Level reviews

"You can feel this is something special. Execution is ambiguous but once I realized there's always an exit, I just applied some persistence till I made it to a quite satisfying end. I want to see the full version of this but more cared about. Recommended with a bit of patience." - DJ Full

"This is a bit hard to review as it's obviously not intended to be a public release nor a level properly said. The author states in the readme he built this as an anniversary gift for his boyfriend, so there's a "cute" factor that should be taken into account. As for the experience in itself, I understand this is a night setting but I thought it was way too dark and there were no flares whatsoever, I just hope his boyfriend was a patient fellow TR player to see it to the end. If they're still together this many years later, all the more reason to call this a win. 15 minutes. 01/23" - Treeble

"Who wouldn't want to live in a big house, doors automatically opening for you when you approach them, nice artsy objects and paintings and a nice little kitten waiting outside next to your car? Only problem: there's a dead body lying on your bed and some weird tomb raiding woman standing in front of one of your paintings. This builder and level sure are proof of silent waters that run deep. Well, what can I say, when you are weird and mysterious you sure have my attention and I love this level. No gameplay really, here and there some sounds missing but it grips you by the throat from the beginning as you put your sleuth hat on and go literally deeper and deeper into the mystery. There is no solution to the murder mystery and apparently no finish trigger but do not let this keep you from playing it. I guess this is what you make when you are madly in love as the builder was at the time. It's mysterious, romantic and certainly beautiful to go through (love the big room with two horse statues). You have no flares but that is not a real problem going through the either pitch dark or eye blinding white rooms in the surreal lower parts of the building. This level is a real love letter by the builder, alas, apparently the only level ever made so let's put that one in the box with the label 'promising'." - bERT

"Starts off in nice original house format with some nice textures and rooms then onto the street and garden for some more exploring before finally heading underground where things become a bit more intriguing, theres lots of white rooms and corridors here and a lot areas are quite annoying because its pitch black and you have no flares or guns to light things up a bit. theres quite a bit of climbing swimming and exploring to do with a few fire, boulder and spike traps along the way but no puzzles or interesting tasks. i especially liked the gloomy night time atmosphere and music and the room where you pick up all the artifacts was lovely visibly but ultimately the level is let down by the gameplay which is just a bit dull" - John

"A level that was apparently intended as a sort of tribute to someone special to the builder, but it doesn't really translate into much actual gameplay or enjoyment. Explore a rather simplistic house while opening doors along the way, before dropping underground and negotiating a bit of tedious swimming until you find the love poem (instead of a finishing trigger). It's far too dark in places (and I mean dark, not simply gloomy) and the textures are a bit jarring to the eyes. A nice idea that never reached its full potential in this miniscule demo format. I came across a female character in one of the rooms of the house (presumably the protagonists girlfriend or wife), but I never got the chance to find out." - Ryan

"Stumbled upon this randomly and decided to give it a try. I can't say the curiosity paid off too much. The best part is the use of objects, there is some eye candy with the sparkling effects and homey objects, although some fences and such are missing collision. I also noticed the different animations including a sprint jump which is always fun - but unfortunately useless here. Camera cues are sorely needed as the player often has no idea what a switch does. The worst part is definitely the lighting, which swings wildly between pitch black lighting and blindingly white light. The texturing is very bad too, as the author only uses a "white square" texture in many to make things even more visually confusing. Other areas did have at least some effort put into the texturing, keeping my score at a 3. Glad I checked the walkthrough as there is no finish trigger. Time: 20 minutes." - SSJ6Wolf

