Level reviews

"Starts like VCI but quickly drops it for a fully custom layout hosting a quick-paced action-packed short, maybe even briefer if you skip half of pickups, as you get a ton of supplies anyway. I didn't have so much visual trouble here since the compact place is easier to light than a big one. Some sounds could be added, other not be so intrusive. Overall a good play." - DJ Full

"Well, fortunately the pistols worked perfectly fine in my download so I was able to blast through this level without breaking a sweat. There's not much excitement going on in this brief VCI level, short of a couple of laser traps and watching a giant scorpion slay a guard (I blew it to smithereens afterwards by shooting through the grate) before the level ends unceremoniously, leaving me wondering what the point was. I thought that the weird noises the guards kept making were quite funny, but that's about as positive as I can be." - Ryan

"Here's a little 25-minute potboiler from Lukasz Croft that was released shortly before he started coming into his own. It's basically a shooter, and although you get ample weaponry and ammunition, everything is named incorrectly. The MP5 is a shotgun, and the crossbow is a grappling gun. Still, it's fun to blow all those baddies away. The secrets are so easy that even I was able to stumble into them. Some of the enemies documented in Harry Laudie's walkthrough did not make an appearance, but it's difficult for me to believe that this level would justify any kind of revised release." - Phil

"I was wondering when I'd finally stumble on the levels that take out your pistols and set you limited ammo for other weaponry. And, as usual, you can make through this level with major ease if you use the poison ammo (I loved seeing that familiar grappling gun with the black laser sight! ;)). Gameplay relies mostly on sneaking past enemies and shooting them once then waiting for them to die to proceed, so while not too taxing you will still be pretty occupied. If you have enjoyed the VCI levels in TR5 or some of Lukasz' other levels, chances are that you will enjoy this one as well. 20 minutes, 4 secrets. 01/09" - Treeble

"As usual from Lukasz, the main element in this level is shooting enemies. There are also a few laser traps to avoid but that's about it. By the end of the level I still had a few unused items in my backpack, and I was wondering if maybe I had missed something. Texturing was decent, and the atmosphere seemed believable enough, but the background music grated after a while, with an annoying looping sound played over the traditional VCI audio. Sadly, nothing could save the repetitive, boring shooting action." - Spike

"It's probably a VCI base station in Paris judging from the title so you see Lara in her catsuit killing thugs and soldiers. You get the Iris and some key cards to use plus avoid a few lasers. One disk is never found because that door on the left (you'll know when you get there) opens in another way. There was a scorpion near the end in an upper floor that I didn't access and I hope I didn't miss anything. I found three secrets in fifteen minutes of gameplay." - Kristina

"Another shooter from Lukas. It's not a very long level, as usual, and lineal with a fast gameplay. Secrets are very easy to find, and this time there are not very difficult timed runs or hard tasks. In the place where I put the star I didn't need two disks to open the last door, only the one which was near the closed door (?). At the very end you get the uzis but you don't need it 'cause the game finishes; you already had enough guns and ammo along the game. One of the best levels I've play from this author." - Jose

"Another typical offering from this builder - short and simple, this time in a VCI setting, which I rather like. The atmosphere was quite effective but those baddies made some revolting noises - they sounded constipated to me; no wonder they were in a bad mood. I found the pistols out of action when using the tomb4 exe provided in the download, so I confess I retaliated by giving myself a revolver. Tut, tut, naughty me." - Jay

"Lukasz, Lukasz, Lukasz. Normally I don't bother playing your levels, reason being that I believe there's more to Lara than running around from room to room shooting bad guys/dogs/monsters etc and picking up ammo enough to host an army. This is exactly what your levels are about...at least the two I have played so far and from what I've heard from others the rest are no different, apart from the locations. But for some reason I felt like giving you a second chance today and so I chose this one. That it is one of your levels is as certain as the sun. On the good side I can support Ian in saying that you really do know good room designs. Apart from the fact that this is close to a copy of the VCI levels from TRC, which I'm not very keen on anyways, I would say it looks quite good. Of course there are the odd objects sticking out of the walls at times and various other texture glitches, but if we try to ignore that it looks rather ok actually. The lighting is pretty good too, apart from one pitch-black room where you need at least two flares to spot a box where you can pick up a deformed key-like thing that didn't even resemblance a key in the slightest. Speaking of pickups; why the need for finding ammo around every corner???? Lukasz dear, you seem to be leaving a trail of firearms and belonging ammo(apart from the Uzi ammo where I never found any weapon for them) behind you. Yes it's true that there are loads of enemies here, as always in your creations, but in this case most of them stood perfectly still while Lara fired at them without even lifting their weapons. Maybe that explains the lack of medipacks?? Not that you'd need them anyways, the only traps that could be found were some lasers that were easily avoided and a fire. I think I saw Lara die twice during the 27 minutes it took me to play this level and that has to set a new record for my part(unless you think of all those fun levels where Lara is stuck in one room and the only thing she could possible die from would be a thing called boredom). Another aspect that baffled me was the giant scorpion you could see through the ceiling grille. Not only did you never encounter it at all as Lara slid down to an unsatisfactory end of the level, but what on earth was it doing there in the first place??? A giant scorpion in a high-tech skyscraper in Paris??? A pet perhaps?? Or a testing subject?? Either ways it is a bit unfair to let the players think they would reach a new height in this otherwise tedious, puzzle-free gameplay, only to shatter their hopes with cruel reality and yet again the lack of a proper ending trigger. At least there you've gotten one step ahead from Temple of Creatures though, this time the level actually did have an end somewhere rather than letting the players run frustrated around in a neverending maze with no possible conclusion to the level. I found three secrets and have no idea how as I already had two the first time I checked the statistics. An idea would be to make the secrets somewhat different or at least put in a secret chime to let people know they've found them. And I'm afraid to say that the sound of vomiting people didn't really add anything to the gameplay for my part. For the next time, PLEASE read the reviews your levels get and take notice of what they say. You will be surprised to see that a lot of the criticism actually is the same from level to level. For the next time, try to add some actual gameplay and puzzles rather than having Lara doing nothing but running around shooting. And please; instead of just doing your best to throw out three or four levels a month, try to actually work a bit more on one level and make it into something more than just a carbon copy of your previous works. You really don't want people to stop trying out your upcoming works only because they already know what you'll be giving them, do you???" - Selene

