Level reviews

"Over the past month I've played a couple of releases from this builder and in both occasions I stated I used to enjoy his levels but failed to do so with said releases. This one is a bit more in sync with what I'd expect, but still not his best offering. The home setting is growing staler by the minute for me (not the author's fault, of course), and the final level was overall too dark to make out anything. The first level is flagged as a "young Lara" one so all the weaponry and flares you collect simply vanish into thin air, which would render collecting them useless in the first place were it not for the fact that some doors are operated by retrieving such items. There's also something weird about certain doors, it seems they take about 3 seconds until they open up, which can make some of the timed runs a bit odd (the bug noted in the walkthrough is just this, it takes a while until the trigger finally opens the door but it remains open for just a few seconds, so it takes a bit of experimenting by standing on the trigger tile and watching the door in the distance to get it right). A couple of the pushblock sequences went on for too long but otherwise it was all fairly standard. 70 minutes, 5 secrets. 10/24" - Treeble

"Okay except from the first torch room. Soundtrack a bit too tiring. Gameplay a bit too unbalanced with the first level being the shortest yet the most interesting, and when you know it's a sewer map, you know something isn't right... The second level gets on topic and then all of a sudden it serves pushblocks you need to move over 30 times. At this point I was already tired even before the third level gave me another 15, not to mention THAT torch room which took me almost half an hour because I couldn't see the item. In fact this level doesn't have more than a few problems but they have a devastating effect on gameplay. In the end, I purged the mansion of all evil but the ending didn't reward it at all. Game recommended only for hardcore horror fans." - DJ Full

"Once again, Lukasz has managed to create a well made and convincing spooky atmosphere through the use of some bizarre and creepy audio files and some tense music choices. All of these are undoubtedly the levels' strongest point. There's mainly a lot exploration to do through the house and sewers, with the occasional timed run, block puzzle or torch sequence to add a bit of needed spice to the game, as well as some fittingly grotesque enemies to dispose of. That fatal button in the first level turned out to be not so fatal for me after all. I simply pressed the button, waited for it to reset, then stepped off and back on its square and the door opened to let me leave. Quite obscure but it worked. Overall, it's pretty sequential throughout, but entertaining enough while it lasts." - Ryan

"This was not so good than the previous adventure. I found several bugs in the first level when reloading savegames, the objects I picked up never appeared in the inventory (except the small medipacks) and there's a grated door I could never open, so I had to download a savegame from the site. The next levels were no much better; the continuous darkness with not enough flares, the excessive zombies, several switches to open a single door or trapdoor, repetitive tasks moving a lot of boxes many times and very few puzzles. In certain courtyard I was forced to use three jumpswitches to open a trapdoor tediously moving a crate all around the room 'cause the author deformed some parts of the floor so the players could not move the crate in any way. At least the timed runs were not too tight. Playable adventure, but not very enjoyable for me." - Jose

"This was sitting on my HD for a while and I saw I was halfway through. Not remembering anything I decided to play it from the start again. There are still some nasty bugs in here, most of them to do with doors that won't work properly (needed to use the savedgame that is provided with one door). Some random crashes when trying to kill some mummies, so I just had to let them walk around and figure out in which room I could kill them. There are some real interesting ideas here but on the other hand it is a bit too much to use more than one lever/switch/button to open doors/trapdoors almost every time. Overall the levels were very dark and at the start you did find flares, but they don't show up, so I couldn't use them. Later you can but they don't give off much light. Not bad for a horror, but a pity that the bugs aren't ironed out." - Gerty

