BENEATH
Levels by Ian Smith (Marksdad)
Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, with assistance from the author
HOUSE
You begin with a brief flyby that zooms in on what looks somewhat like
the entrance to a bomb shelter, then the scene shifts to a small room with a
checkered ceiling and a matching crate nearby. Wash your feet in the dirty tub
water, then go into the sparse bedroom where you'll see a sleeping monster on
the bed. Your
playful attempts to crawl in with it won't stimulate it in the slightest, so go
around to the far opening and run downstairs. There's a small library at the
end of the adjacent stairway, but there's nothing of interest inside. If you're
in a destructive mood you can shoot the two vases on either side of the west
doorway, but they hold no goodies.
Enter the west doorway
and continue forward past the wall tapestries into another library. Climb up
onto the shelf in the middle of the room and pick up the shotgun. There are two
closed doors here that you'll come back to shortly. Return to the hallway and
turn left. Take a right at the bend and you'll come to a chapel area where
you'll find CARTOUCHE PIECE 1 on the altar.
Go back to the hallway
and continue straight across into the kitchen. Go around and up the checkered
stairs into a corridor with a number of branches. Turn right and locate a timer
tile in front of a closed gate overlooking the library. Stepping on the tile
opens the lower door in the library where you acquired the shotgun. Reverse
roll onto it and run back into the corridor, left and down the stairs and
through the kitchen, left and down the hallway, left into the library and left
to the open SE doorway where you'll find the revolver and some ammo for it.
Go back the way you
came, and up the checkered stairs past the kitchen. When you reach the
corridor, turn left, right and left to enter another bedroom. Find the large
medi-pack on the other side of the huge bed, then exit the bedroom. Run down
the corridor until you come to the stairs veering off to your right. Go up the
stairs, and in the next room locate the shotgun ammo in the SW corner next to
the crate. Continue up the stairs in the NE corner and wind around until you
reach another small room with crates. There's a small medi-pack on one of them,
but you have to stoop down to get it. There's nothing else to do up here, so
return to the corridor down below.
Make a right at the
bottom of the stairs, a left at the end of the corridor, and finally a right,
and pull up into a bricked open area. Pick up the flares and two stashes of
shotgun ammo, then hop back down into the corridor and turn left, then right,
then another immediate right, a left (as you face the bedroom you visited
earlier), and run east down the stairs and turn right into a pool room (as in
swimming pool, not billiards). Pick up the small medi-pack on the ledge near
the SW corner, then jump into the algae-laden water and pick up the shotgun
ammo. Note for later the underwater closed door near the north end.
Leave this area and
run back up the stairs. Turn right at the end of the corridor, then left at the
stairs veering off to your right, and finally right at the intersection, then
continue north down the stairs into an outdoor grassy area. Jump into the pool
with the icky green water and locate the tunnel going off to the north. Swim
along the tunnel until you reach the end where you swim up to pull out into an
outdoor courtyard.
Enter the house
through the east passage. Don't continue forward up the stairs to the east yet,
for there's a closed gate up there that you need to open first. So enter the
south passage and use the ladder at the end to climb down to a ledge below. Use
the next ladder to descend to an area with waist-deep green water and tall
squared columns. Go to the shorter column against the south wall and pull up to
stand on top of it. Turn to face north and take a running jump and grab to the
next higher column. There's a crack in the column to your right, and you can
jump to it if you wish for some shimmying exercise. However, that's all you'll
get, so instead take a standing jump toward the north wall and grab the crack
there that's much more difficult to detect. Shimmy to your left until you can
pull up (look at all those funny bubbles floating around Lara), then turn
around to face south. Take a running jump and grab to the next column, and pull
up to throw the floor lever. The gate at the top of the stairs is now open.
Look behind you and to
your left, and you'll notice another cracked column with a large medi-pack
nestled deep within the opening. Just for fun, jump over there and try to pull
into the tiny space and claim your prize. You'll soon discover that it can't be
done. I didn't notice the pattern until the author pointed it out, but one of
his trademark devices is to insert an inaccessible large medi-pack somewhere in
each of his levels, much like the director's cameo appearances in the old
Alfred Hitchcock movies.
