black. It is so damn dark that you simply cannot see vital switches and although there are flares scattered about it's that bloody dark you can't see them either. Once you've combatted that unpleasantness the objective here is to locate two Golden Vraeus objects one in each level which will allow you to open the large door at the start and go play with the bull. Then you need to find 3 or 4 other objects (can't remember what they are called - little diamond shaped things with spikes on the base) but the level ends with Lara suspended in blackness with no way out so whilst the idea of this level seemed fine the execution left something to be desired." - Torry

"This game takes place in 2 intermingled levels the first and last parts are set in a dimly atmospheric temple where you encounter near the end the dreaded bull and the middle takes place in a brightly lit cave complete with waterfall where you need to locate a key pick up. This took me in total about 45 minutes to play with 3 secrets and ended quite suddenly and unexpected but while it lasted it was just wonderful to play with some nice visual effects such as the colours and textures which gave the rooms great character but by far my favourite was climbing up a curved scaly snakes body to then come face to face with it€s large fanged head that you then must open and enter." - Sash

"This is actually a two level game where you spend about half an hour of net gaming time in the first part then 10 minutes in the second to find the second Vraeus and then return to part one for the grand finale - which features as you would expect with this WAD and from the name of the level the 'running with the bull' action. I can say that I did have a lot of fun playing it. The colours and textures are creative though not always very well applied. There are some quite original ideas in the gameplay like the 'dog mouth flip map' and a few nice fixed cameras. Unfortunately and especially in the later parts of the level there are also quite a few design bugs like paper thin walls the invisible door block with the secret door and the switching between the two levels did not always work well. Actually I am not even sure I finished the level as I ended up after a load screen with Lara standing in black void. What could also be much improved are the fly-by cameras which are used in the right moments but carelessly built but again - the level is definitely worth a try nevertheless." - Michael

"I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this level with its TR2 feel. Even some of the music I think is from TR2 levels and enhanced the overall character. Gameplay itself is entertaining enough without any very difficult puzzles. One of the traps was so obvious long before you reach it that it is easily avoided. And while I enjoyed seeing the mechanical spider/laser that releases the guardian key it was really out of place in this Chinese themed level. Finally the ending is very strange as Lara climbs over a block triggering a load screen and ending up in black area unable to move. Still for the great atmosphere alone this one is well worth checking out." - Tombaholic

"I thought I was stuck here but then I took a peek into the reviews and found out that I have finished this level that was quite shock for me. Strangely I never found a second serpent and two missing guardian keys which where probably in that other level I never got to actually. But when I downloaded this level I thought this was going to be another boring Egyptian level but I was rather surprised when I found out that it is in TR2 - Temple of Xian type and I enjoyed playing it a lot. The level is very impressive in setting and colorfully lightened and textured what I really like. As exciting as the gameplay is for me at the start it rapidly becomes less interesting even if the bull teasing around the arena is exciting. The end is also spoiled with quite a lot of wafer-thin walls and misplaced textures. I also must warn that this level is very dark. But the great atmosphere use of fog and colored lights the dragons' head that you have to open so you could crawl through it is just worth it to download and play this quite buggy level." - eTux

"I just had a look at the other reviews because I thought I was stuck but it appears that the dark campfire area is the end of the level. Still apparently I took a shortcut since I never found the second serpent. I liked the level well enough although I thought that having to lead the raging bull to six triggers was pushing it a bit. I've not so far worked out a technique to get away unharmed and sometimes the bull just ignores me which is even more rude than killing me. Before you step into the big arena you have to do a lot (like sometimes three for one door) switch jumping while the gameplay is fluent and the soundtrack highlights the dramatic moments quite nicely. The design is a bit unmethodical and confusing plus it gets two-dimensional sometimes. I prefer settings that have a clear structure and don't mess around with too many textures. So all in all a rather unbalanced affair." - Dimpfelmoser