Level reviews

"A very well done level. I loved the atmosphere, very realistic. Gameplay and puzzles are enjoyable (Nothing difficult and annoying). There is only a problem, it's a short level, it could have been longer. Other than that, it's a pretty well done level. Congratulations to author." - Thiago

"The shortest level in the contest so far, but it looks beautiful. Packed full of atmosphere. The flyby introducing the canyon (the bottom not reachable, sadly). Not many puzzles or enemies to speak of but it really excels at creating a believable setting. Wow!" - Ryan

"This is a pretty short level, at least compared to the last few BTB maps I've played. The visual design is decent with an large outdoor hub area and various underground sections on the side, with the latter being quite varied. I also liked the effect after the last boss a lot. There's a silly hidden lever at the start that I found by accident but the gameplay is good outside of that, with a nice mix of exploration and traps. The boss fight was odd though because it seemed like it didn't take much advantage of the environment and I almost thought I had did it an unintentional way, but apparently not. Decent but it ends when it feels like it should just be hitting it's stride." - Mman

"The shortest BtB13 level I have played so far, but what a wonderful setting indeed. I simply loved the overall athmosphere created by the builder. The architecture seemed very realistic, textures and lighting are applied with great care, the flyby cameras are awesome and the use of the roots objects here is very impressive... you could just wander around the place for a long time looking at it. The secrets are a good add to the game here, one with a nice extra room and the other with a clever little timed run. Gameplay is maybe a tad bit too simplistic, even though it has its moments with the occasional trap sequence. Enemies are put to solid use and can end up being quite annoying if you do not find and watch your shotgun ammo supplies. Overall, a nice gem in the competition that in my opinion was a little underrated. (37 min, 2 secrets)" - MichaelP

"Lara starts in a graveyard and searches for a frozen flame. The level looks nice for what little there is of it. It feels like the author got so distracted shaping the different areas for the game that they forgot about giving the player things to do. It is a shame too, because this has the itch of a great adventure in it. As it was you collect two keys, use two axes, and beat the intimidating lizard with the flip of a single switch. This also marks my last review for this Btb competition...yes, I know, a month and a half after everything is said and done. Ah well, time to submit these and finally look at the results. 37 minutes." - SSJ6Wolf

"A very enjoyable level, not overly long, but full of good ideas, and some very well-constructed environments. Extensive and effective use of forest plantings gives the level a good sense of realism. The canyon in the second half of the level is a beautifully constucted area and the flyby reveals it brilliantly. Generally the architecture and environments are constructed extremely well. The lighting and atmosphere are also very good. The Mutant battle is probably my favourite of all those on show in the BtoB levels this season. The contest is very fair but has you panicking trying to find the right path to enable you to destroy the beast. Good stuff." - EssGee

"Finally, a BtB level that didn't take hours and hours to comeplete. In fact, if Mugs had been in the competition this time I would have sworn that this was her level, clocking in at just under 40 minutes. It's a good one, too, well lighted and fun to play. The only frustrating moment is near the end, where you have a timed run through weeds to a shimmy cliff. However, it's only for a secret, so if you can't make it in time, no big deal. The game map is compact, and there's little if any required backtracking, so the builder has provided an eye-pleasing and a competent raid to be proud of. Recommended." - Phil

"Our goal is to get underground, but don't worry - there's equally much to do below and above the surface. Regardless from how many feet under we descend, the game seems to take place somewhere really high, due to that ascending path in the start and a steep canyon visited later. The level has one unique highlight - I would say the dog in the house wakes up just in a perfect way, plus in a perfect moment to give us enough time for defense. There's also no problem with survival anywhere else - we are never left helplessly in any of numerous battles occuring, and one secret also provides some additional shells. If any pickup kind is missing, it's flares. There should be more of them, but possibly one pack would be enough, because items we need to find are usually clearly visible. These are linearly placed. There's only several and, to sprint great distances between them, we often use wide on-ground passages spreading in all directions, what provides an impression of a quite open space. Unfortunately the color/light pattern doesn't vary as much in those long corridors as it does underground, but the overall appearance is rather convincing with its juicy-green forest, mossy stones, warm flames, lava pits, hanging lichens and a cold megalite circle. However in the end, when a very pretty flipmap surprises us, we can be proved that if the author had even more time to polish the looks, most of the level could have looked equally great as the ending. SUMMARY: Reco... wait, is there ANY level of this package that cannot be recommended? Does it actually have any value to say this? Well I don't know yet, so I'll do it just in case: linear and sometimes feeling a bit empty, but anyway fun and recommended with its easy puzzles, numerous fights and nice sound accompaniment. Show those giants who rules in their mountains." - DJ Full

