Level reviews

"I think the VCI levels don't get as much representation in the TRLE and I understand partly the reasons - personally I'd take them any time over TR3 London levels. This one is more of a shooter, all things considered, and a rather tricky one as you start out without any weapons (and I had a chuckle when I was getting pistols out of a cupboard only to see a guard walk right up to me and stand still, silently judging me in his final moments). You get plenty of weaponry in a side room and you end up using nearly all of it in a big finale. Not much else to say here really. I liked the spinning VCI logo. 10 minutes. 11/22" - Treeble

"A shooter raid in a base setting. The gameplay department only consists in making your way through some tunnels, to finally come to a battle with some extremely tough guys that took a lot of my ammo for them to die. After that you just make your way through a sloped platform to reach the end." - alan

"Always fun to have an out and out shooter level in the mix. Takes one away from the traditional hunt scenarios for a brief period. The final battle took some doing and each opponent took 100 MP5 hits before expiring so take care of your ammo folks." - Torry

"Those who are fans of shooters will doubtless enjoy this, and I admit it started off quite promisingly with a nice animation, some custom weaponry and generally pleasant gameplay, but it lost its lustre a bit for me due to the somewhat long-winded duct crawling sequences and the rather overwhelming onslaught of enemies near the end. Despite the copious amounts of weaponry and supplies on offer, I nearly exhausted all of it trying to defeat those guards near the end, as it was a bit ineffectual at times. The ending was also a bit abrupt, although that may due to the challenge constraints. That said, I do feel there is potential for this to be one day expanded into something greater and more varied. I've definitely seen worse shooter levels." - Ryan

"The first thing you notice is how sleak and ultra high tech this place looks, with it's marble architecture, and rotating V sign. Perhaps the windows could be set a little further back though. The sound track is standard from TR5, but the rotating V sign and doors have nice fx, although the guard sound a little heavier than he looks! The task here is to get 2 pieces of an item to open a door, taking out a guard whilst doing so. There's a good choice of weopons with pistols, uzis, mp5, plasma cannon, although you are limited to ammo on them all. The smallmedi packs are cola cans. The next area has more guards to eliminate and for some reason there's loads of ammo just lying around in the water, also there's a top secret access disk lying around in the air ducts - that would be the case in reality. Next you enter a ultra high tech looking room with an artifact and then several tough baddies with cool plasma guns to tackle, once you've sorted these out, there's a little shimmying and then it's all over. The level has a nice high tech atmosphere and lighting is perfect - gives a quite intense and very cold or warm (depending on room) feel to it. Good use of objects including waterfall, bright looking containers, and those mentioned above. 21 minutes net gameplay." - sonnyd83

"A fun quick simple shooter set in the Von Croy Industries environment. Texturing and lighting are both fine. Some may not like the inclusion of limited ammo (including the pistols), but I guess it does add to the jeopardy of the fire fight at the very end. All in all not a bad effort. Completed in 12 minutes, Stiggy." - TheStig

"This level is very heavy on the action and ammo conservation (including limited pistol ammo). Having very recently played UziMasters Venice level in the 20x20x20 contest it's easy to see the seeds of that level here with all the action and boss fight, but it also lacks the clever twists on standard gameplay and sophisticated level layout (the contest limitations are partially to blame, but a very boring vent section that takes up at a quarter of the level suggests it's not just that). The VCI environment is decent enough, although nothing amazing (there are some nice new objects and weapons though). A good entry, but the vent section feels like a big wasted opportunity." - Mman

"I really enjoyed this level. I love VCI levels and the limited ammo makes everything more challenging which actually is not always good. In this case it is. There's enough ammo and medipacks, and even if they are not enough, you can bug through the final door and leave the bosses. I hate crawling, but it's a part of VCI levels so I can overlook it. Not-bad textures and pretty god gameplay. If you want something not too long - this is the right choice." - misho98

"I never understand what the fun is in giving limited ammo for the trusted guns Lara has. It must be a guy thing. Crawling, again too much of it even if it is only one room. I am not such a fan of shooting let alone taking out a small army single handed, but hey, each its own." - Gerty

