RETURN TO PRAGUE: CHRISTMAS DEMO

Level by AgentXP, who has also provided her own video walk. Written walkthrough by Phil Lambeth

After the introductory flyby, during which Lara gains entry to the Strahov Library through rather unconventional means, slide down into the duct as an entry is added to Lara's Diary and crawl through the narrow opening. Flip out into a lower duct and note the closed E grate that proves impervious to gunfire. Pull into the W crawl space, draw your pistols and shoot the grate ahead. Crawl forward and flip out into an office. Take the flares from the SE desk and go across the room to an awkwardly placed painting in the W wall, which is actually a button that opens the N double doors when pushed.

Enter the library lobby and note the onscreen warning as a new entry to added to Lara's Diary. Turn left and approach the swiveling red laser beam while being careful not to step into its path. Go around it to the SW button and push it to open the nearby double doors. Step into the W hallway and note the horizontal laser beams to your left. Hop over the nearest one, go to the E shelf and jump up to grab it. Climb above the laser beams and shift right over them. Drop to the floor and proceed into a darker S room. 

Loop around right and climb the corner shelf to an upper floor. Pull up, go around clockwise and come to a small table that attracts Lara's attention. Pull it three times to hide the unsightly markings on the floor, and a shelf to your left will slide aside. Enter the alcove and pull down the wall switch to move a lower shelf not very far away. To get there with no loss of health, return to where you pulled up, climb down to the floor and go across the room to pull up onto the higher flooring. Or, to save time, you can take a running jump S directly down to the opening, but this will cost nearly half your health. A third alternative is to stand in front of the railing and press the action key. Lara will mount the railing and hop down with only a slight loss of health.

Shoot the grates inside the opening, hop down into a small office and walk toward the vertical laser bars to trigger a warning flyby as another entry is added to Lara's Diary. Your task is to obtain a key without awakening the sleeping guard, so grab the flares on the nearby desk, note the keyhole on the opposite wall and place your nose against the S wall to the left of the desk. Sidestep left past a gap in the laser bars into the larger room. Walk (don't run lest you wake up the guard) S toward the horizontal laser bars and crawl underneath them. Go to the small credenza and pick up the MAIN HALL KEY, give the guard a wide berth and go over to the SW table for  chocolate bar (small medipack) and return to the previous room in the same furtive manner as before.

The key you just acquired doesn't fit the keyhole you noted earlier, so continue N past the reading rooms toward the lobby area, use the climbable E shelves to get over the horizontal bars and hop over the single bar. Back in the main lobby, head E past the sunken central area, hop over another low beam and use the Main Hall Key to open the E doors. Run forward to trigger an onscreen warning that halts you in your tracks. After entering an exhibit room, walk to your right onto the books scattered on the floor to trigger another onscreen hint. If you look in the opposite direction you can see a guard posted in the N hallway, so avoid him and continue E past a swiveling laser beam into an impressive room featuring an elaborate staircase.

Go upstairs, grab the chocolate bar on the desk at the first landing and make your way carefully past two swiveling laser beams (you'll die if you trigger either of them) and hop over a low horizontal laser into the N exhibit room. The central exhibit is a pushable, so move it close to the SW steps so you can get up on it and jump over the horizontal beams. In the hallway, turn left and go downstairs to a lower section of the library. Stay right and come to a switch that opens the N doors to an exhibit room. Lara looks right as she enters, so go there and take the MECHANICAL SCARAB WITH KEY from the plinth (whether or not you first shot the glass enclosure) as a cut scene shows the vigilant guard you noted earlier.   

Exit this room, turn right and run between the shelves to a table with a chocolate bar. Straight ahead is a painting of a street scene. Kick it to reveal an opening with a CANDY CANE you can pick up for SECRET #1. Pull down the wall switch around the corner to open double doors nearby. Exit and run all the way across the room past the E opening. Turn left, run up the stairs and come to the exhibit room you visited earlier. Jump over the horizontal beams and make your way carefully past the twin rotating beams and lone horizontal beam to the S stairs. Turn right at the landing and crawl underneath the lone beam protecting the next flight of steps (or simply climb one of the blocks on either side).

