| Reviewer's comments |
"I was getting such a sense of déjà vu playing this that I went to check whether I had already reviewed it. I hadn’t, but on reading some comments I realised that it was in essence a retread of the builder’s debut level, with a minor alteration. OK, nice to know I’m not losing it completely, but I’m not sure about the whole point! Still an enjoyable level, but if you play one then you really don’t need to play the other." - Jay (15-Feb-2020) |
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| "Short, but quite intense while it lasts.
This is apparently a revision of another
level (Element of Xiang) by this builder,
but I haven't yet played that so I'll just
base this review on what I've played.
There's no real puzzles to get your brain
in gear, but there's a few traps, rope
swings, some swimming and a tricky battle
against a dragon. The textures and
lighting are fine, but there is a few
stretched textures around. A lot of these
sequences might have been tricky on first
release, but can now be solved pretty
easily." - Ryan (04-Feb-2018) |
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| "This is a short but pleasant 30-minute level that's fairly linear with no major surprises. Avoiding the traps and enemies is not particularly difficult, and the lighting is good throughout. The final battle with the dragon at the end was well done. There was a lot of jabber I couldn't understand, so I deleted all sound files that weren't part of the classic game. Harry Laudie has documented three secrets in his walkthrough, all of which were fairly easy to find. The rope challenge in the trench area was a breeze. Since the water wasn't deadly, you could simply jump up to grab the last rope in a given sequence and easily reach your destination. Deeper or more hazardous water would have prevented that. I'm not sure there were any clues in the 7-switch room. Only one switch was necessary for progression; the others either released ahmets or led to various pickups. The level ends rather unceremoniously when you reach a brightly-lit room." - Phil (30-Aug-2016) |
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| "When I began to play I could see some familiar areas. And I wasn't mistaken. This level is exactly the same than the first level from this author; only a single room added at the very end after you get the gem. So, not woth to play if you've already played "Element of Xiang". That way, the comments for this level are exactly the same from that one if you want to read them. I'll never understand the reason why a builder releases twice the same level." - Jose (16-Aug-2016) |
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| "I accidently and somewhat magically stumbled upon the
Screenfun levels as I clicked on a setup.exe from
Salzferkel's "Hamunaptra" and this levelset loaded, even if
I haven't installed it before. This level was the first of
the mentioned levelset and it rather felt like a training
level for beginners as many explanations for the different
moves are included and there weren't any hard tasks except
maybe escaping from the big dragon near the end. The setting
was a mixture of TR 1 and TR2 which worked nice but
texturing wasn't very professional - there were many
streched and squeezed ones. Some nice trap sequences as two
successive movable walls or rebuilt boulders here, and three
not too hard but also not too easy to find secrets. Else
than that this level felt pretty boring as there were tons
of levers to pull to open the door to a lever - you know.
Still it was all in all a nice start for the level
compilation that ended with a surpise - in Lara's mansion
after just 20 minutes." - manarch2 (21-Jan-2012) |
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| "Very similar to the Element of Xiang level. But this one seems a lot shorter. It's an interesting little level and visually pleasing with all those rich textures and objects, like the huge dragon heads, green tiles and red walls. The bear pit is still a mystery; poor fellow stuck in that dark place. There are still a fair amount of things to do here, in the form of finding many switches, above and below water, huge rotating blades, monkeyswing over spike corridor, the row of three ropes to swing on, drills to pass, spikey boulder gauntlet, room of doors to choose, and the encounter with the dragon. And it's still extremely dark, which lends to the atmosphere, but hard on the eyes at times. We're here to steal the red artefact and run a gauntlet to escape. All of a sudden Lara is back home. So was she dreaming?" - CC (12-Nov-2007) |
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| "It's been a while since I played 'Element of Xiang' (of which this is supposed to be a copy)so the Gameplay seemed quite fresh to me,and great fun it was to. It won't take you more than 25 minutes,but you'll not be bored once.If it isn't the nasty Dragon keeping you occupied it's the adrenaline-inducing spiked walls,the rolling blades,the mutants,the rope-swings,the squishy traps.There's even some German bird who keeps talking you every so often. Great fun.And,would you believe it,Lara was in her home all along!" - Orbit Dream (04-Mar-2007) |
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| "As others have said this is just a lite-edition of 'Element of Xiang'. Easier in some bits lighter in the surroundings but practically all the same and personally I prefer Element of Xiang much more to this one. The ending was rather good though - so maybe Element of Xiang + the ending of the Silent death would've been the perfect level in this case. The ending makes you wonder if all this was merely a simulation (demo) of a real thing yet to come but I guess not. Not many improvements from the original if any at all so I'd suggest to play EoX instead." - eTux (01-Dec-2003) |
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| "I've played 'Element Of Xiang' a couple of weeks ago and as I read the reviews for this level earlier I knew what to expect but I think the level is a bit different from what it looked originally. Right at the beginning the maze seems to be pickup-less this time. I am not sure about this but I think there was a trapdoor you had to activate to get access to the central area with the four gates - I can't remember it exactly now. And in the end there was a new room added which probably means that this level was just the new training level of Lara's House however this one had a wafer thin wall. There are several new audio files with the level and they're Lara giving instructions on how to do this and that but in German. Quite easy and it is not going to take more than 20 minutes anyway." - Treeble (14-Feb-2003) |