"I'm playing these ORC levels strictly by the book, no god mode, no fly cheat, no cheating of any kind. I find this to be rather exhilerating in a gaming environment with limited time parameters. This one is in stark contrast to the peaceful Oriental ambiance of the first ORC level I played, but it's no less enjoyable. I found the supplied weaponry and ammo to be ample for that concluding shootout, and those modified guards were quite well done in my opinion. Took a lot to kill them, however. These little appetizers are a welcome relief from the multi-level releases we often encounter these days, and whoever thought up this concept is to be commended. About 20 minutes of fun and mayhem." - Phil

"Uzi Master, why the heck are those laser demiguards so hard to kill? You can change their HP with "Enemy=" command, for them not to be annoying anymore. And generally, there is not enough ammo, especially for a beginner player. OK, I've just told about one of two flaws of the game. The second one also relates to the final fight, and - more precisely - to the camera showing bosses appear. It should either last for a little bit shorter time, or be interruptible. With its present properties, several bolts can hit Lara before a player gets used to a fixed view and manages to hide her in the corridor. So much for mistakes. Now: if someone asks me what is what makes this game fun the most, I have no doubt it is lighting. Atmosphere is simply awesome, at least as good as in the original VCI and lasting from the beginning to the very end. I launched the game and saw Lara in the hall. I was standing there and admiring the moonlight. Those lightbeams fit room ambience perfectly, and even if it appeared only in the beginning of the game, the same ambience filling the remaining parts of the level "took" a memory of those beams with me - no matter I didn't see them again. Later, when I replayed the game, I found out the same moonlight guides a player into the arsenal following the hall. There is also a fountain filled with pickups, lots of bullets to perforate enemies, and subsequent opponents are triggered in very creative way. If this game had any dialogues, the first guard would have shouted:
- Leave this cabinet alone, you thief!
And the next two:
- She's taking our weapon! Take her down!
- Sir, yes, sir!
And You know what is beautiful? The game doesn't need any lines - because You can imagine them all. SUMMARY: Uzi Master continues to work on this project! Prepare to the final release, not limited (or maybe unlimited) by one room size. I'm looking forward to it. Show me what's behind that fake door in the end! I've just obtained a MP5 in some well-guarded arsenal, and it's lock and loaded, so I'm ready for fight!" - DJ Full

"Any level that limits your ammo and then gives you lots to find, well...you know you're into a 'shooter'. There is sufficient ammo and medis to handle the baddies, especially if you're a bit cagey in getting them to come at you one at a time. The base is well made if a bit repetitive in the use of textures. The lighting is nondescript, neither good nor bad and, apart from the shooting, there's little to do, no puzzle solving, no timed runs, no agility, you get the idea! I do feel that so much more could have been made of this. What there is of it is good, there's just not much." - Diz

"I have to say I enjoyed this despite myself. To clarify - this seemed to have the makings of a level I would not give a lot of credit usually. There is a long crawl shaft, but the author mercifully makes the 2 extra crawl moves (the somersault that propels Lara forwards at great speed and the forward somersault out of a cralwspace) available to minimize the time spent there, you encounter a number of enemies, but in spite of limited ammo you get all sorts of weapons to handle the onslaught. The rooms (again, since there's water I imagine there are a minimum of 2) are nicely textured and furnished, and the default camera view being closer to Lara than usual has a nice, claustrophobic, anxious feel to it. On the downside - it seems you had to stand at a particular point to insert the disk which did not make a lot of sense to me, I was a bit wary whether the armed dudes at the end take any damage or not when they get caught up in the pillars, also since you must kill them to be able to finish the level I wonder whether the author took any precautions and potentially placed some respawning ammo in the room to take care of that. Sure, the level is not so long that one couldn't replay it, but that still isn't a situation a player gladly walks into. I also thought the final outside area spoiled the impression a bit and the author would've done well to end the level after exiting the door that the 4 armoured dudes open, but that may just be my opinion. Overall - if you enjoy the VCI type of levels, this is a nice distraction and I think the author did more things right than wrong on the whole, though there's definitely room for improvement." - eTux

