Level reviews

"You must select the three levels in this set independently, otherwise they'll crash if you try to move from one to the other. You'll lose all of your accumulated ammo and medipacks as a result, but the levels aren't too hard to get through. They're mostly centered around shooting a bizarre range of enemies and locating pickups, but it's quite entertaining, nicely constructed and probably won't outstay its welcome." - Ryan

"These three levels aren't bad and the VCI atmosphere is nicely created. I did find some of the enemy choices a bit weird - ahmets? - and Lara's allies were absolutely useless in dealing with them, although they did come in handy for dealing with other enemies - mummy?. Anyway, if you can deal with the fact that you have to play the levels separately, and really that's not much of a problem, this is quite nice, fast paced action." - Jay

"You might be excused for playing this three-parter and thinking it's all over at the end of what is apparently the second segment. Actually, the level jumps are all messed up. When you finish the first part you're taken to the third part, and when that's done the game ends. If you want to play the second part you have to go back and start it as a new level. Shows the wisdom of refraining from multi-level releases until you know what you're doing. Anyway, this minor annoyance aside, these levels were actually fun to play, as you're provided plenty of weaponry to deal with the formidable enemies you encounter. You also have the dubious assistance of friendly mercenaries, but as likely as not you'll see them running around in circles with no clue as to what is expected of them. They seem particularly helpless in the presence of ahmets, and there are plenty of those in these levels. All told, you get close to an hour's worth of entertainment." - Phil

"It's a pain that this small levels are not properly linked. Anyway they are not difficult to play, but with not interesting tasks except shoot, shoot and shoot a lot of enemies, pick up some keys to open doors and press some buttons (wrong animation). Not bad the textues, except in triangular and one-click surfaces; I liked the friends helping me but sometimes they got stucked with the geometry. Enough guns and ammo, the best for me were the MP5 and the HK-G36, great guns! All in all, a well playable levels but not very entertaining." - Jose

"If you look beyond the bugs(none of which actually cripple the gameplay)then you'll perceive that this is very much a Silent Viper level in every respect: viz.heaps of ammunition;loads of powerful fire-arms;a bewilderingly wide variety of enemies,and gameplay which features a few interesting ideas to begin with but which palpably deteriorates in inventiveness as the adventure progresses.The first level is a well-made VCI jaunt and quite absorbing;the second is a straightforward sprint along dark corridors,but dark and enjoyably creepy for all that;the third is a 'run around shooting everything that moves' experience,and rather disatisfying.The fact that the first level leads directly into the third (Level Two can only be accessed via the Main Menu)no doubt reflects the fact that Silent Viper probably lost interest in this adventure some time before he actually finished building it. It provides 45 minutes or so of 'shoot-em up' entertainment, but your life will be no less enriched should you decide not to play it." - Orbit Dream

"Three short levels: 1) VCI House, 2) Tunnels of Scare, 3) Outside/Backyard. In the VCI House, green monsters are kept in a library and soldiers shoot each other. Strange story, but it provides a lot of action. Needless to say you get lots of guns and ammo. I liked the 2nd level best. The "Tunnels of Scare" are a bit monotonously textured, but you meet great enemies and the atmosphere is scary, indeed! Even a dragon lurks in the rather dark maze. The 3rd level doesn't live up to the others and cannot be finished properly, it seems. Similarly, a bug made level jumps impossible, fortunately you can start each of the three from the menu. After some testing and corrections, this could have become a great game. The way it is, it has ups and downs but is worth playing for the former. I liked the positioning of enemies and some of the camera views, too." - Ruediger

"Funny how things are going as I noticed that I turned on the autopilot playing this level and when I was finished I hardly remembered a thing. So browsing through the reviews I noticed that I had nothing new to add. The game still goes from level 1 to level 3 so you have to get to level 2 through the menu. Christian really likes his hardware as there is a galore of weapons. He also had to fell in love with VCI buildings. Lara's outfit was not that bad but in the second level it looked like she had done some repairs on it. For the rest it is finding keys and shoot shoot and shoot. Nice were the soldiers helping her though in the first level in the later ones I had to let Lara get shot so I knew which she could take out and which not. 14-05-2003" - Gerty

