The primary method of advancing is through this block, you move it over the symbol of the door you want to open and go through it. Funny, I remember going down from this section, guess that only happens later. I push the block towards the temple looking section you can see (if you zoom in) in the first screenshot, which opens the door.
The door closes behind me, and...gorillas. I remember these guys being tricky, but this particular incident isn't that difficult. I take out the one as he beats his chest and jump away from the other. There are two levers in here, one opposite the door and one in one of the alcoves. Back outside and...
It's a good thing this game doesn't have location-based damage. |
Pierre. You can see him a lot better as he approaches in this section. You just exchange gunfire for a bit before he disappears. In this particular engine, into thin air, but originally into the fog. Now, to the upper level. Which is a problem. I can't open the other door with the block where it is and I seemingly can't reach it otherwise. On top of the temple is nothing, there's only a full medikit on top of one of the pillars. So side area, hoping that it is in fact, a side area.
I vaguely remember this. Jumping up slopes to reach a secret area. A bit more complex than the one in the first level, including a collapsible floor which will likely kill you. More shotgun shells and another full medikit. Now what? Well, there was a puzzle here and without knowing it, I solved it. So long as I push the block over the spot it needed to be put on, it remains open even after it's been moved again.
Behind the other door is a long chute down, leading into a sewer of some kind. If you're not me, you might notice that there's an area you can reach which has a secret on the way down. One I did notice was in the middle of the water here, which has shotgun shells. Past that is another hidey-hole containing a lever to drain the water. This allows me to kill this guy, the crocodile. Not too unusual as far as animals in this game go.
Don't fall down. |
First up, Damocles, a reference to the story of a Greek figure who served a king; and, when he said the king had truly great fortune, pointed out that there was a sword held by a single hair as a metaphor for how all of it could be reversed in an instant. You go in, expecting them to drop...but they don't. Instead you reach the end of the room, open up a door with a pressure plate, and get a key. Some shells and a medikit above it, not a secret...this game is very weird about what is and isn't a secret. The way back, they drop. Assuming you don't rush past them, they drop just enough from you that when you activate them, you should be safe.
Second, Thor, the Norse lightning god. Not really sure if a monastery in the 16th century would know about that guy. This is divided into two parts. The first is Thor's lightning, don't be on any area inside of the five metal plates or you'll get zapped. Yeah, it's the knowledge of Thor that really puts this part into historical question.The second part involves a hammer, poised over a pressure plate. Stay on it long enough and the hammer falls on the pressure plate, hopefully not with you on it. This drops some crates and now Lara can do some perilous platforming to reach the second key. No, you can't climb on top of the hammer.
Third, Atlas, the Greek titan who held up the Earth, or as they said back then, the heavens. I'm not sure when this shift occurred, so the following events may not be historically accurate. Inside there's another ape, and a boulder, presumably representing the Earth. This is clever, because you might not figure it out right away. You can't climb up to the thing on the left, but behind you is the hole the boulder goes into. It's two spaces, one containing a small medikit. Back into it and hang from the ledge.
Fourth, Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. This is the annoying one. You jump into a small pool, which automatically carries you down several blocks. Here, you pull a lever to open a door to get a key then swim out. Wait, that's it? I remembered it being bigger than that. Funny, guess my memory is failing me.
After sniping the three of them from a safe point just above them, I begin putting the keys into the locks. Couldn't find the lever to open the secret door. This key business is more annoying than it has a right to be. The locks are in order from top to bottom, but at first you're going to match the color of key to the door, because that's gaming logic. Two of the key sets are extremely similar to each other. Because of course they are.
The Colosseum, or as this section of it's called, random underground river. There's a croc in the water, fortunately you can take him out from here. Sometimes he tries to hide from you, but if you jump in the water he'll come after you, with plenty of time to take him out after getting out. It's just a short swim to another semi-outdoorsy area. Funny how the crashing waves outside can be heard even inside the water.
