Level reviews

"It's another solid level from the pack but probably my least favourite. I know it feels like space and I really appreciate the guidance the builder gives, a valuable tutorial on how to avoid getting players stuck, but after some time it starts to get tiring because of sterile tubular structures you need to go through over and over - it's an identical problem as in Kitkat's level, which was a series of tasks instead of an adventure. Recommended to play at least once but probably not again." - DJ Full

"This is a great TRLE, The puzzles had me stumped a few times but the gameplay is quite nice and fluent. Unlocking all the rooms and finding the secrets along with the boss fights were enjoyable :)" - Killer Gameplayz

"Lara is stranded in space and must find a way to escape the aliens that abducted her. The gameplay is a good mix of combat and acrobatics, although I would have liked to see more puzzles to round the level out. The use of the mirror room was a nice touch. I was a little turned off by the pixel-perfect jump required in the beginning of the level, to get through an open door between a sloped floor and ceiling. It took many tries before I was able to progress. The combat is enticingly structured at specific points and gives you a good idea of just when to use that valuable magnum ammo. More decorative objects could have been used to help the different rooms stand out from each other. The architecture is solid, but a bit too similar throughout. There are a lot of octagonal hallways that become a bit of an eyesore after a while, and several other rooms have a "copy paste" feel to them. Audio is used effectively at key points. Cutscenes were good, I would even encourage a couple more, such as when the big enemies emerge. Textures are applied well, but more diversity would have made the looks pop out more, and sometimes grab-able textures are not used consistently. Lighting is good as well, but could have been made more dramatic and colorful. While each aspect of the level has some room for improvement, it is a solid raiding experience overall. 48 minutes" - JesseG

"This level does seem to be a step up from Edge of Forever, hence my slightly higher overall scores. I do see something distressing in these BtB levels, however, in that when I exit by hitting F5 I get the same on-screen message as if the level had crashed. Oh, well, only a minor annoyance. The space ship in this level is arranged with architectural precision, complete with side corridors that all look very much alike. Dutchy's walkthough kept me properly oriented at all times, but without it I would probably have become bogged down very early. The part I had most trouble with was dealing with the TR1 arachnid monster that does its best to sweep you off the platform to your doom. By that time you've been provided the Magnum with plenty of ammo, but killing the critter is still quite daunting. Once again lighting is exceptional, a refreshing change from past BtB competitions. Playing time was just a bit less than an hour. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish." - Phil

"This was a well laid out level, really loving the space theme this year. I thought that overall, the layout of the ship left me lost and confused more than I wanted to be, I had to wait till the walkthrough was available to finish it. I liked very much the use of all the enemies, which left me out of health packs at the end. I am lucky I did not have to replay to manage my health better. I thought you needed some more use of camera flyby's and music, but the game kept me involved till the end. Well done" - rufierto

"The gameplay in this level is pleasant, but not particularly difficult. You have to collect a number of keys/artefacts, which involves a lot of exploration, but not many other tasks. The biggest challenge for me was finding my way around the rather labyrinthine spaceship, especially as so many of the locations look identical and there are a number of long corridors criss-crossing each other. There are a couple of nice puzzles, such as breaking a pushable with hammers to get a circuit board inside, and a mirror puzzle.
There is a good use of an enemy – an alien creature – which activates a raising block. Other than that, there aren't a lot of enemies, except a wraith, two boss fights, and two guards at the end. I found two of the secrets, but ran into a bug in case of the second one, as the secret item had apparently disappeared (so only one secret registered).
The level looks reasonably nice, but not exactly pretty. The textures are mostly ones with geometrical designs, which gives a clean-cut and functional aesthetic to the level. The lighting is rather uniform and fairly bright, and mostly in a shade of blue-grey. There's not much in the way of interesting or ambitious architecture, but the zig-zag corridor near the end is nice.
Overall: A pleasant and inoffensive level, but not one that is particularly exciting or memorable." - Mytly

"This level has a matching name… for here Lara is inside a spaceship with a certain number of rooms and corridors very much alike, and constantly asks herself if she has already been here, or if this is a different corridor/room. To complicate matters a little more, there are also actions that repeat themselves at different places, leading to doubt (I pulled this chain before, or this is another chain? I jumped by this opening before?) There are also a lot of comings and goings by the same places in order to perform different actions - in resume, a lot of backtracks. Nevertheless, we have here a very good feature, not present in a lot of levels: a solid, sound, satisfactory use of camera hints. The right place for every object picked up is shown; the result of every action is also shown or heard – a trait that minimizes somewhat the sensation of being lost. And after some alert exploration, rooms and corridors begin to be recognized and there is a lot of room for fun. I enjoyed specially the logic progression of the game play, and disliked specially meeting that terrible "Torso Monster" of TR1." - Josey

