Level reviews

"Oh boy. This could be good but it's just too unfinished. Mostly there are just two recurring issues: with routing, where you repeat long passages or can't tell a skip from an intended way; and with sloppy visuals. Unique problems in the final level are the looped music which doesn't fit at all, and the raptors stuck in dying animation. I think doubling the work time on this project could bring it to the state of comparability to the original Peru. Still, you can recognize some landmarks from TR1, and some sequences are fun. Optional, with recommendations to try the last level." - DJ Full

"Despite my very strong bias towards Peru levels, and despite my undying love for the LAU trilogy assets (objects, audio tracks, outfit...), this is one levelset that had outstayed its welcome long before I finished the first of the three levels. The amount of illegal slopes makes the first level a pain to navigate, there are unmarked climbable walls and empty secret areas, the fancy faraway camera angles try to go for a cinematic approach but become more of a nuisance than anything because every other room is oversized for no good reason and mostly empty. What you do here is just run from one end of the map to the other looking for levers, going back and forth in that lazy style of TR3 level design where everything adds more and more padding for no good reason other than just because, had this lasted half the lenght it actually did perhaps it wouldn't have been so sour tasting, but nope. It needs to be big, it needs to have remote levers and doors on opposite ends of the map, and it needs to force the player to go the long route every time. 85 minutes, 10 secrets. 03/24" - Treeble

"I was rather glad to have finished this 90 (or thereabouts) minutes adventure, because despite the good parts it undoubtedly has, these pale in comparison to the flaws. Firstly, it's far too dark in places and alongside the crude environments, the visuals left something to be desired. The gameplay is also flawed, with lengthy backtracking segments alongside a whole host of levers to pull (the gameplay improves in the third level but the backtracking is still present), so I was mostly bored for the game's duration. I did like the music choices and enemy encounters, although the dinosaurs were incredibly buggy." - Ryan

"Relaying on a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as 'Elements of Adventure', this re-imagining of TR Anniversary's interpretation of TR1's levels, just isn't that well-constructed, with lifeless environments, plenty of repetitive texturing, still too dark lighting effects, boring gameplay and numerous out of place enemies/objects generally squandering a lot of the potential that this levelset could have had, with ripped voiceovers from TR Anniversary feeling thrown in, without much reasoning for their inclusion(which gets fairly silly early on, when you hear the guide getting mauled by wolves despite him not even being present within the level itself.) So in conclusion(despite some decent ambiance choices from official TR games when they have the dignity to actually play, alongside a sort of difficulty selector), this is one release that just isn't at all fun to go through honestly. Not recommended." - Ceamonks890

"Immediately at the beginning one can select himself whether one wants to play "hard" or "Normal". I have chosen the "Hard"-version.
The first level is relatively easy. The jumps are not difficult and there are no opponents, only a few bats. What strikes here is the absolute silence. Only with few opportunities a background sound is played in, otherwise absolutely nothing is to be heard. The textures are applied partly unclean and stretched. The sound for the Rollingballs is absent. The first time run is not too scarcely calculated, one has enough time. The voice of Lara could have been a little bit louder and clearer. This first part belonged rather in the category training level.
The second part is noticeably more difficult. A few dogs running around and they have, unfortunately, no sound . The difference between hard and Normally takes effect here already very clearly. The background sound is much better than in the first level. The time run is still moderate, however, the Monkeyswing on the wall to the left was a little bit too long.
The third level is completely different than the previous ones. The opponents (raptors) have her sound, luckily one can only say there, and are really dangerous. The whole surroundings are formed more diverse. A lot of value was put on hopping and jump routes.
The biggest problem in all three levels is that too few Flares exist. This becomes clearly apparent at the many dark places. Unclean and stretched textures are to be seen in all three parts, indeed, this does not diminish the play fun.
To sum up, one can say that here a respectable foundation-stone was laid which allows a lot of room for progress. Beginners should choose the normal variation, "hard" is intended rather for people who have experience." - Scottie

