Level reviews

"A simple line of events and sometimes too much of this simplicity as it gets tiring, the duration could be trimmed. I expected a dark raid with sudden flash in the end but no, the brightness comes and goes, more planning could make it better. I'd make light sources and shadows more functional. If you are into post-tutorial maps, you can give this one a try." - DJ Full

"The debut level from a very proliferous builder, unsurprisingly a standard tut1 experience. Nothing particularly remarkable here, it was all fair play until the single-texture one block wide maze. Harry describes it as a "simple maze" but I was two frustrated turns away from mapping it all out, until luck would have it I stumbled upon the Ba Cartouche Piece I had spent more time looking for than I'd have hoped to. 45 minutes, 2 secrets. 04/23" - Treeble

"This is quite enjoyable for a classic Tutorial adventure. Some of the passages can be quite claustrophobic and dark, but the majority of the rooms are quite impressive (particularly the statue room and the dark room with many ropes). The enemies are nothing extraordinary - ninjas and scorpions, but it's otherwise rather entertaining. Could have done without that maze though." - Ryan

"This older level with an Egyptian setting isn't at all a bad raid. It takes about an hour, there's plenty of ambient light, and the game progresses rather logically. There may be a few too many ninjas, and the maze about midway through was thoroughly annoying, but other than that there's a nice balance between platforming exercises and artifact hunting, and the sufficiency of weaponry and ammunition is never in doubt. Doesn't blaze any trails but is fun to play." - Phil

"That this level actually a Tutorial level is, notices one only at the fact which one must find the eye of the Horus and a cartouche. Otherwise there is absolutely no resemblance to the Tutorial level. And that this level a first work is, notices one even in the lighting. The level builder has managed it not so good. And now and again one sees a stretched texture. But otherwise there is nothing wrong with this level. The rooms are nicely formed, there are made good riddles and there is the shotgun, the revolver and enough ammunition and Medipacks to fight against the Baddies. Playing time was about 50 minutes. To sum up, one can say which this level is a successful debut." - Scottie

"A nice 45 minute level with very nice and enjoyable gameplay (apart from the maze). The enemies were placed well, and spikes were positioned well. Maybe one too many long and winding corridors but in the end you always knew where you were. The cameras were used well, the atmosphere was nice and sound was used very nicely. The textures were not the best part of the level and in some places it was badly wallpapered. The lighting was good though. Unfortunately at the very end some baddies appeared out of nowhere, not a good way to finish a very good level. This is a very nice level and i strongly reccommend it for 50 mins of fun and enjoyment." - Cory

"For a Tut1 adventure,this shows a considerable degree of flair;the gameplay is smooth and logical,occasionally puzzling but never in such a way as to cause the momentum of the level to falter.Pride of place must go to the fairly complex 'running/jumping/statue-pushing/rope-swinging' room,which was neatly devised and technically well accomplished.Of less interest was the inevitable dark maze,but I fortunately fluked my way through in a couple of minutes and so feel inclined to forgive.The only real weakness was the spike trap guarding the final pick-up,which could be sprinted-through(by sadistic players such as myself) while gulping down a medi-pack. Overall,though,this provided 50 enjoyable minutes of adventuring,and I recommend it." - Orbit Dream

"Translation of my review for TRO-Online : "Return towards the Light" is the first level of Joel. The level is quite easy and everyone can try it. There isn't a lot of difficulties but however Joel imagined some clever traps and that breaks the monotony of his linear level. This level is quite nice in spite of several bad applied textures (stretched, flattened, wallpaper walls, etc), paperfine walls and some lighting which are too flashy. There are some nice flyby cameras in little corridors accompanied with good chosen music. It's really a pity because one of these flybys pass through the floor of a room and a kind of "black hole" appears. That's little details which spoil the game... The different pickups all along the level are well placed, the enemies too. This level is quite good and I had a good time playing it. :-)" - TimJ

"Well, it is a standard Egyptian like level with the Eye of Horus to find, a cartouche and ninjas, scorpions to kill. It doesn't have anything new or too difficult and the maze isn't that bad either. It lasted forty minutes and the only room I found interesting was the one near the end with the ropes and the cartouche receptacle. Take a look if you want a simple level to pass your time." - Kristina

"I seem to have been playing huge great levels just lately so I was actually quite glad of a 'quickie' for a change. This is an undemanding tut1 style level that flows along quite nicely and would be ideal for a less experienced raider. It's not at all bad for a first time build; the author certainly seems to have grasped the basics of the level editor pretty well and avoided the common pitfalls. Well worth a look if you're after something quick and easy." - Jay

