Level reviews

"I wish I could say I've enjoyed this levelset as much as my peer players did, or even as I have for the other offerings from this builder, but the levels seem too open for their own good; it's almost an open-world approach which I personally don't think meshes well with classic TR. With that in mind, if you ask me, a walkthrough is pretty much a must for every step of the way otherwise you'd be here for a whole lot longer, and mind you, I spent just over four hours of net gameplay here spanning over the course of five weeknights. It's a very crafty level however with an ever surprising use of objects (shooting bottles before being able to drag a cupboard, a crowbar switch disguised as a diamond that you pry off the floor, jumpswitches that pose off as hanging ladders, among so many others). The settings are also quite convincing although visually it's obvious we're looking at a 15+ year old level, and I personally felt the museum incursion was quite unique. Not particularly fun to crawl all around the place, even still I could never work my way back past the very first room, at which point I already had the Moonlight Sonata score in my backpack so I gave up quickly. Not many enemies and plenty of supplies to get by, plus a couple of cutscenes to further develop the time-travelling storyline. 4 hours, 8 secrets. 08/24" - Treeble

"It states in the readme that I was one of the beta testers. This is correct but I had to abandon the task when I came to test Somewhere, Sometime due to severe frame-rate lag, and a confusing layout that gave me a headache. Thirteen years later, I finally managed to play the whole thing without lag - partly due to improvements my end - but also I think the level has been tweaked since the beta and features like rain have been removed. Anyway, Somewhere, Sometime turned out to be a great level, but one has to be patient when playing as it only reveals its shape after much exploration. I'd offer the same advice for the other levels as well - be prepared to spend more than one day playing an individual level. Overall the gameplay is very inventive but it often lacks the clues that the player needs if they are to solve the more original puzzles. As a result, trips to the walkthrough are inevitable, I averaged about two or three per level, which is a bit too much stuckness for my taste. That said, I'd still strongly recommend this, if you fancy an exploration challenge amid very impressive architecture. Oh, and by the way: there is an attractive distance fog applied here but no mention of the fact in the readme - so you need to turn VOLFX off to appreciate it." - Dick

"SOMEWHERE SOMETIME: Sorry but I found this initial level incongruous and boring. After two hours of hopelessly wandering about I gave up and resorted to the walk through as the player has no chance on god's earth of completing this without it. The vista here in the city is huge and you will find yourself back tracking so many times trying to find yet another access point that it will drive you to near madness. Some in game clues via cut scenes would have been helpful. I did not see what the manufacture of fuel had to do with any point within the level and I take it that is still to come in a later level BUT you can proceed to the Museum Bonus level without doing this (and missing a good third of the level). The falling block puzzle totally confused me as I tried the first switch numerous times and only one block fell so I assumed (incorrectly) that ALL the switches would only drop one block which of course is not the case. How is the player supposed to discern this? So after a good two hours I trashed it and started again meticulously following the walk through which is the only way to successfully proceed and garner all the items you will require. This should have been called Tomb Hater as I was certainly hating the entire premise of raiding by the time I finally completed this two plus hours of misery. Score: 5,7,6,9. NO MANS LAND: Now this bonus level returns us to true raiding and whilst short is much better than Somewhere Sometime. The idea of feeding the large spider that spins a web allowing Lara access across the chasm is inspired. This level bears no relationship to our original quest however so exactly why it is included in this package is a mystery. Score: 7,8,9,9. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: This level takes some experimentation to get through and an immense amount of saves. You cannot afford to alert the guards and whilst you need not sneak, you need to find the path the author has decided is the safe path and sometimes that is not the logical path. At the end you get a reward item if you do not trigger the alarm and some paths have to be crossed twice so it becomes somewhat tiresome. Once I had the reward item I went back into the museum and shot all the guards dead, simply out of spite. Score: 4,5,5,8.To transition to the next level you need to get back to the time machine but if you are like me, after hours of running about this place you have no clue where it is anymore. Secondly, the lock picking device you picked up in the museum allows you access to two padlocked doors. One leads to a half med pack and the other leads to...... zip, nada, nothing. Just an empty staircase and an empty hallway leading nowhere. What a waste. At least reward the player for going to the effort of finding the secret that contained the lock pick. Finally you need to refuel the time machine before heading off (Now I get it. Wondered why we were making fuel). SHADOW OF VESUVIUS: This level shares many traits as the first in that there is an inordinate amount of running around and back tracking through a vast landscape that will confuse the bejeebas out of the raider, so once again you simply have to keep the walk through close at hand so that you do not become lost in the past forever. I actually do not know why we even went there in the first place as we never brought any treasure back with us except for the trophy helmet. All the running around was simply to garner items to please the gods but the damn volcano blew up anyway so what was the point? Score: 5,7,8,9. DAYPORT: I am happy to admit that this level (incorporating the Castle) was my favorite as it got back to traditional raiding and left out the excessively long journeys from one point in the village to another and back tracking was nearly non existent. Perhaps because the village was simply smaller than a modern day city? The tasks were not overly complex and good cut scene hints always kept the raider on track as to what came next. The only time I found myself running about aimlessly was when looking for the cannon and I freely admit to running passed it four or five times before I recognized it for what it was. See, I was looking for a cannon on wheels as they had in those days, not a cannon lying on the ground with no support. Score: 9,9,10,10. OVERALL I spent seven and a half in game hours here and really only enjoyed the last two hours as the first two levels really became tiresome with the huge amounts of running about between points and all the back tracking involved. Good level set but great? Hmmmmm." - Torry

