Level reviews

"I've recently played another level from this builder and the general impressions here are the same: a lot of effort put into fluff, parts of it which I'd deem unnecessary (all the new animations for Lara's basic repertoire which are changed just for the sake of change), and yet you have very bare scripting with missing or wrong item names. Visually the levels are quite striking, but they don't really offer a whole lot of substance and I think there was too much padding in the form of backtracking from one end to the other which might nearly double the length of these levels. Lara's voice lines are often drowned into the background ambience tracks, but it's not much of a loss all things considered. 40 minutes, 3 secrets. 11/24" - Treeble

"Not so good, not so bad. Could be very good if polished. Storytelling is nice, setting is nice. I like experiments with animations, even without top tier results, but wrong stock anims are easily fixable. In the first level more time should be given for the vulture fight as you die several times before learning what to do. In the rooftop level you can just do the airwalk below, but the gameplay Darwin award goes to the sextuple climb over ladders and vents - it's nearly the absolute worst possible design for such place. Optional." - DJ Full

"Hmm indeed... Despite some inability which shows, for instance, in the bad switch animation, I mostly enjoyed this level. In fact, I remember having played it before (not that I remember each step, which is a good thing that means I can replay any level if I just give it a little time in between) because there's something original about it when Lara runs along walls in the Prince of Persia style. It wasn't too difficult but I did like the atmosphere enough and the trap festival at one point was ok. The second level consists of Lara entering the VCI building and finding Von Croy - then we hear shots and I suppose someone must get hurt but we'll never know who exactly as the game fades to its end." - Jorge22

"g&p: Well this level got a good potential, but in the end the level is so buggy and illogical that it ruins the gameplay...For instance: invisible walls to avoid the player to go in some places (in the two levels) And you have flying flamme emitters going from a fan...Logic? You also have a boring 'Lara's double'that an Harpy attacks, it is quite easy when you know what to do, but the camera doesn't help you to spot the underwater switch, it was totally unfair, because you don't know what you are looking for...And you die die and die again. You have bad switch animation for almost every switch...Traps where also unfair, you have to lose a lot of life....you just go through blades without loosing life, you have a "banana jump" up to a lava lake, with of course a flame emitter to make you hurry, how fair is it? You have objects without a name "Load" name for almost every pickup (or "eye of horus" for a disk in the last level)... To play this level you have to save every minute, or 30 secs to go ahead... I had to take a save from a friend of mine because the "parallel bar" was buggy I just was not able to catch the second one... I don't if this is a beta team problem or if the builder did not fix this kind of problems.... E,O,S: Enemies were from TR4-5 not really interesting, but placed sometimes in an unfair way, falling in pool with a crocodile with static collision making the swim really tedious... Objects were sometimes nice, sometimes quite bad, like a door without no textures on its sides... (second level), you can shoot some statics like "explosive barrels" that were designed to explode with a wooden torch...Secrets well, quite well placed. A,S&C: Atmosphere was ok, it is good for me. Sounds were ok, except the "mirrors edge electric remix" that was so "strange"...Cameras were ok, except for the Lara's double room, and in the second level, the camera shows that every building is flying over the horizon...it destroyed the "realness" of the level, like the end of the world in the first level...And one of the flyby is going through walls... L&T: almost the worst thing in this level, after the tedious gameplay...The lights were ok, I saw nothing bad, but the textures...that was not beautiful at all...Stretched textures, missing texture ( behind a container in the outside part of the first level), compressed textures in some places, and you have trapezium shape on some wall making the texture distorded... Well I don't know if other reviewers played the same adventure that I plaed, or have the same "look" as me because the level was not really amazing, nor beautiful and enjoyable...I don't mean to be rude, but IMO this level seems to be over rated regarding to each categories for an objective review." - Lara_Fox_Croft

