Level reviews

"Taking a look at Nadine's first I found no trace of glory fulfilling her last, but this level is only half-generic, its other half defined with some neat ideas. The basics are - well - basic but done right and the whole thing is enjoyable." - DJ Full

"This just goes to show that even the greatest artists (level building or otherwise) have humble beginnings. Flashes of Nadine's potential can be seen in this, her debut level, although it's nowhere near as impressive. The textures and lighting are put together nicely, as you would expect from this builder, but a couple of the outdoor areas were a little too large for the amount of gameplay they actually contained and a couple of blackouts occurred, presumably because of the room renderings. Progression is simplistic and linear with a couple of items to find, a brief bit of swimming and climbing, plus a couple of levers to use. The enemy attacks were a piece of cake thanks to the copious amounts of ammo and weaponry to collect. A commendable debut, but obviously far better things were to come." - Ryan

"I had somehow missed playing this level during my early raiding days. It's crude by today's standard, but it nevertheless kept me occupied for nearly 40 minutes. I had to consult the walkthrough to get the Guardian Key I'd missed at the very beginning, but otherwise it's a typical Egyptin level, all quite linear, and you're given generous quantities of weapons and flares to assist your progress. There's an other-worldly effect near the end which may have seemed out of place to some, but I welcomed the change of scenery. I would have been proud of this one had it been my first effort, but as we all know this builder has gone on to bigger and much better things (and it didn't take her very long to do so)." - Phil

"First off this has the most beautiful choice of textures I have ever seen in an Egyptian level. Based on Karnak style but added are many pictures hieroglyphs and even transparent blue glass platforms. Lovely to look at and no stretched textures despite the height of many rooms. As for the gameplay you set out to collect four keys to open a few doors before you face Set in a merciless battle - the heavy artillery you picked up before will be needed I bet. Actually you don't have to destroy Set - just run around him in circles so he misses you with his fire and put 1 of the 4 keys into place while he takes a break to recollect energy. Jump into the black pit and leave him alone. This was not the end of the level yet as you'll realize when you see all those rolling balls coming down - avoiding them was another challenge. After a slow beginning great fun in the second half. I don't know however why you had to pick up the rocket thrower with just one poor defenseless demigod in the way to the end? Or what the earthquake signifies? The level suffers besides from what I call the 'hotel room syndrome' which roughly translates as 'why use a room with 4x4 squares when I can have a room with 16x16 squares for the same price'. In other words: everything is oversized. A huge part of the temple for example consists of a never ending monkey swing and poles to climb and miles to walk - but the only thing you achieve is obtaining a few flares. Lara will have to buy new leather boots after this adventure." - Rüdiger

"Nice little level. Though linear in gameplay the author surely puts the static camera views to good use of which the one in the very vast area with the water pools is the best one here. Can't stress enough that these little "touches" can put a lot of drama/involvement into a level. Of course camera views are useless if you don't build some interesting architecture and/or put the textures to good use which the author does. Having seen some shots of her upcoming level it is clear that for Horus II the author only was limited by her knowledge of the editor when she made this one. Few enemies that showed up were just adequate found no secrets (are there any?) and here and there abnormalities show up (you can't grab ledges with pillars underneath - got me puzzled/stuck at one moment) that are due to imperfections of the level editor but nevertheless should be avoided when creating levels. All in all a nice in-betweenie when you don't want to get frustrated." - bERT

"This starts out as the typical Karnak level and has you searching high and low for two Guardian's keys and two canopic jars - everything being fairly simple to find though the path for the second jar was a long one. Then the excitement comes when you have to pick up and place four Guardian's keys while in a small room with Seth and then there's quite an exciting boulder trap after that. The level itself is attractive though I felt that a little more could have been done with some of the rooms. For example near the end there's a huge outdoor area that looks like there should be a lot of exploring to do but it turns out that there's only an underwater switch to pull before it's time to move on. I had a great time playing this though and really hope to see another level by this author - it's hard to believe it's someone's first!" - RaiderGirl

"This is a typical Egypt level but nice textures have been placed even fog effects water rooms the black/red baddies crocs scorpions and the demigod Horus. It is not so difficult to play because the story is straight. I noticed that the demigod shoots with parts of Lara's body maybe he intends to beat her with her own arms... ;-) And some mismatch of the hair. The designer shows us MP and Bazooka - good work. Traps like spike rolling and knifes some harpies - one of them stuck in the ceiling - poor guy couldn't come out. Music harmonized with ambience and also cameras; good view where Lara was shown from high above fighting the scorpions. 50 minutes of net gaming time." - Miguel

"With all the toing and froing in this level it seems like you do a fair few things but really there isn't much more than some levers to pull a room to flood and a quite nicely executed boulder avalanche with a clue to the safe path right in front of your eyes. The most memorable feature is the face to face meeting with Seth where 4 nearby guardian keys have to be placed into the block he stands and flies over this although a little health depleting is a very simple task. Not overly inspired to look at this 40 minutes level wasn't really to my taste and ranks in my 'played it but don't want to play it again' pile." - Sash

