Level reviews

"Marvelous tropical adventure with flawlessly smooth graphics, wonderfully crafted scenery and thrilling music. The puzzles are varied, well placed and very entertaining, making the gameplay interesting and enjoyable. There are some pretty well hidden secrets as well! The amount of foliage made it diffucult sometimes to spot certain things though. The first short level was great, I would love to see more of that in the future. I appreciated not having to kill the monkeys and being able to enjoy having them around. I'm glad we got to help our new friend before achieving our final goal. This game feels like a step up about how the classic TR games could be continued/reimagined in the future. This is the true evolution of the Tomb Raider saga." - Minaru

"A unique and memorable jungle level, with special attention given to the story, nonlinear gameplay, and new kinds of object and environment interactions. Highlights: While using a mix of India, South Pacific, Peru, and Khmer BtB assets, the level features an atmosphere and color palette all its own, with the green and gold lighting and crystal blue water being instantly recognizable in any screenshot. As other reviewers have noted, the level is open-ended, with tasks available to complete in any order within smaller hub areas, and helped along by guidance from various characters and especially well-acted voice lines from Lara herself. The variety of enemies (jaguars, spiders, flies, tribesmen, crocodiles, piranas... but don't shoot the monkeys) adds excitement to the exploration as do pickups, with a third kind of health item available to deal with poison. I think gameplay was at its best when Lara creatively interacted with characters or the environment: speaking to locals to receive instructions and mechanics like activating the raft or navigating a tricky raising block puzzle, and a fun climb up from an advancing spike floor, were especially fun. Suggestions: Most objects feature collision, and this combined with the many dark green textures made for some unpredictable navigation. Trying to keep Lara from shooting the monkeys was made difficult by both the foliage and by other enemies, leading me to reload frequently because of accidentally auto-aiming at a monkey. I found very few medipacks on top of having to deal with poison. Several trap gauntlets featured impossible-to-predict obstacles (especially falling ceiling blocks) or sequences of moves requiring trial-and- error by killing Lara. I prefer traps that are puzzles in themselves, when the player can see ahead and judge what they will likely need to do: a test of skill rather than luck." - Cbl

"Outside a very short manor intro area this is a single long level with a Jungle theme and BTB Khmer aspects for man-made sections. This is one of the best looking Jungle levels in general, with Tomb Engine used to allow for a much higher density of foliage and other objects, along with some original effects. On the other hand, while they still look great by most standards, and lighting is high quality throughout, some of the interiors feel a lot more basic in comparison to the outdoors, as well as some of the cave texturing feeling a little repetitive. Object use is great, with various extra touches as a result of the improved engine.
The structure of the main map is a few semi-linear areas with transitional parts that work like mini-levels in themselves, as you do a series of tasks in each one before moving on the next. Exploration is the main aspect, with large multi-leveled areas to unravel, and there are original aspects like interacting with characters for both optional and mandatory quests along the way, and your actions potentially having a minor impact at the end. Alongside that though there are plenty of traps, combat and puzzle elements, including making some things act in non-standard ways. It's mostly not too difficult (although you have to be quite observant of multiple routes at times), but a couple of trap sequences can be tricky, and the blow dart enemies are frequently hidden high up behind foliage and other objects that makes not getting poisoned tough, but there's plenty of items to deal with that. I'm guessing it's more of a Tomb Engine thing and not something the author can change (so it doesn't affect the score) but the targeting reticle is a bit too massive; you can turn it off in the menu but it would be nice to be able to just make it much smaller. There's a nice story element with the various character interactions and Lara commenting on things along the way, although the ending felt a little sudden despite the level's length, and it didn't feel like there was a proper climax gameplay wise. Another great show of Tomb Engine that mostly uses it to enhance vanilla gameplay rather than completely change it, and one of the best Jungle levels too." - Mman

