Level reviews

"Right so we have here a level with straighforward gameplay, interesting rooms, good light, fitting music and no problems throughout, and this level gets a 6... I guess it's because of the ending buildup which cuts to nothing, but even if so, it deserves more." - DJ Full

"Self-deprecating titles beginning with the word - another' have become a fad of late, but the fact that distinguished reviewer Gerty chose hoary old Tut1 for her debut as a builder seems to push the meaning of the title in a less ironic and more literal direction. There are indeed stretches here that play rather a lot like a generic Tut1 debut, but they never last long. In part this is surely due to the circumstance that the newly-minted builder chose to take her cue not from any hallowed luminaries, but from none other than grizzled veteran of the quick 'n' dirty, Marksdad. This is most obvious in the level's use of rollingballs, and specifically rollingballs in conjunction with timed runs. (Marksdad's soulmate Orbit Dream complaining about this kind of thing being "overdone" in this level is not a little ironic, and also wide of the mark.) The level sports three timed runs of varying degrees of difficulty, but none is a walk in the park. We also find another Marksdadian signature move, the ninja who shoots at you while you're swinging on a rope; but thankfully, this particular line of influence makes itself felt in only a single instance. Otherwise enemies are placed quite well; the scorpions (which are venomous here) often team up with the ninjas to distract Lara's aim from the more immediate threat, and even a mummy manages to become quite bothersome when Lara attempts to pick up an Eye piece in a tiny room. Secrets are too easy though, and I suspect one of them (the revolver) was used as a decoy to confirm your suspicion that you may need to shoot an array of vases, which the builder deployed underwater in an act of mischievous misdirection (which I appreciated, in itself).
There are a few issues with triggering (one or two instances in which an event occurs without Lara actually using the lever that's supposed to trigger it), but construction is solid, and so is the texturing. Room geometry leans towards the boxy side though, and while the builder does her best to avoid wallpapering, there's only so much you can do with a flat wall. The main issue when it comes to design, however, is lighting. Throughout the level, the eternal struggle between darkness and light is raging, or in more technical terms, there are harsh contrasts produced by the juxtaposition of default lightbulbs and shadowbulbs. This diminishes the appeal of the larger areas in particular, which the builder clearly sought to make other than simply huge, as is more commonly the case. Overall, though, a solid, entertaining, and occasionally challenging debut." - Mulf

"As the title suggests, this level is a raid allowing Lara to recover the horus eye. Many large rooms with little object but many enemies. I had just a worry, clinging to the crack. That said, the texturing is correct, the lighting a little dark but we do not miss flares. There are some pretty cool timeruns. 40 minutes." - Drakan

"I'm sorry but this didn't really work so well for me. The usage of the boulders and a few (if lengthy) pushables are okay but the rest of the level is fairly uninspired exploration of larger and smaller areas which are decently designed (clean standard texturing yet monotonous and rather grim lighting). At least there were no larger moments of confusion and the game was rather fast moving with a few nicer enemy attacks here and there and a few acrobatics, even if the content was not so exhilerating. But for a debut as this level was it's a good enough job as there are no major gripes if we don't count the monotony. Found four good secrets in 25 minutes." - manarch2

"Yes, yes it was. I wasn't really amazed by this level. It just kept flowing, but a few well placed enemy attacks spiced things up somewhat. I do think that Gerty made a good debut level here, no faults noticeable. Not really a favourite of mine though." - Ryan

"It feels as though its been many a year since I played such a traditional Tut1 level,and it's always good to encounter another one and see what changes the builder has managed to wring out of the expected formula. In this case,the answer is:not very many.Everything proceeds pretty much as you would expect,from large chamber to large chamber,in an extremely linear fashion.There is little in the way of surprise in the gameplay (aside from the use of rolling boulders falling unexpectedly,which has a 'marksdad-ish' touch,but becomes too overdone);with very few puzzles,and only a couple of straightforward timed runs (the second of which is activated with a mis- placed trigger).The lighting is decently moody,textures have been pretty well applied,and the enemies attack frequently (often giving it more of a Shooter feel).Ultimately it entertains well enough for around 55 minutes,and so is perhaps just the thing for those pining for a nostalgic romp from the early days." - Orbit Dream