Safety drop down to
the floor and use the ladders in the SE corner to return to the previous room,
and now go up the stairs in the east passage. When you reach the end, you find
yourself in an upper area overlooking the chapel you visited earlier. There's a
series of facing alcoves up here, and I found that the easiest way to navigate
them was by first jumping straight across to the next one, and then taking an
angled standing jump into the next one across the way, and so on. You'll find
the CARTOUCHE PIECE 2 in the next-to-last alcove on the east side, and the
receptacle for the combined BA CARTOUCHE in the last one to its right. You hear
the distant sound of a door opening, so safety drop to the chapel floor and
leave through the west doorway.
Go down to the hallway
and take the first left. In the next room with the twin stairways you'll find
that the door in the SE corner is now open. Go inside and down the ramp, and
you'll be warped to the next level.
THE CAVES
Run down the tunnel
without fear, as there are no traps ahead. However, there is a hole at the end,
but Lara can simply run into it and fall down atop a huge boulder in an
underground area with deadly lava far below. You'll be facing north when you
land, so remember that if you decide to roam about a bit before continuing.
You'll hear the incongruous sounds of crashing waves and raucous seagulls as
you explore about and become resigned to the fact that there's no easy way out
here. When you've done all that, walk forward and sidestep to the NE corner,
then turn ever so slightly to your right. If you toss a flare, you should be
able to tell that you're lined up with a small opening in the wall ahead. Make
sure that Lara isn't "frozen" (if she is, she'll fall to her death
when you try to jump) by using the arrow keys until her arms are no longer
completely rigid. Then take a standing jump in the direction indicated
previously, and Lara will hit a slope and start sliding backward. Grab the
edge, and Lara will discover a climbable wall and get her feet "set."
Climb down to the
crawl space, hang drop and grab its lower ledge, and before Lara can get her
feet set again use the up arrow key to bring her into the crawl space. Crawl
forward and turn right to find yourself in an opening overlooking a lava pit
with scattered slopes. This next part is tricky. I tried for the longest time
to use the first slope to your left as a launching pad to the central platform,
but I later learned that its sole reason for being there is to make your hair
turn gray, or to make your hair turn loose, depending on your personal
proclivities. This would be an excellent place to save your game.
Ignore the sloped
surface and position Lara slightly left of center and facing slightly to her right
to give her a bit of an angle. Take a running jump to the central platform and,
without stopping (for a boulder is on its way down from straight overhead to
crush you to a bloody pulp), take another running jump in one continuous motion
toward the slope in the far right corner. The camera angle changes abruptly
here, so you'll need to re-orient yourself while Lara is literally in the air.
You'll probably have to use the right arrow key to make Lara swerve over so
that she lands on the slope. As soon as she does so, jump off with a roll in
midair so that Lara is in a position to grab the edge of the slope ahead.
Shimmy to the right as far as possible, then pull up and jump off with a midair
curve to the right, and grab the edge of the alcove in the wall. Pull up
inside, turn around and face toward the SE. There's an opening in the east wall
that you were probably too busy to notice earlier, so take an angled running
jump toward it and you'll land safely inside.
Follow the tunnel
around two bends to the right, and when you reach the second one and start
going down the slight incline to the west, you'll trigger another boulder from
above. The way I thwarted it was by turning around to face east at the exact
spot where the tunnel starts sloping downward, then hopping back once and then
forward once while the boulder rumbles harmlessly down the slope. Strut down
the tunnel in its wake and drop into the water below. There are three hungry
crocodiles waiting for you there, so quickly swim to the south or west ledge
where you can pull up.
Go over to the west
opening. More lava. This one's not so bad, however. The left strip of the wall
ahead is climbable, so take a running jump and grab to it. Shift left and
around the corner, and you can see the opening in the south wall as you make
the turn. Without climbing up or down, take a back flip off the wall and land
inside the opening. You'll immediately start sliding backward, so use the
action key to grab the edge. Lara will again detect a climbable surface, so use
the same technique as you did earlier to access the crawl space right above the
lava. (In case you haven't tried to orient yourself, you're in the same area
where you began this second leg of your adventure, but farther down near the
lava's surface.)