"An entertaining enough two-parter, the first section located in a modernized Egypt and the second taking place in a VCI Headquarters environment. Both levels are fairly simple to complete, although the occasional challenge does crop up in the form of Lara's new movements and a few nifty trap sequences. The downsides for me were the shimmy sequence past flames which aggravated me no end, the Lara statue sequence that entailed me gulping medipack out of sheer desperation and one blade trap which was a tad too precise. You can still enjoy these levels for what they are though: bite-sized packs." - Ryan

"This was the first levelset that I ever player, so I think this one should be the first review that I do. The game starts with a continuation of TR4, exacly after the final FMV. Lara tries to run and reach Von Croy, but sadly she falls and gets trapped in the tomb. She ends up in a water pool, and this is where the game really starts. Gameplay & Puzzles: I think the game is really well balanced. Not too hard, but not too easy at the same time. The puzzles are well hidden, and it took me about 10 minutes to solve each. The gameplay isn't too hard because it 'tells' what you should do, so no problem. The second and last level was actually fun. It looked really like Mirror's Edge and it was enjoyful that I have to confess that I reloaded the game just to replay the start ahahah.... The only thing I didn't like are the animations. They look good, however it is a little frustrating and hard to peform them, which is why I will give an 8 and not 9. Enemies, Objects & Secrets: The enemies are good (not too hard to kill). The game isn't fully detailed, but the objects that it has makes the levels beautiful and look a little richer. I can't review at all the secrets, because I only found a few of them. But they were a little hard to find, to be honest. Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: The two levels are in different locations, but the atmosphere really tells you where you are, and the horizon really helped with that. The sounds are well suitable, which looked a little bit more realistic. Lighting & Textures: Probably the best thing of this level. The lighting is superb - nothing more to tell. The textures are in high quality, it looks indeed like the walls aren't that cubic like TRLE is. To be honest I really like this builder's levels. I hope he has time to do some new ones soon :)" - SrDanielPonces

"2 levels rather short, the first being the best with some interesting challenges. New and nice animations. The second level is quite short and simple, just join the offices through the roof and find Von Croy. Correct level." - Minox

"I had hight expectations for this level. It was cool in the beginning. Some new well working animations and interesting story. The first level is entertaining, a few pushblock puzzles and some jumping. Everything looked pretty good(except the lava)The thing I didn't liked in the first level was the ending area. It was beautiful and interesting but there wasn't much to explore at all. You should only find one swith and a torch. Lots of running around if you don't know what exactly to do. The second level started nicely too, but when you entered the building you'll meet lots of crawspaces and lots of backtracking in dark rooms. Enemies had weird sounds, also the disc was named "Eye of Horus". The final bit with the guard was pretty cool, but easy. There were a few camera hints. Textures are applied pretty good. Lighting was too dark in the second level. Not a perfect level, but not a bad one either." - misho98

"Two levels that are pretty different:
Inside the Pyramid: An Egyptian level that follows on from the end of TR4. You move through various rooms; there's nothing especially stand-out (although the large chamber at the end and the desert environment were nice), but it's mostly solid and challenging with some nice use of new moves. The bit with the Lara clone seemed like a pointless bit of trial and error though, even if it is pretty simple when you work it out. Visuals, like the gameplay, are decent throughout without much in the way of standouts, although the last couple of areas have good visuals.
Revenge: This level starts off with a Mirror's Edge inspired jump across rooftops before ending in some VCI action. The initial jumping is fun but it goes a bit downhill once you get in the VCI bit; the level suffers from the standard VCI problem of having far too much vent crawling and similar, it's not helped by the fact that you have to backtrack multiple times when one corridor could have made a perfect shortcut with some tweaks. There's also an amusingly silly bit where Lara randomly gives up if she wakes a sleeping guard (flame turrets like the actual VCI levels would have worked much better). The visuals fit the VCI design, however, the skybox looks really weird at points and the bottom of the buildings cut off in an odd way.
One other thing throughout is the use of invisible walls to cut you off at points when there should have been a more natural way to contain you in areas. Also, in terms of the story, maybe I missed something but Lara's reaction to what happens seems overly extreme. It's fun and worth trying if you're looking for a relatively short but challenging romp, but it seems slightly rushed in some ways and I can't help thinking PH could make something really special if they focused on something bigger and cut back on the bite-sized packs." - Mman