"I thought this was a good little level. Short and sweet, and very simplistic. I'm not sure whether the title is supposed to be VC in Paris, or VCI Paris. Von Croy isn't here anyway, but there are enough soldiers and thugs to occupy this small space. And boy do they make a song and dance out of climbing onto blocks and jumping off them. Having dispatched one goon, we can hear another one nearby. As one would expect in this office/laboratory setting there's some crawling, shooting vents, avoiding lasers, rummaging in cupboards, climbing and general hopping about in corridors and store rooms. I found two lasersights and a grapling gun, but nowhere to use them! Were they to allow Lara into that grating where the scorpion is trapped? There were some strange green flyby things (locusts) and doberman dogs. I liked the new torch (flares). We are looking for two discs and the Iris, located" - CC

"Well, a strange start, it was very important!!! To use the TR4.exe provided in the dowmnload, but when I did the pistols didn't work. The text in the load screen was coloured then but who cares if the crossbow with 20 arrows is the only other weapon when shooting a lot of enemies. At that point I care more for some pistols and not two lasersights. So I changed back to my own TR4.exe and I could finally use the pistols. A dark level with a lot of waferthin walls, more a turkey shoot than something else. Why two disks if you need one and where did I pick up a silver key? Maybe I played too much of these just released levels, but about 5 in a row had strange things going on, it could influence my rating on this one, didn't play any levels by this author before and I'm not likely to play one again soon" - Dutchy

"This is quite an easy level to play through ... just some bad guys (who can be heard long before they show up), a couple of dogs and some green flying insects to dodge. There are 4 secrets which are easily found and lots of pick-ups including an invisible "silver key" which I mysteriously collected without realising (note to self, check your inventory frequently). I did like Lara's flashlight - nice touch - but I could have done with a few more for those very dark areas." - suzieq51

"Can't say I'm a great fan of Lukasz's levels, and add to this I'm definitely not a great fan of VCI levels, this was a double whammy. In 20 minutes Lara has to run around a metal world of ducts and rooms collecting the odd item, one key showed up as invisible in my inventory but still worked, and killing loads of guards and a couple of dogs. That's it. Well, there are also 4 secrets to collect but they couldn't be easier to find so classing them as another gaming element really doesn't work." - Sash

"Oh well, this was short and sweet. Although I am not a fan of VCI levels, this wasn't so bad. Still some questions as I still had a thing (called Load) in Lara's backpack and I didn't find a place to use it. Enough ammo to all the guards you see here. Most of them just stood there so it was rather easy so shoot them. Be aware of buttons you need to use and do grab everything as some items do trigger doors. I thought in places it was far too dark and I rather would have had some flares instead of two Sights and two Uzi's. I played it first with the original TR4.EXE and then with the downloaded version. Well on my PC there is a difference. The screen is clearer/sharper (?) and the colours are a bit different. She bleeds a bit different as well as I found out while running through the lasers. Also in this part the guns didn't work As for the clearer screen I have that any time on my Mac. Found 3 secrets. 28-01-2006" - Gerty

"Now listen,Lukasz old chap;you and I really ought to have a little chat.You know..builder to builder.I've played all your levels and I really have observed that,unlike most others,you genuinely don't appear to be showing very much sign of improvement. I know you enjoy ploughing your own level-building furrow,and that's fine (so do we all),but you really can't expect people to want to continue playing your endeavours when each level is an almost exact carbon-copy of the last,bar the scenery. Take this one,for example. It's all rather nicely put together (and you do have quite a good eye for room design)but it consisted entirely of running around shooting heavies,picking up ammo,searching cupboards and opening a few doors with a couple of badly-animated key cards;until it ended after less than twenty minutes at an entirely arbitrary moment.At one point,I observed a giant Scorpion above a ceiling grille,and I thought this might indeed presage a worthy element of gameplay enjoyment.Alas,it was not to be and the level ended shortly thereafter. You never have worked out how best to place a finishing trigger,have you? You really should,because that's one of the fundamentals of building a level. I notice you added some new sounds,which shows a certain creativity;but as the audio files appeared to consist only of various people vomiting I didn't really feel it added much to the Gameplay nor indeed the sizeable download.The Exe file which came with your level package was also placed in error,as the level won't actually play if used. May I strongly urge that you desist from adding fancy extras and concentrate instead on improving the overall quality of your next level? If not,I fear you and I are destined to have a falling out,and I wouldn't want that." - Orbit Dream

"Whatever the provided patched exe was good for, when I saw that Lara's pistols don't work when you use it, I decided to stick to the good old tomb4.exe that we all know and love and this way you can make the 20 minutes you spend in this level easily, killing a dozen bad guys, two dogs and avoiding green locusts of sorts, finding three easy secrets and wondering why you just played through this remake of TR5 VCI which has been thrown together rather listlessly with several texture mistakes, an extra disc you never need, sounds totally screwed up, two unnecessary lasersights and an odd use of the scion. I did like the flashlight replacing the flares though." - MichaelP