"Although listed in the Mystery category I would consider this level more of a shooter, as there really aren't any mysteries or puzzles to solve. The level starts in a sewer system with Lara looking for guns and what a relief when she finds the shotgun. The bummer is that it doesn't show up in the inventory and neither do the flares or any other pickups for that matter. There are a lot of timed runs and also a game stopping bug when a timed gate will not open again, but luckily there is a save game available. When Lara enters level 2 the inventory screen starts to work and we are treated with lots of weapon pickups and some binoculars, which are definitely needed since the mansion Lara explores is loaded with zombies. Unfortunately there are several locust swarm thrown into the mix which are always an unwelcome distraction and bad for Lara's health. The builder made use of lots of fixed camera angles and those didn't make the dodge and shoot sequences much easier either. There are even more enemies in the third part of the game and some are tough and very bullet resistant. It is still not a hard or difficult game, just lots of shooting and feeding heath packs. A bit of exploration but for the most part it is straightforward and not easy to get lost. The atmosphere is in my opinion the best part of this game. It is dark and spooky with excellent background tracks and some good intermezzo music for the combat sequences. Good thing flares are unlimited as there are many dark corners, dark hallways and rooms. Some do contain essential pickups, so it turns out to be a good idea to search around with flares lit most of the time. The texturing is a little rough and crusty and does definitely have a unique look it. The rooms are sometimes a bit cramped; full of objects like boxes and it is very dark in many areas. The end comes a bit sudden and should be a little more rewarding, especially after a lengthy final battle with a horde of enemies. This s not one of the builder's best levels, but if you like dark and spooky and lots of shooting - this level is definitely for you. (2h 30min, 5 secrets found)" - Blue43

"Sewers (5/7/8/7, 20 min, 1 secret found): An interesting atmosphere created in those sewers with the intense texture colours and very cool audio tracks. A nice premise to start without weapons, but this first part is severly spoiled by the not working trigger that also had me use the savegame to proceed further and by the strange bug that has you pick up a shotgun and flares and yet not seeing them in your inventory or the helpful guards that prove not to be helpful when you need them with the big rats.
Old House (6/8/9/7, 40 min, 1 secret): A manor level - not usually my favourite - but this one flows quite well without much searching for where to go next and the atmosphere works again due to the lighting, textures and audio combination and the zombie mummies that you can choose to evade or kill with the crossbow and explosives. The initial push block puzzle with the timed trap door was kind of fun, but the one right after maybe a bit too tedious.
Basement and Cells (7/8/8/7, 45 min, 1 secret): Athmospherically an even 'darker' level than the previous ones, I found this to be the most well rounded one of the set. The encounter with the three sea hags is an interesting addition and you get to work more with push blocks and torches before battling a few cool 'tinmen'-style enemies near the end, which actually happens to be very abrupt.
As a whole, this is not a bad series which works well against the desired resident evil scenario, if it were not for the technical troubles of the first level." - MichaelP

"The starting begins innocently, but then we survive a moment of horror. We get up to a beautiful but haunted house. There are lot's of zombies and few dogs and around are the corpses. The blood was everywhere. Game was not too difficult. Unfortunately, in this custom was a serious bug, for which passing the game was impossible. I had to use someone else's save." - Andzia9

"The idea of the game is great: survival horror where the mummies and horsemen are transformed in zombies, and you can (with quite a few exceptions) choose to avoid or fight them. Contrary to that, the realization was not so great, especially when the level is signed by Lusacz Croft. He used complex editing of the script and thus caused some unexpected bugs to appear. We all know that the Level Editor itself is buggy, and therefore builders either go around some problems in order to avoid bugs or make even more complex change to the .exe file to make it work. Some bugs are killers; other players found many bugs, and I myself could not open the first trapdoor on the third level, because in my game I had no big gray orb to shoot in the alley... Yes, the author managed to make a good survival horror, with all those zombies waking up unexpectedly, with similarities and references to the Resident Evil, one of the best games of the genre, and the overall impression is good. The atmosphere with creepy background sounds and music is mysterious and scary, the gameflow is great, when you manage to go around some bugs. The game is dark, maybe even too dark, there is a lot of action, not so many climbing and jumping sequences, a lot of pushing and pulling around and enough puzzles to solve and quite a few timed runs. You are definitely not bored in this old abandoned house, although you are frustrated when you are stuck somewhere." - Nina Croft

"Well, I would like that one, but the glitches ruined the fun a bit. Lukasz needs beta testers(or better of them), because I've met a few annoying glitches in this levelset. Like at the first level, where a switch didn't work properly. Only restarting the level helps, and that's sad. Gameplay is fun, anyway, I liked the various styles in the levels(although repeating the "same puzzles" is not a good idea, like the box-pulling puzzles). In the first one, you must avoid the enemies as you have no guns, in the second one there is some lovely shooting against some weak zombies, which is pure fun, and there is the third level, where I've met some nice puzzles, objects, and the mood of the level is also very good. The darkness made the key-searchings harder, but this darkness is perfect to this level. The sea monster killing was AWESOME! Very creative, loved it. Another thing which have confused me is the musics. When I triggered a music, the ambient music didn't turn off thus I heard some chaotic tunes.(they would've been nice alone) So, just a few little mistakes, otherwise this is one of the best work of the author. Recommended." - rtrger