"This is a nifty two-parter that I somehow missed when it was released more than a year ago. The two parts are as different as night and day, which gives the player somewhat of a feeling of disconnect when the first level is completed and the second level loads. There are some new moves in the first and more traditional Egypt level, including Lara's ability to scoot along a wall that to this day I've not seen anywhere else. There's some nice gameplay here, and it took me about 45 minutes to get through this section. The next level has Lara working the modern city rooftops in a cat burglar outfit, which quickly shifts to a base/VCI setting when she finally works her way into one of the buildings. This one is shorter, a bit less than a half hour, but together you get an exhilerating raid in two totally different settings. Recommended." - Phil

"Two levels in this pack, with one Egypt-style level with many and quite hard-to-overcome traps and few puzzles and another one on several skyscrapers - here your task is to jump over the buildings and then solve some lever-puzzles to finally kill Werner von Croy. Quite enjoyable and there weren't any mistakes. Short but highly recommended, not only because of the several "new" moves, Lara doesn't stumble anymore but can directly run on, quicker out-of-crawlspace climbing, ..." - manarch2

"Another nice level by PH. This one is a 2-part game and they are completely different from each other. In part one Lara had to escape from where TR4 left off and then in part 2 she infiltrates a VCI compound where she seeks revenge.
Nice and fluent game-play in the first part with several different tasks and good use of the new Lara moves, which we have seen in several newer custom levels. There were a couple jumps that took me a while to get right, but it was all very manageable after a couple of attempts. There are quite a few traps in part one. In the second part game play s really different. There is lots of roof-to-roof jumping and later one has to crawl into ductwork, avoid lasers and battle a few guards. There is also a quite difficult jump including a slide, a big ventilator, 2 swing poles and a timed burner and one needed a bit of luck to get that sequence right. As far as enemies, the only enemy one I remember being somewhat difficult was a vulture, who attacks a Lara statue causing a lot of health damage to Lara in the process. The builder did an excellent job with the cameras and the cut scenes with speech and all. The atmosphere was excellent and I thought the soundtrack did fit perfectly. I did like texturing and lighting a lot in part one. Everything looked great and especially the outside area in the Egypt level was nicely designed. In the second part there were plenty of visual flaws. The horizon with the city skyline looked beautiful but the lower part is stretched and put together oddly. The buildings were floating in air and I though that was too bad since everything else was so well designed in this game. I would have given a higher rating for textures if it weren't for that part. Nevertheless, I had a good time playing this level. As a matter of fact I have become a bit of a fan of PH and the style he builds. I am going to play one of his next creations very soon." - Blue43

"This is another game which was created by PH. The first level is a continuation of Tomb Raider 4 where Lara escapes from the Tomb of Horus, and in the second level Lara travels to VCI headquarters where she plans on murdering Von Croy for leaving her in Egypt. The levels are designed well, but the game overall looks quite sloppy and rushed. I gave it a 6 for gameplay and puzzles, because there were some BIG issues in this category. The puzzles were straightforward. One thing I didn't like one bit was the fact that if you missed something, didn't kill someone, or forgot to do something, it could ruin the game for you. For example, Lara needs a laser sight and a revolver before entering VCI. If you jump to VCI before that, you will not be able to go back to get the items. And you must kill an enemy to get one of the items, if you skip him, you will not be able to complete the level. Egypt was definitely the better level. The gameplay in VCI was boring, I thought it would be a fun infiltration level but we spent 90% of the time crawling in small dark tight vents. There were not many enemies in the game either, but I thought objects were placed and utilized well. I didn't find any secrets though! (were there secrets placed?) But I will definitely not dock points for that. The atmosphere which was built was good but I thought it was let down by the bland lighting in many areas and cameras were not used as much as they could have been. What I hated in the Egypt level was a frustrating jump where Lara had to grab a rope and swing into an alcove which looked impossible to reach. I have no idea why the builder thought adding this very very hard jump was a good idea. The second level had so much potential but it was really let down. The horizon looked bad, the buildings were floating and the buildings themselves were textured poorly. There was also a Mirrors Edge song playing in the background, because the level is inspired by Mirrors Edge, but it did not fit in at all. It was more of a calming peaceful track when Lara was really breaking into a hi-tech building about to kill her mentor. Finally, I gave lighting and texturing a 6 but I would have given it an 8 or higher if the texturing was better. I found many textures which don't line up, stretched textures and squished textures, and repeated textures. The builder should have textured better. Lighting felt very bland and even though the builder shows he can light, he should have made the lighting more interesting which would have injected a lot more beauty into the levels. There are a few other glitches which the builder didn't bother fixing, item problems, Lara has a silenced pistol in her holster but she draws a pair of dual pistols in the second level. Items were not named properly. Overall this is an alright level set but it appears very rushed and sloppy. A little bit more effort would have made it great." - Victoria