"Actually this level doesn't even remember the original Temple Of Horus (TR4) it's more like a Temple In Karnak level. Inside it you can see a few statues you have to search for the canopies so you can find the Seth's room which is no menace to you as you simple have to run around him and he can't move 1 square forward. He will keep firing but Lara is faster and she can get past him easily. Just use the four keys you find in the same room and proceed to the finish. I liked the boulder sequence at the end where there were a lot of boulders rolling with only one square safe. Anyway why so much ammo for a level you don't need such weaponry and also for a possible next level modify the LARA_SCREAM object as you did with her skin so Lara's head won't change when she shoots." - Treeble

"Well I liked it I have to say. Ok there were far too many pick ups and especially towards the end the gameplay was a bit uninspired with the Vraeus sitting next to the slot where you have to use it but some of the rooms were pretty awesome and you don't meet Seth every day do you? I had some trouble finding the second guardian key but everything else is indeed pretty obvious and neither demigods nor harpies pose any threat with all the fancy ammo you have in your backpack. You do quite a lot of different things but there is nothing really challenging there. Best bit for me was the avalanche of spiked boulder (only the wimp saves in between or stops running for that matter) and sneaking around Seth but I enjoyed the rest as well. There are some really nice touches like the long shot from overhead you get near the end where you can see the three black scorpions approaching but the crucial items are all placed rather listlessly and in plain sight so you don't have a real feeling of accomplishment when you finally hit the finishing trigger. And I could have done without the rocket launcher. It looked oddly out of place and was pretty useless anyway." - Dimpfelmoser

"Mr Horus' textures are lovely and very well applied. His room modelling skills are pretty good as well although they tend to largeness and my PC got a bit frightened with one of them and blacked out slightly. However Seth ought to take him aside and explain a little about gameplay. You see giving Lara 25 grenades a huge great MP3 sort-of-thing which kills giant monsters before they've even had time to gather up their energy and enough Uzi bullets to open up 'The National Uzi bullet Emporium' rather takes away the suspense factor somewhat. Still the camera work is imaginative and as I said before it all looks quite beautiful." - Orbit Dream

"The level is very simple no jump combinations no difficult puzzles everything homely. As said the puzzles are very simple one searches for a few artifacts and finds them also relatively quickly nothing is particularly well hidden. The atmosphere is bright and the textures (mainly tut1) are simply applied even if well processed. I ask myself for which I have found hundreds of flares? The sound used is standard but badly. The opponents those would have been good if Lara had not found a massive amount of ammunition. The best was Seth there I had to save several times and a health pack was also required. For beginners the level is very much suitable only the place with Seth could pose a little bit of difficulty." - Xxenofex

"In this level you can spend some rather entertaining 45 minutes without really getting stuck at any point. Lara raids the place in a sexy outfit there are guardian keys canopic jars and a vraeus to pick up and place to progress and a few ninjas demigods harpies crocodiles and scorpions to eliminate which is not much of a problem with the MP5 and rocket launcher you have. I really liked some of the fog bulb and light effects the boulder slope near the end and the room with Seth is a great highlight. On the downside the overall architecture is one of rather square rooms progression maybe a little too linear and more could have been done with sounds." - Michael

"Pretty straight forward game not much puzzling. More like a track you have to get through. The author has used all sorts of obstacles - poles ropes chopping blades poison arrows for example. Demigods and Seth himself are your enemies but you are well equipped so they're no problem except for Seth who you have to sneak by...." - G.Croft

"Although quite linear this a great level to play. I can see the author did a lot of work on it. And if this is his first well congratulations. Lara is wearing a new outfit weapons well you have to see those. At the start I found 3 pickups of flares and started to think that this would be a dark dark level. All together I got 8 pickups of flares but hardly needed them. There were some horizon problems and I encountered no bugs as such. There is much to do jumping levers pole climbing rope swinging monkeyclimbing swimming and jumping. Enemies demigods harpies scorpions some ninjas and Seth. Was it in the level or was I just plain lucky needed only two medpacks to pass Seth. Nice boulder trap at the end. And a lot to see but I didn't find any secrets don't think they were in this level. I liked it a lot and had great fun playing it. 29-05-2002" - Gerty

"Again a typical standard level with some special features not really good but also not that bad. You will get the MP5 and lots of ammo maybe too much the game is very easy. You can kill the demigods in a few seconds they are really harmless in this game. This is my main critic on this level it's too easy there is no suspense. At the end you have to put in the 4 guardian keys on all 4 sides of the block where Seth stands that's all also no problem for Lara Croft. Recommended for beginners." - Freeman Porter