...and yikes, I didn't see them until they were right on me. Kind of creepy looking too. Cougars, yeah, with the amount of eyeshadow they have on, they're trying to be cougars. This is another area like the valley in Peru, hope you figured out what angles you can jump up on. Fortunately, these are just secret areas. I think. Lot less climbing up a cliff face and more walking around a concrete building.
Wait a minute, no music cue has played, is this supposed to be the path forward? To my left is an area Lara can hang from to reach the other side of the ledge. There's a secret up there, shotgun shells, and down below is a small medikit. Past that is a further path. Damn it, that is the way forward. Gotta go back for some secrets.
Left is where I just came from, my goal is that hole straight ahead. There's a spot Lara can jump from that's completely flat...and Lara can land on the tile in front of it. Can't climb up that left ledge, so I have to figure out how to jump to that one tile just off the hole. Been a long time since I did a completely diagonal jump like this one. All for shotgun shells. I'd be a lot less annoyed at how lacking some of these secrets are if weapon drops were more than 2 shells or ammo I can't use yet.
"You know how to do a 3D model of an animal, right?" |
The Colosseum...oh, hang on, gotta shoot the Frenchman again. I missed the deep metaphor this game has interwoven in this section with how the French are constantly getting in the British's way and just won't die. This is another outdoors area, not that you could tell. Upstairs are three doors that can't be opened, including one above the ground for some reason. A presumable fourth is collapsed. Down below are some wild animals, mostly easily taken out by sniping. Easy now, Lara gets some serious range after she's started firing.
There are a few paths further in, one's blocked off by spikes, we're not making that mistake again. This one just has cougars. You can take these guys out a bit easier than you'd think by just running in a circle around them. Huh. Levers that thankfully open up some of the closed doors here. Spawns some more lions/cougars, because of course it does. These animals are really kind of crap if I don't even know what I'm looking at.
This is one of those areas that seems like it has some secrets, but it really doesn't. More shotgun shells, and then a brief question of how to advance. While you can go to either part of the collapsed area, the path forward is to jump over to the VIP box...or whatever that was called in ancient Greece.
You know, if it weren't for the lack of people here, I'd wonder if Lara was a time traveller. After taking out a gorilla, I spot a locked...water closet? Like an actual water closet. Possibly acid. I wonder if the developers are playing a little joke on players. If so, surprisingly low brow. Past that is a set of double doors I need to open elsewhere, and a lever hidden by a block. This opens one of the doors at the columns. First one I can reach, in fact.
The door closes behind me, a different door to the one that opened. A boulder is rolling towards me. In a panic, I just run forward. The camera shifts and I start to think I'm going to have to reload, until it goes over the hole. Phew. There's a lever past the boulder which opens another door in a column. That one's not really notable, just jump up some platforms to reach a lever to open the final column door. The one that's above the ground for some reason.
That is the way forward, the big door just had a small medikit. What the hell Core? How am I supposed to start searching for secrets when everything that looks like a secret might be the way forward. There's such a thing as having too good level design, apparently. This one works the same as the one in the opening section, pull the lever in an alcove and drain the water. No secrets here. No, wait, that didn't drain the water. Oh... And that's the end of the level. Somehow I missed 5 pickups and a secret. I don't even know how that's possible, I looked seemingly everywhere.
Because this level is pretty nice. Three areas of which you get to chose from at the start. In front of the pool is a nice pillar area containing some gorillas. Behind them is a nice temple-looking section which has some more gorillas. No secrets that I could spot, but there probably is. Going back through the pillar area, I hear more gorillas. Like 4 more spawned in. Think that's enough gorillas? There's also some ledges Lara can't reach, guessing she returns from there at some point.
Going counter-clockwise, which leads behind the pool. This one further divides into an area up some stairs and not up some stairs. I chose the latter. More animals, thought these were tigers at first, no, just lions. I wonder why PETA never really went after Lara Croft compared to someone like Mario. I guess even fictional upper class people are off limits. There's nothing under these areas except some bats and a medikit. I don't know why they keep putting in the bats. Until that fan mod that puts in about a thousand bats chasing after Lara, they're not going to be a threat. There's no way up, but I do find a slightly hidden area with a gorilla and two sets of magnum magazines.