"This is a 3-level game, which is partly similar than the first 3 levels of the original TR. While I normally love this remakes and specially the Peru ones, I have to say that this one didn't do anything for me at all. The game play, while not difficult is rather strenuous and long. There is way too much running around from one end to another. There are also long shimmy sequences and to top it off, some of them have to be re-played multiple times, because the lever one pulled opened a gate or door far on the other side of level. There are also no camera hints, which adds even more running. The architecture of the level isn't bad, but everything is just hugely oversized. Also, I have never played a level before, which had so many illegal slopes. Everywhere there is a climbing sequence, one must be careful to not get stuck and re-load a save game. There were lots of secrets in this game (I found 9), but some didn't contain any pickups and you could only here the chime and it registered. The enemies were bats and dogs in the first 2 levels, but the 3rd one contained mainly raptors, which became very annoying after a while, specially because some of them just wouldn't die and kept jumping back to life - others just got stuck somewhere on a slope. The atmosphere was ok, but because of the hugeness of the rooms I could never get the feel of the original of even close to it. The sound department could have used some more loops in the mix, as the one that kept playing in level 3 was getting old really quick. Some cameras were fixed, which in some areas seemed a bad idea, but in most cases the look button brough the view right back. Textures were very repetitive in those big and uninterupted huge walls everywhere, some were stretched and some (but not many) areas were un-textured. The lighting was good, except for a couple completely black areas. Because of all the back and forward running and the size of the rooms, I lost interest fairly quickly and merely finished it since I felt obligated to do so. Had the rooms been a third of the size it would have been much better." - Blue43

"Horizon of Peru (7/6/7/6, 25 min, 6 secrets): You start in a fairly big area in the Peruvian snowy mountains here and straight away notice that the architecture overall seems to be a bit blocky and simplistic, but it still kind of works ok. A few illegal slopes are annoying, there are many pestering bats and strangely about half the secrets do not actually have any pickup in them. Several fixed cams are used but you can thankfully break out from them with the look key. A bit of jumping and rope swinging to progress and two little gameplay highlights with the sequence of short timed runs and a hill of boulders to dodge.
The City of Vilcabama (6/6/7/6, 25 min, 2 secrets): The weakest level of the three with rather bland texturing and lighting and a tediously long shimmy passage that you have go through at least twice due to a lot of needed backtracking overall. Plenty of levers to pull and a bit of an odd level jump right in the middle that can easily confuse you for a moment. At the end you get sort of a boss fight with a whole bunch of dogs.
The Lost Valley (7/7/8/7, 45 min, 2 secrets): Definitely the most accomplished level of the set. Better use of objects and architecture overall and a rather enjoyable course up and around the entire valley. It could have used a few more helpful camera hints and maybe a few less raptors but the hunt for the three cog wheels is quite fun, despite the very long passage of retracing your steps at the very end. Also a few missing textures and thin walls here, but nothing that spoils the experience too much.
Overall a nice and solid variation of the good old TR1 experience, which could use a bit of polishing but is still a fun adventure to play through." - MichaelP

"In the first level there is not so much to do, it's climbing and jumping in the first place, a little sequenced timed run, a few switches to pull, and some spiky bolders to avoid.
The second level - well, I found it not so exciting both in level design and gameplay with a lot of backtracking. Pull a switch at one end and find the corresponding door at the other end of the area is the main job here.
The third level shows a certain resemblance to the original lost valley level and it was the best level out of this set. Although expecting some raptors (like in the original level) I felt close to a heart attack every time I heard the sudden footsteps sound of them coming. Luckily they mostly got stuck somewhere in the environment and could get done easily with the pistols. What a pity their big brother didn't show up as well. BTW I had a funny experience with those raptors two of whom were dying over and over again. Those poor souls were screaming until the end.
There are some weak points in this set of levels like flaws in texturing, many dark spots and only a handfull of flares, 'empty' secrets where you only hear the secret sound, but no item to pick up and too little camera hints. But apart from that these levels were not that bad, especially the last level was pretty fun to play." - Jerry

"Good attemp, but not for my taste. The author have wanted to create a good ambience giving emotion to the game with some cool musics, agressive enemies and some nice fixed cameras, but a TR level is something more than this. Gameplay is really tedious and bored, with few puzzles and too much levers to pull. The worst for me was that many times there were not cameras to show you the way when you trigger something, and evenmore the triggered object was very far so I had to run around and around through huge areas looking for something and wasting my time; builders have to think that players doesn't know the right way to proceed and have to explore a lot. In the second level, doing the very long shimmy several times was an authentic torture. Where are the flares for the dark areas? I think let the players deal with the enemies only with the pistols in the two first levels is not a good idea. Why in many secrets there is nothing to pick up? There are a lot of ilegal slopes too and bad applied and missed textures. Definitively not for my taste, but it could be good for another players, who knows?." - Jose

"So, this was kinda fun. It had really bad texturing in some parts, but the gameplay was fun. Some parts of it were actually quite boring, but other i liked, and where fun. It's more of a Re-telling of Tomb Raider 1, rather than a remake. It should have been beta tested a bit more, and there are some (WELL, ALOT) fixed cameras which are sooooo irritating) Other than that, nice try. But, still needs so much more work *looking forword to Adventure greece!* And I hated having to install it :(" - God Horus