"A three-part level. The first, interesting enough, is played without weaponry, even though you'll pick up ammunition aplenty. As you need to pass shootable barriers to proceed I was beginning to worry that I'd missed the pistols somewhere. I needn't have been concerned as it all worked out in the end. Even so, I'd have preferred to have had the weapons myself, it makes me itchy to have guards, rats, barriers and rubbish bins to shoot and not be able to. In the second and third parts you have weapons galore - hooray! Back to normal. Corpses all over the place, mummies and deadly bats (retextured locusts - horrible) can thankfully be dispatched with plenty of explosive ammunition. Watch out for the novel way of dispatching the sea hags. A bit dark for my taste and some decent timed runs and agility tests would have been nice but overall a pleasant level with more than 2 hours of gameplay." - Diz

"What do you say, Lukasz can build yet stilll good levels. Now after his, in any case, for my taste, unsuccessful newest level "Return to the Coliseum", I have played this level. And I have liked him substantially better. The sound felt well and was diverse, there were no sound mistakes with the push boxes, there were interesting opponents and the rooms became really good textured. Indeed, there were of course also a few things which I have not liked. It is quite irritating if one must push one single box to and fro to reach three Jumpswitches. In the first level needs Lara some help from a few dudes. But they stood on her places and had only nibbled on her fingernails, instead of shooting the big fat rats. Though one could find the shotgun and ammunition, but one had to play in the first level completely without weapons. And that what one had found did not exist in the second level any more. Now and again one saw a stretched texture what was however not so bad. The riddles existed as a rule of press a switch and search a key, but there were also present more interesting riddles. For example, one had to lure three water witches into a sting field, because only so one could kill them. However, the key which lay in this area was very difficult to recognise. The end was unimaginative a little bit, thereof Lukasz could have made more. Nevertheless, all together was this a good level." - Scottie

"Another setting , but it is the same ole same ole type of adventure from the builder : yet again 3 levels , many enemies at least after the first level , small rooms , some traps, some good effects, not a lot of interesting things to do, before arriving in the 3rd level which is the best, where there is a good use of a spike trap to kill sea hags , and a good puzzle with movable boxes to reach a high crawlspace. Before that very little was accomplished in terms of decent puzzles or fun actions to perform. And I had to borrow a savegame to finish the first level because of a bug. The architecture is unimpressive and the texturing could be better. There is a good atmosphere and sfx sounds (except that the various breakable objects have all the broken glass sound) that is the main quality of the levels , and I loved the accordion music at the beginning of the 2nd level which is quite spooky. Maybe it is time for the builder to think about more ambitious architecture that would allow a more diverse type of gameplay , and not remain stuck in series of small sized rooms. Just a thought." - eRIC

"This is somewhat different from the author's usual levels. The opening has Lara in the sewers, and though the layout and atmosphere are good, there are distressing innovations for the player. Lara picks up ammo, shotgun, and flares, but none of these do her any good as they don't appear in inventory. It was suggested on the forum that Lara was deprived of her weapons to keep her from shooting the barriers. Maybe this was the intent, but it gives a feeling of powerlessness, since Lara must endure the attack of giant rats that push her around. I was completely blocked by a buggy push button, and had to shut down the game and go online. Again the forum was helpful; it was suggested the author intended for the button to malfunction. Lara starts a race for the timed door, but the door is always shut. The rules have been changed, Lara can't venture out. Lara presses the button and must stand still on the tile until the button resets by popping back out again: then the gate opens and the timer starts. Right. No wonder nobody is playing these levels, they can't get past the start. The second and third levels are more normal, for Lara starts by picking up weapons and crowbar. This is a "Night of the Living Dead" scenario (and I do mean night), with lots of risen corpses stalking Lara. Only explosive ammo is useful, though the revolver is needed for a few enemies at the end. Everything is too dark to be effective. Lara has to confront several sea hags, and dispose of them by luring them to an underwater spike tile. This should be good, but things were so dark and cramped that I couldn't see what was going on. I would spot a sea hag body floating on the water and realize the spikes must have worked. There is a lot going on in the game, but all of it could have been improved with more light. I played with a standard monitor, but a flat panel LCD monitor would be much better for its bright lighting." - dmdibl