And it's up the stairs next. I actually doubled back after seeing this since I remembered it, but the final area near the pool is blocked by a closed door. Lara can't really open doors in this game. This is a somewhat annoying section. First take out some more gorillas. So many gorillas. Then it's this nice open area. There's some items on one of the temples, not a secret. What you're supposed to do is climb up on these pillars then gradually jump across them until you can reach that central area. Here, there's a lever to open a door to the ground floor so you don't have to do that again and some levers. You have no guidance here, just pull the levers. All of them up except for the left one, apparently.
This ones one of the doors, revealing this. Ah. Crap. Once you step in front of the first fire spout, they all turn off for a limited time. If you get set on fire, Lara can always jump into the water below. Which has rats. Up until now, jumping hasn't really been under pressure. You need to do this fast and well lest you just not go or Lara goes in like a bad Ghost Rider cosplayer. Every time I make it one pillar away from the end and fall into the drink, until the last time. Not even a bit of skill, I just made it after the fire returned and tanked the damage from that. This nets me lead bars for my trouble. Another gorilla spawns and I have to play with levers again.
Turning both far edge levers to down with the rest up opens up the area to the little VIP box that's here...for some reason. This is the path out. I need three gold bars to get out, which I don't have. There's another lion here I kill as well as a shotgun shell pickup. Guess I'll have to come back here when I get some gold bars. It's after this that I discover how to open the doors, there are symbols on top of them. How embarrassing.
Door number three looks a bit like the Thor room, except there's a giant pillar in the middle of the room. There's a pathway past it leading up and down, I assume up is the way forward, so I go down. There's nothing but a pushable crate in the wall, which I pull out...and that causes a crashing sound and a loud bang. Uh...
I didn't realize you could do that in this game. This doesn't hide any items or anything, this just opens the path forward. Lara's not exactly going to win an award for her contributions to archaeology history, is she? Some zig-zag jumping here, up the stairs to a bit of safe fallen rock, then onto another bit, then the pillar and onto the stretch just before the place you're supposed to go to.Tomb Raider as a FPS sounds like a good idea until you do a backflip. |
There's seemingly nothing up here but a strange aqueduct with some crocodiles. I can reach this area, which is in fact, a secret. So long as you can reach those items in the corner there. You jump over that slope facing Lara, which has a slope facing the opposite side. Jump at the end of that and you can reach the items. That's nice and all, but aren't there supposed to be some items here? Not the magnum magazines and small medikit I just got, but more bars? Iron or gold, I'm not picky.
Oh, I see, I have to go down a level. Wait, that's a large medikit. Ah, nuts. I think how you're supposed to do this is land on that tall slope facing this side, then jump over there. Unfortunately...I don't do that. It takes me a couple of attempts to figure it out, and when I do I overshoot it just enough. Landing on a (not) secret ledge.
Even discounting this sequence breaking, why wouldn't you put these guys on the roof? |
The pathway I finally reconnected to leads to the area above the starting pool, where I kill another lion. This eventually connects back to the pillar area, which I thought meant this was pointless, until I realized I could jump across here. This leads to the top of the temple-looking door and an iron bar. Wow, I hope these iron bars sure are useful for something. Some more lions spawned down below and I take them out. As I drop down, I notice a large medikit by the door. I approach and the the door opens. Nothing inside but a lever opening the gate to the final section of this area, but first I want to return to the other colosseum and check that final door.
Spikes, slightly raised platforms, and I hear the telltale sound of a gorilla. What's the gimmick here? If Lara walks down from a slightly raised edge she gets skewered? Someone really needs to learn how not to immediately impale oneself on a spike the second one gets. Not that it matters since Lara can just walk through the corners. The gorillas actually spawned in the big room, I don't notice it until it's too late. For the second one I decide to pull a block around waiting for him, he shows up as I do that and I guess the developers never thought to test that, because he clips through the block, and when Lara is finished, appears at the top.
