Level reviews

"A shooter level. There are a lot of ninjas to shoot everywhere. Most of the time they managed to steal my pick- ups. Apart from shooting ninjas and scorpions you get to crawl through a lot of ducts, running through long passages, finding levers and puzzle items. It became boring after a while. Besides, there's nothing about Area 51 here, only the textures, so this could be considered as a base/shooter level with egyptian objects." - alan

"Well, it wasn't quite how I pictured Area 51, so I suppose I'll have to make do with a routine base level. It's a bit too much of a shooter for my liking, although not badly made. I felt that the ninjas were overdone and the crawling got fairly tiresome after a while. At least enough ammo was provided due to me outsmarting the ninjas to various items lying around." - Ryan

"I was hoping for a nice Nevada desert level, but this turned out to be a rather drab base area full of ninjas! Some of the Egyptian style artefacts were as jarringly out of place as the enemies and the gameplay was rather routine, with lots of crawling through ducts (when there was a break from shooting ninjas), throwing floor switches and a rather confusing underwater area. Not an alien in sight either. Sorry, it's just not my idea of Area 51." - Jay

"Tedious and boring. That's all. Running a lot of kilometers visiting empty rooms only to shoot too many white ninjas and pull floor levers; at least I found plenty of ammo for the shotgun, medipacks and flares (but missed the uzis). Also the author lets you advance even without the items you need, so the backtracking is assured. Too many crawlspaces and very elongated textures in many places, there is an effort with the lighting though. Not a single camera when placing a lever, not a flyby, only some musics to create atmosphere. Not recommended." - Jose

"At first glance I found the texturing very disturbing, and lots of pickups scattered here and there without particular reason. There were lots of enemies, but, fortunately, most of them could be killed from the distance. I wondered what Arabians are doing in Area 51, the American defense center, where - according to current American-Arabian relationship - should be none of them at all. But I didn't mind and treated this event like "what if" story element. Then, I got stuck on an illegal slope with no possibility to escape from, so and was forced to reload the game. Again, as it is one of the first levels by Pedros, I forgave him. But then I was attacked by a goon when I was in a crawlspace and was unable to counter-strike him. That annoyed me and this feeling lasted for long time: hordes of enemies placed in huge, empty room... A part of a key located where it shouldn't be... No awareness of top secret experiments on aliens, potentially taking place right behind the wall... and, among all of this - me, wondering what I was there for. Soon, I found a glitch that moved me to a place in the middle of the level. So I reloaded again to finish it the intended way and give this custom a chance of being rated a little bit higher. And, indeed, I felt better for a short moment when I found the second Cartouche Piece, what required some thinking. But all the satisfaction changed into disappointment again, when a door that should let me out of this place didn't open and I had to backtrack through the whole level to find a switch for them. One misleading made finding that switch harder: when I found the glitch mentioned above, the door opened itself from the other side, what made me think there is NO trigger for them from the side where I was standing. After finally passing the door, I felt even more disappointed when another glitch occured: a partially-transparent window allowed me to get out, but didn't allow me to get in, what resulted in another reload. Later on, it appeared the whole rest of the glass in the room is constructed this way. This made me curious... and after few minutes I already knew EVERY transparent surface in this level contains this bug!!! NOOO!!! I reloaded the game one more time. AAAARRRGGGHH!!! Rest of fun vanished when I pulled several switches and no camera showed me anything triggered. SUMMARY: Why is this level so overrated? I don't know. It's average and buggy. What would happen if the Arabians took over Area 51 and Lara Croft was the only one person to help America in getting rid of them? This level gives us the answer. In the meantime, Lara doesn't discover ANYTHING more in Area 51. No UFOs, no genetic manipulations, no mystery, NO FUN AT ALL. BORING, BORING, A WASTE OF TIME!" - DJ Full

"In comparison to the some older levels by this same author, this looked just very good! Gameplay was still a bit too much relying on levers and pieces to progression, and there was a lot of area to cover so don't be surprised if you hit a closed door and have to retrace a long way back. Atmosphere wise it's pretty good, though the textures and lighting could have used a bit more work. The level ends as you reach a closed gate, but I suppose Lara will figure out a way to get out there, she's got plenty of ammo. Speaking of which, you'll face dozens of ninjas that pose no threat, really. 25 minutes. 01/07" - Treeble

"A little grower meaning it starts off in a rather bleak outside area with just enemies spread around like that. But once you get underground, roaming the long and good looking corridors the game grips you. Gameplay constists mainly of pushing levers and find (mostly) cleverly hidden pieces (one half of the cartouche and the hand of Orion were tucked away sneaky). Otherwise there's also a less or more disorientating underwater area divided into several smaller areas that was well done. Why you should play this level: there's at least one secret I guess because I saw a gun lying behind a small grated board but I could not get it (board was not shootable). Maybe just a joke?" - bERT

"This didn't start off very promising, outside what looks like a base in the desert, and it didn't look great either. But inside it became more and more complicated, if a little gloomy, but well made. There is a particularly confusing underwater maze of black rooms that took me forever to figure out, so a lot of swimming. The solution was right in front of my eyes (the 2nd cartouche piece) but I kept running past it. A lot of crawling in ducts again, and a lot of backtracking, which probably was the result of no camera shots. I suppose if a hint was to be given it would be to not a leave an area until you've really scoured it, look everywhere. You have to find two halves of a cartouche and a star-shaped hand. I'm sure the level can be played a lot faster than the way I did it. I left it and came back to it a few times over two days. A lot of running looking climbing and crawling to be done, no major puzzles as such. Even so I liked it in the end." - CC