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| "I am sure that everyone that played the first level of the author noticed the similarities or should I say that this level is a copy of the 'Element of Xiang'. For some reason it seemed shorter though and that it was missing a part or maybe it was because I recently played 'Element of Xiang' so I got through this one in no time. The textures are interesting but the underwater maze still got me frustrated because of the darkness. There are minor changes like in the room with the ropes instead of lava there is water. It doesn't have any puzzles or many enemies. If you played the level mentioned above don't expect to see anything different here." - Kristina (07-Feb-2003) |
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| "With some very insubstantial differences this is just a rehash of 'Element of Xiang' so to bore you no further you can find my review right there." - Sash (04-Feb-2003) |
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| "I thought this level was quite good even if it did basically copy an original but there were sufficient differences in my opinion to keep it entertaining. Plus the fact (for us non European residents) you finally get to hear Lara in German it is a nice novelty as she goes through the basic instructions on how to handle her. Although that may be an oxymoron as does anyone really know how to handle a woman?" - Torry (22-Jan-2003) |
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| "I gathered this was a sort of tutorial level quite funny because when Lara started yapping on to do this and that (not that my German's any good only understood a bit) I nearly fell off my seat in fright. Hence this is quite an easy level with few traps yet I thought they were well placed and quite liked the large drill bits coming out of the walls as well as the rotating blades in the water. Lara's outfit was nice based on the movie Lara even down to the skull belt buckle. I do think that Lexx has a good eye for designing rooms like the shape of the rope room for example (though the ropes seemed a bit pointless you could just jump up to them from the water) and I liked the squeaky cogs...felt a bit sad killing the bear and thought I was hearing things when the bear squealed like a stuck pig LOL. The textures though a bit stretched in some places was not bad incorporating the textures from the Tibetan levels but there seemed to be a lack of objects which made the rooms look a bit bare. Apart from the traps and picking up one crossbow too many then a guardian key there didn't seem to be much else to the gameplay. And I had all that ammo but hardly any enemies to waste it on. I haven't played Lexx' other levels so there's no basis for comparison as yet. Not a bad level for a beginner but the gameplay could be made more challenging." - Litepulsar (22-Dec-2002) |
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| "Even though this is a remake of an already released level I thought it was nice to have the first level on the CD an easier one with a few instructions on Lara's actions for the people who bought the magazine that had never played Tomb Raider before. Plus the voice is in a sexy German accent that is a real pleasure to listen to. If you've played 'Element of Xiang' you already know what to expect and if not you're in for a real treat with great rope swings sliding block and spiked wall traps poisonous darts an underwater maze rolling boulders a big underwater blade and a deadly dragon - all in a beautiful oriental style environment." - RaiderGirl (21-Dec-2002) |
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| "Well what a disappointment the original was so very much better! Twenty minutes to get through some very simple traps and do all the things we did in 'Element of Xiang' plus I really HATE it when Lara swings through stone walls." - Momster (10-Dec-2002) |
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| "Pretty much the same as the Element adventure with added advice and subtracted dragon. Is this the official German Voice of Lara? She sounds slightly drunk doesn't she; and a bit miffed at that. I wish she would do it in English cause I like the way Lara pronounces 'action'. Or that they could have persuaded Rio to show you the ropes. She has such a sexy voice. Speaking of ropes notable here is that you get no advice how to do the ropeswing when this is the only action that I didn't find self-explanatory. So what else is there to say? For general information please check my review of 'Element of Xiang'. I decreased my ratings as this is only a copy of the author's first level." - Dimpfelmoser (08-Dec-2002) |
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| "The first level you can play from the Screen Bravo CD starts off by explaining what moves you do where sort of tutorial. If it was me I wouldn't have made this level that hard just to entice more people to play Tomb Raider. If I were a novice and learning to get a feeling for Tomb Raider during this first level I would hang this CD with the other rejects I have into my Christmas tree. Don't get me wrong I finished this level as I am no novice and I felt sorry for the bear the minute I shot it and he died with a boars squeal that had me laughing. Here is a dragon I like as you can see the fireballs he spits at Lara so those are easier to outrun. Another story are the locusts pesky things. The earthquake made me feel a bit queasy but they seem to do that. 04-12-2002" - Gerty (05-Dec-2002) |
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| "Being the first level in the temporarily exclusive Screen Bravo magazine bunch of levels it seems this one was made to make the novice player accustomed to the settings/buttons. There's a German female voice helping you to get to grips with it. The level is short but nevertheless entertaining. There's a bit of swimming in dark areas some lever pulling around the big turning blade with the little turning blades running around the insect/fireballs spitting dragon (introduction of the dragon is well done) some rope swinging and successive long corridors with moving spiked walls. The red rooms are well textured but in others stretched textures do turn up. The rope swinging makes Lara go through rock solid structures and the cameras are just too long or slow. Found one secret (skull) that was way too easy. All in all a not annoying in-betweenie. But who plundered Lara's house..." - bERT (01-Dec-2002) |
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| "This is by and large a copy of 'Element of Xiang' and in fact the original title suits it much better. The only differences I noticed were the added 'training sounds' a small detour to explain the jumps (to the 2nd crossbow) a squishing block near the end and much easier rope swings as the lava was replaced by water. I would suggest that - if in doubt - you should play the 'original'." - Michael (26-Nov-2002) |
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