Level reviews

"Goes oversized but interesting, I see the builder has knowledge but chose to stay huge on purpose. Just acknowledge weird ladder markers and you shouldn't be stuck at one or two choke points. A more serious flaw is a huge repetition if you miss a cartouche piece. I'd also apply TREP or FLEP to allow enemies to render correctly. The second map has a secret with an unreachable trigger, so if you get a big med, that's a sixth." - DJ Full

"As a level built in the earlier days of the TRLE, this is the author's take on building his own house with hardly any objects and a mix of the Egyptian texture sets. As a result you get essentially a barebones building that could resemble a house if you squit past the grid scale. As a level however it's hardly anything to be excited for, and on top of that you get a lot of running back and forth through long and empty roads trying to find the next point of interest. You won't find them, so refer to the walkthrough to learn about object placement or the eventual unmarked climbable walls. After you clear the first area you're treated to the second where you get a, you guessed it, maze. One you have to go through twice, even, first to get a crowbar and slide back to the entrance, and then a second time for the object you need the crowbar first. 40 minutes, 3 secrets. 04/22" - Treeble

"It very much amazed me that Lara wasn't exhausted and out of breath by the end of this game (then again, maybe she was) as some of the distances she has to cover at running speed are very daunting. There is a slight bit of variation in the gameplay in the form of a couple of timed runs (that I must have missed as I left the game without even picking up the two medipacks) and a small maze (alright, the latter is probably clutching at straws) but they don't really outweigh the negatives as otherwise I found this to be quite tedious. The textures are monotonous and badly applied, the architecture is implausible and quite boxy and as mentioned, there's an awful lot of running around to do which dragged things right down. It's a first (and only) effort so I suppose a lot of things can be forgiven, but it just isn't that enjoyable to play through." - Ryan

"Merci,Eric!Without the aid of his Walkthrough,I would have been running around the gargantuan areas in Level 1 until old age overtook me and put paid to any further raiding activities.With his help,I was able to get through in around 40 tedious and fatiguing minutes.There's gameplay in evidence,but it's mostly of the 'place cartouche;door opens a thousand or so miles away' variety;and,combined with the repetitive and stretched textures,overly bright lighting and completely unconvincing surroundings,engenders a feeling of quite profound boredom which the occasional enemy attacks cannot hope to dispel.The second level is more concise;although most of it takes place within a maze.The highlight is a neat timed run sequence for a secret;and a crocodile-infested pit is rather amusing;but it was with relief that I eventually crossed the finish trigger and could go and do something more interesting instead.It's a first level by a young lad,so it's commendable that he gave it a go;but I can't possibly recommend it to anyone but the most avid of completists." - Orbit Dream

"The screenshots I have taken for the level info are not very representative of the levels , especially the first one (Tahir's house) as I could not succeed to make some for the vast outside areas that you will encounter here. In the first level, there is a quite a dose of running around in the search of some artefacts needed for progression , levers to pull , and ninjas to battle. The author has made a good work for the flybys, for the placement of the baddies with the use of trigger triggerers, and for the audio tracks in general. Looks wise , this level suffers a lot of the vast distances , the end of the world when you are above some roofs, and many thin walls. The second level (Streets) is shorter but somewhat nicer to play, with a Coastal ruins feel and a smaller map. There is still thin walls though. Basically in this one , there is a couple of streets and a little maze in which you find a golden star and from which you reach a room (the best looking room in the levels imo) where the crowbar is. Many pickups and a army of crocodiles to fight" - eRIC

"This is a bad level gameplay-wise and as far as the setting is concerned. There are paper thin walls everywhere, the areas are huge and empty with no purpose at all and the enemies are few. It is divided in two short parts with the entire game lasting fifty minutes, with two cartouches to find, two hands and a star to use. It needs much work to be considered a good level. The Egyptian patched textures don't help at all to create a nice illusion. I found two secrets and didn't enjoy this." - Kristina

"Where do you start with a level with extremely long runsswims etc with nothing to do but sprint? Could have done with more enemies in the first section and more pickups to relieve the boredom. Enemies are ninja, scorpions and crocs. The textures are stretched, garish and far far too often repeated for large areas. Lighting is mainly bright and sound standard. Walls are paper thin and some times flash in and out as you turn or move. There is only one type of atmosphere which is impressed on a brain asleep, that of wide open nothingness. Not a level I would recommend and I hope this is the first attempt by the author and that he/she learns from their errors." - Whistle

