LARA AND THE OLD ABANDONED HOUSE

Levels by Lukasz Croft

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth

Another set of levels with a cockeyed compass. Directions will be given in accordance with the red needle pointer.

Level 1: IRELAND, SEWERS, 2009

The title screen shows a legally meaningless copyright notice inserted by the builder. When you start the game, Lara slides down into a green-tinted underground area. Note that you have absolutely nothing in your inventory. Run across to the other side of the area and drop down into the hole for a confidence-building SECRET #1 and some shotgun ammo. Turn around, pull back out of the hole, go toward the middle of the area and locate the water hole. Jump in and swim around to a large central shaft. Surface and pull out into an underground room. Step on the tiles in the E and W alcoves to open the trap door above the steam-emitting block. Pull up onto the block and from there into the N passage.

Follow the passage and turn left (after noting the closed trap door in the floor ahead). Crawl under the pipe and run to the right of the spinning fan blade into the corner. Side flip left to get past the blade, then run to the end of the passage and push the floor lever. Go back the way you came and find that the trap door at the end of the connecting passage is now open. Safety drop into a lower area with a shallow water-filled trench. Go toward the wooden barriers and find a jumpswitch in the NE alcove. Activate it, then run across into the W area to trigger a brief flyby. Go to the SE corner for the CROWBAR. Jump into the water hole and swim W until you can turn left into a partially submerged room. Surface and pull out away from the steam blower into a room. Avoid the steam and the flame tile and go over to pick up some flares. Use the crowbar to open the door in the N wall.

Enter a sewer area and avoid the cute but pesky baby rat. Jump into the trench, filled waist-high with harmless water, and wade to the E end for some shotgun ammo. Pull out at the W end, to the left of the garbage can, turn left and take a standing jump over the slope through the N opening. Pull up onto the N ledge in the next room and step on the NE trigger tile to open a trap door behind you. Hop down to the floor, stand beneath the open shaft and jump up to grab the ladder in the N face. Climb up into an alcove with a pushbutton. When you push it, several things happen in an area you've already visited, so go back there and pull up into the W alcove for the SHOTGUN and some more shotgun ammo. Unfortunately, the shotgun fails to show up in your inventory. What's more, a soldier is shooting at you through the grated ceiling overhead. Go quickly to the W opening, where the barricades have been blasted away, and avoid what looks like grenade gun ammo on the floor to your right (it's a land mine). Strangely enough, when I reloaded from a previous savegame, the mine was no longer there. Go beyond it and pick up what looks like a map but is actually something called a mixes plant (which I'll refer to as a small medi-pack from now on).

Exit this small passage. On one occasion, the barriers in the opening to the right, beyond the shallow trench, were now down, enabling me to enter the E opening for SECRET #2. (Enter the passage, turn left at the intersection, crawl through the tight opening and go down the stairs for a canister called a first aid spray [henceforth referred to as a large medi-pack].) On another occasion the barriers remained closed, preventing me from getting this secret. I will assume that this haphazard occurrence is attributable to a bug of some kind. You may try going back to push the button a second time, which I didn't bother doing. Go to the S end of this area and take a couple of standing jumps to the vertex of the highest green slope. Jump from there into the now open S gateway. Make a hairpin turn to the left and climb the block onto that grated ceiling (now floor) where the formerly aggressive soldier now stands meekly as you approach him. Push the button in the N wall to lower the block in the NE corner. Enter the passage and crawl through the narrow space toward another docile soldier.

Go past the soldier and around the blocks to a ledge overlooking a lower room. Safety drop to the floor and find the flares in the NE corner (although they likewise don't show up in your inventory, so you can't make use of them). Vault up into the N trench and approach the face block with the flame blower. Wait until the flames subside, then run over to face the last pillar on your right. Crouch down to avoid the returning flames, and when they subside again back flip to the slope behind you and jump off to grab the top of the pillar. Pull up and pick up the flares for SECRET #3. You can't back straight out, so turn and lower Lara down the N side of the pillar. Wait for the flames to subside before releasing. Run back to the pillar with the pushbutton. Push the timed button just before the flames subside to lower a trap door, and rush over to drop down through the hole before either the trap door lifts back up or the flames return. Pull up into the N crawl space and lower Lara down the other side. Turn around and pull out onto a sloped ledge above a canal with a trap door at the W end and a nearby keyhole.

