Level reviews

"Much better than the usual 6+. Nice room layout, cleverly split paths still feeling close to each other, satisfying secrets and several surprises make this level specific and worth checking. I guess it was downrated because of the fancy colors so if they bother you, just tone them down with dgvoodoo and try this level anyway. Recommended." - DJ Full

"Despite what the title suggests, I thought this level relied a little too much on darkness, but my major grievance with it is just how unfriendly it is to the player. It's incredibly convoluted and apparently it offers two different routes to clear, which Harry (bless him) tried to fuse into one single continuous walkthrough. Whichever path you chose, you skip all paragraphs pertaining to the other path, so keep that in mind instead of being dumb like me and thinking he merged both paths because you could do both in a single run. The five-chain set up was nice but got old fast, and then there's a long set of winding stairs that you go up and down twice or maybe thrice towards the end. The pitch black maze with a torch wasn't a whole lot of fun, but the colored cube maze was worse in my opinion. All in all, too confusing to be enjoyable, I'm afraid. 55 minutes, 3 secrets. 03/24" - Treeble

"If puzzles are your thing, then this level is just the one for you. There's a lot of chain-pulling and backtracking, made all the more tedious by the lack of discernible visual clues. What's more, you have the option of following one of two paths at the beginning, all of which is documented by Harry Laudie in meticulous detail. I marvel at his skill and stamina, as I could never have figured it all out myself. Nevertheless, he either made an error or I read him wrong, as a lower gate refused to open near the end of the level when I pulled the indicated chains. By this time I had already invested 50 minutes in the game and was in no mood to invest more. A glance at the walkthrough told me that nothing lay ahead but more chain pulling, so I decided to bin the level at that point. Too bad, because with less backtracking, more light and additional clues this raid could have been a fun brain-teaser. As it is, I can't recommend it." - Phil

"This quite extensive single level was actually much more complex and intertwining than I expected. This is mostly due to the various routes you can take throughout, which will sometimes open up new pathways, but will also close off other rooms. The other reason that this took me a while to complete is that the backtracking is so tedious at times and only serves to drastically slow the pace down (especially the chain puzzle and those long, long staircases). Without these, the level would have had a much smoother flow and would have been more enjoyable. On the plus side, the chain puzzle is actually quite ingenious if you overlook the tedium and the tasks behind each door are nonetheless fun, enemies are relatively few but well placed and the lighting, although irritatingly dark in places, nonetheless supports the psychedelic theme with very hot colours scattered around, giving it a bit of a crazy feel. So basically, this could have been better streamlining things down a bit, but for a debut it isn't half bad." - Ryan

"I'm not sure what my initial motivation to download this level all those months ago was, but having finished it now, while not entirely blown away by the experience, I liked its more successful parts. The psychedelic lighting does put an interesting spin on the all too familiar "Tomb of Seth" settings, but the excessive darkness (with a rather limited supply of light sources if you play it with the author's provided EXE), the overall simplistic geometry and flat lighting spoil the looks to an extent. Technical aspects aside, the atmosphere is engrossing in its own oddball way, so despite the familiar settings it was interesting to keep going. I fared reasonably well mastering the level's challenges (one of which is being economic with the scarce amount of Uzi ammo you get) till the 5 cord puzzle, where I turned to the walkthrough for the first time. In retrospect the puzzle itself made more sense than I initially gave it credit to, but it was a bit tedious to return to it every time you had to change the on/off configuration for 6+ doors (some used repeatedly). Other minor disappointments include some maze-like areas closer to the end (though the 3- dimensional one wasn't that bad), stinginess with camera- hints, and did I mention the excessive darkness already? In balance I liked it more often than not through the about hour long experience, but if you want to play it, you may need to be able to put up with the levels less fine-tuned parts. Found neither of the 3 secrets." - eTux