"I hope you're feeling fit because there's a lot of running about in this level - let's just say you'll be glad of the sprint button. This is all too obviously the work of a very inexperienced builder - wafer thin walls, stretched textures, huge empty spaces with very little going on, you know the signs. Incidentally, don't be misled by the title; this really does not resemble a mansion level as such; the textures, objects and enemies being firmly Egyptian. Apparently, it's based on the author's own house and whilst I can't really rave about the execution, I do applaud the general idea." - Jay

"The first in this set of two levels takes place around an architecturally rendered copy of the builder's home and streets outside, well if so all I can say is...MOVE! Alright, that may be a bit harsh but the textures in this environment will have the kindest of us having a hard time finding any real aesthetically pleasing moments. This aside there is such a terribly lot of running around over long distances especially when you get to the city like section that once I got onto their tall roofs I, in a moment of delusional cyber-exhaustion, threw myself off just so that I would break my neck and have reason not to run anymore. The second and much shorter level had a glimmer of gameplay with a series of timed runs just to make safe a tile a small medi is on and a bit of a maze to get through. These things though don't make up for the lack of gaming throughout the rest of the levels and I am sorry to say I really didn't find much of interest here. At least there were 5 secrets to find in the initial level, the first of these nicely placed, but none in the last, oh and on that point, Mikey the large medi is actually collectable near the end as a block raises to reach it when you place the star but it never registered as a secret, it did however when I renamed the level to tut1 and DOZYed around to get to it. All up this took me 50 minutes to play." - Sash

"Well, it seems that Tahir's house is quite luxurious because the owner of this house was able to even have an obstacle course in his own residence. Even though the textures are too stretched for my liking and I have noticed a few paper-thin walls, there are quite a few interesting ideas. In the first level, the 'spiked' textures don't always indicate the presence of spikes, but occasionally, they can. There was one area where one square was spike-free (despite the texture), but the next square contained spikes. Moreover, the immensity of the place actually contributes to the gameplay (note: one can get lost easily), and some ladders are hidden. There is a significant amount of backtracking to do, and there are a few items to find (2 cartouches, one hand of Orion and one hand of Sirius in the first level and one golden star in the second one). The enemies were challenging (especially the baddies in the first level and the crocodiles in the second one). I didn't find the shotgun (or the uzis, for that matter), but I did collect 2 secrets, some ammunition (270 for the uzis, 24 normal shotgun shells and 18 wideshot shotgun shells), and I with a little bit of tact, I managed to defeat Lara's enemies with my pistols (and yet, I only used two medipacks)." - Sakusha

"What a big house Tahir has! For me was a bored level; run, run and run along huge areas only pulling switches and killing some enemies. There are many wafer thin walls, and many empty square and rectangle areas with the same texture in walls and floors. Second level is a little bit better, but has some strange details, like in the room with the crowbar: all the set of 5 timed runs only to get a small medipack? low walls which you can't climb, doors over solid walls without a passage... Yes, I know that it's the first level of this author, but he'll have to get better to build a decent level." - Jose

"If you are in for a lot of running, try this level. What is a pity that there isn't a bike you could use as you run a marathon IMO. Getting your hands on some Hands and Cartouche and in the second level a Star you will hit the finishing trigger. Using levers and some trigger tiles, the latter had me searching for hours to finally get my hand on a second Hand, but there is a hint and I didn't pay any attention to it. Shame on me. As this is a first there are lots of places with paperthin textures and even some missing ones. Because it is so big you will have disappearing horizons. I completely missed that timed run in the second level (and you can finish the level without doing it) but better go back, as it is rather fun to do. If you go for the secrets you have to look everywhere (another marathon LOL). Found only 4 though. There are some ladders you need to climb so better look carefully where, as they aren't textured as such. 02-12-2005" - Gerty

"A debut level that was built a while ago, but great to see the first builder from Pakistan listed here. Tahir's House: This could have been a fun little level, much in Tutorial style, if it were not very tedious because you have to cover a lot of ground without doing much else than just running and running and running. It is an outside area with lots of paperthin walls which makes it not look very believable. You need to find a few artefacts (cartouches and Hands) and open doors with levers. I did like the searching for the 5 secrets though. Enemies are ninjas and scorpions and my net game time was around 40 minutes, but if you happen to always go in the right directions it could be considerably shorter. Street 13: An even shorter part at about 15 minutes, but it has a fun (if completely useless) sequence of short timed runs to get your hands on a medipack and the crocodile den was kind of hilarious. The author claims there are no secrets here, but had to check and there is a big medi secret, but seems you cannot legally reach it. All in all, this is actually a promising debut as there are some good ideas, but the rooms need to be scaled down and much more effort needs to go into textures and lighting. Hope to see more from this builder though." - MichaelP