"This level has a lot of interesting jumps and lots of levers, a couple of which were hard to find! Enemies are the standard ninjas, scorpions and a lonely mummy, but well placed - gave me a couple of frights. The maze got a bit frustrating. The dark parts of this level were far too dark for me. So many areas were just black and although there were a few flares to be found this actually spoilt it for me. I think this is a shame because the actual game play is really enjoyable." - Moonliteshadow

"For this small download you get plenty of gameplay. It is just a Tut and a TOM file at that and there are only ninja's and scorpions but if you are like me and was convinced that I needed to find that second part of the Cartouche in the maze, I can tell you forget it. You only need one half; the other half is a room further down the line. Be aware of some unmarked climbing areas. Do put your thinking cap on, as the room where you need to place the Cartouche is fun to do, once you figure out where to go. I thought that was rather sneaky to hide that lever there. LOL I don't know what Kerry is on about writing that she went through spikes as I could turn mine off, got two secrets. 11-03-2006" - Gerty

"Another egyptian level builded with the "tut1" wad. Very easy to play with fast gameplay and no special tasks. Poor enemies, only white ninjas and red scorpions, but well situated. Only the shotgun and the revolver as extra guns. Correct sounds and cameras, but the same old textures of the tutorial level. Like I said, there's no originally puzzles, but you can play it to have a good time." - Jose

"This level is built using the standard tut1 wad and playing it doesn't take much time. My opinion is that there is a lack of puzzles in the level. There are only some lever switches to find and easy jumps to do. Lighting is ok but I think that some lights are a bit too bright and some too dark. Atmosphere is ok too and textures are from the standard tutorial wad. Despite there is a lack of many things in the level it is much better than I thought it would be." - Samu

"Return towards the Light is a pretty well balanced level concerning enemies and gameplay, well constructed and nice traps. This level is an easy one but nevertheless a lot of fun (especially when you need a break from the harder ones). There might be too many levers to pull though and I think some areas are too dark. But if you don't mind playing a tut1 wad level, don't miss playing it!" - Tinka

"Somhow the third rather classic Egypt level I play in a row. Builders seem to really go Back to the Basics these days. For this one, you get a lot of value for money: 45 minutes of rather fast paced gameplay in a standard Tut1 environment and only a 1 MB download. The setting is not really spectacular of course and the enemies are the good old scorpions, ninjas and a lonely mummy, but I really liked the two huge rooms and the way the course was built into them. What I could have done without was the tedious ninja maze and a few dark corners in the beginning, but overall, if you don't mind to see those old textures, you get some good fun out of this one without having to stress your brain too much." - MichaelP

"Have to say I still don't find much thrill in the tut levels, though there are of course a handful that blow me away but on the whole they, well they just feel a bit ho-hum. This one has it's moments, some jumps and such to get around a couple of rooms, but there is a biggish maze that although not too difficult to get through still is a maze and some areas feel a bit underused. The ninjas were actually placed quite nicely so that they take you by surprise and give your health a good kicking but you also get some heavy weaponry to keep them at bay. I found 2 secrets and finished in just over 50 minutes. By the way, Kerry (Macraider) that spike floor you ran through and then back does actually retract with some levers behind the gates in that room, I just walked up to one of the gates and it opened, don't know why it didn't for you." - Sash

"Built using the bog standard tutorial wad, this has the advantage of being a rarely seen small TOM download. To begin with the rooms are a little bland and uninspired, although fairly solidly put together. There is too much use of shadow as a gameplay element to hide traps, passage entrances, goodies etc. and there's a really irritating maze mid-level with so many branches even the best player can easily get lost, with the only way out to keep running around identical passages shooting a series of white ninjas and picking up things or pushing levers until you manage to find the exit, hopefully with the door open! Not my idea of fun, and a poor substitute for real gameplay. Once past this maze the level improves for a while, but then you reach a room where Lara has to stroll through a field of spikes, then back out through them, with an enormous loss of health. I recall finding two levers in the maze and pushed them both, but no idea what they did - maybe there was another lever somewhere to retract these spikes? There were a couple of doors in that room that didn't open which probably led to switches for these spikes, but by then I'd had enough - as I was using up all my medipacks in the spike field before getting out I used the TR4 all items cheat to continue. I found 2 secrets in the part of the level before the maze, but didn't look too hard after it... A side benefit of cheating the game was that I had the grenade gun to dispose of the rest of the scorpions and ninjas and that was very satisfying ;) This builder is capable of making an interesting map, but has to look at improving the gameplay to make a level this Raider will enjoy playing." - MacRaider