"I reckon I played this level with the normal exe and not with the one provided by the author. I suppose the author made a special exe so that the player has at least a bit of 'challenge' with the small enemies of the tomb of Seth Wad. That was a good idea, the problem is that you don't have binoculars either, that's why I played with the normal exe. The setting is an interesting mix with tomb of Seth textures , quite classic in some of the rooms , and in others it is psychedelic indeed with colourful lights and translucent textures. Not bad , the shaping of the blocks in some of the caves is well done, but the looks could be better in others and the ambient lighting is way too dark generally. For a first level this was well made though and is interesting to play for several reasons, it has firstly a replay value if you like it as several paths can be followed, and I like some of the ideas of the author. It is not your usual raid where everything is too obvious. But when I came to the main puzzle with the colours puzzle and pulleys, I resorted to the well made walkthrough made by Harry as I did not wanted to do the 'trial and error' ordeal as there was no clear hint or clue to the pulleys combinations. Also there is the redo of the platform climbing several times to get to the pulley room. I followed the walkthrough after this point and until the end, as the interest to solve all by myself was gone. I enjoyed some of the tasks therein while others were less interesting for me. An interesting level to get through nevertheless if you have enough time and patience." - eRIC

"This is an interesting level with a couple of good puzzles. The"two paths" idea was good as was the"chains" room, mazes are difficult to pull off {as I have found out} and this one didn't quite work, although it did try to be more that just running around blindly hoping you find the exit. I didn't like starting the level with no weapons {those pistols are my security blanket!} But the Uzi's are found quite quickly, so panic over. The level isn't completely linear and is a little confusing in places. It is also extremely dark in places too. I found the secrets to be well hidden. For a first level it is very good." - Kitkat

"This is Pierre3737's first level. This one is quite interesting. Even if it isn't excellent, it shows that the builder knows how to use the level editor. TREP gives a little plus to the gameplay because lara begins without any weapon, nor medipacks, nor flares. The level is really (too) dark. Fortunately there are flares since the beginning and they will be useful. An interesting point is that there is a hidden lever at the beginning which change the level with some flipmaps and allows to visit the level by two different paths. The path with used lever is a bit harder because we'll find a weapon later than in the other path. But anyway the two paths leads to the same point with about the same pickups. This level is quite easy... It is a bit confusing with a lot of doors or inaccessible corridors but a lot of windows shows places where we already gone to or we'll go later (or we'd have been with the other path). There are some puzzles and some traps but nothing hard to do. The secrets are well hidden ! One of them necessitate to do a not well known move (sprint + crouch) what I found quite original. The temple was nice built but the lighting were a bit to flashy in my opinion. Most of the time the rooms are darks and we need to lit a flare to understand where we have to go and it was a bit boring. The darkness doesn't annoyed me in the maze where I found the idea quite good too with the burning torch... I was expecting big beetles to fall from the crevice lol! I think that everyone can play it without any troubles. :-)" - TimJ

"This is not the kind of levels I like, but playable. I didn't find innovative puzzles, but a lot of dark areas and another too much coloured. I got bored in the room with the 5 chains 'cause I had to go go back there a lot of times climbing and jumping the ledges each time I had to open a door. The dark maze is not very difficult, but bored too. Few enemies, only scorpions and dogs and few weapons, only the uzis and the shotgun at the end but is a good attemp anyway." - Jose

"I think this level is actually a bit underrated and in fact could have been so much better than it is by leaving a few things out of it. Apparently it has actually a more complex architecture that the player may not notice as depending on which path you choose you make your way through it a little differently. It is generally following the Tomb of Seth setting and that does include quite an amount of darkness throughout with only very little flares to find at the beginning. Strong colours are used and serve the atmosphere well. Enemies are only a few scorpions and dogs, but that is just as well, because you start without weapon and later only find the Uzi and not a lot of ammo for it. The core and the highlight of the level is a clever puzzle with five chains which in various combinations open no less than seven doors behind which you need to complete small tasks to reach a lever or get a guardian key. While I really enjoyed the concept, the execution got very tedious, as each time you had to make quite a trip to reach the chain room again - not fun! Once you made your way through all of that, it gets even worse with a lot of useless running around stairs and a pitch black maze and then a 3D maze which I could rather have done without. So, all in all, a lot of potential in this 75 minute debut, but too much tedious action required to make your way through it." - MichaelP

