Level reviews

"Make your way through a trap gauntlet, and when you reach the end, flood the entire map; then return the way you came, by swimming all the way back to the beginning Of course it's a challenge to make an interesting trap gauntlet, more so one that is also interesting to navigate in reverse and underwater - a lung-busting swim is not, in itself, particularly engaging; but the idea isn't half bad.
Now, the thing with ideas is that they're elusive and ephemeral things unless they're properly implemented and thus become manifest in the actual game. Here, however, the idea is executed in the sloppiest and most slapdash manner possible. Some of it may be endearingly amateurish, but on the whole it's the kind of level that may be very very short in terms of min. sec., but feels very very much longer than that, and not in a good way (by density of incident for example, as some levels manage to do). After a few simple jumps across pits and an astonishingly harmless rollingball corridor, there follows an epic back-and-forth jumping exercise across spikes and a tedious stretch of wading through waist-high water, whereupon you have shimmy along a lengthy crack in a wall, around the corner, and then of course along the other side of the wall, so that you may climb one of those interminable ladders and thus, eventually, reach the tile that triggers the water flipmap. The whole is interspersed with uneventful stretches of swimming (even before you flood the area) and corridors in which nothing at all happens, in part due to missing triggers. On your way back you encounter fires blazing underwater, and, if you didn't kill them the first time through, aquatic scorpions and ninjas. I'm not even going into issues of room geometry, textures and lighting. There is no finish trigger.
So, all in all not a good level, notwithstanding the fact that the idea on which it's based is sound. In fact I'm tempted to steal it. - Based on an idea by Joe 2 Cool', how cool is that?" - Mulf

"Certainly an interesting idea for a level – basically going through a series of rooms and flooding the entire area at the end, then swimming back to the beginning. If there had been any interesting gameplay attached, it might have worked. Sadly, there's not really much to get your teeth into." - Jay

"Interesting concept that could have developed into a proper level with the addition of triggers etc. It wasn't half bad as far as first attempts go. Long, long swim back and I had no luck finding any air holes until about half way through the swim and by that time Lara was sucking med packs voraciously. No end trigger either folks." - Torry

""A very early attempt", the levelinfo page states, and we've all been there. In all honesty, I've played worse, and flooding the entire level was an interesting concept, but it's poorly developed in rooms that all look randomly built and textured. Generally speaking, all first try issues are here, and I was half tempted to check if those boulders had proper triggers. As it stands, none of the traps in the level even have a purpose. The builder cared to supply a walkthrough, so to some extent I feel kinda sad that his potential excitement upon releasing this was all for naught. 10 minutes. 03/18" - Treeble

"Not bad the idea from this builder; a lineal gameplay avoiding a lot of traps to finally reach the end of the map and then flood all the rooms to go back to the very beginning. Apart of the very simple architecture, the empty rooms and the bad texturization, the author could place some cameras or sounds to guide the player and create atmophere, and a finish trigger too. Enjoyable." - Jose

"Not much to say regarding this brief romp through an Egyptian environment. There are a couple of boulder traps, but they are essentially harmless, an Eye of Horus to combine and use, do some tedious wading and shimmying and perform a long swim back to your starting point because there's no finish trigger. I'd play something else if I were you." - Ryan

"I enjoyed the epic backtracking swim (which I almost missed as I had assumed that the purple square,in lieu of a Finish Trigger,denoted the end of the level - only to find that the true end of the level was missing one anyway);and it takes a certain questionable talent to be able to build an entirely harmless spike corridor - but there's little here to entertain most players,either from an enjoyment or pictorial perspective." - Orbit Dream

"I give +1 for the atmosphere, because Joe's intention was for this game to resemble nothing but his pure imagination. And it resembles it. Also, +1 point for the puzzle. I got confused for a while - I thought I hit non-existing finish trigger and was positively surprised when I realized this is not the end of the game but the beginning of some kind of a puzzle. For the gameplay... I had mixed feelings, as I was swimming farther and farther through the set of passages I felt boredom and amusement, ridiculosity and simplicity. The whole level could be named "Epic Backtrack" - by the oxymorone, with the pejorative noun "backtrack" and positive adjective "epic". I hope you know what I mean. SUMMARY: Wanna feel something highly unspecified? Play this. If you prefer stable, defined feelings - put this level away." - DJ Full

"How should I describe this level? Well, I try it sometimes. There are big empty dry rooms. And big empty wet rooms. And wallpaper textures. And paper-thin walls. And three cheeky Baddies. And now my keyboard does not want to write more words. Or, nevertheless, the rooms at the beginning with the many Spikeballs looked quite nice. But the whole rest..." - Scottie

"Difficult to be passionate in front of such level, it is beginner's level which asks to make progress in decoration, textures stretched etc. The gameplay is simplistic, I would say that it is beginner's game for beginners." - Daffy

"We've been so spoilt with custom levels for a long time that we don't have to convert prjs any more. I almost forgot how to do it. Basically, this is a run through to the end, flood the level, and swim back. For a bit of excitement you could try and run past the ninjas you encounter, and then watch them walking around underwater and shooting at you as you swim back. There are huge, long and tall rooms, the texturing of which is monotonous and stretched. Very little 'furniture', so it wasn't such a shock to find the crossbow floating in the water. To flood the level you need the easily found eyepiece. Tasks are easy enough, but take a little time in this huge environment like a long wade through water, a long forward and back jump over spikes, a long shimmy over lava, a long, but easy run through rooms with dozens of hanging boulders, and of course the final long swim back through the level. A quickie if you need a TR fix." - CC