"After stumbling on this level for the second time using the random search feature, I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be quite the interesting level (at least in my opinion). It is definitely not your typical Tomb Raider fare. The author has made it clear in the readme that this was a gift level for someone special, modified to be more TR like. Many areas seemed very experimental. If you're looking for a challenging level with expert design and puzzles, this is not for you. However, if you're up late like I was, and in a dreamy mood, you might enjoy this mysterious jaunt through a home, town, and underground cave. Gameplay is again very atypical, which I actually really enjoyed. Most of the level is wandering around, picking up "Anniversary" items. I think I found 7 or 8 of those. No enemies or weapons, few traps to speak of. What I found most interesting, was the use of incredibly bright (pitch white, if you will) and incredibly dark rooms, which one had to wander blindly without flares. I've never seen such bright halls, and the effect was very dreamlike. A different type of challenge for us raiders, with secret passages very easy to miss. When you finally reach the end there is no finish trigger, which made me wonder if there was more to the level. Upon further exploration, I found several other areas I hadn't noticed before. I spent 40 minutes wandering around. So if you're into that type of gameplay in an interesting setting, check this one out, you might enjoy it. Some of the objects were nice, the author has good taste. Nice trees, furniture, etc. I think some of them and the textures may have been custom. I liked the Mexican passports for load/save- very clever. Atmosphere was nice and quite original, namely the stylish modern home and small mysterious city. We are repeatedly asked to leave the city and get back to the house- but why? Some but not all of the sound was good and there were few cameras to speak of. Lighting, in the sense of the white/black areas I liked, other than that it was nothing too exciting. Some but not all textures were well applied. The author has some very interesting ideas and the technical know-how to make some advanced features happen. Certainly good potential to release some cool levels in the future, and if so I look forward to playing them! Check out this mysterious, dreamlike level if you're in that sort of mood." - nite_traveler

"It pains me dearly to have to award such low scores but to do otherwise would devalue the scores I have awarded to other levels that have an overall better gameplay and lay-out. The builder states in the readme that this is his first level and time was against him so that has to be considered. But it was disappointing to have so many exciting doors with nothing behind them save the odd en suite bedroom and some unfavourably dark corners and crates that had no function. I was excited to discover a town/village beyond the house but alas, it wasn't the extended adventure it first appeared to be. No flares, a serious lack of adequate lighting, an invisible rope (huh?) and a pistol that doesn't even feature in the inventory once gained, all seemed pretty pointless in truth but it kept me out of mischief for a short time and I haven't given up hope for the builder. He seems to have good lay-out but needs to expand and improve some textures and lighting. Good effort for a first timer though :)" - High Priestess

"The title sounded intriguing, but if there's any lesson to be learned by me playing it as soon as I first found it in the random level feature - then it's not to judge a book by its cover. I was expecting an outer space, or at least a mountain setting experience, but what I got was a house, a village around it which I was not invited to explore (as subtitles indicated when I decided to leave the dreadfully dark house too far out of sight) and a very contrasting cellar experience. I could've gotten over my initial disappointment if the level would give you something to sink your teeth in, alas that never happened in the time I spent here. Your quest seems to be aimlessly collecting various pickups (which were at times accompanied by interesting light effects) until you stumble upon the last one in the ornate hall underground. The setting as such was kinda Okayish, but the dealbreaker for me was the darkness. Shadows as dark as the darkest dark, and no means to conquer it whatsoever - forget about flares, binoculars, pistols and even a torch when you venture here, because for whatever reason the author decided to deliver you helpless in his dark realm. On a positive note - it does have a unique feel to it, but with not really much to do here, and you unlikely being able to see much of it due to the darkness, I would not really name that as a reason to give this a go." - eTux

"The author claims this level was a gift for someone special, however, I wouldn't be altogether thrilled to receive this gift. There is very little to do but collect Anniversary gifts and run around a mostly dark home and surrounding grounds. I was very miffed that the author created so many dark corners and no way to explore them, as I never found any flares, nor was there a binoculars. I thought there were a few nice objects to look at and the house was nicely designed with sloping ceilings. Lara, aka, Gerard, was interesting, complete with male grunts. I would not have had him doing a girlish sideways cartwheel, however. There is no reason for the level to be titled Moon Mountain, as there is no moon exploration. Hopefully, this author will work on another level and put some serious effort into it, because if he did, I know it could be very good." - Shandroid

"Nothing interesting in this demo. Only a house with many rooms, an outside area to explore, wafer thin walls, Anniversary Gifts to collect, dark rooms with nothing to do, no puzzles, no musics, no cameras, no enemies, no weapons... Good design, but not entertaining. Bored level." - Jose

"The intention was a noble one as well as private. That however doesn't mean that it should be pitch dark in a lot of places. You can guess then that stumbling around to find the right way is high on the list. Finding quite a lot of gifts is a sweet idea and finding at last a poem, the level is at the end. There is no finishing trigger to be found." - Gerty

"I really disliked playing this demo, given the long reload times, the extreme darkness in some places especially underground at one point I could not see where to go even when increasing the gamma 300 % And the author did not even bothered to provide flares or binoculars. But the worst is these white textures just after that, could not see where to go either. I will say nothing of the few design mistakes such as thin walls , missing sounds and buggy water portals as it did not came in the way of the gameplay which is quite dull. There are a few new objects and the only interest of this level in my opinion was to play with a different character than Lara." - eRIC