"There's a sense of grand scale to many of the environments in this level, but it just as often crosses over into over- scaling, with giant rooms that are relatively empty. The whole level suffers from this as you enter areas that many authors could make into several minutes of gameplay (like a large room that's just asking to be drained of water and explored more) that you blow through in five minutes and never see again. The ideas are there but there's a lack of structure to it and most of the level takes place in gloomy corridors rather than the grander rooms you find along the way. There's some decent gameplay and challenges along the way and no major issues, but it's not especially compelling, which is unfortunate as it has plenty of potential." - Mman

"Well, you certainly cannot blame the level that it doesn't deliver what it promises. Just another raid in the familiar Tut1 surroundings is exactly what you get here from start till finish. But while it's a little unspectacular looks wise and Gerty falls for the beginner's trap of using big rooms for building big environments (as opposed to a number of smaller ones that would allow to make the looks more sophisticated from room geometry point of view) but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the adventure too, just that seeing the same environment in the same interpretation will hardly impress hardened raiders these days. The gameplay relies a lot on the use of levers and bombarding you with ninjas and scorpions, but the boulders managed to cause a thrill too occasionally, as did a timed run or two, and while the 4 secrets are rather easy to find, they make the constant interaction with the enemies more manageable. Admittedly this would hardly attract attention outside the Back to Basics competition, but if anything, it shows that the builder possesses all the skills necessary to create a worthwhile raid, so looking forward for the next one coming, Gerty!" - eTux

"This is a tut1-level making good use of the simple ingredients. It's not hard to play and never slow to move on. Some moment when a ball fell on Lara's head unexpectedly made me jump in my chair because of course I was watching my step on those pillars and nothing else. Pretty dark - which I like - and making sense with the cameras explaining what you just triggered. Could impress a bit more with the colours and music, but otherwise nothing to complain. Recommendable if you like the good old basic Egyptian style." - Ruediger

"At least nobody can protest for the few enemies in this tut1 level; there are a lot of white ninjas and dozens of scorpions all around. Simple architecture with huge and quadrangular rooms, a lot of boulder traps too, dark ambience, easy secrets in crawlspaces, some timed runs not too difficult (except the timed run over the pillars in the water), easy puzzles with moveable statues, the hands, the eye... It seems that he/she could be a novice builder, but who knows? Entertainig anyway." - Jose

"I think that this is a good level but there are also many things that could have been improved a lot. Apart from two nice pushblock puzzles and some timed runs I found the gameplay to be rather simple and monotonous consisting mainly of shooting and extremely basic jumping. If author had used for example few more inventive puzzle ideas instead of placing a lot of enemies, I would have surely enjoyed this game much more. Other thing which bugged me a little were the surroundings. Texturing and lighting are not the biggest problem and I actually liked them and especially texturing which is varied and rather carefull. The problem in surroundings is that they look pretty similar everywhere lacking variety and artistic creativity needed for unforgettable raid. Despite all the minus sides this is not a bad game at all and it's surely worth trying out." - Samu

"Next up is a romp through the Tut1 wad, which I really haven't seen in quite a while. The start is rather promising with a fall into a very large and well-built cavern of water with a bit of swimming to do and a couple ninjas to shoot, though from there it slowly dwindles a bit. Granted, there are cool caverns and other rooms here with some exciting gameplay (dodging boulders from booby-trapped columns mostly), though there is less of that and more of shooting a couple scorpions and ninjas through a series of fast-moving corridors. This does have its share of blocky, and a bit claustrophobic rooms in labyrinth fashion, and the gameplay becomes a bit boring at times (exploring and pushy puzzles). Though, the atmosphere is good and provides musical cues when needed to set the scene, and there were no moments in which I was stuck or confused for long. Lastly, textures are done well mostly, some wallpaper effect is present, and other than being a little dull at times, I have no complaints about the lighting. It's an amusing romp through some subterranean Egyptian tombs in just under an hour." - Relic Hunter