Continue W to the uppermost level of the library. Turn left, find a chocolate bar on the SE table and go W between the shelves to find another pushable exhibit. Move it one time S and three times W, get up onto it and pull up N into a crawl space. Turn left and crawl to the CANDY CANE for SECRET #2. Get back down and exit E to the hallway. Hop over the laser beam, go downstairs and get past the rotating laser into the W exhibit room. The guard is still posted dutifully at the end of the N hallway, so walk slowly toward him and find a dark splotch on the floor. Place the Mechanical Scarab with Key on it and allow it to scoot past the guard and cause him to give chase. While he stands there trying to figure out the nature of this strange device, walk (don't run) down the hallway past two closed doors and turn left into the next doorway.

Loop around right and press the button to close the door. You can now make all the noise you want without fear of being caught. Climb onto one of the taller exhibits, jump onto the chandelier and shoot the grate in the W wall. Jump there, grab and pull up into the crawl space. Follow the duct around the corner, stand up at the edge of the floor grate where the laser can't reach you and jump up to grab the ceiling. Monkey swing over the laser, drop and crawl around the corner to an opening. Stay right, flip out and crawl underneath the next laser. Come to another crawl space, shoot the grate and flip out into the security office. Hop onto the conference table for a chocolate bar and push down the W wall switch to open the door behind you and turn off the lasers that were guarding the doorway.

Go through to the exhibit room and push the wall button to re-open the door to the hallway. Remember the nearby guard as you walk carefully into the hallway and turn right through the connecting hallway to the next exhibit room. Keep walking forward until you get a camera showing the door shutting behind you. To be on the safe side, wait for the onscreen message to go away before making any further movement. You should then be able to move about normally, so run forward across the hallway into the red-tinted exhibit room. Go around to the right side of the central glass exhibit, jump up to grab the edge and shimmy right between the protective lasers. Drop down the other side and climb onto the vase exhibit. Shoot the grate in the W wall and jump there for a CANDY CANE in the crawl space (you may have seen it from the other side earlier) for SECRET #3.

Drop to the floor and get on top of the lower exhibit. Crawl S under the laser, hop down at the end and face a row of seemingly impassable lasers. However, you can loop around, pull up onto the taller exhibit, jump to the chandelier and take a running jump over the lasers onto the lower corner exhibit (so as not to suffer any loss of health). Open the S double doors, enter a sitting area with three closed doors and go around to the S side of the central structure. Jump up to shoot the painting and pull up into the alcove for a CANDY CANE and SECRET #4. Drop down, push open the S doors for later and go over to open the W doors to the observatory.  Go inside and use the telescope to zoom in on a plaque bearing the figures 1679.

Exit this room, go past the opened S doors into what appears to be a lounge and go to the central planetarium. Turn left for a journal entry and approach the keypad. Punch in the numbers you saw through the telescope (use the action key after each selection, followed by the star key). The panel to your right slides down, affording entry to a clockworks area. Go down the steps to face a giant time piece which appears to Lara to be displaying an incorrect time. Hop onto the nearby crate, pull up N onto the corner block and turn around. Jump up to grab the ceiling, monkey swing to the other corner block and drop down. Face E, take a running jump and grab the block across the room, pull up, draw your pistols and jump up to shoot the hanging brass ball.

Jump back to the previous block, money swing to the NW block, jump over to the NE block, pull up and shoot the hanging brass ball on this side and drop to the floor. Two chain pulleys on either side of the giant clock have been exposed, but first drop down past the moving E paddle wheel, light a flare if necessary and locate a wall grate to shoot. Crawl into the opening and pick up the CANDY CANE for SECRET #5. Pull back up into the clock room and note the time on the W grandfather clock: Ten past ten. To reset the larger clock, now showing midnight (or noon), use the SE chain pulley which controls the hour hand. Pull it 10 times to bring it to the correct position, pull the NE chain pulley to move the minute hand two times and a cut scene shows a door opening upstairs.

Go up the stairs, run straight across N past the opened door and enter a new hallway.  Around the corner are two plinths, one with a BUNCH OF KEYS (Re-usable) and the other with a MAP. A door opens across the room when you pick them up, but before going there shoot the jar in the SE alcove and step inside to find a button that lowers the glass cover of a nearby exhibit. Grab the CANDY CANE for SECRET #6 on your way to the opened door, find yourself in a familiar connecting hallway with all doors now open and go through the S doorway to your left. Run to the far wall and use the keys to open the door to an unfurnished dining room. Pull down the wall switch at the NW corner to open the exit doors and step outdoors into an alley.

