Level reviews

"There are beginner's levels, and there are beginner's levels. There are Catacomb Towers, Tomb Raider Exploration and their ilk, which aren't half bad; and there are offerings like this one, which are. And not just half, it has to be said. It appears to bear all the hallmarks of a very young person's first foray into the world of levelbuilding, but appearances can be deceiving. The readme testifies to a level of literacy that is beyond the grasp of this hypothetical very young person; indeed, it verges on the bureaucratic (it lays down - rules for the subject line' in the event you want to e-mail the builder and specifies the time frame during which you may expect a response). It includes a walkthrough which specifies the actions the player has to undertake in order to get out of the flyby camera loops and apologises for the fact that the two levels of which this game (rather unaccountably) consists aren't properly linked in the script; the latter perhaps surprising, given the fact that they are no.s 1 and 2 of an eleven-part series, which, of course, never materialised (even though the readme states that eight of the eleven parts were finished at the time of writing) - yet, one has to add, as the builder appears to be still operating at the Levelbase, albeit under a different name. Whether that change of name implies that the builder disowns the work he published prior to it, I couldn't say; but that work gives him reasons aplenty to do so." - Mulf

"Here you have two tiny levels that are not linked due to "technical issues" which pretty much describes both of them. There are annoying cut scenes that continually play when you step on certain tiles and IF you do not go the way the author intended other, crucial elements to not deploy at all so you end up running around like a headless chook. No finish trigger, paper thin floors etc. Most annoying level I have played in a while I'm sorry." - Torry

"Here you'll find all the possible defects you should wait in a debut like this (I' not going to bother you describing them); you'll only need to play the first level to suppose you'll find in the second one. And yes, the second level is better worked, but still with all that defects and not interesting tasks, so it's your choice but if you take a try, don't forget to pick up the first piece of the Eye you can see through the grated door or you'll not be able to finish the level." - Jose

"Well, this is really bad, but I had to chuckle at the plastered nose textures on the exterior of Cheops' pyramid. Everything else is simply debut- like. Extremely stretched textures, irritating looping flyby sequences, spikes triggering out of thin air and no finish trigger. Not really recommended." - Ryan

"Pretty much your standard tick-all-the-boxes debut level. Stretched and repetitive texturing, non-existent lighting, boring gameplay, flat atmosphere, empty boxy environments... there are literally no redeeming qualities present here in the slightest. And with camerashots that are difficult to escape from, this simply feels like another one of those releases that was let out the door far, far earlier than it really should have. Not recommended." - Ceamonks890

"The majority of time is wasted here because of looped cameras very hard to break from (basically no single one works properly). There's also a useless switch, a pushable which does nothing, a monkey swing which can be skipped and a room which becomes a dead end if visited too early. It could all last for five minutes yet the flaws mentioned slow it down to ten. Sound usage is quite interesting but the enemies make no sense, though somehow their appearance from thin air stopped to bother me a long time ago. I also noticed some experiments with spike OCBs and a combined puzzle must be searched for so at least it's clear some effort has been made. SUMMARY: A very troubling one yet still not too long even with bugs encountered. Touch on Your own responsibility." - DJ Full

"It's not quite the worst level set I've played,but it certainly ranks very low.Treeble has pretty much described everything that there is to say about this;although I'd also mention the incorrect OCB's for the spike traps,which clearly were of no concern to the builder;and the ingeniously ineffective monkey-swing over the flame trap,which you could simply run past.Nonetheless,there has at least been an attempt at developing the usual 'lost temple' storyline;the ninja's were entertaining enough;and it's all worth a chuckle." - Orbit Dream

"It's rather surprising how there are two independent levels when they're both so short and empty. In the first one, you have a blocky pyramid in a huge box and hardly anything else other than a lever and a pond that holds no interest. In the second, you actually have a little gameplay but every beginner's mistake is there: wafer thin walls, looping cameras, stretched textures, wallpaper effect, boxy and empty rooms, monkey swings that don't work, no finish triggers, etc. There's also a room with four pushables that I believe have no effect at all, but either way I did spend a minute or two pushing them to what would seem their correct places. 10 minutes, 1 secret. 11/08" - Treeble

"I have been to this pyramid and it did not look anything like this. In fact Cheops himself would have turned in his grave if he had seen what they've done to his final resting place. Here we have a level that, just like everyone has said before me, should never have been allowed to see the light of day in its current state. Luckily it only consisted of two levels, one shorter than the other and altogether about 15-18 minutes of gameplay. We are faced with all the worst trademarks of a new builder: paper-thin walls, inverted spikes that cause no harm whatsoever, being attacked by a ninja even before the level has started thus having lost half your health before you get to draw guns, enemies(ninjas and mummies) that pop out of thin air, overused textures stretched beyond my wildest beliefs, monkeyswings that don't lead anywhere, fly-by's running in the most annoying loops ever, no transition between the two levels, no finishing triggers in either of them, levers that appearantly do not trigger anything, an eye piece gone missing etc. I haven't seen anything of the sequel the builder spoke about, but if we ever do let's hope it will be a massive improvement from this. Despite of its short length you won't miss anything if you decide not to play it." - Selene

