Level reviews

"I am sorry, but what a waste of time. Kudos for the author's ambition to build not one, but seven levels, but they should have instead focused on just one single level and made something worthwhile out of it. You know how some tricks get old really fast? Well, all these seven levels are littered with walkthrough walls and floors, unmarked and obnoxiously long climbable walls, pointless darkness (I mean, at least placing those light and shadow bulbs took more effort than the seemingly random geometry and texturization). On top of that, level jumps are all wrong and will often take you back to level 2, but you can use the standard level skip code to move further down the level entries in the script (except for level 5 which downright crashes the game, in that case, levelskip just after placing the Eye of Horus). Not sure why you should bother, however, and I only did so because I am intent on wrapping up my 2004 raidlist. 55 minutes. 07/21" - Treeble

"I only played as far as the second level as I had seen enough. Having to fool around with the scripts was just too much hassle. I know reviews require the player to play the full thing before submitting it, but I couldn't in this instance. It just failed miserably." - Ryan

"This is weird. The author was surely capable of leading quite complex paths requiring various moves to find combined items usable in proper places of climax. But while these separate segments make some sense, their connection into correctly progressing storyline execution completely fails, and this includes both the damaged leveljumps and total divergence of particular level themes despite of the whole thing supposed to take place in Australia, and actually the texturing is of all kinds BUT the Pacific. And even with these various patterns used, each place feels similarly random and insignificant, so the game feels like if beginning, lasting and ending in no particular location. But I stopped to care about any atmosphere consistency when I stood in front of the huge amount of walkthrough walls and floors. In certain parts of the game there are so many of them that I eventually started to expect them to appear (a point for the builder), and soon I found myself checking every pool for supposed unmarked pits, which I found many. But before one can learn, the first wall of all is almost impossible to find, so there should be some clue accompanying it. SUMMARY: I guess the builder went too ambitious before getting enough clue about certain basics. Don't play it unless you really, really, really want." - DJ Full

"I went into this 7-level set expecting the absolute worst;but,aside from a horrific over-use of walkthrough walls and a faulty script that required the re-naming of many of the files,these were actually playable;and even,at times,enjoyable.Granted,level 6 took up 12 minutes of my life that I'll never be able to get back;but all the rest had elements to them which were occasionally entertaining.Level two,for example,had some acceptable translucent platform jumping;levels 3 and 4 contained predictable but playable 'hunt for the two cartouche/eye-pieces' storylines;while a few rope swings kept the momentum going. Texturing was appalling to begin with,but improved as the levels progressed;while the 7th actually contained a (superfluous) fly-by and an outside area with a bunch of redundant secrets.Occasionally entertaining enemy AI and a few (presumably intentional)jokey bits kept things tolerable,even when taking interminable climbs into account.Lighting was generally far too dark,but even this improved;but nothing could do much to help the atmosphere,as achitecture was very boxy and there was absolutely no music anywhere. Nonetheless,there's really no excuse not to complete this level set,as even the walkthrough walls become obvious after a while.Very poor overall;but there are far worse custom levels out there." - Orbit Dream

"Confusing Egypt or Tinnos with Australia, East Atoll... meh, well it's a spelling mistake anyone could make. Clearly geography is not one of the author's strong suits. There is absolutely nothing in this levelset that even vaguely has an Aussie flavour to it. Furthermore I don't think Australia even has an East Atoll. What you get here is seven very repetitive levels using tut1 wad items with mostly Egypt and Tinnos textures. That's if you can pass the challenge of actually getting all the levels to play, given the problems with the supplied scripts. Once you have overcome this challenge, it's a trip through a bunch of levels that may frustrate even the hardiest of raiders. The levels are a procession of unfairly hidden rooms behind solid unmarked textures. Climbable walls are mostly unmarked, yet the levels abound with ladder-like textures that are usually not climbable. The general gameplay progression consists of find a hidden room behind an unmarked solid texture, take a long plunge into a deep pool, climb up an equally long shaft again, and maybe find an article of use. Throw in some platforming up some floating platforms and swing a few ropes, and you're done. I've never been so happy to see that final Eye of Horus door open up. Pretty ordinary at best. Thankfully short levels. Can't recommend it." - EssGee