"There are a lot of bugs in this level so I'll sort them out first. First of all Lara wears her outfit from South Pacific in Tomb Raider 3 (with a black top this time). She of course also has her head from Tomb Raider 3 and her ponytail looks very strange. Not when she shoots though because then her head turns into the one she usually has. All the enemies shoot parts of Lara. It looks very fun but well- It's enough that they shoot at parts of Lara. There are also some other small bugs but I won't list them here. The level is very straightforward and the gameplay is easy. You get a lot of ammunition right before you meet Seth (the second last enemy in the game) but since he is immortal there is no need to pick it up. There should have been some revolver-ammunition instead so that we could have knocked him out. The texturing is quite good and the level isn't very dark in most places (thankfully). The level ends too soon after 30 minutes. If the author would had removed all the bugs and made it harder and longer this level could have been much better. As it is now it's quite fun but doesn't really offer anything that makes it very worthwhile. I'm looking forward to the author's next level though (if he's planning to make one). I'm sure it will be much better." - Magnus

"Rather a basic level with one or two plus points of metal walk ways in an Egyptian level and the MP3. On weapons the author provided a rocket launcher and lots of dud rockets and loads of uzi ammo but no uzis WHY? The graphics was standard except the unusual coffin gateways at the end. The end in fact was rather a let down after escaping Horus which was rather easy (hiding behind the blocks) and the last demigod could just be ignored. All in all 20 minutes spent on a wet Thursday afternoon." - Whistle

"There were no puzzles to speak of mainly consisted of a few levers to open your exit to the next area. I don't see how you could ever get stuck in this level as it was so straightforward. It was nice to see Seth again but he was so easy to avoid due to him being trapped in the middle of the room. You will pick up some very handy weapons on your travels but I only used the pistols for most of it. There are some good lighting effects but way too bright for my liking. This is a nice level for the beginner." - Jason

"Short but nice. Taking place in a non usual temple meaning the Egyptian element is present but not an exact copy the player collects puzzle items to reach the end guardian keys canopic jars and a vraeus. I can't say it's difficult but one spike ball trap coming down as you step each row is quite interesting. The enemies have a problem though the demigod in the room with one canopic jar is far enough to not harm Lara but close enough for her to kill him without a problem. Most of all you do have to pull a few levers and jump switches with one of the above flooding a room and allowing you to pick up the second canopic jar. Lara is from TR3 if I am not mistaken and you do get the MP5 and the rocket launcher. Now as the ammo were too much for both near the end I was prepared for a battle but no such luck just another demigod and our friend from the last level of TR4. Finally after a big earthquake Lara is home free." - Kristina

"This level really disappointed me since I hoped to see the textures from the original ToH I wanted to see a variety for the scale puzzles a superb setting the light beam everything just as interesting as the original level which I loved very much (to play). But all I get is a small level with not so much to do some bugs... well I said I was very disappointed. This is not a bad level and I liked it near the ending but this really isn't anything you should have for your collection (unless there's a sequel). But to not let the author down with saying that his level isn't that good I'll explain all the "+" and "-" for the level. First the pluses. The weapons were nice and this was really a nice change from all the original ones and that's something the author shouldn't change for his/her next level. I also liked that there was a lot of symmetry used for making the level. There were some nice effects like the semi-transparent texture from the Library texture set the nice 'puzzle' with the rolling balls after Seth I liked that you have to sneak past Seth in a quite small room. But that's about all here comes the 'minus' part. Let's start with the weapons again the MP5 is quite useful but I've got no idea what for the Rocket Launcher was added in the level and with such amounts of ammo! As long as I remember after the rocket launcher pickup there was only one demigod that was taken away in seconds with the MP5. Don't know why the author put so much ammo before the battle of Seth cause Seth is immortal as far as I know. And while talking about ammo doesn't 'rocket launcher explosive ammo' sound silly? Isn't it possible to name ammo more 'logically'? I think a rocket that doesn't explode is 'damaged' not 'normal'. As I said I disliked that there were used the Karnak textures instead of the Temple of Horus ones it's temple of HORUS after all and it isn't impossible to ask someone or get the textures by yourself now. I also didn't like that the waterfalls came from 'nothing'. The great camera view showed a bit too much too. You could see 'the end of the world' with the help of this that sometimes can get really annoying. I also didn't like that there were so many Horus' statues. One would have been more than enough there are other guardian types too you know why make too many copies of the original Horus? The 'battle' with Seth could have been more threatening too it could have been more challenging to get those guardian keys and Seth shouldn't have been imprisoned on the pedestal he was standing. Of course he must've been blocked from escaping that room and getting on the pedestals with the keys but not like I said he was. There were some bugs like when exiting the Seth room Lara screamed but fell in shallow water like nothing happened but maybe it was just a well disguised. There's also a bug in the room with the Canopic Jar 2 when you get on the Demigods platform and try to look around the screen will turn black sometimes. As far as I know that bug has to do with something of the projects placement but it's nothing impossible to fix. Sad this could have been a great level too bad all these things spoiled the rating. Better luck next time Horus..." - eTux