"Apparently Cheops had a nose fetish, because his pyramid is covered with them. I thought that idea was appealing simply because it was so weird. It was also my favourite thing about these two levels, which is kind of sad when you think about it. I'd discuss all the bad things in the levels in detail, but you should know the drill by now - if a level has a rating as low as this one, you can expect stretched textures, huge rooms, no finish trigger and so on. Overall, when I finished these levels after only eight minutes, I was glad they were over. That's never a good sign." - Magnus

"Two terrible levels that demonstrate that the author has maybe read a part of the manual (he knows how to make a climbable wall or even flipmap rooms) but not built the tutorial level to learn enough from practising in order to come up with a decent playable level. Stretched or repetitive textures, absence of lighting (it is not so much time consuming to make an acceptable lighting), fly-bys triggered without the one-shot button, switch triggers not working properly, level jump not working, water not blue, spikes that pop up the wrong way, and so on. For some other flaws, rooms too high, or puzzles which do not seem to have logic (although for the latter it is probably due to triggers that are not placed where they should) it is not clearly explained in the manual how to avoid them but with a bit of common sense. To the author, I would give the advice to recreate the tutorial level before releasing another level. It is a pity, because in the Pyramid of Cheops there was a potential storyline that never saw the light of day." - eRIC

"Clearly a first from this author with quite a lot of beginner mistakes. Paperthin walls endless loops of the flyby you can get out off but they are annoying nevertheless. A shame that there is no level jumping or finishing trigger. The author says so in the readme but I hope he will learn for the future. 06-11-2004" - Gerty

"I just re-read the reviews by Jay Kristina and Sash and really the ladies have said it all. Maybe this was a bit of a too early release for a debut level and the author needs a bit more time and patience and read the manual a little more closely but then I am sure we will be seeing better work in the future. The casual player may want to stay clear of this one as it is more frustrating than fun mainly due to those camera loops." - Michael

"TR1 style Egypt this time but with ninjas and somewhat odd flybys (most of which keep repeating themselves unless you leap about like a mad thing to break the sequence). Kill three ninjas throw a lever jump in a water hole and then enter the pyramid. That's it for the first part. There isn't a finishing trigger so you have to access the second part from the menu. It's much the same including more flybys that just don't know when to quit and no finishing trigger. This is all too obviously the work of an inexperienced builder with the usual hallmarks -stretched textures wafer thin walls - you know the drill. The author has planned quite a lengthy series however so let's hope for a steep learning curve." - Jay

"Oh gawd I'm gonna have to be awful and say these two levels the first 5 minutes and the second 10 minutes were pretty terrible. They have all the things you don't want in a level camera triggers that play over and over again if you don't move stretched textures thin walls useless inclusions like stairways and monkey swings that go nowhere and no end triggers. The first you play outside and have to get under the pyramid this wasn't helped by the fact that the lever that supposedly floods a pit didn't do so but if you stood on the tile next to the lever then you got water. When you do get under the pyramid you are faced with nothing but dead ends and a couple of falling boulders so I assumed this was were the next level would load if they had been a joined entity. The second level was just as bad and I was left wondering what that monkey swing at the top of the stairs was for if I pushed the 4 movable statues onto the marked tiles would it do anything why is that seemingly useless monkey swing over the pool what was the point of that pool anyway as I didn't have to go through it to get back to the place I needed to be where did the two mummies and one ninja come from before they just popped out in front of me out of thin air and why am I playing this game. Frankly the only upside to these levels is that the download is small. I'm sorry if the author reads this as I know you put energy into building these levels but you know what they always say 'everybody's gotta start somewhere'!" - Sash

"Clearly a first try with two very short levels. The first one lasted four minutes and had two ninjas to kill and a lever to push. There's no finishing trigger so after you drop in the hall load the second part. In this level there are many bugs stretched textures a huge empty area and if you don't turn around after using the lever to watch a flyby a bug will prevent the bigger hole to get filled with water. The second part is longer than the first but again with many bugs stretched textures big empty rooms and the flybys are annoying in both parts because they keep looping. I didn't see what the point was of monkey swinging near the end since Lara could just walk to the other side. Also the room with the pool and blocks to climb to get back at one point was unnecessary again because Lara could use the new door that opened. There was only one puzzle the Eye of Horus and some mummies ninjas but this needs a lot of work. I hope the next parts the author promises will be bug free. I found one secret which was necessary anyway because one piece of the Eye was included." - Kristina