"Even for a TEN level, this is remarkably ambitious. Being from one of our most accomplished builders, you'll expect something of superior quality and thankfully it doesn't disappoint. First and foremost, the textures, atmosphere and general construction are second to none. It's definitely among the most convincing jungle environments I've ever explored in a custom level. The gameplay doesn't lag far behind either. There's plenty of challenging traps and thought-provoking puzzles, and sometimes the most obvious path isn't the correct way. Liked the character interactions too. The only real criticism I have is that the foliage was a little intrusive into gameplay at times, and often made figuring out where to go next a bit trickier than it should be. Overall though, this is quite the accomplishment." - Ryan

"what a masterpiece of game, the atmosphere, soundtracks,leveldesign, the nice story everything a 10/10. one of the best TR customs i ever played." - Raider278

"Great jungle level including lots of decorations and cool visual effects. Gameplay is highly non-linear and exploration-based which did lead occasionally to moments of confusion in terms of where to go next. This was not a problem for me though, and overall, I liked the challenge. There are also couple of puzzles here and there, and some well used traps that often come in various combinations creating intense situations for the player. All in all, it is a very enjoyable level and I highly recommend it." - Samu

"What I Disliked

• A minor note that camera shots for more of the switches would be nice, to show what they changed in the level.

What I Am Neutral About

• The main game is a single level, but it is quite a large one - the layout can be a bit overwhelming and I found that the hardest part of the adventure was how easy it was to overlook certain nooks and crannies. I wouldn't call it unfair, but expect a lot of observation to be required, or have a walkthrough handy for when you feel lost.
• The dialogues are interesting, but it is not clear that you have to keep pressing the Action button an additional time to get the character to speak the next sentence.

What I Liked

• The jungle isn't a stroll in the park - a good variety of blades, boulders, and spikes stand in Lara's way. I enjoyed these trap sequences.
• The visuals are very strong, with a lot of attention to details in each of these lavish jungle areas.
• I enjoyed the ending - and my impression is that it might be altered based on the actions Lara has taken during her adventure...

Time: 2 hours 37 minutes | Difficulty: Hard | Rating: 9.25/10 - Excellent" - JesseG

"A really fun and engaging raid to be found here! Right off the bat this level is absolutely stunning! You start of in Croft Manor while a small portion looks great. Then you jet off to a beautiful jungle setting where its a lot more extensive and really shows off the power of Tomb Engine. Gameplay was fun throughout, I got stuck a couple of times but luckily the builder was on hand to give hints to get me through haha! A really fun story too and a choice of endings as well depending on your actions throughout your adventure. I couldn't resist the temptation to kill the monkeys so got the bad ending haha! But I couldn't recommend this raid enough! Its a level that is definitely worth your time to play!" - Feats

"Nice jungle atmosphere grom a great builder. hope we have more comebacks like this . Really liked the touch , making dialogues with other npc's . I cant complain for anything here , you find your way and solve the puzzles if you spend time here . my only problem is the ten engine cause i play with controller and the butoon mapping is bugging and the sensitivity of the stick cant change by the option menu . missed one secret ." - Petaludas

"A very beautiful, non-TR3 looking jungle! It has a story and it's well implemented. It also has one of the best and most satisfying endings in TRLE history. It's mostly exploration and platforming based, with some nice puzzles here and there. Nice traps too. I found exploration to be hard because of the dense foliage. Maybe the main path is a bit more obvious, but when I see another possible route I go back to explore it, meaning I had to go many times up and down. But I found all the well hidden secrets. Not for beginners or casual players. Recommended to all the rest. PS. I noticed a shutter bug a couple of times." - billie2001

"A nicely played story. Invokes memories of old Back to Basics which revolved around single areas, but this time the new engine allowed a couple of them with more detail and not as big frame drop as in the old engines (though much to fix, TEN still has). I'd add more color contrast and give the leaf texture more air, as it takes time and eye strain to look and jump through foliage in hope for possible path. It would look better as well." - DJ Full