"This is another level, another entry in Btb09 and , according to the title, another raid. Even though the level seemed like one created by a new comer and it only contained the basics of the level editor such as ropes, simple push-blocks tasks, ropes, and door-opening levers, some of these basics were used in quite inventive tasks and they added a bit of a challenge in some parts. Texturing and lighting were mediocre, and the structuring was really simply and mostly consists of the basic newbie ideas such as large rooms and tall pillars. All in all, this is a good 45 minutes level, and if this builder is a new comer, keep up the good work." - Shady Croft

"Being built using tut1-wad, this level brought me nostalgic memories of Community Level Uno one time or another (the location of hand of sirius, for instance). This rather fast paced level flows rather well, though the columns with spiked boulders might have you reloading once or twice. The lever that opens the gate to the door of Horus didn't have to be pushed -- though until that point everything else worked just as they should. 45 minutes, 4 secrets. 01/09" - Treeble

"In one my earlier BtB reviews I hazarded a guess that the level had Marksdad's fingerprints all over it. I must now revise that impression, as Just Another Raid seems more Ian-like than the other one. It's not a bad romp at all, and would have earned higher marks from me had it not been for that infernal, pervasive darkness. Egyptian levels aren't all that hard to light up, judging from my past experience, yet even with my gamma bumped up nearly to the max I still found myself flicking a flare on occasion out of sheer necessity. I've been trying to go easy on the darkness issue of late, but I shake my head in disgust after playing this one. Not good, not good at all. The gameplay is fairly straightforward and presents a decent challenge to the seasoned player, although the welcoming committees of ninjas and scorpions became rather predictable quite early. There's a pretty tight timed run near the end that took me a number of tries to conquer. About an hour of fun, which is what we were led to expect of this competition. Recommended except for that blasted darkness." - Phil

"Name of the level sounds interesting, but when I launched this game I saw bad lighting wallpaper textures, empty spaces in the walls and I hate it. When I kept playing this level, I didn’t want to play it. When I finished I was happy that I didn’t have to play it anymore. After the ending I thought that author didn’t pay much attention to this level or couldn’t make it more enjoyable. On the beginning you may ignore “Hand of Orion” because there isn’t pickup trigger, but normal trigger which opens doors, so you can go to the next parts of this game without taking it. When you enter the room where you must place it, you may become very angry. The same thing appears in the room with pushable statues. Author should get rid of these. Other thing is the number of enemies. There are lots of them! In most of locations there are guys with uzi and at least two scorpions. I like boulders falling from the ceiling. I got scary two times when it crushed on Lara. One thing annoyed me – when you have to shimmey on the crevice near the beginning of the level there is invisible ledge. You can see crevice little bit away from that. I didn’t know what to do there. Level isn’t good for me and I hope next customs of this author will be better." - jawi

"It's always the levels that begin with a slope that make me reload again, just to make sure I didn't miss some ladder, crawlspace or jump switch hidden in the darkness that invariably accompanies them. It doesn't matter that I haven't actually found any such trick in a level for a long time. I still do it, and so 'Here we go again' is the fault of some long since forgotten level builder that got my playing this level off to a repeated start. Finding nothing then, the end of this slope spews Lara out into the top of a large cavern, the bottom of which is filled with an expanse of water that can take your breath away when it first comes into view. Happily for the player, the resultant swim is an easy business devoid of any of the ominous threat its first appearance can hint at. The surrounding area is nicely lit, filled with an ambience that seems not only just right, but is evident throughout the whole of the level. There are many large spaces here that, whilst they do border on the excessive, are just within the limits of the balance between giving a sense of the kind of scale that would more than hint at the tomb of some long since dead, grand monarch, and having just enough space to contain what is necessary for the puzzle immediately to be faced. In line with that, there are a number of great looking galleries which are lit with a good sense of enchantment and invariably by mere wall torches. Indeed, in this case, less is definitely more. The caverns appearing between main rooms here I found very interesting on their own, if only for their unusual shapes. It was a bit odd to see Cambodian dragon statues in a couple of areas of what is ostensibly an Egyptian tomb. Perhaps the Pharaoh buried here was good buddies with a contemporary ruler of ancient Cambodia, who so kindly gave him or her a couple of gifts with which to spice up the place. Enemies in this level are quite numerous, and it seemed that I was drawing the pistols in almost every room in order to dispatch one or several grey ninjas or the seemingly more numerous red scorpions. In any case their appearance never distracted from my enjoyment of the game and actually seemed to be a good enough amount to keep me on my toes. Despite the amount of enemies in this level, pickups are plenty, so you should always have enough health packs or ammo, should you need anything more than the pistols, and plenty of flares, though I didn't need to use many at all. One ninja later on took to drowning himself, rather than have Lara shoot him. So he was either very considerate, or just suicidal. Secrets I thought were generally well set up, the second being particularly interesting. Music cues in this level are sometimes mere threat with no substance to them, and so it seems like the builder likes to play with our minds. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is one spot in this level which deserves special mention, and that is a 'zig-zag' passage. It's such a simple thing, but it looks great. There are a few push statue puzzles, but nothing too taxing, and several falling spike balls that will squash Lara pretty soon after landing her on particular blocks. So you have to keep moving. Overall then, this level strikes a good balance in lighting, textures, architecture, enemies, pickups and puzzles with only one faulty camera view engaging prematurely close to the end." - Czar

