Level reviews

"An earlier work of Leoc, which shows promise but also has many minor issues that prevail and make this experience a somewhat mixed bag. For one, level 1 has you face the odds with mere ammo supplies in the generic lara setting with some neat rooms to explore, traps to evade and many enemies to kill with health reserves always on the lower end. There is no combat in level 2, and pistols are given in level 3 so that's a null point afterwards. Health supplies in general are not that common, and the range of things that can kill you is very plentiful, making it tough to build up reserves of ammo. The gameplay has its issues with pushable sequences that overstay, some platforming that can feel awkward, and moments where you might get confused at what you should do, but it's fun most of the time. There are issues, such as triangle geometry in TR2 which bugs out, some parts edging on the borderline on tedious, but never so much that this level becomes harder than it needs to be. I recommend this level, though it's on the harder side from Leoc." - OblivionJaw

"Summary: Short level-set with character. Makes me excited to play the sequels. Definitely not for beginners. —————————————————— First level takes place at Lara’s Home, and it’s a very challenging shooter that works really well as an action level. It has extremely limited ammo and many powerful enemies, and between the shootings, you have to find 4 switches. A tip: if you waste ammunition (YES, even just ONE), it’s strongly recommended to reload, unless you’d like to be chased by flamethrower guys and a spear guardian. The hanging prison is a very original location, that satisfied my need for platforming. Here you start without any weapons, so that means no more challenging shooting for a while. It’s still not exactly peaceful, you just find ways to avoid occasional threats. Then you reach the pistols and move on to the final level, which is briefer than the others but has interesting moments. The shooting resumes, often requiring to battle many enemies at a time, but now there’s unlimited pistol ammo and also a bit of more powerful fire, to use frugally. Loved the “room” with all sorts of traps, it was fun to figure out how to avoid them all. I also enjoyed the puzzle where you have to push some blocks in order to form a word. —————————————————— When I first heard about the Folklorist Diary series, I wasn’t sure where to start. I thought, maybe I should play the more popular sequels, and then if I really love the series I can leave this one for last. But as I’m one to prefer going in chronological order, and given the screenshots looked interesting enough, I decided to download this episode. And I’m glad I began from here. All three levels show uniqueness in level design but also in audiovisual style. Actually I unknowingly played the first level without music because I didn’t realize I hadn’t disabled a border fix. I just thought the game was silent, but then I remembered a review that praised the music, and it clicked. Oops. Well, that review was right, the music enhances the already strong immersion. If I liked this one as much, I can only imagine how much I’ll like the sequels, I’ll be playing the Forgotten Treasure soon :) If you want a challenge, prepare to reload often, and enjoy." - Leti

"very well structured level. good textures and intriguing story. full of twists and turns and even small scares. very funny puzzles and some quite difficult too, too bad it doesn't last long. I hope to replay other levels created by this creator soon." - Bangkok

"My first impressions: WE NEED MORE LEVELS LIKE THIS. Seriously that first level has a beautifully creepy atmosphere, like Lara was having a nightmare. I have to admit I even had a few jump-scare moments, although I came to realise, that the level isn't that crazy. The whole game has 3 levels and it gets from a shooter to dangerous jumps and traps. Some people might have difficulties, as it is truly somewhat challenging. Especially the first level came with many strong and dangerous enemies, but I don't think that it was impossible to beat it, even without the bit of extra ammo, that the builder added afterwards. (I've seen far worse and seemingly impossible ones *cough "Darkness Castle" *cough "Home sweet home 2" *COUGH). Oh and what the builder describes as a 13-20 minutes level in the README took me 48 minutes... errr what?!
All I can say is, that I enjoyed this levelpack from start to end. It's rather challenging and there is much action going on. Found all secrets, yay!
Btw, wasn't that room with the 2 flamethrower guys in Level 2 the exact same room as where you begin in "The Alaska Incident"? ^^'" - Nuri

"TR2 levels are always fun to begin with. I particularly remember getting frustrated not having a lot of resources to complete the level. But the goal is to preserve as much as you can so you are able to progress. It's one of those situations where you don't abuse the resources that you have, and it makes you appreciate them more. Aside from some odd platforming bits, I would definitely recommend this level to people!" - g12STL

