THE ICY TOWERS

Level by Richard Ba

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, with the help of Doggett TV's video walk

Begin by running forward and hopping down onto the ice. Loop around left, locate the ladder surface and take a running jump to grab it (not as easy as it looks). Climb up to a stable ledge and go around clockwise to your right to a dark hole. Jump into it and slide down the N slope to a room with water on either side. The divider you're standing on is actually a bridge, and if you jump into the water you can't climb back out. But that's okay, so jump in and swim to the E wall for the REVOLVER and revolver ammo. The deeper you go the colder the water gets, so don't linger.

Get some air and swim through the W opening. Turn right at the crossing, where the water isn't freezing cold, for a GOLDEN SCORPION and SECRET #1. Continue up the S ramp and wade out in front of the entrance to the room you started in. The door closes behind you as you enter, so hop down to the ice again and this time run forward to the E opening. Save your game at the top of the slope, start sliding and jump off with a right curve to land on the S ledge. Crawl forward for revolver ammo and crawl back the other way until you can stand up again. Jump across to grab the N ledge. Pull up carefully, as the lower icicles will rob you of some health. Pick up the small medipack, drop down to the slope and continue to the E wall.

Pull up left and go NE into the dark cave. Invest a flare to get more flares to your left, crawl into the opening and continue until you can stand up. Walk forward onto the nifty elevator pad that brings you up to the next room and also blocks off any thought you might have of going back the way you came. Go to your right and take the goodies off the small chest: a small medipack and 2 x uzi ammo. Go N around that translucent structure to find 2 x revolver ammo. Return to the S side of the structure and pull up onto the nearby short column. Jump to grab the ladder in the structure and pull up into the crawl space.

Crawl until you can stand up, pull up higher and see that your life force is fast ebbing away. There's a presently inaccessible artifact in the N wall, so you must first shoot the emblems in the other three walls before you can use the crowbar (already in your inventory) to pry the EYE OF OWL off the N wall. At any time you can hang from the floor hole to replenish your health. When done, drop back down, and as you prepare to crawl back the way you came, a flyby kicks in as two harpies come hovering on the other side of the crawl space. Quickly get down the ladder so you can engage them.

After they're dead, go to the elevator platform to find that it has lowered again, allowing you to backtrack along the S passage, attracting a swarm of bats in the process. As you crawl toward the far end a lone tardy bat may be alerted. Back in the open area, climb the central ice tower and use the floating platforms to take a running jump S to grab the ledge in front of the dark opening. Pull up and enter the cave, where you'll find four of those shootable emblems, two on each side, mounted in the walls. Use the Eye of Owl to open the S doors, continue S and stop in front of a spike wall. Go back and reclaim the Eye of Own from the receptacle, and the spikes should disappear. What's more, two more wall emblems have magically appeared in the cave walls, so shoot them as well to be on the safe side.

Take a running jump and grab the crack in the S wall above the spike holes. Shimmy left a long distance and around the corner. Pull up in front of a spike-trapped passage. For a secret, hang from the edge, shimmy back to your right a bit more than a block from the corner and drop down onto a ledge. Turn around, light a flare and look up to see a N ladder. The ladder surface extends all the way along the wall to the bottom, so jump to grab it, climb down and open the crowbar door in the NE corner.

Go on in and drop to a lower passage. To your left is a small medipack and a jump switch that has already been used by someone. To your right is a room where SECRET #2 registers. Take the GOLDEN SCORPION from the central block to awaken two jackals, get a small medipack near the N wall and ignore the unusable floor levers. Return to the passage and step on the tile with the red circle which now acts as an elevator to bring you back up to the dark S passage. Five jackals are waiting for you, so dispose of them before climbing back up the ladder. Back flip onto the ledge, only to find that the crack in the wall is too high for you to reach. Jump back to the ladder, climb up to near the top and take a rolling back flip to grab the crack. Shimmy left around the corner and pull up in front of the spike-trapped passage.

Shoot that emblem in the E wall to trigger and disable the spikes, run forward into the SE alcove and look up N to see a ladder. Jump up to grab it, climb up to a ledge and hear the sounds of some enemy stomping about nearby. Yes, it's a demigod in the upper W room, so hop inside and get close so you can stoop down to evade its fire while you pepper it with pistol rounds. Sad to say, when it dies another demigod is resurrected to take its place, so repeat the same strategy while being careful not to step on the rubble in the center of the room, which is a disguised hole that would send you falling to your doom. And yes, when the second demigod is vanquished a third demigod appears, and only after its demise does the W door open.

Go down the ramp onto a bridge with a fixed camera. Just before you reach the opening at the far end, turn left and jump S over the railing to grab the sloped rock ledge. Safety drop and slide to the bottom of the canyon, pick up the nearby flares and drop down into the hole between the bridge supports. Open the crowbar door at the end of the N passage and step into a small room where your health bar appears ominously on the screen. Take the EYE OF SNAKE from the plinth, ignore the W opening and use the slab behind the plinth to pull up into the N opening as your health bar starts going down. Quickly light a flare, run up the ramp and pull up into the N alcove. Pull up into a higher room that has some fresh air, grab the flares and move the pushblock into the vacated alcove.