"Too many repetitive textures make the game unplayable the author should make use of textures judiciously." - Anurag

According to the readme (written in Italian), the Japanese mafia has stolen some ancient Egyptian handiwork and has carried it to a deserted atoll in Australia. Unfortunately, I did not see anything characteristic of Australia in this adventure. The author used Antarctic textures in the first, second, fifth and sixth levels, and Coastal textures in the third one. The author also used title.tga in the fourth level and cleopal.tga in the seventh level. Some of the textures are stretched, a few fragments are untextured here and there, the lighting can be quite uneven (either too dark or too bright), I have found a paper-thin wall, and the water is sometimes untextured. In the second level, the finishing trigger brings you back to the start instead of level 3. So I have decided to use the original scripts instead of those provided by the author. Please note that the whole adventure is based on the tutorial Wad (this hint will simplify the conversion of the tom files). I have also noticed that levels 5 and 7 more or less end in the same manner (in both cases, the finishing trigger would be located right next to the door of the Eye of Horus). However, the AI of the friendly ninjas functioned perfectly, and I have appreciated the sliding slope and the diagonal jump at the end of level 3. I was also surprised to see that one can walk through cartouche receptacles in this adventure. Gameplay consists of finding items (cartouches and the eye of Horus), killing enemies (ninjas and scorpions), climbing through ceilings and walking through walls and floors (note: watch out for concealed pits). It is the first time that I have seen a level where walking through walls represents a significant part of the gameplay. So there is some originality in here. Overall, the author needs to work on level designing, but there a few things (eg. the AI of the friendly ninjas) that show that the author has some potential. - Sakusha

"There are 7 levels to this adventure, unfortunately when you reach the end of the second level you are transported back to the start of the second level again and you can not progress. Up to this point the level sadly to say was not very good, there are large square not very nicely textured rooms, lots of walk through walls, floors, and ceilings that are overused, missing textures, paper thin walls, and not much in the way of gaming. And a little side note, this is the oddest portrayal of Australia that I could ever have imagined, I mean there are ninjas in this level and we sure don't have ninjas down here, maybe had I been able to go further the level would have started to look a bit more familiar but as is there is nothing Australian about it. If the problem with the scripting is rectified I will play and review these levels again." - Sash

"Atollo Est 1 (2/2/2/1, 13 min.): It is a bit pointless to review these levels one by one because they are mostly very much alike: fairly huge, square and empty rooms to traverse, often unnecessary darkness, badly applied textures and very little to do other than a bit of swimming, climbing poles and jumping a few platforms. The most annoying common element is the fact that very often you have walk through walls, climb through ceilings or fall through floors. Not funny. This first part has five ninjas, a long unnecessary crawl and a simple water maze and is the only one in the set where the finish trigger to level 2 actually works. Atollo Est 2 (3/1/2/1, 6 min.): In this part you place the cartouche that you acquired in Level 1. The room with ledges offered a brief moment of entertainment. And the finish trigger here brings you back to the start instead of level 3 - so you need to modify the script and just play the following parts from the menu. Atollo Est 3 (2/2/2/2, 5 min.): Texturewise different and more coastal style. Some ninjas and scorpions and two eye pieces to pick up. Highlight was one curved jump after a slide. Atollo Est 4 (3/3/3/3, 10 min.): The best part of the set with textures from the title level, rather many ninjas and scorpions to battle, another cartouche to find and a double rope swing. There is even one place where a music piece is triggered. Atollo Est 5 (2/1/2/1, 7 min.): Back to the Tinnos textures of Level 1 and 2. The room with the translucent platforms was rather nice. Again there are ninjas, ropes and eye pieces. And a very long annoying climb. Atollo Est 6 (1/1/1/1, 8 min.): Another Tinnos set with a little maze and even two tedious long climbs and a triple rope swing. Atollo Est 7 (1/3/3/2, 7 min.): Finally some colour with Cleopal textures and there is even a flyby. Another set of eye pieces needed here and I liked the changed AI for the friendly ninjas. All in all, it feels like the author may have been better served by creating a single level and spending much more time on it, rather than producing this series that wills very rushed and does not hold together." - Michael