"I would just allow lara to kill the manor boss with pistols because it might happen you may run out of ammo and replay the level - fortunately not so long, so I still enjoyed, and I would even say it's one of better manors I remember. The following floating part is inspired as well, I would just not deactivate the traps because it implies you need to return through them while in fact you're not supposed to. Throughout, I definitely would put more life into the lighting, and make the levels feel more connected because transitions between them seem random, rendering the storyline absent in place of loose scraps. Anyway I liked this a lot." - DJ Full

"Don't be confused by my review for the gameplay and puzzles, I really enjoyed this adventure, and you can find here innovative tasks and good ideas, like the movable blocks puzzle to form the word in the third level, but I can't give an approved to a level if I needed extra help to continue playing. Indeed, in the first level I found a room with two enemies and only 2 shells in my gun, so I was forced to use a savegame editor to increase the ammo for the shotgun and continue playing. I'll never know what the builder was thinking about to let the players "nude" with no options to deal with the enemies. Once I got 20 extra shotgun shells for the shotgun (illegally), the gameplay was more fluid, and in the second/third levels I never needed to cheat or use extra help. Really an adventure very well builded, with a good architecture, good atmosphere and good ideas, but I think there were excessive enemies in the first level, always forcing the players to save/reload save/reload save/reload hundreds of times; and that's not pleasant for the players. I think this builder has got a great potential, but please, let the players can take a breath once in a while and advance without unnecessary problems." - Jose

"This level was able to take 10/10 if it was on tr2 engine, the textures and puzzles were so tr2 + the level was dark and there's no flares on tr1 engine; The puzzle are so good, Not too hard not to easy but everyone could understand them, there were so much puzzles for one level, very well made, I really love this level and highly recommend it, 9/10 from me, secrets found 2/3" - p1kaa

"This level really let me with Lara's life in danger many times, between the shortage of medikits and the bunch of enemies, but still I managed to go through :D Not really sure of the time, the 3 levels looked short but still they took me some hours. I liked them, the 2 first are a bit open zone, but small, so there is not heavy backtracking, the third one is more lineal. The levels have tons of TR2 enemies what in my case I loved the challenge, the other objects were also fine, fitting with the map. The atmosphere I think it was well planned, the egyptian levels were quite visual specially with the TR2 restrictions, I give extra point for the music that I felt also quite welcome. Maybe I would have enjoyed with less tough difficulty (Like the gold room with the rollingballs), but generally I think they were nice level overall." - Adngel

"The peak of difficulty made me hardly enjoy this one... Music was good tho! Even it felt weird sometimes listen to AoD themes on this TR2 style heehe. Design could be better, but not really bad. The "Hanging Prison" level had its potential! Waiting for more of this author soon." - Jason L

"This level will no doubt feel slightly unfair for most players as not only the author has decided to strip Lara from her unlimited pistols, but also made the entire adventure rely on limiting options. The first level is essentially Home Sweet Home on steroids, and at times it feels like you're going to run out of ammo, but if you're playing it 'right' (ie making the most of your shotgun) you actually get by with enough to spare. Medipacks are also very scarce, so repeating each encounter to come up with the best possible outcome might become a chore now and then. Your inventory surplus is taken away from you when the second level begins, now set in a lovely mix of Floating Islands with Egyptian motifs, and there was at least one area which caused a déjà vu feeling, having to drop two bunkered flamethrower guys to their doom. The last level has a very tight encounter with the Talion guardian, as the arena is filled with spikes and again you don't have as many resources as we're so often used to, but the level set is still quite manageable (and I actually didn't find it particularly difficult when replaying for walkthrough purposes). I loved the 'TOMB' push block puzzle, by the way, even though I only found the hint after I had solved it lol. 60 minutes, 6 secrets. 08/20" - Treeble