"OK I'm going to get the moans over with first. I did not like Lara's outfit it was awful. I did not like the way textures were applied like wallpaper. I had a discussion with a levelbuilder recently and I understand that in certain cases it may not be possible to get over this wallpaper effect but in this case I really think it could have been done a lot better. I went to the last level thinking it was the 2nd level and got totally stuck. I realised this after reading the other reviews. Now this is not fair. Now for the good things. Great new title flyby. Lara starts off with four buddies that take care of any opposition. This is new to me and it was great to see. She gets more buddies as she progresses through the level. Gameplay is good. Working you're way through offices picking up VCI and ordinary keys and shooting electric boxes. It's a shame that after this length of time the problem of going from one level to another is not fixed because the player is still stuck no matter what s/he does. In which case it's very hard to score this level properly." - CC

"Since it's been a year since this beta's release I'm assuming that the final version is never going to be released and will go ahead and review it. I found some fun areas in my half hour of raiding like the body that suddenly stands up and is a zombie the laser traps and boxes to shoot and the green mutants and mutant DNA which is one of the objects to search for. Basically though your only objective is to find a few keys and try to kill all of your enemies without shooting any of the allies. Finally you get to an outside area that looks suspiciously like the outside of Lara's house and the level is over." - RaiderGirl

"Well what a great atmosphere. If it only weren't due to the problems with the levels (the game crashes when you go from level 1 to level 2 or vice versa) it would have received a higher score but it was really frustrating not being able to finish this. Before I get into detail I would like to recommend this level to any Recon Labs / SAS Base fans. It follows the same style. VCI House: This is the best out of the three probably. It's the starting point obviously and right at the beginning Lara gets the MP5+Lasersight then she can shoot the target high above to open the door to level 2 but if she raids the entire level she ends up having access to level 3. There are some offices deadly laser areas and even the Iris appears however Lara can't get it. There was a receptacle for a BLUE FUSE but you don't get it here... Tunnels of Scare: Playing it you will know why this name (you have to choose it from the start menu or else you never get to play this one). Dark sewers with many green monsters reddish crocodiles and even the huge mutant from City of the Dead appears. Having the VCI Key in hands you can explode a wall and find guess what a BLUE FUSE however when you try to go back to Level 1 to use it the game crashes. This is no way to discover what good it would do. Outside/Backyard: Starts off where the heliport exit from level 1 would take you and then you find the crowbar and yet again you will find the VCI Key to open a door. You find two giant scorpions and then you are left off in the streets. Stuck in the streets. In the very end of them you will se a closed gate but you don't have a key to open it! Maybe it was behind the BLUE FUSE door in level 1? Well I dozyed to see what was inside. It was a garden full of terrorists and another keyhole - for another key you don't have. Well I enjoyed while it lasted and I am really willing for a possible fixed version of these levels. If the connection between level 1 and 2 wasn't working properly at least the author could have included a BLUE FUSE in the level 1 so maybe we could discover what was behind that door!!" - Treeble

"By now I expect Christian's levels to have the occasional bug or flaw along the way but really right in the first minutes of this game you find the (retextured) crossbow and laser sight shoot the target high up in the rafters and go down the door that has opened whereupon you get a load screen and then the game crashes. Well there could at least be a readme to explain this. I then had to use dozy to get past the laser although I learned later that you can apparently jump over them. That really spoiled it for me from the start and the fact that Lara's cat suit was missing the most important bits and that you could get trapped by the green mutants if you shot them in the wrong places didn't help much to endear me to this strange base level. I thought the dragon in part two was a bit out of place and I got a really fed up with all those weapons. Gameplaywise there isn't much there to keep you entertained. You have to find all the crucial items and shoot the assorted enemies along the way. I liked the atmosphere in the sewers (part 2) best but the other areas weren't that bad either just nothing special." - Dimpfelmoser