"It's necessary to explore carefully the first areas if you don't want to suffer the feared (for me) backtracking. No special gameplay or puzzles with well known tasks/features: moveable over marked tiles, rolling balls in the ramps, gymnastics through the blades... but enjoyable anyway. The final jump to reach the lever to kill the final boss is a bit tricky and no obvious. In my opinion, excessive enemies, here, there and everywhere (The Beatles, lol!) and no enough ammo for the shotgun with all those skeletons around. I couldn't descent to explore the bottom of the canyon (was it possible?) 'cause generally the areas have a nice appearance and invite to explore, with a good lighting and well choosed musics. Be sure to play with a powerful PC or the lag will be inevitable 'cause the large number of objects in many areas." - Jose

"In this level, Lara travels to Avalon. I think? I'm not quite sure if she ever reached it. Maybe that bright light at the end of the level transported her there (in which case I feel rather cheated)? Or maybe she reached it at some point midway through the level and I just never realized. Or maybe Avalon was within us all along. Meh, Avalon's been done, anyway. This is actually a really short level, but I'm running out of time to play all of the levels before the end of the competition, and Back to Basics fatigue is starting to set in (or rather, it set in ten levels ago), so I was kind of relieved when it ended after just twenty-five minutes. It's a decent level, though, even if most of the gameplay revolves around finding the next switch or key with very little to do in between. There's a small push-block puzzle that I... solved... somehow? As well as a few traps, but it's all on a very small scale, befitting the size of the level. The whole thing culminates in an encounter with the snake-dragon thing, but you just perform, like, three jumps up to a switch that kills it. To be fair, I hate the snake, so I can't complain too much about that. My point is just that there's a distinct lack of gameplay here, with traps being easy to get past and enemies being easily dealt with and puzzles being virtually non-existent. Mostly you're just running around hoping that you didn't miss a key or switch somewhere (this is where the small size of the level helps). Eventually you reach a small valley area, which looks rather nice and looks like it's going to contain a lot of gameplay, but you can't reach the lower parts of it and don't really spend much time there. The final temple also looks pretty nice (and has a nice use of a flipmap), but again, you just jump three times and pull a switch before leaving. It's a decent effort and it's nice to play something short, but it ends up feeling more like a palette cleanser between two bigger meals than a memorable adventure in its own right." - Magnus

"Definitely the humblest offering so far, but that doesn't mean it's a bad level. Quite the opposite actually, after getting familiar with the surroundings in the initial area you set off searching for a number of keys to progress which eventually lead to a face off with a dragon. The environments were pretty nicely crafted, especially the second area with the river and waterfalls, so while gameplaywise it was rather simple there's something else going on for this level. One thing I also liked is that once you were through specific areas they'd be closed off, I favor any kind of resources used to reduce backtracking to a minimum, even though in this particular level there really wasn't a whole lot of backtracking to start with. So, like I said, a humble but solid offering. 35 minutes. 05/13" - Treeble

"This one seems even shorter than "Jormungr", but still having the gigantic "Leprechaun's Hideout" in mind, I actually appreciated that. Sadly, it makes it impossible to give a better score in the gameplay-category though (it would be unfair on the other builders), even if I enjoyed it a lot. The builder provided 1 puzzle (which turned out less demanding than expected) and some nice challenges which need a few tries, but apart from those it's rather straightforward and just ends too fast...This however doesn't mean, that the level ends abruptly, like most shorter levels do. Indeed we got a pretty decent and satisfying ending, which I liked a lot. What I liked even more (prepare for lots of praise) though was the fantastic atmosphere: While running through the different parts of this incredibly well-designed forest I found myself taking screenshots and marvelling at all the eye-candy, the author provided, every 2 to 5 minutes. At first I was put off a bit by the very strong lighting with all those vibrant colours, but the more I played, the more it grew on me and when the introductory flyby of the second big area kicked in I was sold. It screamed to me: "forget the cracks and the wrongly rotated triangular textures here and there, and give this game a 10 in the last two categories - it deserves it!" and so I followed :) Highly recommended (not only) for the looks!" - Soul

