Level reviews

"I liked seeing the different TRA elements here, such as the outfit and the Egyptian textures, plus the audio tracks, but otherwise this looks and plays exactly how you'd expect from a debut level by an eager youngling. There was an erratic camera flyby and a few missing sound effects, and while gameplay wasn't particularly engaging it at least doesn't outstay its welcome and you reach the end shortly after making it to the top of the main area. 20 minutes, 1 secret. 07/23" - Treeble

"Not much of a tomb now, is it? The rooms are too big, too boxy and too bare; this makes texturing easy, and although there's much wallpapering, it's been done with reasonable competence; but it doesn't engender much of an atmosphere. Lighting comes in only two modes in this level, on and off - that is to say, either default ambience or none at all - , but given the circumstances, I doubt it would have made much of an impact had it been applied with similar competence. The lack of objects chimes in with the strictly functionalist room geometry, and the one instance in which some objects were used when they weren't necessary for gameplay doesn't do the level any favours: those vines stand in line like so many tin soldiers, emphasising the frugality of the design rather than alleviating it. Judging by some the textures used, the setting is Egyptian, but you'll be looking at blank walls most of the time.
Gameplay is straightforward and fluent. It consists mostly of easy platforming, which involves a couple of flipmaps and is occasionally interrupted by enemy attacks. The latter are sometimes effective (the pack of jackals), other times pointless (two wraiths, with a pool of water only a few steps away). A bunch of weapon and ammo pickups come too late in the game to be of use. These include the shotgun, which lies on an invisible platform (and constitutes the level's only secret); an idea which isn't as clever or original as the builder seems to believe, and for which I've never cared too much. There's one mangled flyby which should have been either repaired or else replaced by a simple camera; the main flaw in its setup has been explicated by DJ Full, but it also gets all jittery at the end because the cameras are pointing straight down (the engine has always had a problem with that).
Your goal is to climb up a huge room in order to open a trapdoor in the water below, then dive down to pick up your prize and exit the place through a cave in which lighting goes into - off' mode. It is also the only place in the level where the floors and ceilings are anything other than entirely flat. That's because there are rollingballs trundling about in the pitch-blackness, which you have to dodge before you can go back into the light. Predictably, this last segment had reviewers' opinions divided. It is introduced by one of those overly dramatic choirs that builders have grown so fond of in recent years, and it has a few places where the floor or ceiling tiles are slanted just enough for Lara to become stuck in the room geometry. These I could have done without; but apart from that I thought it was a neat idea, and it worked quite well. Your supply of flares is sufficient, the permanent earthquake is justified (it also hides to some extent the fact that the rollingball sample is missing), and all the boulders can be avoided if you proceed by tapping Arrow Up followed by a brief pause while keeping to higher ground (such as it is). It's a good finale, and the most memorable part of the level." - Mulf

"Another debut level and this time it's another of those "work your way to the top of the room only to fall down" level. It's not badly put together, although the rooms are barren and the texturing is simplistic and crude. There's also no puzzling activity so gameplay relies only on jumping. I also wasn't a fan of the pitch black tunnel filled with boulders, which in my opinion was just a pain to get through and relies solely on trial and error. The enemies are sparse but effective enough, the flipmaps were a neat touch and I enjoyed performing a high dive from the very top of the central room though, so this might be a good choice for something simple." - Ryan

"While not among the worst debut releases I've ever played, this one unfortunately suffers from what I'd like to call 'Standard Operating Procedure' in the gameplay department, with platforming and combat being so incredibly routine to the point, that I grew bored of the overall experience rather quickly. And with such lifeless wallpapered boxy environments to traverse through, it makes the disappointingly few moments of creative brilliance(in the form of room flipmaps or swan diving from the top of the hub area), feel incredibly underplayed amongst all the monotonous design choices. So in conclusion, a decent choice for beginner raiders looking for something easy to sink their teeth into. But if you're someone like me who desires a little more pizazz to the levels they play, you won't find much of it here. So best to look elsewhere, if you happen to fit into the latter category." - Ceamonks890

"A good beginning here from Bradley. Simple gameplay that mostly involves climbing and pulling levers. Texturing is repetitive and lighting needs improvement but structurally its sound and I like the effort that the author has put into their music triggers. All in all I netted 23 minutes from The Great Ekarbian Tomb. It's a promising start from Bradley and I hope they continue to work with the editor. Stiggy :)" - TheStig