"Builders of TR1-TR3 levels used to put out test levels, proof of concept. These are good when one wants brief relaxation, and usually contain interesting ideas. These current levels are essentially very short test levels, and I have rated them as such. They may be just the thing when one wants a bit of quick raiding. I was at first put off because I had enjoyed the author's last two adventures, and was expecting more of the same. What was going on here? Lara can do a rope swing into a doorway, so why are there slopes and pole jumps and ledges that seem to add nothing? Actually what is being demonstrated here is Lara's new wall run: she swings to a pole, flips, then runs along the wall in a gravity-defying maneuver. This is demonstrated several times. Lara can hang from a crack, then "down arrow" causes her to turn and jump straight back, to catch a rope or another ledge. But here Lara needs to do a curved jump, and I found that "Alt + down arrow" allows her to make such a curved jump to a ledge in lava. So there are lots and lots of pole jumps, some wall runs, tightrope walking or rope swinging through fire emitters (lots of fire emitters), and slashing blades. Lara gets to do the forward handspring on a rope again, as previously seen in the author's level. The first part is supposed to be Egypt, related to Lara's escape at the end of TR4, with a pyramid at the end. The second has Lara a thousand feet in the air, at the top of skyscrapers, infiltrating for a final confrontation with Von Croy. Play them for what they are, otherwise they might seem a bit unfinished (computer disks are labeled as "Eye of Horus," and other objects are simply "load"). Enjoy the acrobatics." - dmdibl

"Two adventures for the price of one. First is indeed in Egypt (it for sure looks like it) and the second one is VCI based, somebody's head quarters. I am probably one of the few that really likes Egyptian adventures, so I was looking forward to this one. There are a lot of traps and put your thinking cap on in how to master them and the jumps one has to make. All in all it is quite entertaining. However I found the finishing touches rather sloppy. Why on earth go through all the trouble of getting new moves and let Lara crawl out of a crawlspace the old fashion way? I still don't like the"wall run" it still looks pretty silly to me. The excuse of not being able to rename the puzzle items is a pretty feeble one. If I can do it, Philip for sure should. Also if you don't align up for one pole jump over some lava, Lara won't grab the second pole, so that means reloading too many times before she indeed does grab the pole and not 5 cm higher (or lower) into thin air. Still pretty mystified what I had to do in the Egypt level on that tower with all the knives as I indeed saw the chest there but couldn't do anything with it. A real pity though as the adventures on it self are quite nice but at a certain point I got real annoyed of the sloppiness of the work put in. Another question is: where are the binoculars? And why give the girl 99 flares at the start? What is wrong with gathering pick-ups?" - Gerty

