Level: The lost Streets of Cairo Author(s): Asse Pedro total rating: 6.42 Gameplay & Puzzles Enemies, Objects & Secrets Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras Lighting & Textures CC 7 6 6 6 Dimpfelmoser 7 5 7 6 Drew 7 8 8 7 eRIC 6 7 7 6 Gerty 7 6 7 7 Jay 7 6 8 7 Jose 6 5 6 7 Kristina 7 7 7 7 Leandro 6 5 6 7 Magnus 6 6 6 5 MichaelP 7 6 6 7 Momster 5 5 6 5 Monika 7 7 8 7 Necro 6 6 6 8 Orbit Dream 7 7 9 7 Phil 7 7 8 7 RaiderGirl 7 6 8 7 Ryan 7 6 7 7 Sash 5 5 6 5 Sheevah 4 5 6 6 The Aussie Adventurer 5 4 4 4 Tombaholic 6 6 7 5 Torry 7 7 8 6 Treeble 6 6 8 7 vienna 7 7 7 7 category averages (25 reviews) 6.36 6.04 6.88 6.40 Reviewer's comments "This is a reasonably entertaining city level with all the usual aspects firmly in place, although Lara does at least find the always valuable card that makes the sentry guns ignore her. There's a bit of motorbike riding and some fun flooding and draining action. Guards are of course in evidence, but the shotgun turns up early on in the proceedings and in any case quite a few enemies can be run over by the bike (always fun). Not bad and the city atmosphere is always effective." - Jay (25-Oct-2018) "A city level that is fairly action-packed and entertaining to make your way through. These types of levels have a tendency to be rife with guards and machine guns and this is no exception, but they are not used in an unfair manner and you do find the shotgun early on. The lighting is quite dark, but not irritatingly so and it fits the spooky environment. The gameplay highlights were the bike ride and the flooding/draining puzzle. It took me 30 minutes to complete." - Ryan (10-Dec-2017) "This is a solid level with much to commend it. It's a nighttime raid, which means it's dark in places, but the darkness fits the mood and the need for a flare is only occasional. There's some nice use of the motorbike, including running over the many SAS you encounter here. The puzzles are well thought out, including the need to drain the fire tile room once again after you've flooded it and done your thing. The three armor pieces are essential, as picking them up performs an important task. Sash asked in her review where the streets were. Well, apparently they're still lost. Yoav's walkthrough is clear and complete. At 35 minutes the level is a bit short, but it's still a worthwhile download." - Phil (26-Mar-2017) "Very nice and average level. I liked levels atmosphere. Gameplay is quite clear and I didnt need guide to finish this level. Enemies are quite one-sided. The level is enjoyable and recommendable for players which like 30 min level." - vienna (03-Oct-2016) "Easy to play this city level with no much backtracking. You'll need to pick up the armour pieces in order to advance; I thought I should pick up all five pieces but finally only got three. The level is well textured, but very dark too; the rooms are empty and poor ornated; enemies are only soldiers and I found enough ammo for the shotgun, besides all I killed with the bike. The puzzle filling/drying the pool was the only one I found, but the level is enjoyable anyway." - Jose (17-Jul-2016) "An absorbing little adventure (33 minutes) built with the city of the dead materials , with many SAS in some places but there is also places more 'peaceful', and you have enough medipacks and the shotgun. The setting while far from being brilliant is quite solid , the atmosphere is there, and the flow is fluent, with flipmaps and the like , simple enough but effective to have a good time playing." - eRIC (22-Jul-2009) "Not sure where the title comes from as I dont remember Cairo looking like this. It's more of a slight twist on The City of the Dead. However, if I recall, my level "Streets of Venice" looked nothing like Venice so i can't comment on that. The level itself was very well designed and there were a few puzzles that kept me busy for a while but nothing really challenging. Not s bad effort but I'm sure there may be more better things from this author." - Necro (23-Nov-2007) "Here we have a city level consisting of bad guys who want Lara's blood. Level design and layout is good, but is still has the newbie aspect to it. Sound in this level is probably the best quality the game has. Enemies are easily dispatched and are randomly placed. Puzzles are quite good if only there were better looking and designed a little bit better. Overall, pretty good, but still a bit ordinary. If I had to give this level a grade I would give it a D+, a fail mark." - The Aussie Adventurer (18-May-2005) "An okay level that doesn't stand out in any way. SAS-guards a motorcycle - in fact most of the things you would expect from a level using the city-wad. The texturing is okay the lighting isn't very special (and like most city-levels it's too dark). There are a lot of SAS-guards but there's enough Medipacks so they don't pose any real threat (especially not when you can run them over with the motorcycle). There are some levers to push some doors to open and a lot of SAS-guards to kill and it can all be done in between 15 and 20 minutes." - Magnus (29-Jan-2004) "Cairo! Russia/City of the Dead you mean. And Streets! They were so lost Asse Pedro couldn't even recreate them! Whatever this is a nice little level and I laughed so much when 'It's Raining Men' blasted out. And appropriately so as there are men all over the place in this city men in uniform that is. Great fun driving that bike around the city too. Some areas look extremely odd almost like Asse planned his route out before creating the rooms. Some interesting draining and