"I hope you do have a lot of time on your hands when you start this up, as it is huge. But I found it utterly charming. The towns you travel through have such a great atmosphere and it invites you to wander around to look in every nook and cranny. If you do you probably stumble upon the secrets, at least I did. There are great new puzzles to do, not many enemies to slay and of course exploring is high on the list. There are some glitches at my end, I found like picking up an item and then not finding it later when I reloaded. Lucky me, a save before picking up and not reloading in between worked then like a charm. A pity there hasn't been another level by Trix, but I for sure will keep hers on my HD to replay them later." - Gerty

"A very fitting swansong for Trix, a masterpiece, a long time in the making. You are taken to an old city at nighttime, Pompeii at the brink of Vesuvius' eruption and an old medieval village. These places may seem to be confusing initially, but it all fits together. Great puzzles and sounds too. A must play." - Ryan

""A Time Odyssey" is one of those levels (IMHO) in which you just want to relax and enjoy the gorgeous atmosphere created by the builder. Not very challenging, yet not that plain. It has its moments now and then, but it's mostly a typical tomb raiding. What makes it so special, is the design of the levels. I personally love when a level is big and overwhelming, because you can totally feel that you are next to Lara exploring Pompeii or Dayport. And don't let me get started with the first one (Somewhere, sometime): simply stunning design!!!! Also, kudos for attention to the details! It seems that Trix had made some research, to make sure that everything is "placed" correctly as far as time and place is concerned. Last but not least, Selene has written one of the best walkthroughs ever!! Everything is thoroughly analysed and depicted, reassuring players that there are no mistakes so they can just sit back and relax. I really enjoyed playing this one, so thank you Trix (and Selene) for perfectly doing your jobs. A MUST PLAY!!" - mary-jane

