ORIGINS OF EVIL

By Croftstorm

Walkthrough written by the author and posted on his website.

Kills: 25 + 2 phases of Mutant Snake Items: 23 + Diary Secrets: 3

Objectives: Work your way from Lara’s hotel room, through the mansion and into the underground laboratory to retrieve information on the mutations. Then exit the level via a mutant infested cave.

Start: You start off in Lara’s bedroom. There’s nothing of interest in here, so head out of the room. Turn left along the hallway and enter the second bedroom. Here you will find your first mutant (human). These are quite tough, but somewhat stupid, so although they can climb, making use of higher ground will prove effective. In this case, climb onto the window ledge and finish him off with your pistols. Now light a flare and crawl through the gap to the left of the bed. This is SECRET #1, flares and a large medipak.

Continue around the back of the hallway to the next room with another mutant. Kill him like the last one. Now pick up the highly useful shotgun from the closet. A word of advice: the level finale is tough and you shouldn’t waste the shotgun on standard mutants. The room next door is locked, so move onto the one after.

This room seems empty but you may notice that the fireplace is empty, so try climbing up the chimney. Pulling the lever will open the room next door. Inside is SECRET #2, flares, shotgun ammo and a small medipak.

Downstairs: When you go downstairs you should take a look around. At the front is the main door, locked for now. To the west is the basement, we’ll go here soon. To the east is the pool, take a look if you want, there’s nothing in here for now. To the north is a third mutant, the large area makes him easy to kill by back flipping away from him whilst shooting. In the dining room there is a locked room and several paintings, the one at the end plays a role soon (can you work out the other 3? Answer at bottom of walkthrough).

Basement & Garden: There’s another pesky human mutant in here, shooting from the crates is one way of killing him. This room is all powered out so the switches are useless. But on top of the crates you can find some shotgun ammo and a small medipak. Look to the south for a vent that you can exit out of, into the garden.

There’s yet another mutant out here, but the small area makes him tough to kill. Maybe a couple of shotgun shells wouldn’t be regretted, as he drops more shotgun ammo when he dies. The front gates locked, so go down the other path to the east. A new enemy will attack--a mutant dog. These are fast and may cause you a bit of damage but they die easily. Hit the switch and the end of the path and head back to the basement.
First look at the southeast, there’s a switch to open the door. Inside there’s some more shotgun ammo and a couple of switches. The first shows some light change in the dining room to reveal a switch hidden on the painting. The second, hidden in the shadows, drains the pool.

Now go to the northeast of the basement and pull the lever, this opens the main gate. So go all the way back through the gardens and back into the mansion.

Back in the mansion: First head into the pool, because now that it is drained you can pull the block in the shady corner. This reveals a secret area (but not a secret), containing the Uzi. It’s not as tough as the shotgun and runs out of ammo fast, but it will be a godsend later on.

Now pull that switch in the dining room (run, jump, grab off the table, just for fun). This opens the kitchen door. Go right through the kitchen into the back garden. Kill the two dogs and pick up the big medipak and flares to the east. Now go through the doors to the west to enter the laboratory.

Laboratory: There’s a good old human mutant in here, kill him as you like. Now shift the crate in the north-west so that you can get into the vents (flare highly recommended). Drop down to a similar lab. In the south west there’s some switches, ignore these or you’ll end up getting burnt. So use the sign to find the cargo store.

There’s a fair few items on the crates in here, 2 x Uzi ammo, 2 x shotgun ammo and a large medipak. The doors are all shut tight, so head to the animal testing room. The dog and cow cages are empty. The bear cage actually contains a mutant bear, quite a toughy but he should fall after a while (so don’t waste good ammo). Now for the interesting cage…

Snakes: Whatever was in here apparently burrowed its way out, leaving a dead man behind. This man left his diary, pick it up. Be sure to read it as to get some idea as to the plot. But what you really want is that memo, 20010. Now go to the west of the animal testing room and pull the alarm. All that bleeping seems to have attracted some attention…

Upon leaving the room a flyby camera will show you a huge snake mutant with some kind of vent by it. DO NOT go in that room (again) yet, you will be destroyed. Instead go to the switch room (south-east of second lab). The diary code is what you need, but it can be hard to figure out. Each digit of the code represents a switch, the number represents when you should pull it (0=never). So pull the fourth switch along first, and then the far left switch. Get it wrong and you’ll burn, so be sure to save your game before you try it.

Things now get quite hard. The switch puzzle opened up the door to the west of the cargo store. Sprint there as fast as possible, as to avoid fireballs and locusts. Hit the switch to open a door at the opposite end of the cargo store. This time the crates provide protection from fireballs, but the locusts will get annoying and inevitably cause you pain--sprinting will reduce this. As before, pull the switch at the end of the passage to release steam from that vent seen in the flyby This scares the snake away a bit and by doing so he makes a hole to the room below.

Save now. Drop down the pit at the right end of the east side. Run around the snake’s head (jumping will help dodge the fireballs). Before dropping in the pit, run down the passage in the wall (crawling at the end). This is SECRET #4. After picking up the flares, uzis ammo, shotgun ammo and large medipak, save your game again. Get out of the secret room and drop into the pit (crawling diagonally may help). Now turn your speakers up (or down ;)) and slide down the slope at the end of the passage.

Showdown: Not much to be said about this room, but there’s a heck load of enemies which you should kill with the Uzi and shotgun. As soon as you are forced to use pistols, just don’t bother and try to dodge whatever comes at you. The aim is to pull the switch in the north-west to open the door in the south-east; sounds simple but those human, bear and dog mutants won’t be helping matters.

Now just sprint up the passage behind the door and approach the now-open door to finish. Looks like Lara’s off to Bologna ;).

Time to try for: 30 minutes

Kills to try for: 22

Can you get both of the above and all 3 secrets? Not easy…

Answer to picture puzzle: (from left) Eliza Dushku from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and numerous films, Xavier’s mansion from the Uncanny X-men comics, Screenshot from Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness.

Thanks for playing, if you need any help just contact me at:

mailto: croftstorm@hotmail.com