Level reviews

"I don't know what I was doing in this level. Just running through rooms with nothing to do and constantly getting lost. I had to quit before it got any more frustrating." - alan

"I seem to be among the few who have managed to finish this level relatively unscathed. It's rather notorious in that you cannot save otherwise flipmaps won't trigger properly and all sorts of bugs could occur. I was lucky enough to not to die (aside from a close call with a high drop), but being on edge and trying to preserve Lara's hide at every step is not my kind of gameplay. There is also, as mentioned, far too much backtracking, pushing buttons and levers and shooting guards which gets repetitive real fast. The design, texturing and lighting are actually well done, but that doesn't make or break a game." - Ryan

"Buggy, a lot of back tracking and just random. This is simply a level that shouldn't be release in this state. To be honest i didn't even bother to end it but for what i saw i was close to do it but it just got me really annoyed that someone doesn't even care to take care of their own levels and release it in a proper state. The areas were nice, there was enough fight segments and the puzzles were a bit to obvious, just a straight forward level IF you don't bug out. If the level creator had a bit more attention to his own level this could have been a great one, but like this, this is just something that should be "locked" until fix. I highly recommend everyone to AVOID this level" - Leeth

"I read the walkthrough before playing the game - "You can't save". When i first read this my assumption was that the game would crash if you save (since it happened to be before) so i went strait to playing it without reading the rest of the note. I tried to save and it worked! Turns out that you literally CAN'T save the game EVER. The tank area will bug out completely, and you can't finish the game. I got halfway through it and gave up, i didn't want to start over. The endless crawling space was tedious and i didn't had the patience to repeat the whole process. Sad thing this bug, because the level actually seems pretty solid and with good atmosphere and lighting." - Zhyttya

"There's a good architecture here, and also I could see an effort with the lighting and texturization, but the backtracking is terrible; I was force to cross the very looooong crawlspace a lot of times from section to section, and the worst was that there are not cameras to show when you can go back from the north area to the south area. The remaining gameplay is about press buttons, pull switches and shoot soldiers. Also there is a problem when you flood the big room with big corridors; one of the sections is not flooded, and if you reload a savegame after pressing the buttons the water disappears. Not recommended." - Jose

"Now this is one level I didn't finish, but since there's the load problem that every other review has mentioned, I couldn't be bothered to start over again when I was near the end (I went as far as getting the Uzis, but then I took the wrong tunnel which was a death trap). It seems that every level from this builder has a different problem, in one you can't light flares and it's dark, in other you can't save and you get deadly traps without warning... Well, I rest my case. You get to see a nice base and a fly by show what to expect from Bay-D in the level, but all the crawling back and fro looking for what that switch/button just did wasn't worth it. 30 minutes*. 08/07" - Treeble

"I confess I used DOZY to finish the level. After starting it three times I was so fed up that I cheated my way through it. It is a big and good level but unfortunately like the other reviewers wrote you can't save. I was curious though so I had to play this. There are some discs and a card plus many buttons to push and deactivate lasers and open doors. The enemies are dogs and SAS guards but of course since this is a base level. It's a pity it has that nasty bug otherwise I would have really enjoyed it. I can not recommend this in its current state." - Kristina

"I can't score this level properly especially as regards gameplay because I had so many difficulties. The only thing I can say is that its one of the best looking base levels I've played underground rather than outdoors. There were no camera shots which meant I hadn't a clue what I did or didn't. I've read the reviews and I hadn't got some of the problems of other players. For example flooding the big maze area worked in my game no problem. But after that it was really difficult to figure out what to do and where to go. The only thing I can think of is I had other bugs happening. At one time I just dozyied to hurry things up a bit but it didn't really help. I've no idea if I actually got to the end or not because I didn't hit an end trigger. There seemed to be no 'sense' to the level no logic. You find a disc on top of a laser door(!) and the computer for the disc is on top of boxes(!) and you get green lasers at one time to keep you dead centre of a long room just in case you can't find your way to the obvious exit (sheesh). Its definitely worth a look though." - CC

"This time I did read the reviews so I used the fly cheat from the start. That doesn't mean that I didn't die but not that often. What a level and no it isn't supposed to be a nice comment. This week is Piotr's week and it might not be fair to him as the more I play the more I get peeved at the guy. On the other hand if he made levels playable my scores wouldn't be so low. Another base level (he sure does love them). The thing I liked in the level were the lasers that was a great idea. 22-01-2003" - Gerty

