VON CROY INDUSTRIES: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Objectives: Find a way to the artifact. Turn off the field surrounding it and teleport it to a safe location. Clear the way out, retrieve the artifact and exit the building.

LONG CORRIDOR: You begin inside the VCI building. Lara starts with the HK Gun underneath her feet. (If you’ve played Tomb Raider Chronicles, this area should look familiar. However, Lara's way in on her quest for the Iris is actually the way out this time.) The corridor right in front of you is protected by lasers, so you can’t go that way right now. To your left are closed doors and a gun turret. It isn’t activated, so it won’t shoot you unless you shoot it. Just avoid it. The only way to go is right, so go ahead into another corridor with doors.

In front of you is an automatic door. Enter the office to collect HK Clips and continue along. To your left is another automatic door which leads into the STOREROOM but you’re missing an important hint to a puzzle, so proceed forward to a CORRIDOR WITH TALL WINDOWS. (The other doors can’t be opened.)

CORRIDOR WITH TALL WINDOWS: To your left are three offices with automatic doors (more nostalgia). The first one contains only a guard wielding a club. Kill him or avoid him altogether. The second one contains a small medipack. The third contains a broken grating – crawl into the small vent to get a box of flares. Through a grating Lara can get a view of a secret but it’s not accessible at the moment, so leave it for now. Exit the office and continue along an incline to the next floor.

UPPER FLOOR RECEPTION: As you enter, Lara is ambushed by two guards, one with a gun, who drops shotgun shells on being killed. The door won’t open, so go towards the left onto another long corridor. At its end, pick up the disable switch. You also get a view of the room behind the closed door. Look at the chart on the wall - the pattern describes the solution to a puzzle. Return to the lower floor and enter the automatic door you previously skipped to enter the STOREROOM.

STOREROOM: A grating on the left wall blocks a crawlspace but it won’t open for now. A little way ahead is a hole in the ceiling that Lara can’t reach. A small cut gives you a view into the control room above. (Notice something that looks like a camera above the guard’s head.)

Spot the movable crate among the boxes. Under it are HK Clips. Move it into the second part of the storeroom as far as you can (the clutter in the room won’t allow you to move it all the way beneath the hole) and climb onto it. The ceiling is low, so take a running jump to grab the edge of the hole, and pull up.

CONTROL ROOM: Don’t shoot just yet! Drawing your weapons under surveillance by the detectors will trigger the alarms. Ignore the armored guard and move into the next room, with two inactive gun turrets. To the right is a dark alcove with a small medipack, and behind the glass are a shotgun and harpoon gun. Run around so that the guard shoots the glass. Then climb into the alcove, which can’t be seen by the detectors. Finish the guard from here, and pick up his access disk. Use it on the computer to open a door and proceed. You can hear another door open in the STOREROOM - go back down through the hole you came in from. The crawlspace grating is now open. Crawl all the way to the end to pick up secret #1.

If you do happen to draw your weapons in this area, an alarm will be sounded triggering a bunch of green lasers. These lasers trigger the gun turrets, which you can destroy or avoid, but you’ll miss a secret.

LASER TRAP: There are three mobile lasers, and three more pairs of static lasers. The mobile lasers hurt Lara but won’t kill her. The red static lasers are deadly but the green ones do nothing. The first can by crossed by jumping over the red one. Crawl under and the second pairs. Pull the switch to turn off the lasers, allowing you to pick up the harpoons, also opening a door. A small office contains secret #2 behind the breakable glass and shotgun shells. Walk through the barbed wire to collect it and finish the guard. If you activated the alarms, the wire will be smoking and will electrocute Lara. Exit and proceed to a long slope. Save your game before you slide down.

TRAPPED BASEMENT: From outside you can see some robots circling the area. The moment you enter, a guard will activate a machine, rolling towards a bomb! You need to stop it before you explore around; break the first, second and fourth glass windows from where you came in and pull only those switches to stop the machine, as indicated by the green spots in the chart you saw on the upper floor. (BUG NOTE: The machine may disappear instead of stopping midway, but this won't cause any problem.) Don’t get too close to the floor robots, or Lara will get electrocuted - since they have long moving 'arms', it may help to run as close to the wall as possible.

This opens one of the doors over here but don’t leave just yet. Use the save game crystal and collect the harpoons on the robot track. On the other side are two guards. The armed one drops a secret key card. There are two movable crates, one on either side of the bomb; you'll need to move one underneath the keyhole to open a door to secret #3 and HK Clips.  (This sequence is difficult. I found it easier to pull the crate wedged inside the wall - the one closer to the breakable windows out to 'lock' two machines in a loop, and then push the crate nearer to the keyhole underneath it; however, during testing I was once able to get through without using the first crate at all.) When you're done, exit through the door you previously opened. A series of slopes slides Lara down to the bottom of an ELEVATOR SHAFT.

ELEVATOR SHAFT: The shaft is filled with nasty goo. Jump onto the box in front and pull up. Take two running jumps to get to a ledge facing a slope. It’s a good spot to save.