"Inside the pyramid: The level is set in Egypt and starts from where TR4 ended. The settings look pleasant though not outstanding including underground chambers and also a pyramid on a wide desert area. As you can expect from PH this level involves many custom animations that are mainly from author's earlier levels but there are also some completely new ones such as wall run animation which is very nice. Gameplay is linear and flows pretty fluently from task to another containing mainly lots of jumping tasks enhanced with Lara's custom moves. Revenge: Again a very nice level which however didn't make as strong impression on me as the first level. It starts in skyscraper scenery where you need to jump from roof tops to another and later you have to explore some air ventilations and indoor corridors. The first thing which didn't appeal me in this level is how the beginning area looks since you can't see the ground level of the city but only skyscrapers that are floating in the air the same way as structures are floating in 'Floating Islands' level from TR2. This looked really weird to me but doesn't affect much to reviewing. In terms of gameplay I didn't like the amount of backtracking and crawling needed to be done in air ventilations but excluding this the level is very entertaining and has many good tasks to clear. As a whole this is a well thought out level and surely worth playing." - Samu

"Another good level from this author. I liked the first more than the second 'cause I like more ruins and natural environments than cities. I had problems with some horizontal poles and the new moves but in general the gameplay is quite good. For me it's the first time I play with Lara running over the walls with the TR4 engine; it's a good detail. There are another good details too as the way to get rid of the vulture or the man sleeping in the sofa, the blades going up and down and some nice animations. Environment is really good too, but in second level it seems that buildings are floating in the air. Few enemies, few medipacks, few guns, few ammo, definitively few pickups. I like architecture and texturing too. A levels nice to play." - Jose

"I really enjoy levels that incorporate new and exciting moves. In PH's new adventure, we get to see Lara do a wall run just like the Prince of Persia. The player doesn't get to actually make her wall run at will, but the animation is seen after some pole swings. I thought the majority of both levels was fairly solid, with perhaps a few areas that were frustrating, with one pole-swinging incident in particular. I was one of the lucky ones though, in that I managed to do it after only a couple tries. It usually doesn't happen that way, as I am far from a precision player. I think if the author worked on the level a teensy bit longer to perhaps smooth things out, then the level could have been superb. Although I thought Lara's voice was authentic, I was a bit turned off by her nonchalance even during exiting moments. The voice actor used made me wonder if she had just popped a Xanex prior to doing the recording. Sorry to you, but that was a bit strange. Finally, the music was wonderful and it added a lot to the experience." - Shandroid

"This set of two levels (40 minutes spent in Egypt and 20 minutes in a VCI Base setting) could have been pure fun. It tells a story, looks good, flows along rather smoothly and has a number of fancy technical details to boast - and yet, somehow it did not work out so well for me this time around due to a few rather annoying moments along the way - such as one pole jump which needed to be super precise, the Lara statue scene which seems very hard to master without medipacks, a few invisible walls and blocks, some backtracking for the pure sake of prolonging the game and a few more small things, which just spoiled the entertainment factor for me. Make no mistake though, it is a very solid adventure that definitely should be played. Found two secrets in the first part, and missed number 3." - MichaelP

"The first level is very good in the habitual style of the author, not simple from the point of view of crossings but accomplishable nevertheless, they do not remain wedged too much for a long time. Decoration and ambience of game are very successful. The second level less pleased me, I thought it was rather classical with a rather delicate passage to be negotiated and which irritated well me, Lara catching fire more often than in its turn and it is needed more chance than address to pass. On the whole these 2 levels are achieved but I would recommend them to players already having a good experience in Lara's manipulation." - Daffy

"This is a solid two part level, consisting of two very different styles. The first part is a reworking of Lara's entombment in the pyramid at the hands of Von Croy and the second involves some vertiginous leaping about on skyscraper rooftops and infiltration of offices to seek revenge on Voy Croy. It's an imaginative storyline and some of Lara's new moves are put to good use, particularly in the first part, which is the more challenging of the two, although never impossibly so. There are some neat ideas and I particularly liked the twist on the 'Lara's clone being attacked' scenario and the novel solution to the problem. Very entertaining." - Jay

