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.