Crawl through the
tunnel until you emerge in an area where you can stand up. As soon as you do
so, a boulder rolls out from the south to cross your path, so wait patiently
where you are until it comes to rest. Then go around it and run forward to
trigger two more boulders from the north and south openings, and allow them to
roll back and forth and finally come to rest before moving on. Step forward and
trigger a fourth boulder. Try not to fall asleep as it too ceases its rumbling
journeys after a spell. There's one more opening in the south wall, and you now
know exactly what to do. When the fifth boulder comes to rest, go on through
the west opening.
In the next room
you'll get a refresher course in Tomb Raider 101. (It's revealing that this
walkthrough writer actually felt a twinge of misdirected pride when he mastered
the following sequence on the first try.) Go to the sloped block in the SE
corner and press your nose against it. Pull up and take a back flip to the
ledge behind you. Turn left and take a standing jump and grab to the next
higher ledge. Pull up and turn around, then take another standing jump and grab
to the next higher ledge. Pull up, turn around and jump up to grab the ceiling.
Monkey swing across to the opening in the north wall, release and immediately
grab the edge, and pull up into the crawl space.
Oops, looks like Tomb
Raider 101 wasn't sufficiently advanced. You stand up in a small opening with
hieroglyphics on the walls, a closed trap door in the floor, and nowhere to go.
So we need to go back and see what we missed. Sheepishly we crawl back through
the opening and safety drop down to the floor with what's left of our dignity.
We return to the boulder area and explore the openings from which they came.
Voila! In the very first north opening we find a crawl space where we can
access another lava room.
When you can stand up,
take a running jump across to the platform in the middle of the lava. Turn to
your right and take a standing jump into the darkness onto a safe ledge. Step
forward onto a hieroglyphic tile in the NE corner, and you'll hear something
suspiciously like a trap door opening off in the distance. Turn around and take
a standing jump back to the central platform, a running jump back to the
entrance, and return to the west room for a repeat of Tomb Raider 101.
When you get back to
the upper crawl space you'll find that the trap door is indeed open now. Safety
drop to the passage below and step forward into a flyby that doesn't reveal
much more than you can see from where you're now standing. Stepping on the
hieroglyphic tile just ahead opens the door up on your left, but only for a
little while. Run to the back side of the column to your right (east), take a
back flip to the slope behind you and jump off to grab the top of the facing
column. Pull up and take a running jump ahead to grab the side of the column to
the north. Climb up to the top, pull up and take an angled running jump to your
left to the ledge running along the north wall. Continue left along the ledge
and drop down on the other side to enter the next room just before the door
closes in your face. Dash around the welcoming committee of two skeletons and
continue to the north end of this area where a third skeleton awaits you.
Quickly locate the ladder at the NE corner and climb up to the crawl space.
Crawl through the
short tunnel and stand up to face the poised boulder. Sprint forward and duck
into either the right or the left intersecting passage as the first boulder
rolls by and the camera angle changes. Then quickly reverse roll and scoot into
the east passage from whence came the first boulder, before the two boulders in
the north-south passages have a chance to crush you. You can pause if you wish
to explore the upper regions in the passage area, but there are no goodies for
you to get there.
Run up the east
passage, slide down the slope beyond and jump over two lava pits, and you'll be
warped to the next level.
THE BARRACKS
As you slide down the
slope into this new area, a remote camera shot draws back to reveal two SAS
patrolling the rooftops of two structures inside. When camera control is
restored you see a third SAS approaching you on foot, so draw your shotgun and
take out all three of them. The present threat removed, take a little
exploratory stroll. The first thing you notice is a bunch of closed doors here
and there, together with an opening with a jump switch high up in the north
wall.
There's an opening in
the middle barracks located against the east wall. If you run down the stairs
and bend to the right, you'll alert two more SAS who need to be eliminated.
There's nothing to do in the next room with four columns, so continue forward
until you reach the south opening. On the floor below are open fires scattered
here and there, a sure sign of danger. Look up, and you'll see that the ceiling
tiles all bear the image of a woman's face. Most are oriented in the same
direction, that is, with the top of the woman's head to your right. However,
there are four ceiling tiles where the reverse is true, and the spots on the
floor directly beneath those four tiles are the only ones that are safe for you
to stand on.