Go to the E end of the sloped ledge and jump up to grab the crack. Shimmy toward the middle and pull up. You can see across the water trench a friendly soldier and a baby rat. Avoid the latter as you hop over the water and push the button in the E wall (near the soldier). Side flip left and wait for the gate to open. Vault up into the E doorway, run forward and pick up the flares in the corner. Go to the fenced-in area N for some shotgun ammo. Climb the block in the E passage for a small medi-pack, then hop down the other side and enter a new area where action music starts playing. And for good reason, as a trio of full-grown rats will soon be on your tail. The two soldiers posted here are of absolutely no help, so rush over to the far E wall and turn right as the first rat comes charging out at you. The first alcove is fire-trapped, but in the second one you can crawl under the pipe for a small medi-pack. Pull up into the higher alcove to the left of the flaming alcove for some uzi ammo.

Now pull up into the higher NE corner alcove and save your game in preparation for a tight timed run. Push the button, side flip left and dash past the enraged rats around the structure ahead and to the dark SE corner (don't run into the soldier in the darkness on the way). Pull up on the left side of the triangular crawl space before the grate closes again. Save your game again so you won't have to repeat this later. In the next room, go to the S wall and open the box for some KEYS. Find the shotgun ammo in the right E alcove and push the timed button in the left E alcove. It's supposed to open the exit grate for a few seconds, but in my case it didn't do so after numerous repeats. One player suggested pushing the button and waiting for the timer to reset, then pushing the button a second time. However, this didn't work for me either. This is more than a bug; it's a game stopper. If you experience the same problem, you'll need to download a savegame from here in order to proceed, as I had to do.

Go back past the rat-infested room to the area where you saw the keyhole earlier. Insert the key of your choice to open the trap door in the canal below you and to your right. Jump into the water and swim down to an underwater lever on the other side of the central column. Another trap door opens at the S wall, so swim there and pull out into a short passage.

Run to the ladder and pull up into a higher passage. Pull up onto the block to your right and pick up the small medi-pack from a crouched position. Get back down and jump over to the other block. Leap over the spinning fan blade and pull up into the next area. Search the four boxes for scads of ammo and medical supplies. (Two of the boxes must be opened with your back against the wall.) A trap door falls open from the ceiling, so pull up into a cozier residential area where you're greeted by a baby rat. Approach the dead soldier and you'll be warped to the next level.

Level 2: IRELAND, OLD HOUSE, 2009

Your flares and small medi-packs now show up in your inventory. Thank God for small favors. Get some flares in the SW alcove and another small medi-pack in the E alcove. In the nearby bathroom is a key receptacle, so that's obviously for later. Push the button in the S wall to open the door next to the bed. Go inside for the SHOTGUN, the PISTOLS, the BINOCULARS, another CROWBAR, and assorted uzi and shotgun ammo. Your weapons now show up in your inventory. Go to the NW corner and push the button to open the bedroom door. Pick up some more uzi ammo on the way down the stairs. The door ahead opens as you approach it (another one to your right, on the way down, does not). As you enter the next area of the house a cut scene shows an apparently murdered corpse. Actually, there are two of them in this room (and many more scattered throughout the house, as you'll soon discover). Push the button in the E wall to open the door to your left. Shoot the wooden barrier with your pistols and go inside. Shoot the box on the central slab, jump up to shoot the grate in the E wall, then another box in the passage ahead. My, isn't this fun?

Pull up into the E wall opening and run forward for some crossbow poisonous arrows. Turn around and jump up to activate the jumpswitch. A door is opened back in the corpse-strewn hallway, so go back there and enter the N doorway. Use the floor lever to open another N door in the hallway. Go there, climb the ladder and pull up into the guest bedroom. There are two buttons in here. Push them both to open a door in the W wall. When you enter the next room, the door closes behind you, you're attacked by a horde of bats, and three mummies come to life. Pick up the crossbow arrows in the SW corner, then pull the corpse away from the button in the E wall. Push the button, then push another button in the alcove where you picked up the crossbow arrows. A trap door opens in floor in the SE corner, so drop down in there and run past a fourth mummy. Push the floor lever in the alcove, then go back to grab the CROSSBOW that has magically appeared in the wide W alcove. You have explosive arrows, so use them to blow away the quartet of mummies. Pick up the GOLDEN KEY dropped by one of the mummies. Before leaving this area, open the door in the S wall with your crowbar. Enter a small kitchen for SECRET #4 and climb the SW block for a large medi-pack, and the NW block for some revolver ammo. Exit these rooms, evading another mummy, and go back through the guest bedroom and down to the hallway. Go up the stairs to the main bedroom, into the bathroom and use the Golden Key in the lock you saw earlier.