"I finally got myself to review this game, which provides many hours of gaming in unique locations, but this definition does not quite describe the level aptly, so here comes the "slightly" longer version:
Prelude: This marks a great transition from the last happenings Aegean Legends to the new plot, then Lara enters the time machine and the fun begins with a very dizzying cutscene that has to be seen to be believed.
Somewhere Sometime and bonus levels (9,9-10-10-10): I always love playing city levels, may they be as large as possible, and this is one of the best, so you could say this level started off just perfectly for me. The totally immersive atmosphere is hardly describable; the blueish lighting, the gorgeous texturing and all those little details of which there are too many to list them all made this level to a very special experience which stands even notches above the other two settings in this game. All areas are masterfully put together and there is a wow moment each time you arrive in a new part of the town, seeing just another large and beautiful courtyard or building. I could not find a single thing that I would change in this level in those regards. Else than that, the gameplay is pretty refreshing, with several great puzzles, like the "creation" of a block row, the wagon that has to be moved in order to progress, the whole distillery/furnace part which was an adventure of its own. Every task just fits perfectly to the other and seldom a game feels utterly realistic. I agree though that you have to be a gourmet to really enjoy the game and if you're searching for non-stop action games, this might be not the level for you. The "gaps" between the great moments might be rather longish and running to and fro in the huge setting to search for the next step could be pretty extensive, though if you enjoy leisure exploration and orientate yourself either by your own memory or by the map provided in the download, this should be half as tedious. The two bonus levels are marvellous encounters and I don't want to spoil much here, but I suggest you try to reach those because they are adding much to the experience, and (to spoil just a little bit) the museum level is especially a wonderful trip down memory lane. 2:00 hours.
Shadow of Vesuvius (9-10-9-9): My first impressions of the level were nearly as positive as in the previous one. I thought the texturing of the initial rooms was very good and the sunny Pompeii setting felt just about right. Not that this level turned out to be bad at all, but my expectations weren't fully met. The overall appearance of the level was still very nice, with well crafted streets, lovely textured buildings and lots of eye candy. The object design is used well to create a great atmosphere, like the coliseum or the stones on the street. But here and there you could see some nastily compressed textures (some on the street, but most of them in the coliseum catactombs) and the overall structure felt a little bland and uninspired in the outdoor areas, with uncomplicated architecture and lighting lacking contrast. The atmospherical and also action highlight for me was the great fight inside the arena, I thought this was just plain fun. The puzzles in this level are still very, very nice and fun to solve, though in comparison lacking originality and the progression did not seem to be as inspired as in the city levels, but I think the builder just wanted to set up a different kind of gameplay and it's still very good, and the different gods in the main puzzle room are giving you a good impression where to search for the respective item, so most of the time, when you missed a certain item, you won't have to search forever. And the finale of this level is just another hardly believable moment. 0:50 hours.
Dayport (8-10-10-9): Those two interconnected levels were the most confusing for me and I enjoyed those least, but it says a lot that my least favourite part of the whole game still received high marks from me. The medieval setting is really absorbing - all those rivers floating through the village are such a nice detail and the lighting in the outside areas is very nicely set up, perfectly matched with the sun rays in most rooms. Textures, although a bit sameish indoors, were nicely applied. The only things that disturbed me a bit were the water textures of the rivers floating orthogonally into each other, but I think that can't be helped; but the main thing was that the inside areas, especially in the castle level, were tending to be a bit bland. Gameplaywise, I found too much of the action relied on too uneventful exploration (meaning getting the needed items was too easy - although the name for one of the key is quite funny) and the puzzles in between didn't make up for a change and felt a bit dull instead, e.g. the one inside the mill. The idea to make the boss fight in the castle easier by using a rope accessible after finding a secret in the previous level was already great, but the way it was done is even more ingenious. The moulding of the key was another great moment. On the other side, I found it also a bit harder to orientate in this level than in the others, but the map is luckily not that large and thus it's bearable in a way. The castle level was a bit more stress-free in that regard as you don't often have to go to and fro here and it's certainly the most linear level in this levelset, but still has several wow moments concerning good object usage - just to name one, a ghost coming out of the torture coffin, a very thrilling scene. The game ends with another brilliant cutscene that is highly rewarding and a great conclusion to the whole game. 1:10 hours.
Summary: Even if one has to get acquainted to the very unique style of Trix to be able to enjoy her individual approach on gameplay, this game is just utterly fantastic to play and one doesn't even need to speak about the object design or atmosphere! This is not the most homogeneous level though - the levels around Somewhere Sometime were the most inspired for me in any regard, being close to a perfect adventure, so since I played them first the following levels could not quite attact me as those did, but in the end this doesn't matter because all parts are small masterpieces in themselves and it's only to the level's advantage that one of them sticks out most. It's kind of superflous to highly recommend this game, but I'll still do that. I also want to note that this level has delivered so many ressources, may it be objects or textures, used in so many later levels, that Trix actually has effected more than her one (highly deserved) Hall of Fame entry. Meaning that this is one of the rare eternal masterpieces. Kudos to that! Final stats: 4:00 hours, 8 secrets." - manarch2

"This is the true raid, this is the classical TR, this is masterpiece!!! Trix is one of my most favorite builders, there is no doubt about that. This adventure takes you to three various locations plus two little bonus levels with full of explorations, puzzles to solve, wisely hidden secrets plus trophies (special bonus items), beautiful atmosphere, I just loved it, I loved every second playing it. I played it twice so far, found 6/8 secrets and found all trophies. Full recommendation for every TR player!! 10/10/10/10" - OverRaider