Anyway, there was a lever behind the block, which makes a horrible sound when I press it. The platforms are now raised. Yeah, this makes more sense. Considering what I've been through, the added danger of death isn't that much of a cost. Though another gorilla in the small room at the end does give me a little cause for concern. All three lead bars, now to that final area.
If you really want to see Lara turn into a statue again, you can look it up yourself. |
The Cistern. How Lara plans to go back from here is beyond me. Down is a rat, they make cute sounds when you shoot them, like a bird chirping, but otherwise they're basically a non-entity. There's a background soundtrack which includes an ambient sound of a different rat that plays for this level and the next. It's very annoying. For a moment I think the game glitched out and I have no way out, until I spot a moveable block in the wall. You have to push this one, because there's a lever above the ground beyond it you need to reach.
Further down is this place. Despite the blocky look to the game and the janky texturework, this game can still do some impressive stuff. Anyway, a lot of rats and crocodiles here, as well as doors you can't yet open. Lots of shimmeying around ledges. I noticed the game put a platform beneath one such crevice so Lara can change walls, I remember the later games just let Lara turn when doing that. Anyway, at the top of one is a key. A lot of places I could go, but I decide to climb up to the easiest area.
This leads here, where Pierre is again. How did he get here? Oh, well. In my desire to not just trade bullet for bullet against him, I fall into the water below. No way out and a crocodile, of course, so I go through an underwater passageway to another little pool. This one has a rat. I get out and spot another key. Oh, I see this levelset's theme is collect a set number of items to advance. I didn't spot that with the bars, nice touch.
I circle back around and take him out. This area has a lever, which raises the water outside. I find a secret area merely by finding a small medikit, which leads to the real secret containing three shotgun shell pickups. I spot an area even further up, but I suspect I need to raise the water to reach there.
Back in the central area, I finally take out those crocs and start searching the pool. I think I could have gone down there earlier, but I didn't spot the way back up. There's a secret area in the pool containing more magnum magazines. But I spot where the keys are used, earlier I thought they were used on the way out, turns out the two doors to the left of the entrance have places to put a key.
The second one seems to be quite mundane at first, just a series of rising jumps. Oh, and Gorilla Killer Croft continues her rampage and Pierre shows up again for some reason. But then as you reach the top, you see some items near the end. The magnums. Finally! It's been, what, half the game? But getting there is another matter, since you can't drop down from above, Lara does her "I'm about to fall and die stance" and jumping across just doesn't quite work.
I eventually manage to do in such a way that I'm unlikely to ever repeat. But magnums. After 20-odd magazines I now have 550 magnum bullets. Now watch how I don't use this for an even longer part of the game. Back to the game.
Ah, another one of these rooms. Now it looks to be fairly deadly, and I'm not talking about the crocodile. Or the two that spawn after I reach the ground. Or the rat that jumpscared me when I looked into the area the crocs came from. No, it's that this area seems to be insurmountable until you reach the next section. No way back up? Yes, there is, two blocks on the end. Have to perform an angled jump to reach the lever? Nah, just shimmy across a recess. Behind the door is a small area above some spikes where you have to make a small jump diagonally with basically no vertical or horizontal leeway.
Here we have another water level puzzle. Watch out for the crocodile...I didn't. Naturally there's another vast underground tunnel in the pool leading to an area with more loot that's required. Pull a lever and a door opens, containing a silver key...but wait, there's another way out through the pool in the central room I missed earlier. I didn't find a way up from that crocodile section when it was obvious there was something going on there. What's going on? Aha, this requires the water to be lower. Hopefully I didn't screw myself out of some items.
No, it turns out this is exactly the way I'm supposed to do it. Maybe not water first though, since you can always go in through the pool...saving yourself a key unless you want to find some secret stuff. Or not so secret stuff, since it's another silver key. Pierre shows up again, but I just get the heck out of there.