Go straight across and open the W doors with your keys. Enter an exhibit/puzzle room and note the onscreen message that refers to a need to locate four maps, as explained further in the new entry that appears in Lara's Diary. You can approach the open book near the S window and use the action key to get an onscreen hint for solving the globe puzzle at the proper time: "Turn each globe to face the continent shown on the map placed behind it."  Turn right into the N hallway and open the doors at the end. Enter an elaborate room. If you run straight forward nothing happens, but if you turn right and approach the E ladder you get a helpful onscreen hint. Stand beneath the ladder and jump up with grab to pull it down. You can now climb it to reach an upper level. Go around clockwise, note for later the new Diary entry as you pass the closed S doors and continue toward the N side of the room until Lara looks to her left. Activate the book switch to create a panel opening back in the direction from which you came, go there to find another MAP (2 of 4) on a plinth and return to the ladder.

Climb down to the first floor, go to your right and open the SE doors that lead outside. Turn left and run past a fenced courtyard through a short N passage into a smaller fountain area. Stand next to the ice-filled trough in the E alcove and use the reach-in switch to raise a pair of blocks behind you. Use the piled snow to grab and pull up to a balcony, jump to the next balcony and run all the way around to the SW corner. Face E and take a running jump over the railing to grab a swingpole jutting from the wall. Swing around and jump off with a left curve to land on a small ledge bearing a CANDY CANE for SECRET #7. Safety drop to the ground and return to the fenced courtyard.

Locate the yellow block near the SE corner, get up on it and stand jump N to grab the first of a row of swingpoles. Swing and jump to grab each of them in succession, finally landing on a balcony near the NE corner. Take a running jump to grab the structure mounted on the columns at the corner, shimmy left around the corner and continue along the crack in the N wall until you can drop onto a balcony. Jump to grab the structure in the NW corner, shimmy left around the corner, pull up and back flip onto the balcony. Turn around and use the swingpoles (begin with a running jump) to reach the next balcony. Finally, take a running jump S to grab a small balcony, pull up and look up right to see that someone has left a window open.

Pull up and crawl through to an office, where you'll find another MAP (3 of 4) on a plinth near the W wall. Open the N doors and step out onto a familiar walkway. Go around right, climb down the ladder to the first floor and go to the NE corner to find the GALLERY KEY on a plinth. Open the N doors and step into a familiar laser-protected room. Crawl under the first row of lasers, turn left and squeeze past the W lasers as you did earlier. Use the Gallery Key in that nearby keyhole you noted long ago, wait a second or two and you'll hear a creaking sound as the door to your left slowly opens. Step into an impressive gallery and watch the ensuing flyby. Run across the room and activate the SW book switch that's partially hidden by the small tree. A portrait swings open to reveal the final secret.

Go back to that huge ladder you passed and find that it's actually a pushable item. Move it two times S and climb up facing E so you can pull down a wall switch that opens a nearby door. Turn left and take a running jump to grab the ladder in the E wall. Climb up to claim the CANDY CANE for SECRET #8 and receive the additional reward of a SECRET BONUS KEY. Climb back down, drop to the floor and go to the S wall opposite the closed doors. Climb up and just keep the up arrow key depressed as Lara makes her way along the monkey bars and goes across the ceiling. At this point you'll need to switch to the down arrow key so you can drop down to a balcony. Enter the nearby room and take the MAP (4 of 4) from the plinth.

Use the table to jump up and grab the monkey bars, make the return trip and exit the gallery E. Squeeze past the vertical lasers once again, crawl underneath the horizontal ones and go through the S hallway to the connecting passage and the exhibit/puzzle room. At each corner of the room is a blank plaque. Place a map on each plaque to lower the glass case around the corresponding globe so that all can be accessed. But now the globes must be correctly positioned, as you'll recall from the book hint. Stand next to each globe, facing in any direction, and use the action key up to four times each until a small light appears above the globe to indicate its proper alignment. For the SW globe, 3 times, the NW globe, 1 time, the NE globe, 2 times, and the SE globe, 2 times. When all globes have been properly positioned the W double doors open.

Go on through, open the next door and step out to the monastery entrance. There are two closed doors here. If you open the W door and exit, you'll finish the level. However, since you have the Secret Bonus Key, use it to open the S door and proceed down the hallway until you reach another door to your right that you can open. There's no additional gameplay, but there's a vast street scene and an indoor shopping area you can explore at length for the visual amenities. When you're through looking around, return to the monastery entrance and open the W door to finish this enchanting level.