Level reviews

"I can't help but wonder why the author decided to rely on such darkness to build this level -- I have a feeling it would be vastly more enjoyable if it was a daylight raid instead. In the very initial area, which is a huge outdoors area, you can't even see Lara: at most you see her black silhouette in contrast to the white ice textures. It's not as bad as it seems as I finished the game with well over 30 flares in my inventory, but still, lighting one up every other minute isn't exactly ideal. Within the central temple is a vast series of underground tunnels with fun tasks, but sadly riddled with levers and flipmaps that don't always work properly, so you might find yourself reloading and retreading a few times. I honestly liked the catwalk hub and side areas, but I feel this might be easily overlooked for its bigger, more noticeable 'flaws'. 70 minutes, 4 secrets. 12/2017" - Treeble

"Ninjas and mummies in the Arctic? Gosh, they do get about don't they! This is an odd game in many ways and, be warned, it's very buggy and can involve an awful lot of reloading. Some of the ideas are good, but the execution isn't always great and there's a lot of repetitive tasks, e.g. lever throwing and shoving statues around, that really slow the game down. It's very gloomy in parts too, but I think the thing that really put me off was the maze areas near the end. All in all, not the most player-friendly level, which is a shame as with a bit more care it could have been good." - Jay

"I actually thought this didn't start out too shabbily. Sure, it was a bit dark, the opening area was huge leading to a lot of running around and there was an overly long shimmy sequence for a secret, but everything was progressing nicely. Then I entered the main temple area and things went downhill from there. Some of the tasks weren't bad (the pushable puzzles and deadly tile sequences), but the backtracking became increasingly annoying as the level progressed, the maze areas got on my nerves, the mummies in the lava rooms were annoying, and it was so dark that I wanted it to end sooner than it did. This tarnished my overall opinion of the level and I didn't really enjoy it that much." - Ryan

"This is an absorbing level, but one that I would not recommend you play without Harry Laudie's walkthrough close at hand. In many places the screen is literally pitch black, so I manufactured unlimited flares for myself so I wouldn't have to worry about the pervasive darkness. Near the end you have to navigate not one, not two, but three mazes, and without the charts embedded in Harry's walkthrough I would never have made it through. In addition, the level is plagued by what Harry calls cut scene flashes (an intended cut scene lasts only a fraction of a second and imparts no useful information), together with what he calls flip map problems (which mean nothing to me, but at least they caused no difficulties in my game). After enduring that trio of mazes I was weary and used every available cheat to bring the level to a merciful end, but even so I used up an hour and a half of net gaming time here. Some players feast on levels such as this one; I find them merely tolerable." - Phil

"A large and complex level, it took me several hours to finish. Even if there are not many tasks to do in the very huge outside area, the underground areas around the lava room are full of traps and with many challenges. Simple puzzles by moving stautues onto marked tiles, a lot of floor levers to pull, it's a pain that you must reload if you die after the flipmaps. Many rooms are too dark and even when there are enough flares, I don't like to use flares often. It's also a pain that a lot of camera shots were completely useless 'cause the short time. All in all an ambicious project with a lot of work behind, but don't expect a great fun." - Jose

"Lara is somewhere in the Arctic and stands before the job, to open a big double door of a building. How it is just in such a way, she needs for it three Items. But to find them, she must get first access to another building. But of course, there appear many Baddies, which want to prevent this. If she has got then to reach in the building, this level goes off only properly. And turns quite unambiguously to the better one. And to more complicated one. And to more difficult one. The undeveloped outskirt area looks quite well-arranged, however, is not in such a way which would be it an aha-experience. The inside area is completely different there. And luckily there are also no more Baddies, but only mummies. Not many, but distributes at strategically important places. First it is a matter of opening the door to the main space what is already a little tricky. The main space itself looks just fantastic: A lava space with three floors. Below one must jump of block to block to come to the desired aim. Then there are abutments, which go up to the next floor and are connected with narrow ways. Completely on top there is still a path. From this main space, all the other rooms go off. Here is a lava space where one must jump about blocks to find a two-part cartouche. There is a Labyrint. Then there is one several water rooms. And a big pit about, which one has to go by jumpaction with ropes over here. And there are some Spikerollingballs. If one has found three Items in request, it goes again to the other building, opens the door and is at the level end. Opponents are here the small scorpions and just the appealed mummies. Though Lara also finds explosivemunition, but not so much, which could handle they with it wastefully. You should consider well, whether one must carry the mummy really to the other side, or whether one they do not handle also so (jump round!!) is able. One can call the level architecture only as successful, only the undeveloped outskirt area drops a little bit. Partly it is dark a little badly, but there are enough flares. A tip still: By some lever actions one should not store occasionally and load again anew, because, otherwise, e.g., the washbasin full with water is empty again. However, something like that seldom seems, however, should be mentioned here. Result: A really successful level, with which one from 2 to 3 hours one fun mixes has. Absolutely recommendable." - Scottie