Don't safety drop to
the floor below, or you'll land under one of the deadly tiles and burn to a
crisp. Instead, simply run forward into the opening and allow Lara's momentum
to carry her down to the first safe area. You have a better viewing angle from
down here, so look up and note the other three safe ceiling tiles, against the
wall ahead and to your right, in the middle a little further down, and in the
far left corner. Save your game here and take the necessary jumps to bring you
over to the SE corner, where you fall down a short distance onto the tops of
some stairs. Turn and descend the stairs, and at the bottom take a standing
jump over the first flame. (The camera angle changes, but just hit the look key
to restore your first-person view.) Make similar jumps over the next two
flames, then pull up onto the pink block.
Your next objective is
the floor lever over on the far right corner of the room. However, to get there
you have to monkey swing over, but the monkey bars in the ceiling are
invisible. Their pattern, however, is mirrored in the brown floor stripe below,
so either memorize it or draw a picture of it (since you can't refer to it
easily while you're busy monkey swinging). Release when you reach the ledge in
the NW corner and throw the floor lever to open one of the doors in the
barracks room above. Use the ladder to the left of the floor lever to access a
passage. Run up the stairs, and at the end a door into the barracks area opens
automatically for you. Draw your shotgun and kill two more SAS who are there
waiting for you, one right there at the doorway and the other on the roof of
the barracks to your left.
The door to that
barracks is now open, so go inside and hear the sound of a door opening
elsewhere as you enter. Throw the floor switch to your right, then reverse roll
and climb up into the dark alcove behind you for the CROWBAR. Exit this
barracks and turn left. The door you heard opening was one of two at the bottom
of the block stairs between the two stone formations near the east wall. The
author says that this is the door that the floor lever was to open, and that
the sound you heard when you entered the barracks was due to an errant trigger.
To begin the process of opening the second door, locate the crowbar door in the
adjacent NE barracks and open it. Go inside and throw the floor lever, then
reverse roll and enter the now-open doorway in the west wall. Vault over the
block inside and locate the motorbike. As you approach it you'll alert an SAS
inside and to your right, so wait for him to appear and then kill him.
Mount the bike and
ride it up the ramp ahead. You'll smash through a barrier at the top as action
music starts playing. Wait here until an SAS appears from the passage to your
right, then run him over and dismount. Explore this maze-like area on foot. If
you cover it thoroughly, you'll alert and kill three more SAS. (The camera
angle shifts rather constantly in this area. Sometimes you can hit the look key
and restore camera control, but sometimes you can't.) Then return to the
motorbike near the entrance to this area and take the passage to your right (as
you face the maze, with your back to the entrance). Make a hairpin turn to your
left so you're headed south, then make another hairpin turn to the right into a
dark area. Now make a hairpin turn to your left and turn right to reach a dead
end against the west wall. Turn left and climb up onto the short stable surface
and jump forward into the well-hidden enclosure. Throw the floor lever, then
pull out of the enclosure and retrace your steps to the motorbike.
You don't need the
motorbike any more, so slide down the ramp and return to the barracks area. The
left door in the north wall is now open, so go inside. Just for fun, turn to
the right once you're inside and make the other door open as you approach it.
Now climb up onto the stacked blocks in the NW corner and turn to face south.
Completely ignore the next sloped ledge to the east, as it has been placed
there for the sole purpose of tormenting you and causing you to lose what
remains of your hair. Take a running jump and grab the ledge. Shimmy to the
left as far as you can go, then pull up and back flip to the sloped ledge
behind you. Keep the jump key depressed and swerve to the left when Lara jumps
off, so she'll land on the stable surface of the platform in the SE corner.
Step forward and activate the jump switch.
Safety drop down to
the previous room (which costs you less health than if you dropped down the
other side to the barracks area) and return to the barracks area. Go down the
block steps between the stone formations near the east wall, and you'll find
that both doors allowing access to the next area are now open. As you approach
the second doorway you'll alert a wraith. What's worse, a sentry machine gun
(mercifully facing away from you) awaits at the bottom of the ramp into the
next room. If you've previously used the DOZY cheat for whatever reason, you have
both the revolver and the lasersight in your inventory, in which case it's an
easy matter to combine the two and destroy the machine gun. If, however, you're
a rootin' tootin' true blue raider and would never dream of resorting to such
dastardly tactics, you need to find a way to get past the sentry gun alive.