flooding of rooms a nice little jump sequence on slopes a LOT of pull down trapdoors and switches - so keep looking UP and remember there's a switch that needs to be pulled twice. I suppose the big idea here is finding armour pieces and the Weapons Code card to deactivate the machine guns. And that last run on the bike was interesting because of the fixed camera. Good fun." - CC (08-Aug-2003) "I was expecting to see streets and Egypt judging from the title but I saw a level built with the city WAD. Rather dark and with not many puzzles. The only thing to do is push levers and flip jump switches and the interesting part is the rooms with the burning water and floor one must be flooded to be able to access another area. Of course to do you must push a lever twice. The SAS guards were many and neither the bike nor the shotgun helped much for their elimination. A toxic pool must be cleared to proceed in the level and there are three pieces of the armor to collect. Not an adventurous level in my opinion." - Kristina (07-Feb-2003) "Using the standard city wad this level gives you an entertaining adventure and if you loved those gloomy levels in The Last Revelation this one will please you. Lara's quest is the armor of Horus however you will only find three pieces and in the end of the level you still have a card in your backpack which makes me think about a sequel and I would love to see it! Also I gave an extra point to the sounds criterion because for sure I wasn't expecting THAT song in this level! LOL it made me laugh sometimes a sense of humor in these gloomy levels are very good you see. ;)" - Treeble (21-Dec-2002) "The others have pretty much explained the concept of this 25 minute old style city level. There's SAS the bike and 3 pieces of armour to be found. The gaming revolves around water turning unhealthy to healthy and filling and emptying a room of it which for me didn't grab the attention like it seems it did the other reviewers. What I thought was badly used was the 'It's Raining Men' lever as you find and pull it after killing some men and then when you throw it and the song comes on you expect to walk out of the room it's in and be confronted with another barrage of men but there is not a one to be found most definitely this area should have been empty beforehand and after you switch the lever they then are triggered to appear. Okay I know this may be pedantic but before I end this review of a level that isn't bad just not very enthralling I just want to know where the hell were the streets!?!" - Sash (13-Dec-2002) "This wasn't bad as city levels go. The usual blood letting numerous guards a motorbike ride and some unique switch pulling. It took me about 20 minutes to find 3 pieces of armour think that was all there was?" - Momster (29-Nov-2002) "A rather typical city type level of around 35 minutes that actually stands out from the crowd due to some rather simple but clever lever puzzles. The motorbike features as well but is only needed in the beginning to get to the central area where all the action branches off from and lastly to exit the level. Being a city level naturally there is still a whole heap of killing to keep the bloodlust sated." - Torry (01-Oct-2002) "Short level by Asse Pedro. I like the 'Rainin Men' audio lever (085.wav) best of all! Could have made it longer :) but nah that'll add on to the size of the download. Just a minimal criticism here: I'm not really a big fan of the double purpose switch/lever. There's one part where if you throw the lever nothing happens 'coz it's supposed to flood a room so you gotta pull another lever first to enclose the room with a block. Good thing the author used a 'Lara look' technique to tell us to throw the lever again. But that can confuse just the same. If you miss the 'look' you'd never think of throwing that lever again. Besides you never know what that lever does 'coz it's one of those without a camera. There's another dual drop down switch from a shimmy. When you drop from the gap and if you completely miss grabbing the switch the water turns safe just the same after a few steps. Then if you jump on that switch the water turns deadly again. Then safe again after walking a bit. So I never did get to see the purpose of that switch. Those are just minor observations though. All in all for a city level (almost everything in here is straight from that the original city) this is really quite interesting. One more note: I had to download the revised city wads in order to enable Lara's monkey swinging and climbing animation. My original wad just never let her; she goes right into the ladders! In that respect it was a learning experience for me too." - Drew Pizza (05-Sep-2002) "City WAD and a motorbike not my favorite but after playing this level I have to say that I had a great time. Luckily my monitor was still on bright but the City WAD is dark. Be sure to put the revised City .SWD and City.WAD also into the Map folder. The beginning can put you off as you get shot by 2 SAS men and one who only launches grenades at Lara and they won't hurt. You do need that bike so park it in a convenient way as there are some jumps to make and a wall to drive through. The gameplay is fluent as long as you use your eyes. So enemies are SAS men a bit too many for my taste. But you'll find the shotgun and enough ammo and medpacks along the way. I had a big smile listening to the music great surprise. Nice is the 'look' Lara has so you now you have to do something there. Picking up the pieces of armor will trigger something else. There are 