"And that I did. This level starts out real good and in my opinion it went sour with that labyrinth. The level on itself has some huge rooms and pushing statues quite a bit before you can lay your hands on the first Hand (you need a total of three) was not funny. Finding a Cartouche and the Eye is also a task on it own. Long walkways over some lava tiles hopping mummy dodging that was not too bad but the walkthrough walls were really what did it for me. The level was also quite dark and although there are some flares I had to add them through the TRSGeditor because I got lost in that bloody labyrinth. The idea is a great one and I for one was sad that the above mentioned really spoiled it for me. Found 4 secrets 05-10-2003" - Gerty

"I should have been thrilled playing a level with snowy mountains and a big house with a chimney in the middle but I am not. I rated this rather high because it's a good level although it can be very frustrating and has some nasty bugs. You need a cartouche three hands and the Eye of Horus to finish the level. At first I was confused because there are four receptacles outside but having visited all the areas I thought I should place them. I got outside and to my surprise the double doors opened with the three I had; two Orion and one Sirius. I am not sure if it was the way I placed them starting from the left side and ended to the right but I mention it in case it's important. The puzzles items you need to find with the exception of the cartouche pieces are scattered around. We have to go through lava areas flood and drained many rooms find many levers in a two leveled maze which was awful very complex and frustrating and areas with spike balls and jumps involved. You should know that if you flood an area and save your game if you need to reload the room will be dry again it's a nasty bug that had me confused for a while. Also when you push the lever to make an earthquake occur you have to climb up the icy blocks in one go because again if you save and reload the room will be flat again; in both cases you have to push the lever again and then start over also the camera bug appears and makes things really difficult. In many occasions you have to find alternative ways to get out of an area and others you will come across simple puzzles such as moving statues to access the hands. I could have rated this higher but the maze is the worse ever and the bugs can make you tear your hair out until you realize what's going on. I found four secrets and took me two hours to finish. Now that you know what you are up against it's up to you to play this or not." - Kristina

"Starting out in a huge icy valley you see right away what you're after with the four hand receptacles nearby. Your journey soon takes you to a huge underground room filled with lava and the many doors leading off from this room each leads to it's own test of your skills with your reward being another hand an Eye piece cartouche piece etc. These tests include jumps over lava pushable statues mummies spikes fires above ground and underwater mazes rope swings great heights - and often a combination of all of the above. Don't start this one unless you have a lot of time on your hands and a good sense of direction." - RaiderGirl

"I must say that at first I enjoyed this level in the snowy areas but later I found it was a little confusing. Too much levers to pull. However enemies were funny to kill. The atmosphere is correct but lighting is no very good. Some nice rooms but several zones were very dark. I think that it is an acceptable level." - Cuqui

"This starts so promising and I enjoyed the first hour or so but when I reached the end after 136 minutes I was heartily fed up with the whole adventure and just glad to be out of it. Where did it all go wrong? Well it's just too big for it's own good and gradually lost its appeal. First there is just too much tedious hopping over deadly lava which is made all the more frustrating by the mummies who more than once will mess up your jump. You might get the grenade launcher but for this you have to master an awfully long crawl (complete with booby traps) which is equally irritating. The tasks are a little repetitive like you have to push statues on five or six occasions and what completely spoiled the fun for me was the huge and very complex labyrinth. Actually I had to sketch out a map to find all the crucial places. After I got the hand from the maze I couldn't get out of the pit in order to return to the main area. I don't know if that was due to another flipmap that had reset itself or if I had overlooked another walkthrough wall along the way and frankly at this point I was past caring. There are long tedious climbs a lot of running up and down stairs as the cut scenes don't work you have to search a lot for the right way to proceed (with some levers I'm still not sure what they did) and the underwater maze wasn't that entertaining either. It is a pity really cause this level has great potential; the vast snowy mountain range you start out in is pretty impressive as is the main lava room but the gameplay just couldn't keep up the suspense for two hours. Well without the maze and with the cut scenes working it could have been a decent adventure as it is it left be somewhere torn between boredom and frustration." - Dimpfelmoser