"We are getting spoiled, three new levels by new builders. This one is all about how to go through a huge room and get to the finishing trigger. The whole level is all about jumping and finding the way to proceed which isn't difficult. Nicely done although the rooms are very empty and bare looking. Nice flipmaps that are used in here. There is potential here so hopefully we get another level to play from this builder in the future." - Gerty

"Lineal level with a very fast gameplay about 20 minutes of net game. Rooms are not well worked, with the same monotonous texturization and very empty of objects. Based on a lot of stacked rooms, Lara must climb up and up doing some easy tasks in her way to finally reach the top and return to the water in the bottom with a very looooong angel jump. There are some surprises in between and a shaken final after you get the white gem. Not bad but not a level to remember." - Jose

"Great in the title refers to the truly huge central room that Lara travels around making her way up. And a fun journey it is, from ledge to ledge with short internittent activities to make ropes appear or open doors. I liked the sand flipmap idea best, the water flipmap is physically a bit impossible (as you end up with uneven waterlevels) and could have been done smarter. The alternating pillar room was also well done. The shotgun secret on an invisible tile was a bit superfluous though. It is always a highlight when Lara can do such a deep dive - so great fun there and the final escape is quite dramatic in darkness with boulders rolling around. A few crocodiles, bats and dogs cross Lara's path and after 25 minutes it's all over. Maybe the architecture, texturing and lighting is a bit on the simplistic side, but I had fun traversing the route nonetheless." - MichaelP

"This is very straight forward, get to the top of the room (the really, really big room!) flip the right switch and dive all the way to the bottom. Everything about this is large; large rooms, long corridors, large balconies, large tunnels, long dive but, unfortunately, there's no furniture which gives a bland and unfinished look to the level. The jumping about and rope swinging are fairly basic but would make good training for a novice raider. The lighting seems to be fairly constant, either on or off. I liked the ceiling falling in to give access to an upper level and the raising water scenario is always a good standby. I also thought the falling boulders in the dark cavern near the end was well thought out together with the moving block room. I did think that the shotgun in mid-air was a bit strange. With a bit more work on the look of the areas and a bit less of a linear gameplay and this would have been a pretty good level." - Diz

"According to my unofficial tradition, I took another ReadmeHost.txt provided with a level in the download package, erased everything inside it and started to write a review in there. The level is of those "hi-res" kind, but I'm REALLY glad the author doesn't fall in love with lots polygons - thanks to it, the place is a little bit empty, what makes it look like a deserted tomb (like it was intended, so :2thumbsup: ... Yeah, I know this emoticon won't show up in html code). Several beginners' mistakes are commited here, e.g. the guy has missed a certain number in camera sequence, what makes it fly back and forth in a certain moment. I also commited this mistake while building my test level, and I remember at first I had absolutely no idea what went wrong. So maybe I gave the builder the solution now. If I did - I'm glad it helps. If I did not - at least the review is longer. Also, it seems the author wasn't aware that some sound issues can occur when putting the game together... I advise more beta-testing in the future. And placing not too many enemies where not necessary. The game wasn't supposed to be a shooter, and - in some places - it felt like one. Just for curiosity: how the heck did You manage to trigger seven dogs in the same time without making them disappear??? I would really like to know it. And Lara looks flat as hell (I always presumed hell might be flat). Enough blaming. Now, for really good things I appreciate: playing with flipmaps to move blocks in the burning floor zone is interesting. Too bad the death zone is marked by bones that were used before in a safe place - some players may not treat their increased density as a warning - so marking such killing fields more clearly would be a good idea in next projects. A nice nostalgia falls on a player ol' good TR1 way - through the ceiling - and it is heap-of-sand-shaped. Also, the secret is hidden identically like in the original "Sancturay of the Scion". One thing bothers my mind: if this pickup is counted as a secret, what about the preceding medikit, hidden in a very similar way? Is it an unmarked secret or not? Ascending part resembles the Atlantean one a little bit, and I like the height impression. The preultimate thing I want to point out is the final escape: the author has presented a creative way of making an illusion of an earthquake causing the spikeballs to move constantly. It is also useful in terms of agility, keeping those boulders harmful during all time of evacuation. And I'm glad there is also an obligatory light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, the sound: well done work! I like it. SUMMARY: Sometimes monotonous and typical, but all in all containing all necessary elements of a little classic raid. And spiced up with some creativity here and there. Nothing special in general... although showing symptomes the author KNOWS what it is all about, what possibly gives a promise of a nice future levelbuilding from him. Optional one if You are a marvel hunter. Recommended one if You like to watch glimpses of fresh talent emerging among lots of beginners' issues. Anyway, a valuable one. I want to see what's behind the final light." - DJ Full