"This is quite a long game with lots of back and fro going over very long distances, especially in the third level that only prolongs the gameplay in a bad way, in my opinion. I played the hard way but that is easy enough so give that one a go. There are quite some nasty bugs in this level so I would advice to save before you do something. Textures need quite some work (like rotating, being squashed or even stretched). Also not every water surface has the double-sided box ticked. There are also some un-textured bits. All in all the game isn't bad, but need some serious work to make it better. There are a lot of secrets to be found, some are genuine and some are only chimes. The loop music in the last level drove me almost bonkers, but luckily we can shut down the sound." - Gerty

"By God,I'm glad that's finished! It's not that this is a poor level (a lot of work has clearly gone into it) but it needed far more beta-testing (stretched and missing textures everywhere;secrets which appeared to have been mislaid;buggy dino's)in order to be enjoyable.The biggest failing was the often moribund Gameplay,especially in the third level where the duration was tiresomly padded out through the use of ridiculously lengthy back-tracking around a huge environment.This made the quests for the three cogs far less interesting than they should have been,given that their hiding places were rather well thought-out. The second level was easier to follow but contained a tediously long shimmy sequence which had to be tiresomly repeated,while the first level had a dull and listless monochrome feel which made it seem bleak and uninvolving. There were fun and inspired moments (I especially like the flipped room behind the waterfall) but many of the traps were poorly placed (it's not often you encounter harmless spiked walls)and the whole adventure (at 2 1/4 hours)was far longer than it needed to be and not a little dull." - Orbit Dream

"If the professional look of the 'automatic' installation leads you to expect something spectacular from this level you may well be disappointed. Don't get me wrong - it's not a bad level and has some enjoyable moments (mostly in the lost valley section), especially if you don't feel like being too challenged, but it's nothing special and it does look rather bland. There appears to be a choice of 'hard' or 'easy' when it comes to choosing your exe shortcut. The 'hard' option really isn't hard at all so I wouldn't choose 'easy' if I were you. This is also a bit buggy in places - I found myself really stuck at one point because water levels should have risen and hadn't so I had to repeat the sequence of events to make it happen. Also in the lost valley section some of the raptors wouldn't die properly - they just kept flipping over on the ground, which looked really bizarre. So, basically OK but don't expect any real surprises." - Jay

"First of all, this game was actually fun! I thought it wasn't going to be as good because of the textureing, so I though bad texturing=bad gameplay. But, of course, I was wrong. This game has superb gameplay options, impressive statistics are included as well. The puzzles were hard too, but still, this game had a lot and more! Moving onto the enemies, some were placed in weird placed, but I got used to it. The objects boosted the score up, well placed and it fit in with the whole level. The sounds were really nice, but the atmosphere made this game a really nice thing. The cameras were actually very nice. The lighting, was meh, but the texturing wasn't that impressive. Most of it gets repetative after a while, but still, this game was really fun to play! With superb puzzles and gameplay, you can't go wrong!" - Vaughnage

"A 1hour30 game with 3 levels , a bit inspired by the original Peru levels without being a copy. The first two are quite short as you visit mountains , caves and a city of"Vilcabamba" that does not really resemble to a city. The 3rd level which is supposed to be a lost valley is longer and offers the most enjoyable gameplay of the set , it is really a pity that in this one, there was no cameras to show what the last actions you perform do . On the opposite the builder is fond of fixed cameras and some are a bit annoying or serve no real purpose. Another thing that does not work well is the background music, there was none in the 1st level and the one in the 3rd is really a pain after a while. This is another of these games where the music of the recent commercial games are used , that is not what will make me increase my ratings , quite the opposite in fact as I think some of those files really do not fit a video game. Maybe the professional of the video games business think the more these audio files are noisy and with no connection with real life atmosphere , the better it is ? Poor taste , really ! The looks of the level are not very good, although the author has progressed since his first effort with the editor. There are still thin walls and other mistakes , without speaking of the fact that the areas are not very organic, especially the outside ones. Not many objects have been used to enhance the decor, the enemies are bats, dogs , and a great number of poisonous raptors in the lost valley. There is also Larson making a special apperance. An adventure which is rather straightforward , with some optional quests for some secrets , and a more ambitious non straightforward quest for three cogs in the last level. Some advanced skills are mastered , the use of sinks and the use of the No_collision/transparency function. There is still place for a lot of improvement especially for designing the setting , also for the gameplay. Some of the jumps and platform actions were quite enjoyable." - eRIC