This jump is a little tricky: jump onto the slope and jump while sliding to grab the edge of the upper slope. Shimmy as much as possible to the left, pull up and immediately press the jump and roll buttons. While in mid-air, hold right and action. If you do it right, Lara will grab the ledge above. Pull up. To your left is a small hole: take a running jump and crawl in to find a small medipack. Pulling the switch triggers a pulley hook and opens the way to a secret, so if you’re not interested in the secret avoid it. Safety drop out of the hole and make your way back up again.

Grab the monkey bars above and swing all the way to the end, staying to the right out of the hook’s reach. Climb up the ladder. Two pulley hooks are moving above. Avoid the barbed wire and jump to the right instead. Crawl through the now open space and collect secret #4. Take a running jump ahead. Collect the first access key card from the left and climb up. Back flip onto the platform with the elevators. Behind the further one lies a large medipack. Collect it and climb up to a switch. Pulling it opens the closed door on the upper floor, and also a trapdoor underneath, leading back into the LONG CORRIDOR. The turret fires, so either run to a safe location to disorient it or finish it. Go back to the UPPER FLOOR RECEPTION, enter the door now open and pull the switch to open one pair of doors in the LONG CORRIDOR leading to the artifact.

ARTIFACT ROOM: You can see the Bolt of Zeus right now but you can’t get it just yet; an energy field repels Lara if she gets too close to it. (Stay as far away from it as you can in this area, you’ll be returning here a few times.) The artifact is surrounded by four streams, three of which are the deadly goo and one is water, leading to the WATER TUNNELS. Leave the water for now to avoid some backtracking, but you can kill the diver inside it now if you like. Enter the passage to the left, which leads into a large room.

ROOM WITH GOO FALLS AND PLATFORMS: Drop to the right, pick up the HK Clips and pull back up. There’s a monkey swing above. A camera cut gives you a view of the room from the other side. Monkey swing all the way across the goo avoiding a drill and pick up the large medipack. Enter the broken grating in the right, next to the other windows out of which the goo is flowing. Walk as far as you can before jumping to grab the holding above. Traverse above yet more goo to reach a switch and pull it. The camera cuts to a meter getting activated. You’re going to need to activate all three meters. Return to the platform with the flares.

Turn to face the ARTIFACT ROOM. Take a running jump forward to the floating platform. Back flip onto the slope on the right and jump to hang from the ladder above the floating platform. Climb up just once so that Lara gets a good grip onto the ladder and jump. Roll in mid-air and grab the ladder above the slope. Climb up onto a slope. Jump to the right slope ahead for now and take another jump onto the structure ahead. Lara slides to the left. There’s a passage ahead but you can take a small detour for a secret. Jump over the slope on the structure facing the switch you just pulled. Take two banana jumps to the left to get to another floating platform. Take a running jump into a small hole. Turn around and crawl down into a small fenced location to pick up secret #5. (BUG NOTE: Lara lets go of the platform if you try to vault onto it, so jump or swan dive onto it instead.) Return to the spot where you took the detour and jump to your right to enter the passage.

HIDDEN CONTROL ROOM: Just like the other CONTROL ROOM, this room has a weapon detector. A nice little guard is there to welcome Lara. His shoes protect him from the toxic goo but yours don’t, so don’t let him push you into it. If Lara draws her weapons, a pulley hook and harmless lasers controlling a gun turret activate, but a door to a secret also opens. If you don’t mind missing a secret, take the guard into the alcove with the hand scanner and finish him, where the detector doesn't notice Lara. Either ways, pull the switch to the right to activate another meter. Going out of the gun turret’s range stops it temporarily, so be quick if it’s active. Don’t forget a flares box and the save game crystal.

DETOUR FOR SECRET: Enter the door the detector opened and follow the long passage to the end with a switch, a hole with toxic goo, a drill and a door. Before pulling the switch, go a little ahead and reach under the door where there is a climbable wall. Climb to the bottom and pick up the HK Clips but steer clear of the barbed wire. Return to the switch. It opens the malfunctioning door and triggers the drill, too. Take a small jump onto the drill platform and crawl under it. Stand at the very edge of it and take a standing jump as the doors open to get to the other side. Follow the passage ahead to a room with pipes and a glass floor. Collect your goodies, secret #6, a small medipack and shotgun shells. Make a note of the boxes below, three of which are movable. Later, you’re going to need to push a box onto the metal grating. When you’re done, backtrack to the ROOM WITH GOO FALLS AND PLATFORMS.

ROOM WITH GOO FALLS AND PLATFORMS: Face the light on the right wall. Take a jump onto the triangular piece of land jutting out to pick up the harpoons and get back up onto the structure. Take a running jump towards the light again in the slope’s direction. Slide down to a platform and run-jump to another platform with a drill. Facing the drill, to your right you can see a block with a drill lit. Take a running jump from this platform at an angle. If you do it correctly, you should just overshoot the drill but still landing safely. This area is lit red. Climb down to see a crawlspace. Don’t fall into the hole below – it contains deadly barbed wire. Get into the crawlspace and climb down into ‘normal’ looking territory after all that platforming action.