"This is very likely a place that I've spend more time in than in any other single level. It all started 9 months ago when I gave this the first try and gameplay came to a grinding halt after I had pushed three buttons in a little chamber off the big maze and wondered what good it did. I then read the reviews and they tell you that you are not allowed to save. I'm still wondering how they sussed this out as there is no read me to tell you. I then gave it another go and made sure I didn't save (took me three tries though force of habit you know) only to be stuck in exactly the same spot. I then read all reviews and I noticed that Ted was making an obscure reference to the maze being filled with water. Well not in my world savegame or not. In the meantime I had learned about DOZY and thus I was able to finally continue the game. Unfortunately I stepped on some harmless looking tile and got burned to a crisp. I hadn't saved and I dreaded to go through all that again so I gave it a rest. Frankly two month later when I played it another time I had forgotten that those tiles were deadly and got fried in exactly the same spot. I'd learned my lesson and started the game again straight away. I didn't save but still the lasers operated most enigmatically and there was no way of telling if they would vanish or remain in place. Also there is one opening that invites you to venture inside only for you to discover there is a deadly tile after the slope and you have to start all over again. So gameplay wise this proves to be virtually unplayable. I mean I was so concerned about the bugs preventing me from finishing this game that I kind of neglected to pay attention to everything else. A pity really cause the setting is not half bad. Especially the big maze and corridor marked by lasers was pretty impressive. Oh and during my sevenths try I finally noticed that there was a map for the big maze in one of the rooms near the start. However it was no match to the one I had sketched out all those months ago." - Dimpfelmoser

"No complaint at all about the atmosphere texturing and so forth in this level. It's standard base style but well done and I liked the use of the laser barriers in lieu of doors. Unfortunately I have a lot of complaints about everything else. Gameplay: buttons and levers and keys oh my! No other puzzles or any skill challenges. Add to this the tedium of crawling back and forth numerous times through a LONG crawlspace between the two main areas and I'd have to say that the '5' rating errs on the generous side. The many SAS and dogs are peppered around the level rather listlessly and present no great challenge. Other than one short flyby cameras are absent and would have been quite useful in connecting the effect with the cause of so many buttons and levers. Finally there is the joy of playing the entire level without saving because of the bug mentioned in the other reviews. In hindsight though this was the most thrilling challenge of playing this level. After all there's no 'save' key in real life. So I'm not even deducting anything for this 'bug' although I doubt I would have persevered through the 5 starts it took to complete the level had it not been on Michael's 'wishlist' (the first round Lara drowned while I took a phone call; the next three rounds the water did not appear in the tunnel as it should have). I did like this author's level 'Area 51 The Last Clash ' but 'Sector AAY-D' had a few too many flaws to be enjoyable." - Tombaholic

"Although I liked the atmosphere and textures used here more the gameplay in this level reminded me of another of Piotr's levels - Return to Trial of Natla. In other words there's a lot of button pushing card using and switch pulling that has you off in search of what door it just opened. It starts off with two sections combined by a long crawlspace and you have to go back and forth between these two sections. Finally another section opens up with doors and passages of it's own so you run around this section for a while etc. I liked the red and green lasers blocking the doorways and the dark room with the pathway of green lasers was pretty neat looking. Thanks to Sash for telling us about the clue to the fire tile puzzle - I looked up and there it was." - RaiderGirl

"If you suffer any heart problems have a weak disposition or would like to keep at least one of your fingernails unchewed to the quick then I wouldn't play this level and no not because it is spooky or that things jump out from behind you suddenly but simply that you cannot reload a savegame for almost the entire level (the last 10 minutes or so was okay to reload and still be able to finish) which for me was about an hour of sheer terror thinking my next move may be my last and sometimes it was. When I finished this level I had played the first half an hour of it at least 8 times that damn fire tile room so I took 3 points off my gameplay rating for that reason alone. If you do want to play it then this level besides that hideous bug is quite nicely put together with loads of back and forth progression opening one door usually guarded with lasers after another and shooting a whole bunch of guards and dogs. Here's a hint there is a clue as to the answer of the fire tile puzzle very close to the room so look around and be careful of your first jump into the room as that is where I mainly got fried.....oh if only euthanasia was legal at those times!" - Sash

"Besides the mentioned issue with the reloading of savegames I would like to mention that I hated that crawlspace you drop into when starting the level as I had to go through it just too many times to check whether the lever or button I just pushed opened up a door on either side - because usually there is no camera indication about what you just opened and there are many laser- and normal doors around. So yes gameplay is rather tedious and painful in my eyes but the setting is really quite nice and well textured and lit so if you are a fan of base levels you still might want to give it a try just for the looks of it." - Michael

"Alright you start playing a level. Then you play for a couple of minutes and save. Right? Well not in this level. If you save in this level you can't finish it. At least that's my experience. I was playing the level and saved just before I jumped into water in one place (well Lara did the jumping I did the playing). Since it was an underwater maze I got lost and reloaded. Then I tried to jump into the water again but instead of starting to swim Lara fell to her death. Luckily enough there are no dangerous traps in this level so you can actually complete it without saving. The texturing in this level isn't that bad nor is the lighting. However I have seen better. In some places there's many enemies but you get enough ammunition to kill them with." - Magnus