"This is just pure original genius. The settings will wow you. The nuts and bolts will astound you. The atmosphere will carry you away and you'll be left with a deep feeling of admiration for the creator. The visual appeal is blockbuster in this set. Do yourself a favor and don't think twice before playing this, or any other Trix treat." - VoodooChild97

"This levelset was very very fun! You go to three locations: Somewhere sometime, pompeii and dayport sunset. In dayport there is another level called dayport castle. My favourite level was sometwhere sometime. This was one of the very best cities I have ever seen! I loved everything about it, the crystal palace, the objects and the puzzles. The levels are very non lineal and pretty hard. I needed the walkthrough a lot of the time and I could tell you can feel pretty lost without it! Very good storyline and puzzles and the cities looks amazing. Pompeii was a really nice level with the arena and the gardens and the roman baths! In this level you have to find objects which suits the roman gods. A Very good puzzle. Dayport was very nice as well. Your main goal is to find the left gauntlet and make the key for the castle. There are really good places like Gallow's place and the mill. The castle was really fun and scary. There was a ghost in the torture chamber which made me jump! There also was undead and alive knights around the castle. The puzzles were pretty fun too. Give this game a go and it will entertain you for days. I might try Aegean Legends now." - afzalmiah

"Excerpt from Somewhere Times: Page 1
After Jermes Fex, the well-known owner of the controversial "Magic and occult items" store placed - everywhere in the city - announcements about his lost key, someone broke into the store and destroyed a priceless pyramid that was said to gather cosmic energy. Sceptics blame magic believers and vice versa. The first group is sure the magician finally got what he deserved, and rumors say about a hidden war started by an unnamed assasin who entered Mr. Fex's flat, killed his dog and got away unnoticed, with a stolen barrel of crude oil. It's very likely it was the same person who has destroyed the pyramid. This seems to be proved by the city brewery which was unexpectedly found fully functioning last night, with a dead worker near the distillation machinery. However, there is no evidence this was the person responsible for the event. One thing is certain: he tried to make some petrol illegally, out of sight and not caring about safety rules.
Excerpt from Roman Library of Pompeii scrolls:
Actually, this one has been destroyed by Vesuvius explosion. The only understandable words remaining are Decretum falsum punio. Researchers from Prof. Wells' institute are not sure what these words refer to.
Excerpts from Prof. Wells' research notes:
We always wanted to know where the origin of the "forge key" task is. It seems we finally found the answer in Dayport. However, we're not sure, so the research will continue with other adventures and locations Lara travels to.
If the continuum theory is true, we should soon find out if one of those guys Lara has killed in the past was her ancestor.
Excerpts from Lara's diary:
Finding the first energy sphere in Greece was more entertaining. And more flowing. Finding the next two, I was often confused. Shame some not so well shaped or unexpectedly accessible roofs were misleading. If all of them look the same, how could I know some of them are parts of the path I need to follow?
The escape from Pompeii was the best backtrack I've ever made.
Obtaining Moonlight Sonata score after someone played it behind the wall seconds earlier was magnificient.
The guardians encounter in Castle Dayport was one of the best knight fights I can remember.
Finding trapdoors was the worst pain.
Excerpts from DJ Full's review:
No matter which time period we are in - anytime, we can get confused. We need to be observant and remember everything. Fortunately, Trix provided some useful maps. For me, it was Dayport map which I found the most helpful. Sometimes we can explore areas we're not supposed to enter, and sometimes we encounter bugs, with the most annoying sudden alarm triggers in the museum. I also found waterskin puzzle crashing the game if one pours wrong amount of water into the jar. Anyway, no matter how many flaws the game has, anyone currently being in explorative mood should try this adventure - after playing Aegean Legends, of course - because it's extremely open-spaced and non-linear. Trix teaches us how secrets should be created, making them the most interesting areas of the whole project. Lighting is senseless on some of the roofs in Dayport, but it's perfect anywhere else, so it's enough for me to give a 10. Also, taking this raid on is the only way for You to know what Diapphire and Ruberald are, to see water level changing, to break down the medieval mill and to GET LARA BACK HOME, where a wonderful cutscene with modified Von Croy ends it all. And to hear the soundtrack, hypnotizing in the cavern, epic in survival moments, spooky in dungeons, and - simply - so realistic in flats and streets that I really felt like there were people sleeping around me (this can give creeps to some of You), and I thought it's a real dog barking somewhere outside. Seconds later, I realized that Somewhere was the one from the game." - DJ Full