"And here comes PH's interpretation PH's from the end of TR4 and how Lara has escaped. In the first level Lara must find a way out of the pyramid. And who means, this becomes a walk in the park, is quite to be in animmense error. There are several duties which are quite difficult. Above all with one job one thinks which is impossible to solve it. But it really goes. However, one must exactly look around first, then it is actually quite easy. In the second part Lara breaks in in the headquarter from von Croy, because she still wants to change one or other word with him. After she has found von Croy, the words are changed... I meant of course that a few shots fall. And with it the level is over after about one hour playing time. PH has proved here once again which a very good level builder he is. Particularly has succeeded the outskirt area in the first level. This looks really first-class. But of course the inside area must also not hide. However, in the second level the outskirt area clearly drops down. Though the horizon looks very good, but only upper half. Lower half is total rotten. Moreover, it looks in such a way, as if the buildings floated in the air. However, this is already the only weak point. Then the inside area has the usual quality again. In the second level the Gameplay is substantially easier than in the first level. All together this is a successful level which one should miss by no means. In the end still a small tip: If you have time, than hear and look the Title-Flyby. It is nothing special to see, it is the usual Flyby. But you hear Chevaliers de Sangreal by Hans Zimmer from the movie The Da Vinci code." - Scottie

"Once again, Lara is off to Egypt again (...again), presumably to find and retrieve the usual...something or other. The first level is split between new content and old content from a previous side-project of PH's. Both sections contain decent gameplay for the most part, with the exception of a particularly lazily built section near to the end where we have to repeat a jumping/swingpole sequence 3 times over before we can proceed any further. Visuals are also decent, though the lighting felt like it could have been somewhat better in some areas. One noticeable feature of this level that I wasn't at all keen on was the usage of invisible walls - having Lara jump over a pool of lava, only to smack headfirst into an unseen wall and fall to her death wasn't the most pleasurable experience. While it does serve as a pointer as to the correct way around the room, it's not much good once we've already watched Lara slowly roast away for the last few seconds. Despite these occasional annoyances, I eventually reached the end of the level and moved onto the next. Next up is a VCI-styled location, presumably the Floating Islands branch judging by the surroundings. The levitating buildings and aesthetically bland rooftops did little to impress, but at least Lara herself seemed found it beautiful enough to comment on (better get her to Specsavers, sharpish). Gameplay begins on a generally high note, and hopping between buildings is fun while it lasts. However, an entirely missable key item (the Revolver) meant that I had to load up a previous savegame in order to continue. From here, gameplay simply took a huge turn for the worse, beginning with a section located inside a series of vents. As if running and crawling through plainly designed ventilation systems wasn't bad enough, when we finally reach the end we're told to go aaaall the way back to the beginning in order to remove some lasers, which are found aaaall the way at the end again. Trekking through the same location 3 times isn't fun, and the situation is improved little when the location in question is hardly entertaining. Other than this, the gameplay stays low-key and simple, with more running around and the occasional jump/swingpole here and there. Atmosphere throughout the two levels was decent enough, though was ruined greatly in some sections with the open views of poorly textured or unrealistic horizons (specifically at the end of the 1st level, and beginning of the 2nd level). Audio tracks were generally well used, yet a number of objects had incorrect sounds attached to them (and on the subject of objects, the majority were placed well, yet some collided into other surfaces or had visibly missing faces). Cameras were applied well, and the fly-bys of some areas were nicely created. I found 2 secrets in total, one of which was hidden quite nicely, while the other was incredibly easy to find. As a whole, the level had some good ideas, yet it was sadly let down by annoyances or general shoddiness in a number of areas." - Spike

"I thought this was great. As you said on TRF, you had been working on it for about a week and i must say; this is outstanding for slightly more than a weeks work. I thought the second level was much more impressive than the first, the atmosphere was amazing and it almost looked faultless; the only thing i didn't like was that in though the objects looked a little 2D, i don't know why, especially the horizon. On the other hand, i thought the texturing was perfect except for 1 or 2 squished textures, lighting was flawless as usual and the gameplay was absolute. These are 2 amazing levels and i'm looking forward to the next game you make, Overall - 9.75/10" - herothing