HIDDEN OFFICE: Lara is ambushed by a guard with a club, one with a gun, and an armored guard with a sighted gun. Finish them, and grab all the goodies from the floor: shotgun shells, a small medipack, harpoons and HK Clips. The small passage leads to a room with a glass ceiling and many, many crates, which should look familiar if you got the fifth secret.

You begin at the bottom right of this map. Blue indicates where Lara can walk about. The objective is to push a box onto the grating, which triggers the trap door. Push the first crate, marked in yellow, as far as you can, to reveal another one, marked in pink. Push it ahead twice to reveal the entire area. The third crate is marked in green, push it between the two walls, and also go around the map and push the first crate back to its starting location. This makes way for the second one to reach the grating as shown. (You’ll need to go around the map at least twice in this entire exercise.) Doing this gives you a cut of a trap door opening. Jump into the water.

WATER TUNNELS: The longer sloping tunnel has strong water current that takes you back to the stream in ARTIFACT ROOM, so avoid it for now. The shorter tunnel takes you into a small office which is completely lit red. Pull the switch inside to activate the final meter. You get a view of the trap door opening. Return to water where a diver is waiting for you. There are also harpoons on the floor. Take the longer tunnel now. At the end, from the right tunnel (ignore the left one for now) grab the second access key card from the water. Get back to the intersection and climb out of the water above into the ARTIFACT ROOM. Now go into the other passage, the one facing the passage leading to the ROOM WITH GOO FALLS AND PLATFORMS.

METER ROOM: Climb down the ladder into the newly opened trapdoor. Use the disable switch you found on the UPPER FLOOR in the mechanism on the wall. You get a short cut scene: the artifact ‘explodes’, and the repulsive field around it is no longer active. Get back into the ARTIFACT ROOM and claim the Bolt of Zeus.

(BUG: If you haven't killed the divers yet, disabling the field may cause them to float into the air. It's creepy but they're easier to kill out of water, anyway. Due to technical reasons, I couldn't fix this.)

Now get back into the WATER TUNNELS and go right into the tunnel you previously avoided. It leads to a small green-lit vent. Climb out of it to a teleporter.

TELEPORTER UNDER THE ARTIFACT: Avoid the single robot circling around. Use the Bolt of Zeus on the receptacle; it disappears leaving smoke and activating an alarm, but you get a view of doors opening in another section of the building. (If Lara stands at the edge of the circular pattern she should align correctly.) Return to the LONG CORRIDOR at the beginning of the level, killing a diver on the way. Use both access key cards on the wall. This opens the way to the UPPER LEVEL. Climb the ladder in front to a pink-lit area.

UPPER LEVEL: Avoid the moving laser sweeper, you can crawl under it. At the end of this passage is a green laser which will activate an alarm and a gun turret and alert a guard, protected by a fence. You can’t avoid activating the gun turret, but you can distract it by running into the passage onto the left temporarily, then come back to finish the guard. A switch on the wall turns off the annoying alarm. Climb down the crates. Atop one of them are flares. Get into the pink-lit vent, which contains another laser sweeper. As you crawl under it, a grating gives you a view of a foolish guard watching straight ahead. Step down at the end and crawl out of the vent to finish him. To the left is a malfunctioning door, activate a switch inside to uncover a crawlspace in the ‘X-RAY’ ROOM. Then take the automatic door into a large green-lit room.

‘X-RAY’ ROOM: Finish the armored guard who put you in peril in the TRAPPED BASEMENT. The crawlspace to the left is now open, so enter it. The grating on the wall is climbable. Climb it to a blue-lit switch. It disables the lasers in the room inspected by the wall 'x-ray' scanner. Climb back down and crawl out. An automatic door in a corner takes you out again to the LONG CORRIDOR at the beginning. Now go through the cleared laser hallway and the doors you opened via the teleporter to a cylindrical tower with a spiral staircase in the middle for the final battle.

BOSS FIGHT: The artifact is at the top of the winding incline, but it’s enclosed in a cage. The door behind you closes and the first robot to your right comes to life. Don’t bother trying to shoot it from far because it’ll cover itself. You can defeat it from the ground or from an upper level - hang from an edge to get its attention and shoot it till it shields itself. (You can’t hang from the diagonal ledges.) When you destroy it, it drops a VCI Key Bit. You’ll need to get the second key bit too, right? On the ‘first floor’, which has four passages, enter the one with a button on the wall and press it. This triggers the second robot. Get its VCI Key Bit. In two of the other passages are receptacles where the VCI Key is incomplete. Use the two Bits you have to form two complete keys. A camera cut shows the cage being lifted. Kill the two guards that appear if you like or simply pick up the Bolt of Zeus to finish the level.