"The small area at the level beginning looks a little bit unrealistic. The level builder would have had to form the dunes so that one can not jump upwards. Since then one can recognise immediately that one is at the end of the Map. Moreover, the building looks too flat. It is too evident that the level builder has here only the wall textured. In the big hole in the building a Medipack floats in the air. A Flipmap would have been better there, perhaps. The Flyby in the big water space has not succeeded so well. The level builder would have had to tune the cameras better on each other. The textures look good. Though a few smaller mistakes are to be recognised, but they do not disturb the general view. The rooms are very big and very empty. Either were here already before Lara Grave robbers and have taken almost everything what is not nailed down, or Mr. Ekarbian was a poor devil and could not afford a big tomb. The lighting could have been better. Either it was monotonously bright, or at the level end only dark. The sound was good. The riddle with both ground levers and the Flipmap was very good.
Result: All together the level was not bad at all. With his next level the level builder should form the outside areas better. The rooms were partly too big and too empty. Textures and sound were good. I hope and am sure that we will see more from this level builder, because he has definitely talent." - Scottie

"Does anyone recall that work of brilliance entitled "Escape from the Hollow Mountain" by...oh,what was his name? Let me think for a moment. Oh yes; Marksdad! Well,do you remember it? Perhaps not,as it's been a full ten years since that work of genius was kindly donated to the Custom Level world. Nonetheless,this debut level bears a striking resemblance in terms of storyline and overall appearance - negotiate your way up a huge room in order to find the means of escape from the Tomb. It's quite fun,although not terribly exciting;and there are really no puzzles with which to occupy your mind.Nevertheless,the epic swan dive is always enjoyable to perform (especially as you can see it coming from at least 15 minutes away),and the 'Boulder tunnel' Finale was rather neat. Scenically,it's all somewhat bland. Granted,the textures are cleanly applied;but the lighting is pretty much non-existent,and with it the atmosphere.Enemies are sparse,although well presented (I loved the onrush of dogs);while the absence of objects ensured that all the overly large rooms looked distinctly bare and gaunt. When all is said and done,though,it's not a bad little adventure;and several of the concepts displayed within would seem to indicate a builder with a lot of potential imagination." - Orbit Dream

"When we start this debut-level, we see these unadequate large rooms again we find in so many first works. I don't like effects, that are physically not possible on this planet. Running into a water-block belongs to these phenomenons. So what. Having reached a very large and high hall we'll have to move up. In this section the game is starting to get better and better. Gameplay shows creative moments, although there's not much to explore and the way is always predictable. On the way up there are some ropes to release, some wraithes to extinguish, a couple of dogs to kill. Once having found the treasure we were searching for we can jump all the way down, to perform it with a swan-dive is quite funny. The ending-sequence didn't succed very well. Blocks and their architecture often can't be seen well, the depth of focus quite often doesn't fit. In the end of the level rooms are becoming smaller. The author has made some progress while building this level. But there is still some work to be done!" - Christian

"I quite enjoyed this short debut level. It's a simple premise - make your way ever higher up a huge room and ultimately you get to come back down the quick way, via a rather spectacular high dive. The tomb environment has somewhat severe architecture, i.e. no 'dressing', but it looks solidly built and not unattractive. Enemies are crocodiles, jackals and bats, but they are pretty easy to deal with. There are no puzzles to speak of, unless you count a simple choice of two levers, one of which sets Lara on fire. The agility tests really just consist of climbing, jumping and straightforward rope swinging and it really shouldn't be possible to get stuck at any point as everything is very linear and straightforward. There are one or two nice touches along the way - raising water levels is always fun and I really liked the flipmap effect that allowed Lara to access a ceiling hole via a sand slide. It may not present much of a challenge for the experienced player, but it's a pleasant enough way to while away the short time it lasts, and it really would be ideal for the new player." - Jay