"Am I acting like a spoiled brat yes I am. I couldn't be bothered to convert a prj file again after a long long time and as I was converting some prj into TOMs for a CD I thought what the heck. Well it isn't really worth while although hats off for the try as that is more than I ever accomplished. A pity that Joe never continued as he had a grasp what the editor can (or cannot) do. 04-06-2004" - Gerty

"In this level the player has to trigger a flipmap which will help him go to a room that was inaccessible at the beginning of the level. The problem is that there isn't a finishing trigger in it (luckily you don't have to spend half an hour looking for it because that room is called 'Exit!' in the PRJ file.). There are stretched textures untextured water untextured lava scorpions appearing out of nowhere (the only time when that can be acceptable is when the author wants to surprise the player) and one or two paper-thin walls. However I liked the way the author tried to hide the spiked boulders by putting them in very dark rooms. The area with the three white ninjas the 'scare' caused by the visible boulders and the untriggered boulder which is over a piece of the Eye of Horus the floating crossbow the spiked corridor and the booby-trapped medipack were interesting. Unless the author wanted others to make his level last longer I don't think it was a good idea to send this level as a PRJ file because it prevented the player from getting fooled in certain areas." - Sakusha

"A level that takes you 5 minutes to reach the end where you then flood the whole level and then a few minutes to swim back to the start. Yes that doesn't sound too interesting does it well it isn't! The only two good things I have to say about this is that the creator placed the two airholes in just the right spots so that you should make them on about one breath left and the other is that if you just run past the 3 ninjas to begin with then when you are returning you then find they have become aqua-ninjas that can run around underwater after you. If those are the highlights then I guess that isn't much said for the level." - Sash

"You start this ten minute level standing at the beginning of an easy 'obstacle' course with spikes, fire tiles, boulders and ninjas with an opening way above you that you can't reach till you get to the end of the obstacle course and flood the entire level. You'll find the uzis in the first room and the crossbow very soon, but you don't need them as there are only a few ninjas and it's more fun to leave the scorpions alone so you can seem them running around under water after you have activated the 'flood'. Short level but I was still disappointed at finding nothing to do in the final room, not even a finish trigger." - RaiderGirl

"Well this game made me want to Wail! This is someone's first effort and I don't really think it should have been offered alongside the many good levels that are about. Having said that the author has got a basic grasp of the TRLE and I would look forward to seeing something better in the future. Everyone has to start somewhere-but a little more advanced please next time." - Doug E

"What can I say that hasn't been said? This was my first attempt at converting a prj. Level and was sure I had messed it up. Unfortunately it's really that bad. There's very little good about this level other that the floating crossbow and the heart stopping ceiling loaded with spike balls but not to worry they are just decoration oh my. I'm all for new author debuts but this should not have been offered. Come on Joe you can be cooler than this." - Momster

"This level forced me to think do level builders who think they can make a good level without the help of the manual + tutorial (- any previous experience with other level editors) level really believe the stretched textures are pure beauty or they just think that it's not their fault that the textures look so bad and other level builders achieve the beauty of their levels with black magic? Not easy getting through the basics but this is not a worthy attempt to the masterpieces some level designers have offered to us lately. Nothing spectacular you should see hope the author has something better to offer in the future." - eTux

"Could have been called Wet and dry. You go through the level for a 'dry run' and come back swimming. Obviously a try-out level for the author so the common 'mistakes' like wafer thin walls spike balls that don't work (the room with the big slope makes you fear for a landslide of balls but...they seem to be stuck to the top room you'll get to see when it's flooded with water) and scorpions that come in a group of five suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Oh and watch the spiked balls because they too come in groups kazillions of them hanging from the ceiling which looked funny and scary because you nearly did not dare to step further. The flooded part does bring some tension too but that's it: you'll flick through it in no time. Well Joe this water just was too cool for me but don't let it keep you from building some more." - bERT

"Few rooms stretched textures relatively no gameplay no finish trigger. Do I need to say more?" - Lil Kid

"A beginner's effort and one that maybe should not be released as we approach two years of existence of the Level editor. The good thing is it is only 21 KB download and even comes with a walkthrough. I had a smile at the lined up spike balls and the floating crossbow was neat. Other than that you get an effortless linear run one way and swim the other way meeting three ninjas and five scorpions that appear out of thin air place a horus eye curse at tedious wading shimmying and climbing and it's over after 10 minutes with a missing finish trigger." - Michael

"I know it's a cruel thing to say but in a day and age where we get excellent debuts like Trapped V1 by Karlo there doesn't seem to be an excuse for amateurish beginners levels like this here. Thin walls impossibly stretched textures a bleak atmosphere tedious shimmying a long climb and empty rooms make this short tutorial quest a right pain in the ass. It's a very linear and uneventful run through 34 rooms and to make matters worse you have to swim all the way back. Well as there is no finishing trigger I guess that's optional. There is one brief moment of excitement after you placed the Eye of Horus and I liked the crossbow that was floating in the water but otherwise there is nothing of interest there." - Dimpfelmoser

"Well what can I say now. I guess the marks speak for themselves. You see there were no puzzles the textures were oh so stretched and there are huge rooms with no objects. As you start you jump over a couple of lava pits there are spike balls all over the right and left side but I don't understand their purpose as if you just walk in the middle there is no way they can harm you. Under one of them you get one half of the Eye and not too much further the other half. The portal opens and you shimmy along the way to reach a ladder and a square that will flood the whole place from start to the area you found the square. I searched for something else to do but nothing so I will have to say that there is no finishing trigger unless I missed something. This could easily have been a walkthrough rather than a review that's how big and interesting this level is." - Kristina