Level reviews

"Well, definitely seems like the author was just playing around with the editor but felt confident enough to share this microlevel with the world. It lacks substance however, as you just work your way down a couple of rooms, kill off two spiders and retrieve two orbs from small side rooms. It gets rather dark, but it's over soon enough and you're warped to level two, which I'm not sure why it exists. It's just a single room without anything to do other than two pickups, surely that could have easily been built atop the ladder where the first level ends? 5 minutes. 07/22" - Treeble

"This review may seem a tad pointless, seeing as this builder significantly improved over this with her second effort. Indeed there is not much worthy of mention here. The high point was probably the giant spider battle, but everything else is a bit substandard. It's also too dark and there was hardly any other sounds used." - Ryan

"Absolutely fine as a technical demonstration from a new-builder, but strictly in the demo/showcase for feedback category. There's pleanty of work to do here but this quick 5-10 minute demo from MizzCroft shows they've got to grips with the basics of the editor quite quickly. There's decent texturing, application of lighting, no wafer thin walls and even a flip-room. Ambience I is perhaps a little too dark. Keep it up! Stiggy" - TheStig

"A very short level, with some spiders, a portal guardian and two orbs. The level was very dark, and as I used all my flares early, I was running around, trying to find where things went. Texturing was adequate, and there was a nice bit of jumping to do in the level. It only lasted little more than 5 minutes, not recommended." - Cory

"Note: this download package is missing audio folder (and 005.wav), so put it in its place to know what the secret is... At first, seeing 2 different level files in /data folder, I thought I'm into something serious. When I launched the game and saw its dark ambience, I felt horrified I am about to spend several hours looking for the way out of endless gloom. Fortunately, it appeared the game took me less than 10 minutes. The first level is about grabbing some pickups from a pit and a nicely hidden alcove on Your way to the cave, where You need to kill two giant spiders and collect two balls to open a door. It seems to be a nice design, as we can see a symptomes of fire part and water part - and it is a nice feeling to see such thing, even if comparing it to what we are used to call an "application of element motives" in good levels resembles comparing early paleosoic bilateral invertebrates to kenozoic mammals. We can feel some kind of weird satisfaction when we use those two balls to open the door - just because fire and water remind us of those epic adventures we saw these things in, and have great memories from. So, apart from inevitable health loss caused by some evil spikes placed in a crawlspace (!), the impression is rather good in first level. But the second one can't be called a level at all. It seems the author put some pickups in plants (grabbing them is very nice to me, it resembles me of collecting fruits or vegetables), then built a gate to something she wanted to create next... and apparently noticed there are no more ideas left in her head, so - instead of waiting for a good moment for the ideas to come - she decided to release the incomplete adventure as a complete one. Shame - it was getting good, and I like that idea of alcoves and pits on my way through the level, even if there is too many pickups to grab from them. SUMMARY: Some collecting, some exploring, some nice atmosphere, some killing, some fire, some lava, some plants... All in ten minutes. Surprisingly good gameplay as for duration of ten minutes only. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm gonna recommend this one - If only You have nothing to do at the moment." - DJ Full

"A sort of very short demo with few tasks to do. Environment is not bad, but excessively dark. Find the orbs and finish is very easy; some pickups (I found only a secret), kill a couple of spiders and nothing more. I think the first level is too short and the second never have been released." - Jose

"A short 6-minute level (actually, two levels) with not much to speak of. The objects and textures are well chosen, but not so well implemented. It is a bit too dark all around and there are quite a few missing textures. Also no audio was provided. The only point of interest for me was the fire room with the slopes. Besides that you swim in a pool for a few seconds, and perhaps find an easy secret before you finish the first level using the two unnamed orbs. The second level is a waste of space and is a pair of unfinished rooms with no finish trigger, so it should not have even been included. I think the author should spend more time on the fundamentals of building a level before worrying so much about the pretty things like custom objects." - SSJ6Wolf

"This level is short, dark and flawed. Almost no gameplay to speak of, find two orbs, open door, go into an area that has no finishing trigger, that's all folks! That is, unless you run over the grid, then you'll fall through into a sort of limbo, interesting but hopefully not intended. Enemies consisted of a couple of giant spiders, agility was one easy jump, no puzzles, no timed runs and not much lighting. Sorry, only for those who wish to complete every level." - Diz

"Altough it started pretty well - nice textures, Lara is beautiful, the feel of a haunted temple is there - the first jump sequence to get the first "Load" ball was quite frustrating, I cleared it in my first try. Then, the swimming wasn't a challenge at all, just to find the guardian head and the second "Load" ball. And then I open the door and the level ends abruptly, taking me to a kind of open area without exit or end level trigger (making me fall down the ladder, wich I thought was covered with the gratings!). I don't condemn releasing demos, in fact, they keep me looking forward to play the full game and enjoy it at the most. If the builder wanted to release a demo, he/she should at least test it, ask for help and ask for beta-testers too. It looks like this Tomb of Auchindon is the first level experience of this builder. We all hope he/she comes with a newer revision of this promising level." - Camila