"And yet again, a new builder provides an interesting debut level. This one was quite interesting at some places, but the end of world factor at the start, the badly camera work and uniform and sometimes streched textures showed this is clearly a debut. The gameplay is mostly set in one big hall, you have to climb up and fight crocodiles, find a nice flipmap room. One secret can be found - for getting it watch the flyby carefully. The downfall of this level was the last boulder grotto, I think, because it was just annoying to get through this pitch dark area. All in all a interesting level and keep building, Bradley!" - manarch2

"The texturing in this short debut level was good--work was done to avoid a wallpaper effect--but gameplay is tame. The author achieved a number of effects: torches light when Lara enters a room, water raises in flip rooms, a pile of sand dumps onto the floor to let Lara climb up as in TR1. There is also a secret weapon on a floating invisible ledge as in TR1. Lara mostly climbs up a very large room and, come to think of it, this also recalls a TR1 panther room (probably just a coincidence). I think this is a near miss. With more complexity in the gameplay, and more angularity and decoration in the boxy rooms, and maybe added demigods hurling bolts at Lara while she is trying to climb up, this could have been much more. In its current state this feels more a learning exercise than anything else. Still, this shows technical proficiency so the author's next level may be much better." - dmdibl

"I just finished this short level. I was currently playing peaceful valley but I thought I might as well try this little level out. This debut level was not challenging so beginners could play it and I thought for a debut it was very good. This level did have some flaws like repetitive textures, really big square rooms and the water didn't have any texture but this was a pretty fun level. Enemies weren't too hard to defeat and I especially liked the huge rooms where you have to keep going higher and the level is mostly in this room. While you go higher you need to go to other rooms and do challenges to go higher. Some clever traps and I found it pretty entertaining. I know this builder will make brilliant levels in the future that everyone will enjoy." - afzalmiah

"Here we have a debut level, which is actually better than it appears at first. While most of the rooms are quite boxy and sterile looking, there was still interesting game play. Because of the room sizes there was some running to do, but the builder has included some monkey swinging, long platform jumping, wall climbing, a rope swing, levers that trigger flip maps and also a dramatic finale with darkness, boulders and an earthquake (too long as usual). There were several enemy attacks in form of aggressive dog packs and also crocodiles. There was good music and sound effects but because of the size of the rooms there was a feeling of emptiness. A long flyby showed the big tall room, unfortunately Lara got pushed into the water (by a bat) and eaten by the croc and I was left watching helplessly. It did not happen the next time so I assume there was a bug that caused it. I found one secret and the placement brought back memories of TR1 with the famous invisible platform. The texturing was well done although because of the big walls it had a plain and very simple look to it and I think for the next level the builder should make smaller rooms and also add a bit of decoration - it would make a lot of difference. The lighting could also use some work, as it appeared very flat most of the time. This is not a bad debut level and I can see a lot of potential here. I would definitely recommend playing this one - the gigantic room with all the ledges and the long swan dive down is worth it all by itself. (28 minutes, 1 secret found)" - Blue43

"Another promising debut level, despite the flaws and downsides... Gameplay is fluent, and although there are no camera hints to show you what you have just opened or did after you pressed a switch, it is not likely to get lost in this rather simple and linear level. The architecture is quite simple and I don't remember seeing any decoration in it. There are some enemies (crocs, bats and dogs) along the way, very few pickups (but not needed, since the level is rather simple), and one secret that I found on a transparent ledge. However, the overall atmosphere of the level is not good, since the architecture is simple, textures are like wallpapers and lighting is non-existent, except in the last dark tunnel with boulders. Sound is also problematic, and missing in majority of cases. As I said, the level is quite easy to finish, even if you are a beginner. I loved the audio tracks in this level, taken from TR5 and TR6, very well chosen and applied. This is a debut level, and it explains the flaws I have already mentioned, but despite them, it is clear and obvious that the builder has talent and some very nice ideas. For example, I immensely liked and enjoyed the last part of the level, the tunnel area with boulders, which was a lot of fun to play. Maybe the builder should next time pay more attention to better texturing and lighting, as well as to the gameplay which should not involve so many switches and climbing inside only one room, and things would be much, much better, with a small improvement in these areas. Also, what I liked very much, was the flipped room with burning floor and pillars, so I could see a potential here. Keep building, Bradley, I know in your next release we will get a much better game. This level is a very good start!" - Nina Croft