SANCTUARY OF SOULS (DEMO)

Level by René Brooymans (Piega)

Authorized walkthrough by Phil Lambeth (with much valuable assistance from Val)


Begin with a brief remote camera shot of Lara. When camera control is restored, note before starting the way that Lara looks about in anticipation of what lies ahead. Step off the remnant of what looks like a clockwork mechanism, and pick up the shotgun ammo in the shallow depression to your right. Go through the west doorway and down the stairs into a room with an immense gear contraption to your right. Go around to the left side of the gears, against the north wall, and hop down into the shallow trench. Throw the floor lever there to activate the gears, then jump forward into the lower portion of the trench and pick up the uzi ammo.

Pull up out of the trench, angle slightly to your right and side flip past the rotating cog wheel to the checkered floor. The gate to the west is now open, and two intermittently springing trap doors promise to make your jump across the deep gap somewhat interesting. There's a stairway off to your left in the south wall, so run on up and approach the pedestal with the TORCH on it, next to the west gate. (Note the basket in the center of the grated flooring, which you'll be back here to light later on.) As you do so you'll trigger cascading spikes in the stairs you just used to get up here. As soon as the cycle of spikes begins at the top of the stairs, run downstairs using the sprint key for an extra burst of speed.

Once you reach the room below the spikes are deactivated (although this makes little difference to you at this point), so take the torch with you to the west opening. Walk out to the floor's edge, and when the trap door comes up take a running jump to the other side of the gap. Drop your torch here where you'll be able to find it later. (You can drop it at your feet without having to toss it by simply hitting the 1 key to draw your pistols.) Ignore the ramps ahead for now and turn left into the opening in the dark SW corner. Turn left in the next room and go through the arched doorway in the east wall.

Look for the ladder to your right in the next room and climb up to the higher room. Run forward, vault up onto the block and pull the chain. A cut scene shows a block being raised next to a wall sconce in the room where you dropped your torch. Go back down the ladder, return to your torch and pick it up. Run up the ramp in front of the stained glass window and follow around until you're on the block you just raised. Light the torch, using the flame in the wall sconce. Your first inclination is to get back across the pit to where you started the level, but when you hop down to the floor and attempt to make the jump back across, you find that the trap doors are not properly synchronized from this side. So, we need to look for Plan B.

Carry the torch through the SE passage, turn left in the next room and go through the arched east doorway. Turn left again and light the basket in the middle portion of the grated floor. (Don't get too close, though, or you might light Lara as well in the process.) Another portion of the mechanism beneath you is activated, and the east-west gates of the pit have been raised while the north-south gates have been lowered.

Cross the pit by using either of the trap doors. Stand in front of one of them, about in the center part of the wooden ledge. When the trap door starts to rise, take a standing jump forward, and in one fluid motion when you land take a running jump off to the other side. There's a stone block next to a large wheel against the east wall. Jump up onto the block and push your belly against the wheel, facing north. Take a side flip to the floor to your left, then sidestep once to your right and take one step back. Push the 1 or 2 key to draw a weapon and deposit the torch at your feet. Climb back onto the stone block and pull the wheel six times, then side flip to the left and you should land right on the torch so you can pick it up without wasting any time. When the torch is firmly in hand, run forward into the north opening before the door closes.

A breathtaking flyby zooms up to a huge clockwork mechanism with a bell tower above it. When camera control is restored, go up the steps to the east and run along the north passage until you reach a SCRAP OF PAPER on the floor. Drop the torch for a moment and pick up the scrap. Bring it up in your inventory and read it. It provides valuable instructions for your next task. Retrieve your torch and go around to the west side of this room. Stand between the opening separating the rails and turn to face NE. The gap ahead is flanked by four trap doors that rise and fall at different times. Your job is to get across to the other side, with the torch. Let's call the trap door at your feet TD #1, the one ahead and to your right TD #2, and so on. It would be wise to save your game here.