The nearby door opens, so go inside and brace yourself for another bat attack when the door ahead opens. Go inside, pull up onto the meat rack and pick up the small medi-pack. Crawl under the first row of hanging hocks and push the button in the E wall. A not-very-helpful cut scene indicates that something has happened, so go back through the bathroom, the bedroom and down the stairs to find that the door to your right is now open. Go up the stairs to find the UZIS at the top. When you pick them up, action music starts playing and a door opens behind you. Go inside and shoot two mummies (one in front of you, another sneaking up on you from behind). Go up the stairs and shoot the wooden barrier at the end.

Hop down into the next room and pick up the revolver ammo in the SE alcove. Locate some flares in a hole formed by the crates. Pull the crate away from the NW corner to reveal a passage. Enter, hop down into the next room and move some barrels to reveal shotgun ammo and revolver ammo (mind the steam blowers). Pull up onto the W ledge, shoot the fuse box if you like (it's a dummy) and move the three crates N to reveal another fuse box in the S wall. Shoot it and pull down the wall switch. Something has happened back in the main hallway, so go there (running past a mummy on the way) and find that the door behind the grandfather clock has opened. Wait for two mummies to emerge, so you can destroy them both at the same time, then enter the new passage and find the game room. Pick up the small medi-pack in the S alcove, then the LASER SIGHT lying in plain view near the N wall, and open the crowbar door in the W wall.

Go through the passage into the gym, awaking a mummy and attracting a flock of bats as you enter. Pull back the dead soldier in the blue track and pick up the REVOLVER his body was covering. Get up onto the high block in the NW corner for revolver ammo. Grab some precious crossbow explosive arrows down on the floor in the NE alcove. Get on the ramp marked with a 3 to open the exit door, then hop down and get out quickly before the door closes. In the next room, you'll find two jumpswitches high up in the shadows of the E and W walls. Use the short platform to reach them, even though the television screen gets in your way a bit. Activating the jumpswitches lowers a trap door in the ceiling of the S alcove. Use the climbable surface to climb up, then shift right and release into a short passage. Shoot the grill and enter the crawl space.

Drop down into a dark room and shoot four mummies. Move the crate near the shallow pool for some flares. Go E to pick up the uzi ammo next to a chair near the flame blower, then turn S into the next room and shoot two boxes near the S wall. Brave the steam bath and open the chest for a small medi-pack and a new set of KEYS. Three more mummies appear, so kill them or avoid them to save ammo, as you choose, and leave this area via the crawl space in the W wall. Climb down into the previous room and enter the small library. Use your Keys in the lock to open the door to your left. Enter a sitting room where another mummy waits. Go to the N wall and look up to see a swinging blue ball. Use your combined revolver and laser sight to shatter it, whereupon a door opens in the NW corner. Hop up into the passage and run straight ahead for some grenade gun ammo. Move the nearby block all the way around the room in a counterclockwise direction until it comes to rest on a wooden section of the floor in the NE corner. A door opens back in the SE corner, so go there and pick up the revolver ammo on the way in.

Follow the passage past a steam blower and shoot the wooden barrier. Enter a dark room and run past the mummy to a dead soldier just beyond the S doorway. Pull back the body for some shotgun ammo, then proceed into the S room and go all the way to the E end to find a floor lever guarded by two more mummies. Leave it alone for now, but remember its location. Watch out for falling debris on your way out as you try to avoid the mummies. Climb the box in the SW corner and enter the crawl space for another CROSSBOW and SECRET #5. Hop down and exit this room. Go back to the steam blower and find a nearby moveable crate in the passage (actually, it's the same one you moved earlier). Don't pull it out, however. Go back around through the passage to the other room and push the crate E two times into the dark room. Go back along the passage to the crate and pull it S as far as it will go. Climb up on it and activate the jumpswitch to open a door below you that leads into the passage.

Having this door open allows you to move the crate into the larger dark room. Take the long way around again and push the crate E. Now you can guide it S into the next room, and then E to the central area where the debris fell earlier. Position the crate beneath the E face of the ceiling hole, where you can see a ladder, then push that nearby floor lever you saw earlier. This opens a ceiling trap door above the ladder (but you may have to push the lever twice before the trap door opens), so run to the crate, hop onto it and grab the ladder, and climb up through the hole before the trap door closes. When it does close, drop down onto it, turn left and pull up into the crawl space at the end of the passage. Lower Lara down the other side and drop down into a water-filled room.

Locate the underwater lever in an E alcove and pull it to open a timed door S. Swim there quickly before the door closes. Surface at the end of the passage, pull out and shoot a wooden barrier to enter a dark room with another moveable crate. Locate two jumpswitches high up on columns in this room, then laboriously guide the crate under these jumpswitches and activate them. Activate a third one, that's too high to reach from the crate, by using the crate to climb up onto a higher ledge and by taking a standing jump to the jumpswitch from there.

