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Level 13: Rapid Fall

Level by Ian Smith (Marksdad)

Walkthrough #1 by Phil Lambeth, #2 by Dutchy


Lara drops down some distance into a trench filled with rust-colored water, and a lingering flyby gives you a panoramic view of this room. Pull out and look around. There's a closed door at the north end of the trench, another closed door up in the west wall, and an inaccessible crawl space on the other end in the east wall. Cleverly disguised behind the waterfall in the west wall is another crawl space that you can easily access, so crawl through until you can stand on the other side, then turn right and climb up into a small passage. Step forward onto the face tile and.....nothing happens.

Climb back down, use the crawl space to return to the waterfall area, and you find to your delight that the west door is now open. Go inside and find what looks like a huge covered bus stop. Don't waste your time trying to jump to its roof from here, because it can't be done. Go directly across to the other side and climb up onto the short irregular shaped block on the left. Stand facing north and sidestep all the way to your right. Then turn to face the central roofed structure, angled ever so slightly to your left, and take a running jump and grab to the roof. Shimmy to your left, and when you're directly opposite the next-to-last supporting column, pull up and back flip to the pillar behind you.

From here, take a running jump ahead to the stable surface area of the roof. Hop down into the nearby hole and push the floor lever. Pull up on the other side of the hole, walk to the other end of the structure and take a running jump to the east pillar for a large medi-pack. Safety drop to the floor and return to the waterfall area via the east passage. The door at the north end of the trench is now open, so swim into the passage, pull up at the other end and allow Lara to be swept down into a lovely, well-lit room that's half filled with water that appears to be much purer than what you just left. There's a closed door in the west wall and a floor opening directly opposite next to the east wall. Swim down the opening, through the slit in the wall ahead, and emerge in an underwater area.

Weave your way past the columns, which may take a bit of doing, and take a left into a room with two windowed structures. There's a face tile on the floor of each one. However, the face tile in the structure on your right matches the face tile on the wall in the other room behind you (with a closed door directly above it). Go inside the right-hand structure, swim over the face tile, flip turn and swim quickly to the opposite room. The door that's now open is on a fairly stingy timer, so swim through and up for some air. Pull up into the next room and push the floor lever. Then jump back into the hole, make a sharp left turn when you exit the room below, swim past the columns again and up the shaft until you reach the well-lit pool.

The door in the west wall is now open, so swim through into a small room with a closed underwater door on your left. Pull up onto the ledge and note the different designed floor tiles ahead. Many of these tiles are phantoms, so if you try running across you'll quickly drop down into a lethal pool below. There are only three safe tiles in this room, the first one being the face tile dead ahead. (If you train your binoculars on the far wall, using the crouch key to zoom in and the action key for illumination, you can see the designs of the three safe tiles in sequence. However, it isn’t necessary to use the third one.) From here, take a standing jump diagonally to your left to the sandy-colored face tile in the third row, second column from the wall. Then take a running jump into the darkness ahead and grab the raised tile near the west wall. Pull up, light a flare and save your game.

The tile you're standing on has opened the underwater door in the previous room. However, the instant you leave it you activate a timer that gives you precious few seconds to reach that door before it closes. There are at least two ways of getting back, the way I discovered by accident and the author’s intended way. Each took about the same amount of time for me, so take your pick. The author’s intended way: Turn around, take a running jump and grab the edge of the previous safe tile, pull up, take a running jump forward and into the water where the timed door awaits to your right. My way: Face toward the NE and locate the pinkish tile at the edge of the blackness ahead. That's the third safe tile. Take a standing jump to its right corner, quickly turn to your right toward the second safe tile and take a standing jump to it, and in a fluid motion turn to your left, hop to the first safe tile and continue down into the water and through the opening to your right before the door closes. Allow the current to carry you through the passage into the next room.