"If you're a fan of VCI levels then you may be able to get more out of this than other players,as they generally tend toward the 'pick up ammo and shoot lots of guards' type of storyline;and that is indeed what you get here. Having limited ammo is not a particularly endearing gameplay concept,although I rather appreciated it as you consequently need to go easy on the bloodletting and develop some kind of a killing strategy.Texturing was rather impressive to begin with,but too much crawling through grey ventilation ducts soon took away much of the visual polish;while puzzles were non-existent.Nonetheless,the room with the killing robots was impressively lit;and the sequence with the fly-by camera revealing the elevating pods was very well accomplished.If you can tolerate the aforementioned restrictions on ammunition,and are rather partial to mindless shooters,then this will entertain.There are far worse ways of spending 12 minutes!" - Orbit Dream

"In the first couple of minutes of the level, Lara acquires four different guns, and a few minutes later, comes across a huge pile of ammo in a pool. I thought this was overkill - until I reached the iris room, and then realised that it was in fact not enough weaponry and ammo. The fight against the four armoured guards is far too long, and since ammo is limited, it's quite easy to run out of it, and therefore be stuck completely.
Given the name of the level, it's easy enough to know what to expect in terms of environment, and sure enough, the VCI offices are solidly built, though Lara's path lies mostly in the far too many ventilation ducts (fortunately, the builder was considerate enough to enable the crawlspace roll and jump moves). The texturing is competent, but lighting is a bit bland.
Overall: A fairly typical VCI style level, with a little too much combat and duct crawling. Still, it's a good debut effort." - Mytly

"Phwoar, this is a bit of a shooter; I only just got through the whole proceedings without running out of ammo. It's certainly an atmospheric VCI style level, with the requisite crawling through ducts and bumping off guards (although I felt a bit rotten having to kill a guard who wasn't actually showing any aggression, just because he happened to be carrying a vital key part. However, I lost all sympathy by the time I ran into the four almost indestructible enemies at the end of the level and felt a great sense of satisfaction when I finally managed to bump them all off. Definitely a bit of an adrenalin rush." - Jay

"This part of the One Room Challenge is a classic VCI level where Lara has to run from room to room and shoot a few guards to finally pick up the main artifact and battle four cyborgs, which appear to be bullet proof. I used all the ammo I had and I think there were maybe 20 bullets left. The first guard never started shooting so it felt awkward to kill him, but Lara had to since he drops an important piece. There was also a bug in the big battle room if the player breaks the cut scene the enemies will not appear and you can't finish the level without killing them. The end comes very sudden after a short dark shimmy to nowhere. The texturing is pretty well done and in general it looked not too bad for a VCI level. Well done!" - Blue43

"The gameplay was pretty straight-forward and combat oriented, but still quite fun. The enemies and objects were effectively used to add to the feeling that Lara was breaking back into the VCI building and needed to fight for her life to escape with the Iris. The only slight drawbacks with this level are if you run out of ammo during the final battle (which is possible due to pistol ammo being limited) or if you hit the "look" key to break out of the camera fly-by in the final battle before the enemies have been triggered. Other than that, this is an exciting level to play if you are in the mood for some quick action and combat." - Ward Dragon

"This level was really quick but pretty fun. The lab was built nicely with very good lighting and textures and the objects were places corectly. The small medipack was coca cola which I found nice. The only problem I has was that the pistols had limited ammo and there were a lat of enemies. At least there was another weapon which was very nice. In the end when you found the iris, four enemies appear and they are VERY hard to kill. I didn't have enough ammo to kill them but after trying a lot of times I think I got lucky! Pretty fun and recommended for a short adventure." - afzalmiah

"lol - another silly game ........ Start at an office .. get some uzis . a guy appears which even does not look at you ... well I looked at him and filled his chest with some bullets lol .... advance to the next room, other gunners .. find a security card .. advance in the next room, take an iris item ..... some pillars lower and some fireman guys emerge . These guys take a lot of bullets .... after dispatching them open the door for iris, go through and find your way out across a dark room .... A score of 7.5? Come on, this 'masterpiece' is worth max 3 ... lol" - Jack&