"I really wish that new builders weren't so hasty in releasing a part (or demo) of their level and forget that there are other ways to test if they are on the right track (or not). Also no beta testing was done, not that it was that necessary in this very small one. It is a very, very dark level and although flares are provided I feel for the plant that was growing in a small alcove and don't tell me that the sun can shine there. Textures can use TLC, saw some squashed and stretched ones and even a missing one (or two). As for gameplay, nothing to it, it takes longer to unpack the zip than playing. No music whatsoever. Then you travel to a second level and apart from one pick up, it is finished (for now), you can fall through the grate on the floor but you can see that the builder is still at it, tsk.." - Gerty

"Another new builder still experimenting with the editor - and it shows in this prematurely released effort, which lasts for all but 5 minutes of gameplay. It is certainly too dark, even though the flares are quite enough for the short course and the concept as such is quite ok with the two branches to get the balls for the door to the second level, which is (for now) all but an unfinished room. Not more than an initial test that should probably not have been released to public just yet, but the potential is all there, so let's hope she sticks with it and has the patience to finish a full playable level before her next release." - MichaelP

"It wasn't really worth playing it. The first level contained not really something creative or challenging, even not the fire slopes, and the second one was one room with some ammo to find. Excessive darkness made things worse - sloppy and not fun." - manarch2

"I didn't see a tomb anywhere. In fact I didn't see very much at all since these two levels are so short as to seem brief even if classified as a demo, plus being rather dark. As far as I could tell, the builder has potential, but this is a very tiny taster on which to make a proper judgement. In fact it's lucky I'm a touch typist or it probably would have taken longer to type this review than actually play the levels." - Jay

"Another short level for a first try , probably a demo. In the term of gameplay you have basically to open a hatch , kill a couple of big spiders , find two globes , in a fire room with slanted blocks and in a water room. It is quite dark , the atmosphere is reasonably convincing with the Catacomb background atmosphere. There is nothing to do in the 2nd level which consists of one room." - eRIC

"Well it is a debut level and I think the builder posted it mainly to receive some feedback, as this is more like a short unfinished Demo or Beta. First of all the inside areas are really dark and one needs to use flares almost constantly (but there were plenty of them). The game play is basic and consists of finding two golden balls, which need to be placed in order to open a door and continue. There are a couple of jumps, climbs and a dive. I encountered 2 giant spiders in the dark, which sounded scary but didn't inflict any damage whatsoever. I noticed that the architecture of rooms changed so that there would be ladders to get out of the pool for example which was triggered by picking up an item. I think the use of switches would have been better here. There were no background sounds, but all other sounds seemed to work. Since it was pretty dark the textures were a bit hard to judge, but looked ok for the most part. There was a missing texture at one spot and there was a climbable wall in the beginning that wasn't really climbable. The switch from one level to another also needs a little more work. When Lara enters the second level while holding a flare, her hand gets stuck in the flare holding position and there is no way of ending that without re-loading back to level one. Also, the grate that separates the 2 level isn't solid, so when Lara runs on it she will fall into black nothingness. The level ends short thereafter in a unfinished room without a finish trigger, right at the point where the builder stopped building. I think there is a lot of potential here as it looks like there are lots of good ideas implemented, nevertheless it still seemed a bit early for a release at this point." - Blue43

"Another pointless work-in-progress,this has the feeling of being something discovered on someones Hard-drive and uploaded erroneously. Nonetheless,the gameplay isn't too bad as far as it goes (the battle with the giant spiders was rather well set in scene);the texturing is competant and the atmosphere capable.It's just that it's all so completely futile." - Orbit Dream

"In some ways this brief intro of a few rooms is cleverly done. The opening is excruciatingly dark, so that when Lara climbs the ladder (where the first level currently cuts off) and bursts into brightness, players will really appreciate it. Lara shoots spiders and picks up orbs in simple game play, quite acceptable as a buildup for more elaborate features to come. The few rooms give a sense of a real location, and are promising." - dmdibl

"The second level just be only a bad joke!! There the level builder builds one single room, puts a few Goodies in and already the second level is (almost) finished? Though in the Readme stands that this should be an appetizer, unfortunately, I feel absolutely no hunger. And why is the first level so short? He is ok as an Intro, but that's as far as it goes. I had been surprised at the beginning, why there is no background sound and one does not hear the rain. Then, however, I have found out that this only superfluous bric-a-brac is, because for the pair of minutes playing time one does not need such things. Anyway the level builder must work on the lighting, because it is partly quite dark. Otherwise the few rooms have been built quite substantially.
Result: Not a good debut level, but I have already played first works, who where worse than this." - Scottie