A trap door has been lowered in the S trench, so drop down in there, pick up the shotgun ammo at the E end (lying on a trigger tile that raises a block, so you can get back to the other side in case you started exploring and found yourself stuck) and slide down the right or left side of the slope to avoid a blade in the middle. When you reach the bottom you'll be taken to the next level.

Level 3: IRELAND, BASEMENTS AND CELLS, 2009

Three mummies are on the loose as Lara begins this level. Wait until they gather in a group, then blow them all away with a couple of explosive crossbow arrows. Switch to your combined revolver and laser sight to shoot the boulder suspended in the SW corner. When it rolls away it causes a nearby trap door to open in the floor, so go there and drop down into the hole. Pull up S and monkey swing across the spike trap. On the other side, shoot two crates to free up space around a central column. Pick up the grenade gun ammo to your left, then go to the other side of the column and push the button you'll find there. The S door opens, blocking your way in the process, so go clockwise around the column and enter the room without veering even slightly to your right, else you'll be flattened by a spike ball.

Hop into the pit where the spike ball came to rest, and pick up the grenade gun ammo. Pull back out and note the chest protected by flames. Look up to find an opening high up in the W wall. Stand with your back facing the NW slope next to the entrance door (now closed). Back flip to the slope and jump off to grab the column support. Pull up and take a standing jump with grab to glide into the W opening. Take a running jump over the spike pit and drop down into the room below. Three dogs attack while heart-thumping action music plays. Kill the dogs (one of the three is twice as hard to kill for some reason) and note the closed trap door in the floor of the NE corner. Shoot the boxes in the NW trench and pick up a large medi-pack. Go to the other side of the room and find the jump switch in the W wall. You can activate it with a standing jump and grab. There's a companion jump switch on the other side, but it's in the S wall, so you have to make an angled standing jump to reach and activate it.

That trap door in the NE corner is now open, so go there and drop down into the hole. If you like, you can kill another dog along the way. Push the button at the end of the E passage, and a cut scene shows that the flames protecting the chest in the spike ball room have gone out. Get back there (but avoid the active spike trap in the passage as you retreat) and open the chest for grenade gun ammo, a GOLDEN KEY and the GRENADE GUN. The entrance door is open once again, so leave this room and kill the mummy now guarding the central column in the dark connecting room. Use the monkey bars to get over the spike trap and return to the room where you began this level. Use the Golden Key to open the W door.

Enter the next room and kill a mummy. Shoot the boxes and look around in the alcoves for two stashes of grenade gun ammo. Go to the S ledge overlooking a small library and take a running jump and grab from the right side to a block across the room. Pull up and turn a book jutting out of the shelf. A timed gate opens below, so hop back twice and run to your left into the open doorway. You can climb the N wall and try again if you miss. You drop down into a lower area. If you avoided awakening the mummy upon landing (the wall button near him simply opens the exit door when you're ready to leave), you can turn left into the N passage without arousing him. Use the floor crawl space on your right, shoot the wooden barrier and enter the small chamber for SECRET #6. Pick up two stashes of uzi ammo and some flares and return to find a second mummy.

Pick up the small medi-pack and pull the nearby underwater lever to activate a spike trap. Swim through the small N opening to attract a sea hag. You can kill the sea hag by turning back and luring her to the spikes (without, of course, being impaled yourself). Do not climb onto any of the blocks in this room. Go back through the N opening and loop around to the right to attract a second sea hag. Lure her back to meet the same fate as her sister. Take the same route to attract a third sea hag. This time, when you go back a block has been raised to cover the still-active spike trap, but I found that the third sea hag died just the same when she swam near the spikes. Now you can swim about at leisure to find some revolver ammo before moving on into the SW area where you encountered the second and third sea hags. Find the KEYS on the floor in an alcove near the W wall (it helps to light a flare), then return to the first room (watch out for the activated spike trap in the passage, which you can avoid by swimming over it) and pull the underwater lever again to neutralize the spike trap. Climb up onto the raised block and jump into the opening. Go to the S wall and push the button to open the exit door. Pull up into the library and take the grenade gun ammo from the pedestal if you didn't do so earlier.

Climb out via the N wall and remember the sleeping mummy near the piano if you didn't awaken him earlier. Return to the opening hallway and use your Keys to open the N door. Enter to find more closed doors, a movable metal crate and a flaming pedestal. The door closes behind you. Light a flare and look for a TORCH lying on the floor to your right, just as you enter the room. Use the flaming pedestal to light it, then ignite the two tall white lampstands to open a ceiling trap door at the far corner of the room. Drop the torch, move the crate underneath the opening and pull up inside.