The Tomb of Tihocan. Doesn't sound very Greek to me. This area starts you off under pressure, and for the first time I discover that there are certain kinds of levers you can only pull above water. Then you get here. I notice nothing amiss until I land on that top platform and the dart guns start going off. They go off whether you're on this block or not. There's a lever which I assume raised a platform to a vital area, but turns out to raise the water level, and moves a block so I can reach the way out. Behind where it was is a medikit. Nice.
Uh, wasn't expecting this. Just get in at the right time. There's a strange amount of point in going past it at this point, since there's just a crocodile, 2 shell pickups and magnum magazines. Killing the crocodile now is probably a good idea, despite crocs somehow having better speed out of water than in water. I just now tried the shotgun and it takes one shell to finish them off, nice. What about the other one?
Well, that's above this one, a deadly drop into what might be a pool of water. It leads to a lever to return the water level back up. Okay, that's good and all, but it doesn't actually help me. I can't go anywhere new. I look around, and end up returning to the place I killed that last croc in. Oh, no, it's a block that I should have pulled. Right, I have to do a bunch of busywork and I'm back.
After another underwater passage I reach this place. I sniped these gorillas from an area down below, which has has a lever to open the area beyond that jump. Miss that jump and you land on the spikes. I have to admit, I'm not feeling this level. This gets me a large medikit and a key, which opens up another series of platforms over water. There's no danger there, you just jump over water.
Once inside there, you can push this block over some curiously colored pressure plates. Each time except for one, animals pop out of a door and you can get some stuff. One has a much needed key and tries to pull a boulder trick on you...but it's not very hard to avoid. Uh, there are two keyholes though. Does that mean I missed something? How? Oh, I missed it in the upper room. Now that was hard to spot.
Still, at least we get some nice shots. Tomb Raider has some interesting usage of moving the camera away from Lara. Most of the time it's annoying because it prevents you from doing anything while it happens, but something like this? Nice.
Also nice. Can't open this door, but there's a nice large underwater area beneath here. Full of stuff to explore. I didn't find anything beyond a door I can't open, probably missed something. What I'm actually supposed to do is go to a hole near where I entered, which has the usual death-defying leap, this has a lever that opens the underwater door. Behind there is a lever which opens the door in front of me in that screenshot. Feels a bit like busywork. Okay, what's the animal that's going to spawn here. More gorillas? Or switching it up with lions?
Or one of the statues breaks open revealing an alien centuar with a plasma cannon. I think I need the magnums for this one. Hope you saved up some medikits. Hope you saved up a few medikits. And aren't afraid to use them. I died. That's the third enemy related death I've had this game. Reloading before dropping down, because that was my last save, I notice that there's a secret in that downward chute, followed by a series of awkward jumps you have to make on collapsible floors. A tip for something like this is to jump in such a way that you don't land facing forward, that causes Lara to do a running jump after landing, which, on a single tile doesn't work.
If it could be said that any part of Tomb Raider's combat is great, it is not the combat with ranged enemies. |
Inside is Pierre, he says something about something which I can't really tell because the voice actor has a French accent that makes 'Allo 'Allo look tasty and respectful. Something about the taking being sweeter. Anyway, I shoot him with the magnums, because after alien centaurs, he's a little bitch. He drops the Scion. Since I suspected that ends the level, I look around, only to find a door out with a key. Guess not. I pick up some magazines upstairs first, then grab his stuff. The key out and magnums in addition to the piece. That puts me at 666 bullets, how fitting.
After clearing out the area, the key opens up a tomb, the tomb of Tihocan. This starts two cutscenes. The first, Lara reads a wall telling of how a great king from Atlantis came here after a cataclysmic event and improved life. Then a cutscene of Lara putting together the two pieces and seeing the three kings of Atlantis argue over the Scion's great power, before ultimately throwing it away. The final piece? Egypt, of course.This one's just flying by. Helps that I basically can't wait to fire it up.
This Session: 2 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
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