"This TR2 three-level set is quite the adrenaline rush throughout. Lara begins with a completely diminished inventory (not even a trace of a small medipack) and her home has been overrun by all manner of fearsome enemies, so thinking out the most reliable strategy is the order of the day. This MO is a recurring theme throughout this game, and it possibly gets a tad out of hand with such limited surplus, but actually the enemy/pickup ratio is fairly manageable if you aim at the targets each time and I found it quite bracing and enjoyable. There's also some nice little puzzles and gymnastics mixed in with all the combat to provide some form of variety, although the camouflaged pushable blocks were possibly a little too vaguely indicated to be able to spot easily. The hiding places of the secrets were rather nice though, and the addition of a few newer Tomb Raider audio tracks gave the atmosphere a nice spin, despite the textures being bland, repetitive and stark in a few places (although more refined than in this builder's earlier works). An action packed game, great for those players who like mostly fast paced progression." - Ryan

"A 50 minute game (or more) with good ideas and some challenging parts. The first level makes the player think before spending his ammo, and the flamethrowers are dangerous in the narrow rooms. Despite this, i really enjoyed the challenge. The second is a Floating Islands style level, but without the weapons (if I'm not mistaken it's a re-creation of a level from the author's debut, since it has the same name "Hanging Prison"). The Egyptian style textures brought a differentiation to the game, because considering the limitations of the TR2 engine, it was very well done by the author. The songs are different from the usual and very interesting, taken from other games in the TR series. The third level closes with a well-designed block puzzle and a rock trap track that can be avoided if the player thinks of an alternative. The final battle also has its highlights and difficulty due to the traps that surround Lara. Conclusion: a great TR2 custom level, with a good soundtrack and recommended for those who want a challenge. The best work of this author." - Mister-B

"A 45 minute level with some interesting ideas concerning enemies (most of which have to be avoided, at least for some time) and traps, with two or three interesting puzzles in between. The looks are nothing groundbreaking, the first level was a tuned down version of Lara's home while the second was the most interesting, naturally as it is a Floating island setting. The third takes place inside a temple and I found the looks to be a bit monotonous here, often with wallpapered texturing. There are several paper thin walls and sometimes not so carefully applied architecture I liked the sound tracks used in this game but not that they were looping all the time. The occasional moments of horror are effective. Gameplaywise not without its moments, I liked the overall pace of progression and all the tasks are presented well enough in the second and third levels, while the first only relied on the use of enemies and could've had more unique gameplay elements in it. The hideouts of the seven secrets are decent as well. Overall, a nice little game with a few creative touches." - manarch2

"This levelset is not for the faint of heart. Right out of the gate you have a large amount of enemies to dispatch in Lara's home, with very limited shotgun ammo. I had to save and reload in order to gain the foresight required to get past the first wave of enemies (which ones to shoot and which ones to try to ignore for a time), and managed to finish the first level dispensing my very last shotgun shell. While it was a bit too difficult for my liking, I did enjoy the combat overall, especially in the last level. Unfortunately the items reset between levels, taking some of the fun out of gathering ammo, but Lara being disarmed did make the second level interesting, making her work to get back that shotgun. Aside from combat there are plenty of traps to dodge, the most notable being the army of boulders waiting on the ceiling to crush you as you navigate a chamber in the third level. There are also some enjoyable puzzles, but I was not a fan of the high amount of camouflaged pushable blocks used to conceal routes. The camera cues were helpful and make the objective clear to the player. Texturing is a mixed bag, some rooms look lovely, but other areas (roofs, underwater tunnels, and some caverns in the third level) are wallpapered. Overall, a difficult but entertaining adventure, which I would recommend to those raiders with good reflexes. 1 hour 3 minutes." - JesseG

"Well presented Tomb Raider 2 level set that provides some tough challenges and seems to be intended for advanced raiders. Level 1 was very tough due to the combat involved and the utter dearth of med packs. I had to resort to the save game editor to replenish. Only found two of the three secrets. 20 minutes. Level 2 was a floating islands scenario with no weapons so avoidance was the key here. Look out for movables when you get stuck. Found all three secrets. 20 minutes. Level three provided some platforming and bounce pads but progressed rather nicely with a big boss fight at the end. Found the only secret. 15 minutes. Overall a good raid where everything worked although the first level will frustrate most raiders due to the lack of med packs." - Torry