"The included TR4 exe wouldn't start on my PC so I played it with the one provided by the LE. As this is indeed a first we see from this builder here are some tips. Watch out for illegal slopes and look pretty careful when you texture the place, as there are quite some stretched ones. Monkey climbs that aren't indicated as such is a big NO and visa verse. The level throughout could have used some subtlety with the light though. As for gameplay, the idea is not a bad one at all, but the back and fro that is plain unnecessary as that prologues the gameplay without adding something new. The dark maze, well as everybody will say, it is the pits. Keeping going right will bring you eventually where you have to go. There are new ideas in here, but in my opinion didn't pan out that good. It was a bit of a struggle to jump those colour coded rooms with blocks." - Gerty

"It may indeed be psychedelic (some of the textures could make your eyeballs bleed) but it is also frequently extremely dark so you won't need your sunglasses. You WILL need just about everything else however as you commence the level with nothing in your inventory. There are alternative routes at the beginning and it can become somewhat confusing, but other than that there isn't anything at all difficult to achieve. There are few enemies - some jackals and scorpions - that you can avoid initially until you find the uzi. The chain pulling puzzle was inventive if perhaps a little over extended. I enjoyed it, but could have done with a little less running to and fro and the interminable stairs were irritating too. So, basically it could have done with a little tightening up here and there and I certainly found it too dark (especially the horrible maze), but it's still not a bad offering for a debut level." - Jay

"I don't know what the problem is lately and builders tend to not place cameras in their levels. Let me tell you that it is not a plus for a level so please stop forgetting them. In general it's a weird level, with a maze that you need the torch to go through and many rooms with dogs or scorpions. Another bad idea is that custom exe with no binoculars or guns for a long time. Ok, so it's interesting to create a clever puzzle that you need to master without guns or something but this is not the case here. It's also very annoying not to have binoculars, even if the flares last longer than usual, in dark areas or very big rooms. Personally I do not and will not like the above ideas in a custom level so I didn't like this one either. You need to go through a lava room, use the monkey swing in two places and perform a challenging jump at some point. There is a chain room with many doors to open in other areas but one of them has the wrong combination (the blue one) so you have to try many before you find it by accident. There are three guardian keys, two sands of time to find and when you access the top floor to get the Amulet you're done. The cameras are missing, especially in the rooms with the doors and when you open the door for the secret or lower the blocks for the other one. I found two secrets." - Kristina

"This author's first level is of above average quality I'd say. Playing with the provided .exe file, you start without any equipment as you enter this rather psychedelic temple, and the first goal of the level would be to find the Uzis for some weaponry. For the first while in this level, there's going to be some searching for levers to pull, cleverly hidden monkeyswings and shimmy cracks as you find the Uzis and the first guardian key to progress. After that, you find yourself in a rather cool chain puzzle that will open up doors for you, but here's where the gameplay starts to get a little tedious. When you get to the chains (nice flyby btw), there's a lot of backtracking and running to do as the chains also open up doors at a room in the beginning of the level, and one combination to open a room is shady, as it says to pull the far left and far right chains, but it doesn't open. To get it to open, you must also pull the middle chain, which without the help of a forum member I wouldn't have figured that out. In one of the rooms opened with the chains, there's also a spike run to the guardian key, and if you run towards it too fast to avoid the spikes, you're stuck for good as you have to run through the popping spikes back, and the spikes would pop up too often. I didn't go through it like that, but that's a warning to players as it is a possibility. After the chains, there's still lots of running to do, in the form of mazes. The pitch black maze with the torch was difficult to navigate through that while trying to find an exit, I kept getting back to the chain I was looking for in there. Soon after, you get to a long sloping hallway which houses a boulder, that doesn't activate until you get really close to it, so that was kind of hard to outrun too. Past that, you get another maze, this time of the 3D variety. While you get a hint where to go in the adjoining room that color codes which passages are safe and which aren't, it was also kind of frustrating as you get lead to dead ends, and some seemingly safe colored rooms actually aren't. After another long backtrack, you would finally reach the Amulet of Horus, and the level ends right after picking it up. Overall, it's not that bad of a first level. The author did capture a good Egypt atmosphere throughout here, though I thought that the intense light colors were a bit much for my eyes, and some textures were applied like wallpaper here, but the author made that less obvious by using textures that don't really produce the effect when wallpapered (think the red tiles from the Tomb of Seth tile puzzle). I suppose I can recommend this if you're bored and up for about an hour of psychedelic Egyptian raiding." - Relic Hunter