"This year's fifth Back to Basics level is named after everyone's favorite 1998 blockbuster, starring William Hurt and Joey from Friends. "Lost in space" describes the level really well, as I spent thirty-five minutes running around pulling switches and picking up keys, rarely knowing what I was doing. While the texturing is competent, the actual design of the spaceship is mazelike, with doors and hallways going off in every which direction. Making matters worse, there are a lot of near-identical rooms, making things even more confusing. Two things save this level from being a disaster: 1) there are always cameras showing where to go next if the door you've just opened isn't nearby, and 2) there are frequent shortcuts that naturally lead you back to where you're supposed to go. I am very thankful for this, because there are just so many keys and so many doors, and the level is so confusingly laid out, that I'm sure I'd still be playing the level two days from now otherwise. It's mostly a level about opening doors. There's a mirror puzzle and a couple of traps, and towards the end you get not one, but two boss battles. But mostly you're just going where the camera is pointing you. Despite making constant progress, I felt lost the whole time - but I guess I can't say I wasn't warned? Even Matt LeBlanc wouldn't have been able to save this." - Magnus

"This level was a bit of strange experience for me. It is really very competently built and while it does have some sneaky moments where you may just not get the hint for a while, the builder takes the player very much by the hand and takes you from one task to the next and to the next and so on, by means of mostly putting you right in front of the next thing you have to do - often with the help of an obvious camera clue. And as much as that seems very player friendly - I somehow had the impression as if I run through the level on autopilot. Only occasionally stopping to think about the next clue provided, like in the push puzzle room or with the mirror room. You get a few bosses to battle along the way and after you get the two access cards a few more minutes of gameplay seem very much padded to the back end of a level that was kind of done already. All of these comments may sound as if I did not have a lot of fun here, but I really did. It is just that somehow the level did not click atmospherically with me so much. I felt more like running around in the level editor, not really out there in space getting lost after all ..." - MichaelP

"Let me start this review by admitting I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out my first move in this level (it's not as cryptic as it sounds, it's a fairly standard running jump but it's posed in a way that had me thinking it was impossible). Afterwards, this became a rather pleasant and linear raid, level design is quite ingenious as it's always pushing you forward to your next objective and sometimes even teleporting you back to places where you need to be. There were two boss encounters in the end, too, which wrapped up things nicely before Lara made her escape. 50 minutes, 1 secret. 06/18" - Treeble

"This TRLE was really intresting, Great Puzzle design, good use of textures and ligthing, The secrets however were easy to find so they didnt feal like secrets." - JoeTheCrazyGamer

"Wow. True sci-fi at its best. I'm amazed that this level hasn't received higher ratings. Good textures, good atmosphere, including the lighting, rather vivid imagination throughout, thrilling combats in the final part (the demigods that looked like Mexican "Day of the Dead" ghouls were a gas), the right amount of everything you need to pull through, what else can you really hope for? Maybe the fact that it's all incredibly mazy and inside the spaceship has put some players a little off but, honestly, I was thrilled with the final part and, I feel I must mention it, with everything else as I could finally link all the puzzle pieces and understand how cleverly it all was crafted. Recommended without a doubt." - Jorge22

"Probably one of the more easygoing entries in gameplay terms, this one being set in mostly confined corridors. It is occasionally a quite labyrinthine layout, but mostly it's quite simple to figure out where you need to go and what you need to do. This level introduces a nice, brief conveyor belt sequence, a simple mirror room and a couple of not too difficult boss fights. I was a bit miffed that the final secret had somehow vanished into thin air by the time I was ready to collect it, but I didn't mind that much. The settings are again put together very nicely and there's a nice scene of Lara escaping in the shuttle near the end. Pleasant all round." - Ryan

"This is definitely a bit gentler in terms of gameplay than some of the other levels. Puzzles are not too taxing and there's nothing onerous in the platforming/timed aspects of the level either, which should make it accessible for most players. It's set exclusively in the spaceship so no forays into strange alien environments. The ship is vast and filled with maze-like corridors so there is inevitably a certain amount of schlepping involved. Enemies are well used and the blue torso boss baddie towards the end is challenging to say the least. Some nice moments and well worth playing." - Jay