Lower Lara down the other side and engage first a dog, then a mummy. Note the two cross receptacles in the E wall and loop around the left to kill another mummy and pick up a large medi-pack. Go down the stairs and crawl into the short passage. Shoot the grate at the other end and crawl through to emerge on one of several blocks in a dark hallway. Drop down to the floor and go to the N room. Pick up the shotgun ammo in the NE corner, then squeeze between the nearby bookshelves and find a hidden alcove. Pry the first CROSS off the wall with your crowbar. Go around to the S fence and locate a strange-looking metallic bobbing object. Don't let it touch you. Hug the S fence and go to the end of the corridor. Open the crowbar door and take some unavoidable damage from the bobbing object. Go inside and kill two mummies. As you enter the S area you trigger a cut scene that emphasizes the S wall for some reason that never became apparent to me. Pull the soldier away from the SE corner for some flares. Note the nearby moveable block, then return to the main room.

Move the shackled soldier away from the central column and pick up the GOLDEN KEY his body was covering. There are two moveable blocks in this room, one on the floor and one on a ledge. Pull up onto that ledge, then onto the block, jump up to shoot one of the crates, and pull up onto the higher ledge and shoot the other two crates. Pick up the explosive crossbow arrows and note the grate up in the S wall. You can shoot it from here, so do that and hop down to the floor. Move the block on the floor next to the block on the ledge, then go over to the third block and bring it over next to the floor block. Move the block on the ledge over the other two blocks, and from there you can pull up into the crawl space.

Crawl to the other end and allow Lara to drop down into a small room. There's a closed gate at the W end and a push button in the E wall. As you might suspect, it's timed, but the timer is generous. The push button in the W passage simply opens the gate to let you back out. Proceed W and hop down into the next room. A cut scene shows you the torch you need to get. Shoot the boxes near the S wall for revolver ammo and a large medi-pack. The torch is on a high pillar against the S wall. The easiest way to get there is to pull up onto the left central slope (as you face it) near the S wall, shimmy to the left as far as you can, pull up and jump off with a rolling back flip and a sharp turn to your right so that you bounce off the southernmost slope. Veer to the left in midair and you should land on top of the pillar. Pick up the TORCH and light it, then drop down to the floor and go to the N end of the room. Hop up into the passage, drop the torch long enough to push the button on the wall, then pick up the torch and wait for the gate to open. Quickly get out before the gate closes again.

Light the tall white lampstand in the SE corner (the one in the opposite corner is already lit) to open a nearby trap door in the floor. Drop down into the passage and take a set of KEYS from the plinth. Jump back out and exit via the NE crawl space. A dog is waiting for you in the next room. Open the nearby door in the N wall, kill the mummy inside and use the Golden Key in the keyhole. The door to your right opens, so enter and use your Keys in the next keyhole. A door opens to a new room. Go inside and do battle with a Storm Trooper. After killing it, go to the N wall and pry off the second CROSS. Go out to the main room and engage two more Storm Troopers (one at a time, thankfully). Now retrace your steps past the metallic bobbing object and the E crawl space in the crate-filled hallway (where you meet up with a fourth Storm Trooper). Go up the stairs and use your crosses in the two receptacles to open the door between them.

Enter the next room, kill a mummy and find a small medi-pack, then push the two buttons in the S wall to open another door. Enter the passage, dodge another bobbing metallic object and come to a hallway with a dead soldier sprawled across the entrance. There's another Storm Trooper inside, so deal with him if you have enough revolver ammo. Otherwise, avoid him as best you can while you locate and push the large button in the middle alcove. A door opens in the S wall, but save your game before going down the slope ahead. A trio of spike balls is released, but you can easily beat the trap if you stay in the middle and jump off at the end to land on a block. Keep running forward to drop off to safety on the other side, then climb back onto the block for some revolver ammo. Hopefully one of the spike balls killed a dog that was waiting for you at the bottom of the slope.

Note the closed gate in the SE corner of the floor, then get back onto the block if you're not already there. Face the slope (N) and look up. You should see part of a swinging blue ball, so use your combined revolver and laser sight to shatter it. The gate opens in the SE corner, so hop down into the passage and continue down into a larger room where three Storm Troopers and a mummy wait. You probably don't have enough ammo to deal with them all, so head to the far side of the room, shoot the wooden barrier and squeeze past the giant turning wheel to end the level.