The process is rather simple once you know the trick. When TD #1 starts rising at your feet, run across it to TD #2. Hit the ground running, so to speak, and veer sharply to your left and take a running jump across the pit to TD #3. This is the hardest part of the whole piece, but once you get across to TD #3 the rest is duck soup. When you reach TD #3, reverse roll and take a running jump back to TD #2, again reverse roll and jump back to TD #3, then while still running veer to your right and jump over to TD #4 and quickly run forward to safety before the trap door falls again. Once across, save again immediately so you won't have to repeat this ordeal should you die from other causes later.

Step back carefully and hop up to the wooden ledge. Run forward and light the basket in the middle of the grated floor (again, being careful not to get too close). The mechanism beneath you starts churning and the east door opens. Take the torch with you down the east stairs and approach the mechanism with the rotating scythe blades. You need to follow the blades clockwise around the shaft, probably suffering nicks and scratches in the process, until you arrive at the south opening. Hop down into the next room, drop the torch momentarily and pull the chain. A cut scene shows a waterskin and a door opening near an unlit basket.

Before proceeding, let's backtrack for a secret and some additional firepower. When you pulled the chain you deactivated the scythe blade trap, so toss the torch through the west ramped opening to a room below (where you'll retrieve it later) and run back up the short wooden ramp to the north. You may need to shimmy past one of the blades to reach a point where you can pull up to face the central square hole with a clear path ahead of you. Run off the edge and grab the central pole, and slide down to the block below. Face the hole in the east wall and take a running jump and grab to it. Pull up and run forward. Climb up onto the block ahead and take a standing jump up the slope ahead. Step forward to the edge of the opening and take a running jump to the block ahead. Turn to your left and take a running jump into the south alcove. Take the SILVER ROSE from the pedestal for SECRET #1, then turn around and sidestep to your right or left to get away from the pedestal and take a running jump back to the block.

Turn to your left and take a standing jump with grab into the opening in the west wall. Slide down into what looks like an underground sewer and pick up the MEDIEVAL CROSSBOW at the edge of the shallow water ahead. Go up the north stairs and take the crossbow magic arrows and the large medi-pack from the pedestals. You gain this treasure at a price, however. Spikes are now shooting out from the south stairs, so time a run past them and the huge swinging pendulum at the top of the stairs.

Pull up into the west opening and make a hairpin turn to your left. Use the ladder in the east wall to reach the top of a sloped opening leading to a pulsating hammer trap. Slide down, pull the chain to raise a trap door in a pit on the other side of the pulsating hammers, then line yourself up for a jump past the hammers. Run past the first hammer as it withdraws, then jump over the pit separating the two hammers and land on the ramped ledge beyond. Step forward through the opening onto the trap door you just raised, and take a running jump across the pit to the other side. Go through the east opening and pick up the torch that you threw down the ramp from the other side.

Reverse roll and go back the way you came, jumping over the pit and negotiating the gap to get past the pulsating hammers. Turn left at the chain and run up the winding ramp and the stairs to a little wooden loft at the very top. Toss the torch down into the south room, then safety drop after it. Pick up the torch and go out to the room where you turned the wheel earlier. Jump across to the south side, using one of the timed trap doors to assist you, and go through the doorway on your right beyond the grated floor. Just inside the doorway to your left, in the small connecting room, is a sloped pillar. Stand with your back against the base, facing west, and run forward two paces. Back flip onto the slope and keep the jump key depressed so that Lara bounces off the facing slope onto an upper walkway. Turn to your left, drop the torch at your feet and pick up the SHOTGUN. Pick up the torch again and go to the south opening.

Hop down into the room below and make a hairpin turn to your left in front of the chain. Step up to the edge of the opening and face NNE. There's an opening in the wall to your right, and you can just reach it with a long running jump. Follow the passage around to the right, through the doorway you opened earlier and into the same room where you first picked up the torch much earlier. Light the basket in the middle of the grated floor to activate the mechanism beneath you and open the east gate. Go into the new room, drop the torch (you don't need it any longer) and take the SMALL WATERSKIN from the pedestal. The waterskin has no function in this demo, but the act of picking it up lowers a nearby ladder which allows you to progress.