Good luck, because this walkthrough writer never did find it. The author claims
that there's an area in the far left corner that the sentry gun's flames can't
reach, but by the time I reached that corner I would invariably have already
been set aflame.
In any event, when you
reach the next room to the east you encounter a phenomenon whereby the lights
flicker on and off, which can be distracting to say the least. You can use the
south crate and the platform in the SW corner to access the opening in the SE
corner, or you can simply jump up and grab the ledge in front of the SE opening
and pull up. Jump into the pool in the next room to douse the following wraith
(the flickering light phenomenon is still present here), then use the crawl
space in the SE corner to stand in front of a long ramp. Turn around and slide
down the ramp backwards to be warped to the next level.
THE TOMB
At the end of the
slide, grab the edge and safety drop into the room below. You hear the flapping
wings and the raucous cries of a harpy as you look around at a plethora of jump
switches. However, you need only pull the left one on the south wall to open
the door over in the west wall. Go through the connecting room, around the huge
box in the middle, and inside the next room you find the harpy attacking a Lara
simulacrum, sapping your own health in the process. Kill the harpy without
shooting at your better half (as you'll target both, depending on which way
you're facing), then return to the previous connecting room to examine the
designs on the huge block at your leisure. Make a note of the color themes
(yellow, green, blue and red) on the four walls, as well as the design that's
associated with each color. These are your clues for a forthcoming puzzle.
Now go past the Lara
simulacrum, ignoring the annoying slicer-dicer sound effects, to the opening
into the next room west. Save your game here, as there are no stopping points
where you can stand and rest until you complete the following sequence. Take a
running jump to the sloped pillar in the middle of the room, and keep the jump
key depressed to bounce off and grab the ivy on the ceiling. Angle Lara to the
right (as she refuses to monkey swing straight ahead for some reason) and
follow the ivy through the opening in the NW corner and into the next room.
When you can go no further, turn Lara to the right, release to the sloped
surface below and jump off to the sloped ledge along the north wall. Grab the
edge and shimmy to the left. When you reach the next-to-last section (you can
tell by the vertical lines in the ledge), pull up near the right side of that
section and back flip to the sloped pillar behind you. Keep the jump key
depressed and jump off facing forward. You'll hit a slope leading down into the
next room. Slide down a bit and then jump off with a fierce curve to the right
in midair to land on the flat portion of the column against the north wall. If
you happen to miss and land on the floor, you'll catch fire and die.
Don't try a running
jump to the next column, as you don't have enough room. Simply face the north
wall and sidestep to the left as far as you can, then turn Lara slightly to her
left and take a side flip to the column against the west wall. Pull up into the
opening. Remember those patterns on the colored walls back in the connecting
room? Refer to them now, as you're now facing the first of four rooms guarded
by deadly fire tiles. The safe tile here is the bird face in the first row to
your right. Take a standing jump there, then side step into the NE corner. Turn
and take a running jump to the opening to the next room.
The safe tile here is
the bird face in the front row, but not the one directly in front of you. You
can take an angled standing jump to the right to it without undue difficulty.
Once there, turn and take a standing jump to the opening to the next room. Your
goal here is the Pharaoh face in the far left corner. You need to be positioned
to well-nigh perfection in order to make the standing jump there safely, but it
can be done. Then turn and take a standing jump to the opening to the final
room.
The safe tile in this
room is the bird face tile in the near right corner. Take a standing jump to it
from the right corner of the opening, then side step to the NE corner. From
there take a running jump to the west opening, and you'll be treated to a
strand of "you done good" music. Don't rest on your laurels, though,
as you'll awaken a skeleton as soon as you step into the next room. Go to the
pedestal in the far corner and take the HORSEMAN'S GEM, then run into the south
corridor with the skeleton right behind you. Uh oh, there's its buddy rising
from the ashes at the other end of the corridor, so ready your shotgun and
blast it over the edge before it can join forces with the first one. Mete out
the same fate to the other one after you maneuver it into the proper position.