"What a level so bad! I've played first part and I decided not continue playing. My time is too much precious to be wasted in this kind of things. Where are the sceneries? Where are the puzzles? Where are the music? Where are the cameras? Only squared rooms with bad applied textures, Lara going through solid ceilings climbing invisible poles, climbable walls without texture,... I think nobody will finish all set of levels, perhaps only the author? It's a pain to waste the MB in any site to download this kind of things." - Jose

"It is hard to describe those 7 levels, 4 have City of Tinnos texturing (maybe the author thinks that some of these textures are evocative of Aborigine underground temples) and 3 are Egyptian (the Japanese mafia is responsible of that, according to the storyline, how naughty the mafia can be!). As the other reviewers have already said, the jump levels do not work after the second one. So, after playing the 2 first levels with Courtney's script, I played the 5 others with the original script, and load Tutorial level. All the levels use the tut1 Wad, so the enemies are only ninjas and sometimes little scorpions. Except in a couple of rooms, the texturing and lighting are not good. The gameplay is rather pleasant at times, not difficult, but the author relies too many times on enigmas based on walkthrough walls/ceiling/floors, so some levels can become fastidious. And unmarked climbable walls should be absolutely avoided. I had to use twice TR2prj to spot where to go next. Level 1 (25 minutes): A really awful level, with a lot of missing textures, and a lot of walk through ceilings, walls or floor puzzles. Actually for most of them there is a tiny hint, but it was really boring, as was the chaotic underwater maze. Imagine jumping above a deep pit when you can't see the pit! Or climbing a polerope leading nowhere, when the next one leads to a walkthrough ceiling. Frustrating! Well, the following levels, if shorter, are a bit better. Level 2 (8 minutes): This one has also Tinnos textures. Short level but not bad, and there is no walk-thru walls, this time. Well, you have to walk thru a cartouche_hole puzzle once you place the two cartouche pieces you collected in the first level, this is an ingenious puzzle I should say. You get also a big room with simple jumps to perform, and a rope swing. Rather pleasant, the texturing is also better in this one, no textures are missing. Level 3 (9 minutes): A change of environment as you get a Coastal ruins texturing. Not a lot to do, killing some ninjas, find walkthrough floors to progress and collect the two pieces of the Eye of Horus. A rather boring level because of the walkthrough floors, (the first one is in one of the little pools) but I liked the long slide with the curved jump at the end to dive into water. Level 4 (15 minutes): Underground setting with the textures of the TR4 title. Your goal is to find the 2 pieces of a cartouche. One of the quests is rather satisfying gameplay wise, there is a bit of swimming , a double rope swing, and the walkthrough walls are kind of obvious. The unmarked climbable walls in the last room (ahead of the entrance) to hit the finish trigger was a bit annoying though. Level 5 (12 minutes): Back to the city of Tinnos textures. Finding you way around was rather interesting here, as you have some climbing, jumping on translucent platforms, and rope swinging to do. The author has placed a clever fixed camera as a hint to spot the exit leading to the big Eye of Horus door. It was fun the timed it lasted. Level 6 (10 minutes): Straightforward and easy progression. Nothing really exciting but pleasant nevertheless. No artefact to find in this one. Level 7 (7 minutes): And a real tutorial level with the tut1.tga. We even have an outside area. Only one walkthrough wall to find here in the big room at the beginning (in the middle of the right wall). The first flyby of the whole set, although a bit pointless, shows that the author is learning new things with the Editor." - eRIC

"At first, when I saw that this game had seven levels I thought that it would be fun but unfortunately they are all too short and have barely any puzzles or enemies. I am sorry to say that the designing is bad and the textures very stretched. There are pieces of cartouche to find, two Eye of Horus portals, some ninjas and mummies wandering around. The biggest problem among so many in this game is the level jump after level one. After you complete level two you come back at the beginning of it so you either have to use the level jump cheat like I did or mess with the script to play all the levels. Be aware as there are many walkthrough walls/floors (you can get permanently stuck in a floor hole) throughout the entire game. I think this needs much work before it can be called a good game." - Kristina

"One word, strange. There are so many pet hates in this level AND I never could get further than the second level. Haven't figured the Australia part out yet, but who knows... A lot has been said in the stuck thread how to get this mini game working and I have question marks if the author herself was able to play it. There is only one more thing I want to say, sloppy, am I peeved, you bet 07-03-2005" - Gerty