"Watch that title - it says 'Beta' and it means it. While the Custom Title flyby is nice the connection of the three levels does not seem to work properly so you can play level 1 and move into three and finish without ever going into level 2 so I actually started it separately from the menu. Also Lara's outfit is a cool and shiny black catsuit but has a serious problem around her hips. VCI - House (25 minutes): Accompanied by a few friendly soldiers you are battling SAS green (!) ahmets and retextured mummies. I found one secret the HK gun and also the MP-5 and fuses keys and mutant DNA to allow progression in this VCI office environment where all those glass walled rooms look the same after a while. Tunnels of Scare (10 minutes): Apparently there is a way into here from level 1 but I never found it. In the few minutes in these sewers you meet more green ahmets and SAS a few retextured crocodiles and need to sneak past that dragon to capture a blue fuse (which presumably you should be using in another level but you never get there. Watchout when picking up the VCI Key - I got zapped the first time. Outside/Backyard (15 minutes): This starts on the helipad you get to when you exit level 1 and there are many SAS two giant scorpions and wasps to kill and a VCI Key and another key to find. I thought the street with the high hedges looked a little too deserted. Bottomline this beta could be turned into a decent set of levels with a decent story if the author would care to tie up the lose ends." - Michael

"Okay the gameplay is lots of bang bang you're dead and finding nice shiny keys fuses and mutant DNA but the location was kind of interesting as it varied from the VCI look we have become accustomed to since Recon Labs a slightly spooky sewer and a helipad area that turns into a street flanked by giant hedges. The enemies here are guards crocs ahmets giant scorpions and wasps and a monster serpent but with the unbelievably large amount of weapons which you find all multiples of they pose no threat except for the serpent. By the way the ahmets have been retextured green which felt a little like being attacked by giant vicious boogers! There is just one very bad design fault with this set of three levels you can actually play level one and level three combined missing level two totally if however you realise how to open the door to level two this involves explosive ammo and looking skyward the game crashes when the level tries to load for some unknown reason so you have to play it separately from the menu but this means not being able to bring a fuse back to level one thankfully Krissy pointed out to me that you can jump past a laser trap that the fuse it seems would have turned off so you can still finish the levels just not exactly as they were meant." - Sash

"Once again SV turns out a level which shows his promise as an author but it is so sloppy in many ways that it fails to live up to its promise. The game is actually three levels but the second crashes when loading (coming from level 1) and when played from the start menu it crashes when Lara tries to exit. So it ultimately serves no purpose and is more frustrating than anything else as Lara finds what seems to be a key puzzle piece there. The other two levels have some nice touches (like the shotgun on steroids - Lara should never leave home without it!) but the texturing is uneven and the gameplay a bit one-dimensional (find keys fuses etc.). If SV had done some beta testing and tied up all the loose ends we might have had an interesting level here. Too bad" - Tombaholic

"What could happen if Tomb Raider meets Resident Evil? This level is one of the answers! Lara (in a very cool outfit) must save the VCI building from a lot of zombies and weird creatures. The graphics aren't excellent but the atmosphere is interesting. The puzzles are fine but I expect something better. So explaining all with a few words this game is simple (sometimes boring) but interesting. The "new" title screen is very creative! So you may not find this pack of three levels an exciting adventure but may can have some fun with them." - Leandro

"Basically this is a three part level. It seems that the intention was each part to be a separate level but that wasn't achieved. It's true that the atmosphere takes you a little to the last part of Tomb Raider Chronicles but the textures especially at the last part are a mix of VCI set and an outside kind of set which makes it a bad connection. Otherwise the enemies are new and retextured mostly mutants at the tunnels with a good dark atmosphere and nice placing of them by jumping in front of you. The guards are often used and helpful some times with the MP5 appearing and the HK. The lack of music is something to report but there is a nice flyby at the main screen and a problem to access the second level. In that case it can be played by choosing it from the title screen. The first part was the most interesting of all but all the parts are a constant search of keys although you could miss one or two of them without really having to solve any difficult puzzles. As this might be an early released level nevertheless it is a good start." - Kristina