"You are on your way with Lara here through darkish catacombs. The darkness in this game was unfortunately the prevailing impression this game had on me; I actually had to constantly light a flare to find the right path through the many hallways which often seemed empty and deserted. Gameplaywise this is a fairly simple level, occasionally there are some unexpected boulders from above and a few alert skeletons and scorpions cross Lara's path. The architecture is quite simplistic as well, from one tomb area to a hallway to the next tomb area, all in typical Egypt style, combined with dark caves and water areas. I did miss a few more colours and the application of lighting effects." - Eva

"Just another raid - the title pretty much sums it up. The level construction is quite OK, albeit a bit simplistic, but the texturing is generally sound, and it's a big ask to get something totally new and creative out of the tired old Tut1 textures and wad. Some big expansive areas did not lend themselves well to the texture set and resulted in some broadly wallpapered zones. Therein lies the problem, the level never really gets out of second gear, but merely chugs along. Due to a pushable statue that played up, I was able to proceed without a crucial Eye Piece pickup which dead-ended me as I arrived at the end level Eye of Horus without half of the all important component. Plenty of ninjas and scorpions about, but generally a fairly easy raid." - EssGee

"Not extraordinary, but enjoyable nonetheless, with straightforward exploration (it's nearly impossible to be stuck here, methinks), some nice traps (lots and lots of boulders. My advice? Always look up before doing anything), a couple of easy timed-runs, plenty of baddies and red scorpions, and four (too) easy to find secrets. The only things that put me off were the pushing puzzles, which were way too simple while missing clues (the second one in particular). Randomly pushing statues to see what happens isn't really my cup of tea. Textures are nicely applied, some rooms are beautiful, ambient sound is perfect and gives a lot to the atmosphere but the lighting was a tad dull to my taste. An easy level, fun and fast to play, perfect for beginners or for those times when you just want easy-raiding to relax." - Sutekh

"There is nothing too intricate in the structure of this level, but there is little drawing away from it either. It is as if the author seemed to know his or her limits well and made the best of it. In some areas it seems to be raining boulders, making you retreat on your steps in panic several times, and making it tricky to tread stones above pools of water. Other foes are timed doors, armed ninjas, and those pesky mummies that never learn when to quit. The pushable statue puzzles were a bit too vague for my taste. While there is intelligent design behind their placement, the space you could move the statues in was too broad to not have pressure pads. The first of these puzzles should have had a camera cue as well, as I wasn't sure if that door opening sound was a figment of my imagination. Texturing is not bad, but there are a few places where textures show their stretch marks or show cracks. All players should find it to be a nice raid to be occupied with for the 45 minutes or so." - SSJ6Wolf