"This is an almost pure spaceship map, albeit with one or two slight deviations here and there. The visuals and lighting are quite consistently good, although the level is relatively cramped and the design is consistent to the point of being a little repetitive. Visually objects are used well, but in terms of puzzle items and similar there are so many for a relatively short and linear level that it feels like they were put it just for the sake of having them rather than helping contribute to the feeling of progression.
Outside of an issue I had at the start (which was my fault for overthinking something simple) progress is quite straightforward despite seeming maze-like at first, and there are so many shortcuts it starts to work against it a little and become TOO player-friendly. Cutting down on empty backtracking and confusion is generally good, but here there were points where I got a key and was ready to explore and get a grasp on the level structure more and then I was warped right where I needed to go without having to think about things at all. The individual challenges are okay, but they're compartmentalised to the point they don't feel like they're building towards a whole, although there are one or two more interesting tasks (like a slight twist on the mirror room). A decent map in itself, but one of the weaker ones of this BTB so far." - Mman

"Lost In Space: there is no better name for this level, which consists in a great spaceship labyrinth featuring lots of doors, revisiting rooms, search for keys and a few boss fights (the first one was a nice surprise, very nostalgic). Luckly the author strives to provide the player a clear path by closing the doors to some areas you don't need to explore again. Even so, you should expect some backtracking. I had fun actually, pickups keep you motivated to explore and see what else you can find. Perhaps the corridors were too similar and made it easier to get lost, and some more variety of ambiences would've been nice (making it more fun to explore, instead of the greyish atmosphere of the ship). It felt a bit desolated for moments and enemies were scarse and scattered occasionally, so apart from the bosses there is not much combat. There was one mutant that was needed to activate a pressure pad, it was a nice touch by the way. Overall, if you like the search for keys and path finding you might have a good time. Found 2 secrets." - Feder

"Summary: A solidly enjoyable level with some fun battles toward the end. Simple puzzles enliven the largely similar corridors of the space station, with an occasional challenge, mostly based around geometry. Some inconsistent designs, such as textures that only sometimes indicate a climbable surface or puzzles that can be solved through luck rather than strategy, detract from the immersion. Details (spoilers): I am intrigued by the ability of this author to construct platforms that are precisely the height I would expect not to be able to reach, but which can be from the right angle or perspective. This was the case with a jump and grab over a deadly water pool and spike platform near the beginning, a slope-to-jump switch and a hanging grating, both midway through. I also really enjoyed the sense that some of the enemies, including the mutant and the hammer-wielding clown fish alien (how else could I describe him?), actually helped Lara accomplish her tasks. When the level first began, I was excited by the idea that so many surfaces, including the glass and the rubber stripes on the walls, seemed climbable, and thought what fun it would be if a level were based around completely climbable surfaces. However, only a few of these textures actually indicated a climbable surface. I also found myself tiring of the gray-lit halls of the space station, some of which were so nearly identical that I had trouble orienting myself even after I had backtracked through an area many times to accomplish the level's tasks. I also found a pushable puzzle with hammers a bit incomprehensible, and eventually solved it by luck, I think. That said, I still had a good time, especially with the guns-blazing boss fights, which were helped by the presence of large quantities of ammo and health packs scattered throughout the level. I do enjoy a game with pickups! Found 1 secret, 1 hour 30 minutes on first playthrough (wow, I see others finished much faster)." - Cbl

"A solid first pick in this year's BtB. It's a bit simple in its design and a few rooms are a bit blocky, but I liked the connection tunnels in this level and also a few nice glimpses outside, especially in the last area. Objects are put to good use here and the enemy fights are also well done. The lighting is slightly dull, but it still fits in a way; texturing is solid too. Much of the gameplay consists of orientating in the slightly labyrinthine hallways, but I never felt utterly confused here. The alien stepping onto a certain tile was a pretty nice idea, as well as the mirror room, but I didn't like the puzzle with the hammer so much - while not fully trial-and-error (there's an ever so slight hint), I think it's set up in a pretty odd way. Some traps are interesting to tackle, but in general a bit more variety in terms of platforming, puzzles and the like would've been nice. I also had problems at the jump at the door to the deadly pool area (at the start of the level) - collision with an invisible object made life hard here; perhaps a bit more consistency with ladder/monkeyswing textures also would've been better but it's not too bad. Of the three secrets, two are well hidden, while I generally dislike the walkthrough wall ones - strangely, two of the secret items disappeared after not finding them the first time around (returned to the areas later). In short, it's maybe not among the best the contest has to offer, but nevertheless an enjoyable and competently constructed level with nicely flowing, if too little varied gameplay. 25 minutes." - manarch2

"Another enjoyable level for this contest. The starting area is confused with all that corridors and doors, but there's a good work with the cameras giving hints. Not real puzzles to solve except the original mirror room to get one of the circuits, some interesting traps to avoid, but I think excessive keys/items to look for and sometimes certain backtracking, even with the effort with the shortcuts to save time. Well balanced enemies, the secrets are very hard to find (I only found 1). There is a good work with the texturization too and a nice ending with Lara escaping in the spacecraft. Perhaps not to get the fisrt place but indeed a good work. Hard to figure out the name of the builder!" - Jose