"The gorgeous outdoor areas of this level strongly remind me of Teme9's 'The Mystery'. I especially love the canyon area near the end - I only wish the bottom part of it was accessible normally (I did manage to get down there using a bug). The deep blue lighting and the dense greenery make for a lovely combination of colours. Though they do look great, maybe the builder should have gone a bit easy on the trees, as they cause a significant lag in the larger areas. The indoor areas also look good, though they seem a little too bright at times. I particularly like the bright version of the final room. The stormy sky and the minimal use of music in favour of rain sounds make for a great atmosphere. The only minor flaw is the lens flare, which looks very odd, since it's night time and cloudy as well.
Gameplay is rather simple, and mostly involves a fetch quest for several keys/artefacts. There are a few nice traps - I especially like the alternating deadly platforms and the burning platforms you can stand on temporarily. The only thing resembling a puzzle is a task where you have to push a box onto one of four marked squares, though there is no indication which is the correct one, so it's mostly an exercise in trial and error. The only really challenging bit of gameplay is the timed run for one secret. At just over 40 minutes, this is the shortest BtB 2013 level I have played so far - a couple of puzzles would have helped increase the time spent in a positive way.
Enemies are well-placed: the troll in the small space after the swinging axe traps is particularly effective. The boss 'fight' against the snake monster is not bad - fortunately it's not too long or complex, so you don't spend ages saving and reloading after each locust attack.
Overall: A beautiful and atmospheric level, but lacking in substantial gameplay. Recommended for the eye-candy." - Mytly

"A very short level starting in wide outdoor-areas - some trees less would have been more concerning camera-view and gameplay that is all in all not really inspired. Some challenging block-jumping is the most exciting part of this game that Ends up with a dragon-fight that may take even experienced players a few tries. A nice exercise in between." - Christian

"A correct and enjoyable little game. I liked the visuals... the pine trees seemed so alive. There are no great difficulties, except for a timed run to reach a secret and a sneakily hidden, difficult path to a lever, in the serpent's room. (I needed the walkthrough here.) The burning ledges' room was fun, requiring a very agile Lara. It was also interesting the naughty idea of making Lara sweat to put a movable block onto a lot of marked squares without necessity; and if by chance the crucial square was the last, it would be in fire... All in all, a nice game." - Josey

"Not a bad level, however the lag makes the game almost unplayable. There are over 200 trees, the birds are happy, but the TR4 engine is not the Skyrim engine. Anyway, several places are really stunning, good job (secrets 1/2)." - Markus

"This is the shortest entry in the competition thus far, but manages to pack quite a bit in. It's possibly more impressive in its looks than its gameplay, being mainly set in gorgeous, lushly foliated outdoor settings, simply bursting with atmosphere. The gameplay is less complex and more readily achievable than the preceding entries, but there's still plenty to entertain and the boss ending had me quite bewildered because I'd completely failed to spot a floor lever - too much running around trying not to get set on fire and not enough 'looking'." - Jay

"Another game that takes place in beautiful settings properly constructed, the gameplay is not complicated but still demand a little research, no big difficulty for most players, I had a great time gambling good author's work!" - Daffy

"One of the most beautiful atmosphere that`s for sure but it has a weak point as well because of too many objects (trees) this level is running in lags and thats annoying. Also very promising start in terms of gameplay, but later it was not as good as I expected. Well there were some really good moments, some interesting tasks and traps but nothing memorable except breathtaking atmosphere! After solving and getting through to the next beautiful mountain area with deep hole with river (nice flyby is showing you the place around) I was expecting more to do here but it`s nearly an end of this adventure. 45 minutes level which I can recommend. 6/8/10/9" - OverRaider

"Not too difficult. Gameplay is acceptable. the scenarios are very well recreated, with well worked lighting, good architecture. Nice level." - requiemsoul

"This is a stunning looking adventure.Ominous and highly detailed landscapes,with atmosphere so potent you could bottle it and sell it as,er..'Bottled Atmosphere'. The biggest problem I had was that the author incorporated a little too much attention to detail,and filled the level with more foliage than my PC could handle,which caused inevitable lag.Some of the gameplay required a little too much backtracking for my liking and,aside from a pushable block,was mostly devoid of puzzles;but made up for this with some great jumping sequences and a potentially head- scratching confrontation with a Serpent for the memorable Finale. If you keep your eyes peeled you should be through this fairly quickly;although I spent a majestic 95 minutes in here,most of which was devoted to reaching the bottom of a beautiful Gorge - only to find out that it was merely scenic decoration! A peerlessly constructed adventure;a beautiful ending,and much eye candy along the way.In short...wow!" - Orbit Dream

"This one is even shorter than the first BtB level (Blizzard) (at 30 minutes) and quite fast paced during the time, since you won't spend much time in one single area. The atmosphere is the level's real strength with a lush green setting, spicked with so many trees that the game might lag a bit. Cameras and sound choices are well done but in some outside areas the texturing was a little rough. The lighting was excellent in my opinion, especially in the stonehenge-reminiscent room with dark crawlspaces, in the large canyon. The orange lighting in the end was a great contrast. So while set in a very atmospheric environment the gameplay was comparatively mediocre, with a lot of backtracking and running to-and-fro involved, but due to the fastness it never became boring. The alternating light room was good fun although it's kind of misleading the darker stones are actually the safe ones. I found two nicely hidden secrets and overall liked this smaller offering much even if the gameplay could've been more involved - though the remarkable end alone makes up for most gripes." - manarch2