"My fellow reviewers have really said it all. I am anyway not a fan of Home levels where yuo essentially spend a lot of useless time running around wondering what to do next but when you add to that a Home that is as pitch black in so many spaces as this one, it's even less fun. That aside, there are some nice objects used and eventually even a slight hint at gameplay when you get to flip two switches and need to watch a few spikes, boulders and fire traps. Nice music as you pass the red wine and a love poem to find instead of a finish trigger. 20 minutes and five anniversary gifts found along the way." - MichaelP

"This started out as a personal gift to celebrate a relationship and has been modified for the TR community. There is also 'a top secret' version that may be had by contacting the author. It's a stylistic, dreamy sort of level set in what seems to be a modern type house and it's environs. Some game play features such as spike traps but mostly exploring and wandering around. There is color but the predominant feature in my memory in the white and black motif in which it was hard to navigate. This is a first level and I think the original concept of using it for a gift was a good idea but it lost something when converted to more of a TR level. It's different and interesting to a point but needs work to make it more than an interesting, quirky few moments. The author has evident talent to do so much more." - Bene

"If you're in a romantic mood--or to be precise, in the window-dresser kind of romantic mood--this may just be the game for you. Apparently there's a story lurking behind or above all these spacious and awfully-lit rooms, but judging by the readme, it is of a rather private nature; and judging by its articulation in the level, it had better remain so. There is a number of really good objects (and a number of less good objects--most notably the playable character, who is missing faces; or Munch's "Cry", being almost unrecognizable due to overlap flickering), but the level's lighting is execrable to the point of unplayability, mostly due to the builder's reliance on shadow bulbs and concomitant repudiance of the crack mode. The only texture used on the mansion walls is just a colour that knows nothing of texture, making the true, honest-to-god textures stand out oddly. Add this to the next-to-nonexistant gameplay, and you'll find that dedication is only the one half, searching for its other, which is technique." - Mulf

"A rather quirky (although insubstantial) concept should just about maintain the players interest for the 20 minutes or so that this lasts, but it's a bit of a struggle when you're battling against pitch-blackness with no provided flares or firearms. The objects are rather charming,(although the Revolver never showed up in my Inventory after it was picked up),and Lara makes an unexpected appearance.A few Level Editor 'tricks' along with a pleasing use of custom objects indicate that this builder has developed a good knowledge of construction,but their Gameplay skills need to be sharply refined. I suspect that the Finish Trigger exists somewhere and is connected to the Underwater Lever (which appeared to serve no actual purpose), but for me the level came to a grinding halt upon the aquisition of a bottle of wine,which seems a good enough place as any to call a halt. It's altogether potentially enjoyable,but the pointless darkness mitigates against most of it's charms." - Orbit Dream

"A rather unusual level that starts off in a Mansion style house featuring a male character. Your mission is to explore the strange cellar areas beneath the house. You can acquire Anniversary gifts along the way however the count on the objects is not cumulative, so you may lose count of how many you acquire. I think my count got up to 5 or 6 but I don't know. When you get your poem, I think you are done however there is no functional finish trigger. I placed a full glass of wine on the matching pedestal but it appeared to serve no purpose. Lighting was OK in parts but there are some awkward pitch black and ghostly white areas to negotiate. Textures are somewhat simplistic but there are some good objects used. At about 14 minutes gameplay it's definitely only demo length but you can stretch it out a bit with thorough exploration. Overall not bad for a first attempt, but not really to my taste." - EssGee

"OK, the first thing that needs to be said about this level is"needs flares" - I found none at all and there are far too many pitch-black areas. There's the germ of a good level in here somewhere, I'm convinced of it, but it needs work. The idea is charming and the little love poem at the end delightful, but for the most part the textures (when you can actually see them) look bland and uninteresting, apart from the final room which is rather well made by comparison. There are some nice objects about though and collecting anniversary gifts is fun, although I never got to use them, nor could I find a finish trigger. Also, I picked up a gun at one point but it never appeared in the inventory. Still, I like the whole premise of the level so much that I shall definitely be interested in seeing a finished version - the operative word being 'seeing'; I'm not playing it without flares." - Jay