"well this is 4 th game from Btb series i finished ... what i can say more .is egiptian like game too ... is fair plain level a bit strightforward with big rooms moustly with columns to jump from one to eachother but this needed to get hurry cos falling boulders . same with sloped sliding ramps ... u slide and ur chased by a boulder from behind .... also some not very hard timed runs .. not bad one ... but not brilliant too .... is so so .... cheers .." - Jack&

"I was a bit surprised to see the Tutorial WAD chosen for one of the levels of this years competition as it is really one of the most basic ones of all, but even with these limited resources you can apperently build at list a fairly straightforward level, which will keep you busy for about 45 minutes and stands out for, well, I was almost about to say - nothing, as it is so linear and obvious and uneventful in its flow and looks, but to give some credit to the author, you will most certainly die on occasion with some of the numerous boulders dropping here and the two short timed runs were fun to do even though I thought the second one could even have been a bit clever if the camera would not give away the solution immediately. What is also most remarkable is that you do get the impression that each of the more than a dozen ninjas that roam around this place seems to have one or even more pet scorpions, so plenty of shooting to do as well and four relatively easy secrets found." - MichaelP

"This may be just another Raid but it's one that I enjoyed with mostly smooth progression and some nicely timed runs. Enemies are the usual and there's one or two fairly 'simple' jumps that are more devious than a first look implies. A camera was needed in one of the pushables rooms as a lot of time can be wasted moving the statues and trying to figure out the right placement. If there was a sound to signify the door opening above, I missed it. At least, I think that was the reason to move them...not sure about that. Enemies were well placed as were the secrets -I got three out of four. I had fun with this and recommend it for all." - Bene

"Within a few minutes the player suspects this is an old tutorial wad, a first effort, that the author dusted off and entered in the contest, just like "Just a bowl of cherries." If that is true, then I'm going to be suspicious of any title with the word "Just" in it. This one sets Lara off on an adventure to find the Hands of Sirius and Orion, and then the Eye of Horus. The environment is generally dark, and the texturing is competent. There are pillars jumps with spike balls falling on Lara's head if she isn't fast enough, timed gates, hidden shimmy cracks, lots of swimming, ramps with spike balls, and rope swings where Lara has to land or take off from ledges with shooting darts. (I've left out stuff from the list.) So this has a good assortment of play moves, and lots and lots of scorpions. I thought it was fun, though I was waiting for it to end. I suppose the title is apt." - dmdibl

"Just another day in Paradise, or well Egypt anyway, with attendant massed ranks of ninjas, scorpions and boulders. I have to say, this level is very aptly and honestly named. It's a blameless level - very playable and competently built, but somehow it just feels a bit like 'raiding by numbers' and lacks the wow factor." - Jay

""Just Another Raid"...probably a half-hearted comment that could come from Lara after visiting so many tombs in her lifetime, but at least this raid in particular is an enjoyable one. At the beginning, I wasn't so sure if I liked the level, with slow gameplay and lighting cracks - LOTS of lighting cracks. I kept at it however, and while the visuals remained to impress me only partially, the gameplay soon became a lot more fast-paced and exciting. The boulders and timed runs kept me on my toes, and any long and empty rooms were populated with a couple of baddies to keep things entertaining. While there were a couple of sections that weren't particularly clear to me (such as pushable puzzles where the final destination wasn't exactly well highlighted) I mostly had fun until the ending. Another good BtB09 level to add to the list, and an enjoyable experience." - Spike

"Just another Raid, well for me it was a fun one anyway. Lara is in a Tutorial type level (I think) and needs to find the two pieces of the eye near the end of the level. Enemies are Ninjas, scorpions and a couple of mummies at the end. The textures were nice, and the rooms were well designed; especially where the secrets were hidden. There is a lot to cover in this level, mainly because you have many nice jumpy rooms with spike ball traps, but also exploring is a must as there are lever to find to open doors. There's also a few object moves to do; but nothing too difficult, and a couple of timed runs that won't have you tearing your hair out. Although this level looks quite bland with its overly large rooms, I had a lot of fun. Well this level did amuse me with the spike balls. I knew they were going to be somewhere along the route, but for some reason they took me but surprise every time. A very pleasant Raid I must say." - Moonpooka