"Another base level, Piotr sure does love them. This is solid build and like in all his others I have played so far, you do a lot of running. Couldn't find the second half of the Cartouche but there is a thread about it. The game is not over then as there is still more running to do and there is also a Hand to find. Crawling, swimming, climbing (the monkey kind as well) and running and miles of it. There are also some one-way walkthrough walls, so be careful because if you don't want to do another tour of the base, you should watch your step or hope you have a saved game handy. Some places were a bit too gloomy, but there enough flares to find as is ammo and weapons. I even found the shotgun twice. There is no camera work whatsoever, so your guess is as good as mine. 02-02-2003" - Gerty

"A gloomy base experience that is sourced from the tutorial wad so you get the warriors of the desert (and quite a few) instead of SAS guards and the cartouche and Hand instead of Code disks. Most of the time I never found out what all those levers did but maybe I was just lucky cause I've hardly ever came to a closed gate. So despite the many crawls the gameplay for me was fairly fast paced and I never got lost for long. I liked the sinister atmosphere and didn't mind the long runs but I wished there would have been a bit more variety in the tasks in hand. As it is, it's just a matter of finding the three crucial items and shoot all the baddies along the way. I came across two one-way walkthrough gates, but maybe that was intentional." - Dimpfelmoser

"A 30 minute level that apart from locating one half of a cartouche, was pretty simple set inside an industrial complex. You negotiate large rooms. Long walkways, crawlspaces and some underwater areas to finally exit the level as you get outside on the other side of the building. The point being? Some nice colours were used though." - Torry

"Lara finally gets to visit Area 51, a base type area in the Nevada desert. There are a lot of hallways and crawlspaces plus quite a few switches and storage areas, and the lighting is just amazing. Some hallways are filled with red light, some with blue, green, purple or white. I'm sure Lara would have liked to explore the base but there were so many ninjas, plus the two halves of the cartouche and the hand were difficult to locate. I just ran through trying to shoot the ninjas before they got me and find all the objects. I hardly even had time to glance at my magnificent surroundings. Next thing I knew I was back outside wondering why I had even bothered. I didn't get to see a thing." - RaiderGirl

"This is a solidly crafted level (about 1 hour in length) with plenty of shooting, a few nicely hidden pick-ups, some good 'places yet to be seen' areas, far too many long corridors and occasionally lazy texturing. It'll keep you absorbed for the duration, but it's no classic." - Orbit Dream

"This is a good, solid level that begins outdoors but quickly settles into an indoor run and swim mode. The only time of real frustration was trying to locate the other half of the cartouche. Some forum help revealed that it's inside one of those structures inside one of the several rooms at the end of swimming forays from a central underwater chamber. The gameplay was quite logical, and while this level won't take Top 50 honors, it's a worthwhile download." - Phil

"This is a level that is full of lots, lots of pick ups, lots of enemies, and lots of running around! This level reminds me very much of another, Secret Army Base, as it is set in a military base with quite similar game play of tracking down key pick ups and pulling levers while running, crawling, swimming back and forth through the same areas but this level lasted twice as long at an hour and seemed to play just that bit better. By the way Tombaholic is right that one piece of cartouche is extremely well hidden!" - Sash

"I have to say that given the age of the level I was quite impressed. You make your way through a solidly crafted base environment with rather good and occasionally colourful lighting, finding two pieces of a cartouche and a hand and pulling a few levers on the way. So progression is straightforward and not puzzling, but you get 31 ninjas to shoot, about one for every minute I spent here." - Michael

"What's Good: Smoothly flowing, non-linear gameplay in a nicely done TR2/TR3 atmosphere. Rather than consisting of a series of small puzzles, the level plays out as one large puzzle/maze, which I found very satisfying. One puzzle piece in particular was fiendishly hard to find (for me anyway). No spectacular acrobatics required completing the level, but a nicely balanced mix of exploring a network of underground tunnels, ducts and waterways. What's Not-So-Good: Why the Tut1 wad? Egyptian puzzle pieces, levers and baddies in the Nevada desert? A minor thing, but it does detract from the level. One or two more challenging/dangerous jump combos might spice things up a bit. Overall, a fine level worth a download." - Tombaholic

"I don't think I have enjoyed a good shoot-em-up since the game 'Doom'. I don't know if the author has played Doom before, but it sure brought back some memories. This level, although not excellent, certainly has its charms and if you like 'shootin yer guns' you'll like this one. Textures could have been a little better and the lighting was a bit too stark in places. All in all, worth a run." - dhama

"Big wide areas at first with the scenery referring exactly to the title as far as the Area 51 because the last clash I didn't see. All I saw was many ninjas and a lot of crawlspaces. Two puzzles to solve, a cartouche and a hand. An underwater maze but I guess I was lucky it didn't cause me any trouble. Pushing levers and climbing crates to get goodies and maybe a hole to proceed in them is what this level is about. It's easy to get lost with the many areas and doors which open by a lever as mentioned above that's located in a different area and quite opposite. This is one of the first levels of this author so I am guessing a lot of progress has been made since this one was released." - Kristina