"It's quite refreshing to come across a level where I stray far from what most the other reviews have felt for it and there is no doubt that this is one of those times. I found for me that this 100 minute level was full of constant and solid gameplay that although may have had lever pulling as its central theme still had good little puzzles leading up to those levers such as freezing water filling rooms with water a slightly confusing maze movable objects and some precise jump puzzles all of these stemming off one huge lava filled room spanned by walkways. This is a dimly lit level in a lot of areas but I never found this a problem and don't remember having to crack many flares in fact I found the lighting quite ominous and that added a nice atmospheric touch. I rated fairly high in the second category for two simple facts the enemies although only ninjas above ground and mummies underground were placed nicely even the mummies for once could cause some real harm and when it comes to secrets I feel that if I don't find them all that the author did a great job of placing them and here I only found 4 of the 6. There is however a bug the author describes that if you reload after pulling some of the levers that trigger alterations that the alteration will revert back so you have to pull the levers once again but this only affected one lever for me because of a boulder that kept killing me but it took only a few minutes to set everything back in motion so wasn't too much trouble. I don't know why I enjoyed this more than anyone else but that is the beauty of personal taste so now that you have quite varying ratings for this level all I can say is go take a look for yourself and make up your own mind." - Sash

"Difficult to review this one. It is an arctic setting but at night and it is actually a huge level so if you enjoy exploring vast areas and are not afraid of dark corners this may be well for you. But it was not for me - it just did not work out for me with the many levers to find but almost no clues as to what they did (seems that it was a bug that cameras did not work as intended). I found it unnecessary dark in many places I am not a fan of walkthrough walls as I find them unfair and the maze was just so tedious. I admit to not completing the level but it just got to annoying for me. Still I encourage you to try it for yourself - a lot of work went into this one it just did not click with me." - Michael

"It's not a very bad level. But it hasn't good puzzles the landscape design is weird the use of textures is poor and the lighting isn't good at all. So isn't a bad level but certainly isn't good!" - Leandro

"Not a very good level as far as I am concerned. The dark bits/corners appear far too often as do the long runs up and down dark passages and stairs. The only bright bit for me was the easy way out of the lava room with the cartouche pieces. Rather boring and average otherwise." - Whistle

"Although I like levels in snowy regions this one is not quite of my taste. There's a little bit 'too much of everything': Too large rooms too long ladders too long staircases too much running around and last not least too much darkness throughout. Some cameras didn't work so you often have to go and see what may have happened after pulling a lever. Also I was a bit bored with pushing those two statues around not knowing where to place them as there are 10 possible squares. So I stopped playing at that point. Don't get me wrong - the level is not that bad but it could have been much better e.g. if there would have been some more 'puzzling puzzles'." - Sheevah

"The level is a little bit too dark in some places. The graphic is fluttering in some places. Some 'half'-bugs occur sometimes (harmless). From a central room you have to enter several passages to pickup useful things. I think there is too many levers. To find things it's not so difficult but you have to run and walk a lot (and those levers!). But I must say that I liked the atmosphere" - Emeritus

"Tinnos-textured temples in Artic: a good place for raiding! But this good idea is not very well done. The author has obviously made efforts to create a rather long level with many rooms and there are some good things in it: secrets to find not so bad textures some enemies well placed and a few challenging difficulties. But there are also important and frustrating downside points: There are too many dark corners and too much is too much. Even with enough flares it is not very enjoyable. Well darkness doesn't create systematically a good atmosphere! The bug honestly mentioned by the author in the read-me file is annoying as you'd better not save your game in the flip-map rooms (otherwise you can be found in a bastard situation when you reload). Is a player supposed to always know when he is in a flip-map room? The third downside point is the gameplay : most of the time it is a little boring." - eRIC

"I like most all tombraider adventures. This one starts off making you think it's going to be a fairly short one but it isn't. You begin in the Arctic at a discovery site but soon descend down the hatch via a very long ladder & more descending staircases. It will take you a day to play it. Many of the camera views when pulling this games main item levers don't work with only a flash caught by the eye. I didn't have any difficulty finding what had been opened though. You can spot most places that need to be accessed & then look to see what next path is ready. Zombies will try & get in your way but a shotgun or the 'secret' grenade launcher remedies that. There's a lot of traveling to do high overhead walkways to 8 or more entry areas to explore & retrieve its tricky treasure. There's a few tricky spots (3-4 in fact) but you can get them. A large maze may be a little frustrating but I seemed to be good-lucky at getting to the right spots. You never know how many levers there may be to proceed. Also he mentions a bug that restarts certain room IF you die & reload but for the most part I didn't find it much of a problem. I found 3 areas that suffered this most. It's a large level & at the end you'll get to see what the discovery was 'MOO.' A lot of work went into this level & is not spectacular but will give some extra tombraiding. There were several novel creations in game puzzle & death dealing surprises." - IndyDallasJones