A brief flyby pans around the floor and ceiling, providing a clue as to the moving piece puzzle you now face. You’ll note that both the ceiling and the floor are covered with tiles bearing various designs. However, there’s only one instance where the floor tile matches the ceiling tile, and that’s the spot where the flyby came to rest on the ceiling. Simply pull the piece away from the south wall three times, push it to the west once onto the correct tile, and the adjacent door opens. Splash through the passage until you reach the opening, then look down to get a lay of the land. There are sloped pillars of varying size scattered about, what appears to be a climbing surface on the far wall, and an opening in the south wall to your left.

First, let's hop down to the ledge below and fetch that large medi-pack. Oops, the surface is too steep to stand on, so it looks like we'll have to give up that medi-pack after all. What's more, we've fallen into the water, so it's a good thing it's not as deadly as it looked from above. Pull up onto the nearby ledge in the NE corner, face the ladder and, since you need to complete the following sequence in one "go," save your game here to save a little time on the inevitable swims back to this ledge when you fail and drop into the water.

Climb the ladder, and when Lara's hands are on the third rung from the top, take a rolling back flip and grab the sloped edge of the pillar behind you. Pull up, and after sliding ever so slightly on the facing slope, jump off and grab the ceiling above. Monkey swing over toward the next pillar, and be prepared for Lara to drop down when she runs out of monkey bars. This time you need to be patient and wait until Lara has slid nearly to the bottom of the slope (although this takes all of a half second or so) before jumping off. Otherwise, she won't grab the wall ahead. Once you've made this jump successfully, shift to your left and start working your way down as you go. When you reach the final section of climbable wall, make sure Lara's hands and feet are straddling the second horizontal bar (not counting the partial strip at water level). Then back flip onto the sloped pillar, keep the jump key depressed so you'll bounce off to the next one, and swerve to the right in mid-air so Lara lands on the relatively flat block near the center of the pool.

This is no time to catch your breath, however, as a spike ball starts dropping the instant you land, so immediately turn to your right and jump off the block toward the long sloped block to the south. Grab the edge and shimmy to your left. When you reach the end, pull up onto a stable surface. Turn around and face the sloped block to the NE. Take a standing jump to it, allow Lara to slide down the sloped surface, jump off and grab the edge of the block ahead, and pull up to the sound of the only SECRET in this level as you pick up the small medi-pack. Take one last wistful look at that inaccessible large medi-pack ahead, then turn around and take a running jump to the small flat block to the west. Don't worry, there are no more spike balls hanging overhead.

Turn to face south and line up Lara with the rope. Take a running jump over the leading edge of the slope ahead and bounce off and grab the rope. Climb up to make the rope stop swinging, then turn to the left until you're lined up with the opening in the south wall. Slide down to the bottom of the rope, swing toward the opening, and jump off at the top of your swing and use the action key to land inside the opening. Push the floor lever at the other end of this short passage, then reverse roll and jump into the water. The underwater door near the SW corner is now open, so swim inside the passage. When you emerge at the other end and start wading out of the water, the door ahead opens for you.

As you step onto a dry surface at the base of a ramp, a cut scene shows that the area in which you began this level is now flooded, giving you access to a room where you see a gem on a pedestal. Before proceeding further, however, this would be an ideal place to save your game. As you run up the ramp the camera angle changes to show that a skeleton is materializing behind you. But it's the least of your worries right now, as a spike ball is hurtling down toward you from ahead. You see a crawl space up the ramp to your right, so get inside it before the spike ball arrives. As soon as the spike ball rolls by, hurriedly back out of the crawl space, because if the skeleton catches you inside it will gleefully hack you to bits.

Continue up the ramp and a second skeleton will materialize in front of you. Run around it, and when you reach the gap in the ramp, jump up to grab the ceiling and monkey swing across the gap (which contains three more skeletons, for crying out loud). When you run out of monkey bars, drop and grab the edge of the gap while the trio of skeletons below tries to nibble on your toes. Pull up and slide down the slope. On the way down take a rolling jump so you're sliding down backwards, and when you reach the end grab and release and immediately grab again to catch the lip of the crawl space. Without delay pull into the crawl space, as that ominous rumbling you feel signifies another spike ball plummeting down toward you.