"A 3 part adventure that took me two hours to complete. I'd say the strongest trait shown here is definitely the atmosphere. There is much effort in putting together audio and visuals to make you feel like looking behind your back in this spooky place (though some sounds, like the crow, got irritating after a while). The gameplay, while it lasts a while, was not particularly impressionable, as it is basically a hunt for the next switch or item obscured by darkness. The puzzles were simple and the hardest sequence was a series of slopes that you could actually pick up from the middle instead of the start. There were also a few bugs; two switches that were supposed to open exit doors did not work. I used a provided save for the first one, but with the second one I realized that the trigger was actually not a switch trigger (though it did not always seem to work) and you just had to run through the door before it shut. The author also taunts players with pickups that do not appear in the inventory in the first level - this also caused a bug where by the second level, the flares and small medpacks became unlimited. This was fine by me though, because there were many dark corridors to deal with that would have been much more frustrating. Anyway, it is an interesting adventure if you are in the mood for something more on the creepy side." - SSJ6Wolf

"Here's a three-part release that seems to fit the mold established by the builder in his other levels. You get several hours of gameplay, the tasks are at times challenging without ever becoming frustratingly difficult, the visual amenities take a back seat to the action, and you get this satisfying sense of accomplishment when you hit the finish trigger. I was tempted early on to slash at least 4 points from gameplay because of a bug in the first level that left many players trapped (until downloading a posted savegame). I'm referring to the timed run in the room with the three huge rats, where you have to dash to a small triangular opening and pull up into the next room before the grate closes. So far, so good. But to get back out, there's a timed button that's supposed to re-open the grate but in my case did not. It would have been a simple matter to put a trigger in this room to keep the grate open once you've completed the timed run successfully. In any event, the game should never have been released with this flaw. I had another problem in the first level, where access to the second secret appears to be a completely random phenomenon. Either the explosion shatters the wooden barriers leading to it, or it doesn't. I could find no way to create access to this secret repeatedly or reliably. Aside from these major blemishes, and the fact that the overall darkness soon becomes quite depressing as the game wears on, I had a good time here and can recommend these levels to anyone who enjoys a challenging raid with lots of enemies along the way." - Phil

"Ireland Sewers: Yuk, sewer rats (some of which are HUGE) and no pistols. In fact you have absolutely nothing stashed in your backpack at this stage. You will find quite a bit of ammo and a shotgun, but they won't register in your inventory, nor will the flares but the crowbar and several small medipacks will. The fact that there are dozens of shootable dustbins about is pretty much bound to make your trigger finger itch too. Lukasz has managed, as he so often does, to create a creepy atmosphere by the use of some unsettling sound files. Ireland Old House: Oddly enough, the flares now register in the inventory. Pistols are forthcoming early on too, thankfully, plus a spare crowbar which is a bit odd since you won't have been able to get this far without one. The house is just as spooky as the sewers, but at least the rats are absent, although there are quite a lot of corpses lying about the place and the zombies and killer bats are definitely unfriendly. I was really glad to find the crossbow and explosive ammo. Ireland Basements and Cells: Still plenty of zombies about, but at least explosive ammo is in good supply. The game becomes a bit more of a shooter at this point, as you get dogs and quite a lot of cyborg style tinmen, who really gang up on you. Overall, there's nothing difficult to achieve. There are timed elements, but the timings are very generous. Mostly it's about finding your way in the sometimes very dark areas and trying not to lose too much health to the enemies. In any case, medipacks are lavishly supplied, so no real problem there. If you like Lucasz's rather individual style of level, this is definitely one of his better ones." - Jay

"Well done, i'll get straight to the point. A very well designed level with a good but slightly odd story to go with it. Lighting and Textures were generally good, lighting was a bit poor in some places since it was too dark, camera's were good, sound was ok and atmosphere was also good. Game play wasn't amazing but it still came together to make this a good game, and the puzzles weren't exactly anything new. This builder is getting better with the editor and i congratulate him. Grade = A" - herothing