"Note: I will not be reviewing this level with leniency due to the fact it only contained 1 or 2 rooms, as it deserves to be treated the same as any other level. This is the perfect example of what could have been. Lara starts in a lovely room, with a bit of a puzzle and some nice flowing gameplay, while finding the occasional bit of ammo. Then you get into a room with water in the middle, and you realise that there is going to be a massive fight at the end that you need to save your ammo for. Thats when you regret using so many bullets on those guards, and when you curse the builder for not giving you unlimited ammo. Then you go through some ventilation shafts to get a key, and you end up in a room with the Iris. WARNING, do not try to anticipate the enemies by pressing look part way through the flyby, as the chambers are opened by a heavy trigger, so you will be stuck there forever. Now, use your ammo well, health is not a problem, as I had about 3 small medis left, 1 baddy, and no ammo about 5 times. WHen you have disposed of them, you have some nice shimmying and the level ends. It is not especially bad and objects are well used and retextured, with a good atmosphere created, however, lighting was a bit sloppy, and could have been better. Not a bad level but any means, but could have been one of the best of the competition, and wasn't. Still recommended." - Cory

"A good VCI short-short, with both interesting weapons and enemies. Lara gets the MP5, and a sort of plasma gun, and her pistols use limited ammo. She needs all the ammo and medipacks she can get as in the final showdown heavily armored guards shoot energy bolts at her. The setting here is too limited to be expanded into a level, but if the author started over there are plenty of good features from this vignette to add to a real level. The guns on the rack that Lara can get, the weapons themselves, the guards, and the scene in the room where cylinders rise up to reveal the guards, are all strong points. The final battle is mostly it. Interesting ideas." - dmdibl

"Levels "base/lab" are not my favorite, I still wanted to see the work of the author and I admit I was pleasantly surprised. The gaming environment is managed and the gameplay fun and original. A lot of enemies and limited ammunition provide a good challenge, The final battle has given me a little trouble but I had a good time. Congratulations to the author." - Daffy

"Well, the setting looked quite good, but I was a bit enerved by the camera and the gameplay in this level. While the first rooms were even more than solid, the last areas seemed a bit boring because you search long crawlspaces (luckily with faster crawl anim) for a single item and get a heavy final shootout with four soldiers that can be very frustrating when not having much ammo, even if one can find quite much. The jumps over the dark slopes at the end were not fun and the finish trigger came to abruptly. Still a lot of work clearly can be seen." - manarch2

"A chronicle dejà-vu. Lara has a kind of plasma gun, the M5 gun and limited ammo for her pistols. She should take care of it, she will need all her ammo for the last final battle after a rather short level. Gameplay shows good ideas, but they are not elaborated enough in this short sequence of about 10 minutes of gameplay. What we see here could be the basis for a real good base/lab-level." - Christian

"Dangerous intrusion in this industries. A building full of enemies but full of guns and ammo too (for me were enough). Final four enemies were really hard to kill. Environment is appropriate, with well selected objects and nice textures, but lights are not very worked, 'cause in the ducts it supposes to be more darkness in the middle of the way, evenmore if it's by night in the city. I missed some puzzles and not only place objects, pick up items and fight with enemies, but the level was good for me anyway." - Jose

"A very promising start here with a good looking VCI room, cool objects, a cute animation pulling a coke from a machine, but it all went a bit downhill from there. The remaining 15 minutes all you do is kill a few guards, pick up lots of weapons and ammo, crawl for a while through ducts to reach a disk and then likely end up having to do the final battle at least twice, because you will probably realize only then that your ammo is actually limited and if you do not use it wisely you will not have enough to kill those four enemies, which is the only way to progress towards the finish trigger. Still, there is some great talent here and when freed from the constraints of the one room challenge, this could be expanded into an intrguing adventure - beyond the 12 minutes that it lasts now." - MichaelP

"Does mean "One Room Challenge" really that the level builder must limit himself on one room? And if so, can there generally something originate reasonable from it? Anyhow I have my doubts, because I always have "Lara in the box" in my mind. Well, we will see what the level builders have made with this regulation.
The VCI levels were my favorite levels in TR-Chronicles. Here I had almost the feeling to play again TR-Chronicles. Unfortunately, the level was a little bit short with about 10-minute playing time. And for my taste the camera was too close to Lara. The weapons had a full sound and it was no problem that the ammunition was limited, because one could find enough ammunition to defeat the opponents. All together a good level, although also a little bit short." - Scottie