Climb the south side of the ladder and pull up into a loft. Go through the north opening and slide down the ramp. If you run straight ahead and look through the gate to your left, you'll see a key that you can't get to from here. Follow the west passage past a push block to your right onto a wooden ledge. That whirring sound you hear is a spider coming your way, so draw a weapon and kill it.

Continue along the ledge, and as you approach the south wall you'll trigger a waist-high gauntlet of golden blades. Time a run that follows one of the blades and take a running jump and grab across the gap to the west ledge. Pull up quickly, as you're still exposed to the blades while hanging, and turn to your right. Step out to the NE corner of the ledge and angle Lara to the right. Face the rope dangling from the ceiling and take a running jump and grab to it. Slide to the bottom, swing forward and jump off to the NE ledge. Draw weapons immediately and kill the mechanical-sounding spider, then deal with another set of waist-high golden blades. The easiest way is to take a running jump east over the gap, just beyond the reach of the blades, and shoot another spider as soon as you land. Run forward into the next room and take the GATE KEY from the pedestal.

The railing at the ledge outside prevents you from jumping back to the rope, so locate the push block in the south wall of this room (the push block that you passed by earlier) and push it forward into the alcove on the other side of the passage. Turn to your right and repeat your run and jump past the golden blades to the ledge across the gap. Pull up and walk out to the NE corner of the protruding ledge. Take a running jump and grab to the rope as before, but this time climb all the way to the top to keep the rope from oscillating. Turn to your left and face NW, slide down to the bottom of the rope, swing forward and jump off to land on the NW ledge. Use the Gate Key in the nearby receptacle to open the door to the giant clockwork mechanism.

Remember all those little spiders you killed earlier? Well, momma spider is waiting just inside to your left, and she's not very happy with you at all! Draw your shotgun and kill her quickly. Go over to the east side of the mechanism and jump over the hole for a small medi-pack. Jump back and position Lara facing north, just out of reach of the swinging pendulum, and look out over the gap ahead. You can see off to your right a fixed trap door, and to the right of that and a little lower another trap door rises and falls every few seconds. Angle Lara to face that second trap door, and after the door lowers wait three swings of the pendulum and take a running jump toward the trap door just as it's rising. Veer to the left and jump off to the north. Grab the ledge (in case you don't make it cleanly across) and pull up. Locate the nearby wall switch and throw it. This raises a trap door on the west side of the room, but it also lowers the fixed trap door you noted earlier.

Wait until the lower trap door rises, then take a running jump to it and keep running to jump off to the ledge behind the clock mechanism and the pendulum. Now go over to the left side and look for the fixed trap door you just raised. When the time is right, take a running jump past the pendulum and the rotating mechanism to land on the trap door. Take a standing jump over to the ledge and locate the wall switch. When you throw it one of those little spiders attacks, so hop back while drawing a weapon and kill it.

Hop back to the fixed trap door and take a running jump past the clock mechanism and pendulum to the safety of the south ledge. Repeat the jump on the right side, using the trap door that rises and falls regularly, and raise the wall switch to raise the fixed trap door on this side. You can reach it with a running jump from the nearby ledge. Now turn to face north and take a running jump and grab to the space between the railings. Pull up, turn around and look up for a grand close-up view of the tolling bell, then enter the crawl space in the north wall (that you opened up by pulling the wall switch on the west end of the room).

Hop down into the room below, where a couple of angry adult spiders await you. Dispatch them, then pull the chain in the middle of the room. Nothing seems to happen, so pull it again. This time the gate in the east wall rises, releasing another adult spider. Kill it from your vantage point atop the block, then hop down and enter the east passage. The gate slams shut behind you. Run forward and climb up the ladder to a lovely upper room. Jump into the vortex ahead to end the level and receive a promo for the full game, which was to have been released sometime during 2006 but appears headed for later in 2008.