Crawl through the small passage until you can stand up near a water hole. Jump into the water and swim through the small space so you emerge back in the room where you first started this level. The ceiling hole you're looking for is fairly well disguised, but you'll find it near the very center of the room, just beyond that portion of the ceiling that juts down. Pull up into an upper room and vault up onto the platform in preparation for claiming your prize as the level ends.

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Author: Ian Smith (Marksdad)

Walkthrough: Dutchy

MS=Monkeyswing, CS=Crawlspace, UW=underwater, MP=med-pack, have fun!

Some names are in Red for later reference.

The Falls.

Lara lands in a channel, wait for the flyby to end and swim up see the UW door (1) closed N and a door (2) in the SW passage, look behind the W side waterfall for the CS, follow up to a trigger Tile that will open door (2). Go back and to the SW passage and come to a room with a temple, go to the SW side and onto a block along the W wall, a triangular runjmp/grab will get you hanging from the roof. Go L and to the fore last pillar under the roof, pull up and backflip to a pillar, from which you can runjmp to the roof of the temple, look for the hole in the top where you can throw the lever for door (1). Go to the SE corner and slidejmp to the pillar with the MP, drop and go back to the Falls.

Timed swim.

Swim through the N door and drop down into a room with a pool, L is a closed door (3) and R (NE) is a tunnel down in the floor. Save and dive in, through the crack in the opposite wall and in the next room are some pillars you have to swim through (go R/L a bit), keep high as possible and through the hole between 2nd and 3rd pillar, go to the next room and there’s a closed too to the E, swim to the far NW building and in, in the back is a trigger Tile, roll at the back wall and swim out, E and into the open door. Throw the lever to open door (3), swim back out and to the other building to pick up a ½ MP there. There’s another trigger Tile, but I didn’t use that. Swim back S and through the gap between the pillars up to the room with the open door in the NW corner. The current will take you to the next room, in the pool is a timed UW door.

Pit/Tile Puzzle.

The pit below the floor is deep and deadly. Walk slowly W and from the ledge where you climb out, you can see Tiles on the dark wall W (Binocs). They are the clue here, first the friendly Face just in front of you, then the brown one L and in front (standjmp) then the square figure R and in front (standjmp), standjmp to the ledge along the W wall and go up onto the higher ledge, the UW door opens, so runjmp/grab to the pillar straight E and pull up, runjmp to the door and run into the pool, the current will take you to the next room.

Pillar/Tile Puzzle.

Watch the flyby as you walk up to the floor with the many Tiles. The last Tile in screen will be the one you have to pull/push the pillar to, there are 3 of them and the door S opens.

Go out to a dark passage leading to a large room with water, slide down.

Pool jumps.

Wait…!! a MP… too late, drop in the water and climb up the ledge SE at the ladder, go to almost at the top, backflip/roll/grab and slide/jmp/grab the MS, go W and drop onto a sloped pillar, slide and jmp/grab the ladder on the wall, go L and at the end down to two steps from the bottom, where you can backflip to a sloped block, slide and jmp to the next block with a slight L curve in the end, so you go off that one forward, curve hard R to land on the flat block and immediately (Boulder!!) runjmp/grab (turning R) through to the broad ledge S, shimmy L to the end where you can climb up, go standjmp to the sloped block NE and jmp up to the pillar with Secret#1, a ½ MP, runjmp to the Boulder block again and line up in the centre to do a runjmp to the wide S ledge and a jmp/grab to the rope. Swing to the alcove with the lever to open the UW door SW.

Skellie Alley.

Swim through to a door that will open, going up the slope a flyby starts showing the Gem. Save as soon as the flyby stops and sprint to a CS to the R, when the Boulder passed quickly get out again before the Skellie pins you inside, run to a pit And quickly grab up to the MS, go to the end and drop/grab the next slopes edge. Pull up and just after that dark shaft up do a jmp/roll and grab the end of the slope, drop/grab to a CS and get in fast, go forward before the Boulder drops and follow to a water hole.

Dive in and swim through the small tunnel to the Falls room that’s now changed and flooded, go L a bit and up to the ceiling, near those lower parts of the ceiling is a hole up to the room with the Gem, jmp to the block and the level ends…

13-01-2005.