At the end of the
corridor, pause and survey the situation in the deep room ahead. Don't save
your game while in this room; explanation to follow. There are ledges and
columns and closed doors scattered here and there with no seeming pattern.
However, there's a method to the author's madness. Side step to the left
corner, then turn Lara about 135 degrees to the left so she's facing to the NW.
Then take a side flip to the right toward the tall sloped column and keep the
jump key depressed so that Lara jumps off toward the north wall. Grab the strip
of ivy growing on the wall and climb up. Shift left when you clear the ledge
and drop down onto it.
Turn around and take a
long running jump to the ledge directly across the room. Grab the edge and pull
up. Take a standing jump over to the next ledge and look down. You see two
closed doors far below in the north wall. Those are your next objectives. Hang
from the west edge and drop down to the ledge below. Turn around and take a
running jump with grab to land inside the opening in the west wall. Landing on
the Pharaoh face tile causes the upper door in the north wall to open. Turn
around and run off the edge of the opening to land on the top of the column
below. Step forward and turn slightly left to do the same thing, bringing you
down to the next column below. Walk out to the NE corner, take a standing jump
to the slope ahead and jump off into the open doorway in the north wall to land
on the Pharaoh face tile. This causes the door below to open, but only for a
few seconds. Immediately upon landing, reverse roll so that Lara falls to the
floor facing forward, then make a hairpin turn to the right to enter the north
doorway before the face tile slams down.
NOTE: As the author
warns in his readme file included with the level download, you'll discover that
if you save your game after jumping into the alcove with the first Pharaoh face
tile, this upper opening is barred as if by an invisible force field, even
though the door is open. If you've chosen to ignore the warnings presented
there and here, just to see firsthand what we're talking about, simply restore
from a previous savegame and try again.
Jump into the water
hole at the end of the short tunnel and swim down. Then swim forward a short
distance and you'll be carried to the final leg of your adventure.
THE END
Continue swimming along the passage and make a couple of left turns. You'll
be greeted by a hungry crocodile, but you can do little but swim past it. As
you approach the end of the passage you'll encounter its mate, so implement the
same evasive tactics and swim up to the surface. When you pull up to the nearest ledge
you find that you've returned to Lara's domicile via the now-open door in the
algae-laden swimming pool. Take the time if you wish to dispatch the crocs,
then exit through the NE opening. Run up the stairs, whereupon all hell breaks
loose, or so it sounds. Draw your weapons and deal with the assassin who meets
you at the top of the stairs, then turn right into the side corridor (the
passages in the north-south corridor ahead are now closed off at both ends) and
flush out a second one. The gate at the end of the corridor from which the
second assassin emerged is now open, and as you look down into the library you
can see that changes have taken place in your absence. The floor is now a
deadly fire trap, so don't jump down there. Just for fun, take a running jump
over to the top of the bookcase for some more hellacious sound effects. You
also alert a third assassin to kill when you run down to the north end.
Jump back into the
corridor, make two left turns and run down the checkered stairs toward the
kitchen area. But here too the floor is deadly, so don't venture inside. Turn
around and go back to the library. Jump over to the bookcase, run down to the
north end where you shot the third ninja, and take a standing jump into the NE
corridor. The floor here is safe, so run forward past the side corridor into
the foyer area with the twin stairways. Take a hairpin turn to the left and up
the stairs into what used to be Lara's bedroom. Shoot the assassin and trigger
the flyby that provides a view of the outside area.
Run around the bed
(that monster is gone; seems that the heat was too much for it) and into the
bathroom to trigger more chaotic noise. At least that nasty green water in the
shower stall has evaporated without leaving any residue. Go back down the
stairs and you'll find that even more devastation has taken place in the last
few seconds. Run down the stairs, go over to the other side where the other
stairs used to be, and climb up onto the block. Amazingly, the fire won't hurt
you. Run over the flames into the small library, and you'll disturb a crocodile
that's looking for some reading material. After dealing with it, use the south
crawl space (you may need to light a flare to see it) to trigger yet more noise
and another flyby. As you continue to crawl forward, the camera angle shifts
and you encounter the exit trigger.