3 pieces to pick up. 29-07-2002" - Gerty (11-Aug-2002) "A typical city level of the city-of-the-dead-style. There are SAS guards sentry guns and the typical city textures too. The only weapon I found was the shotgun. Lara has to collect pieces of armor but I found only three I don't know if there are some more. There is one easy fire/water room puzzle besides this there were only switches for opening doors. All in all nothing spectacular but you may give it a try." - Sheevah (11-Aug-2002) "Now this was such a relief for me as I happened to play it after a rather tough level series and here I could simply zoom through the level without getting stuck anywhere. As said by all the other reviewers it is kind of standard City WAD stuff and the 20 SAS were maybe a few too many for a 30 minutes adventure (although you know they will come when you hit the 'jukebox lever' - a nice touch) but still I thought the texturing worked out ok and the architecture seems believable. What I found most remarkable was an excellent use of a camera target which leads you to pulling that switch a second time - very well done." - Michael (16-Jul-2002) "Another dark city level but it manages to be different enough to be interesting. Your objective is to break in steal a few pieces of the armour and then open the exit gate to escape. Along the way there's a small bike jump a lot of switches and doors soldiers everywhere deadly water some trapdoors and a few jumps to make and make sure you find the Weapon Code key or you'll have a hard time getting by the machine guns. As you can guess there's nothing radically different here than you'd expect (except for that switch that plays a very unexpected song) but it still manages to give you an entertaining half hour of raiding." - RaiderGirl (16-Jul-2002) "This is a City Level. You meet plenty of SAS and you will have a motorbike to ride. Just after the start Lara lost very fast so much health that I thought she will never make it. But that was not so and the author supplies enough medi-packs to get you through. You will find a Weapon Code Key the Right and Left Gauntlet and the Breastplate. I never had to use any of them and they are most probably souvenirs for Lara's Home. There is a part where you have to go back to the same switch just to fill a room with water and then drain it again. Some fluid is at a time deadly and later on just plain water. I drove the bike around just for fun since there is enough space for that. Otherwise the rides are easy to do. When I pushed one switch as a nice surprise there came music instead of opening something. I didn't find it a difficult level but I quite enjoyed playing it. It took me about 40 minutes to finish the level." - Monika (21-Jun-2002) "Not how I imagined Cairo to look like. I feared something more in the tradition of the old Egypt style but I guess the City Wad is a dead giveaway. Alright I lost so much health in the first minute that I thought that this was going to be another Little City type of level. Fortunately not. I liked this a great deal. Hard to explain really cause there is nothing too inventive or spectacular about the whole adventure but I think that everything fits together so nicely and there is some kind of idea a concept that works quite well for the time this lasts. The use of the motorbike the fluent gameplay that will let you pass areas twice and manages to incorporate the levers into some kind of puzzles. The atmosphere the textures the enemies; nothing extraordinary there; but it all makes sense somehow and doesn't seem contrived. Truth be told I found it a bit illogical that when you pick up one piece of armour the deadly pool should become completely healthy just like that but I let it pass this time. The nice jukebox lever makes up for it. Highly recommended." - Dimpfelmoser (21-Jun-2002) "A couple nice twists save this short (30 minutes) level from falling into the 'completely ordinary' category. Many players may not get the significance of the explosives card unless you try to avoid engaging the first SAS guards in gunplay. In fact it's impossible to progress without it. The surprise audio was good for a smile - an oblique reference to the number of SAS encountered in the level? Finally there's a nicely conceived little puzzle involving some levers flooding a room etc. Atmosphere? Well it's the city WAD so you know what to expect although it's put to reasonably good use here. Overall I enjoyed the level more than the rating may imply but there's just not enough here to justify anything higher." - Tombaholic (21-Jun-2002) "This level is quite similar to The City of the Dead (TR4) and also use the same WAD. I would be lying if I say that it's a bad level because it isn't: the puzzles are average but the graphics is very nice and the gameplay isn't boring. But I wouldn't recommend this level for a download because you have already played more than a hundred of fan levels that have this style. So I think you could download something else a little more different." - Leandro (21-Jun-2002) "Here's a city level that really tries hard and you have to give the builder credit for that. The darkness hinders the gameplay a little (or perhaps that's an asset?) as it's sometimes difficult to see switches and doorways clearly; but on the whole there is a good progression to this 50 minutes level which made it enjoyable. The puzzles tried hard to be original although the consequences of some of the switch pulling became a little confusing. Full marks also to the hilarious audio joke!" - Orbit Dream (21-Jun-2002)