Step outdoors onto the ice field where you began the level. A chest has appeared out of nowhere, and there you'll find the UZIS and 2 x uzi ammo. Slide down E once more, go past the S opening to your right and make your way back to the outdoor area with the central tower. Use the floating platforms or the wall ladder to get to the S cave, shimmy along the wall crack to the now-harmless spike passage, use the ladder at the other end to get up to the demigod room, go around the disgused floor hole and run all the way across the bridge to the W opening. Pull up, slide down and place the WA CARTOUCHE (also in your inventory from the beginning) in the receptacle to open the four-piece door one piece at a time (neat effect).

Step into a hub room. You may be able to proceed in any desired order, but I started with the first opening on the left (SE).

SE Opening

Follow the lower passage to a room with an icy floor. Go on through, follow up and around either right or left to find a pushblock. Pull it once, go around in the other direction to find the revealed opening and step forward to trigger a flyby through an outdoor area. Pull up into the niche in the central structure for a small medipack and light a flare to find a pushblock in the S wall near an obelisk. Move the pushblock five times N so you can get up on it and jump to the N opening in the central structure.

Climb down the ladder on the other side and drop down to a room inside the central structure. Note the owl's-head emblems on the walls, which you can't shoot. Go N and jump onto a block. Hop down to the edge of a pit separating you from the next N section. The only way to get across is by jumping to grab the nearest pole, turning around so that your back is to one of the E-W poles, taking a rolling back flip to grab that pole, and repeating to grab the final pole before taking a back flip to the N ledge. If you try to jump directly from the block to one of the E-W poles, you'll grab it briefly before falling to your death.

When you get there safely, move the E pushblock to the other end of the ledge so you can access a second pushblock. Push this one all the way into the next room and move it into the SW corner to trigger another flyby showing activity taking place behind you. Take the EYE OF TAURUS from the plinth that has appeared, causing the N door beside the first pushblock to open. Go on through as the door closes behind you, and prepare to do battle with five ninjas that look like what you see in a medical textbook. Continue up the steps, passing a floor hole to your right, and engage a final ninja. The door at the top of the steps opens upon your approach, bringing you back to the hub room.

SW Opening

The door closes behind you and a floor trap door opens at your feet to drop you down into a pool of freezing orange kool-aid. Pull out onto the W ledge straight ahead, note one wall switch at the end of each of the four ledges and pull down only the W and N switches. Safety drop from the ledge to the room below, take the small medipack from the center of the floor and go through the opened W passage. You hear a disconcerting sound as you turn the corner and face a room featuring a boulder poised on a pole. No problem, just shoot the boulder to reveal an EYE OF FELIS.

Stoop before crawling away from the receptacle toward the passage, as dart traps will be activated as soon as you start back. Don't stand up until you turn the corner to face slow-moving swinging blades in the passage. Time your way past them, and once you reach the kool-aid room loop around right and pull down the wall switch to lift the slab you're standing on and bring you back up to the ledges. Go over and push the N switch back up, return to the elevator slab and it will take you back down again. The S door is now open. Stand at the entrance and shoot the emblem in the far wall to release three fire wraiths. Beat a hasty retreat to the W elevator slab and pull the wall switch to ride back up. Jump into the kool-aid to extinguish the wraiths.

Pull out before you freeze, push the W switch back up, jump over and pull down the E switch, and finally go pull down the N switch. Ride down the elevator slab to find that the E door is now open.  Go inside, jump into the freezing kool-aid, swim up the nearby ceiling shaft, flip turn, surface and pull out for a small medipack while you thaw out. Jump back in, swim N, down and E, turn the corner, surface and pull out into front of another shootable boulder. That's all you can do here, so swim back to the medipack alcove, get your health bar back up and return to the room with the kool-aid vat (S, down, N and pull out left).  

Ride the elevator slab back up, jump over to the E switch and pull it down, push the S switch back up and ride the elevator slab back down. The N door is now open, so enter and do the familiar bit of jumping back and forth on the facing slopes, using an arrow key to bring you onto the E block. Face W, jump up to grab the ceiling and monkey swing into the passage. Drop down, jump to grab the fancy ladder and wait for the flameblower to subside before taking a rolling back flip into the upper passage. Crawl up the steps onto a bridge and turn right. Jump over the railing onto the suspended tile and hop up NW or SW into one of the bright window openings. Pull up toward the other window and grab the GOLDEN SCORPION for SECRET #3. Get back down to the suspended tile, face NE and stand jump with grab to glide down onto the block below.

Monkey swing back to the ladder, get past the flameblowers and this time go all the way across the bridge. Follow the passage around the corner and shoot another boulder which appears to respond by screaming in pain. The nearby door opens, but you can see by looking back to the corner that a ladder surface has appeared in the E wall. For now, go through the dark E passage into a diabolical maze that was mentioned earlier. Keep to your left as you go up to find a wood-lined opening on your right. Go on through to a fixed camera that faces a W passage. Sprint down the passage as flames erupt behind you. In the throne room take the EYE OF CANIS from the plinth and turn around to see that four skeletons have been awakened.

For some reason they don't immediately attack, so bide your time, look for a good opening and sprint past them into the passage, which has been partially flooded to extinguish the flame tiles. Go to the E wall and grab the explosive arrows before the skeletons can catch up to you. Turn right, run up the ramp, turn right again and take the CROSSBOW from the wall. More skeletons have by now appeared, so arm the crossbow with explosive arrows and blow those suckers away. 

Make your way through the maze, always going downward, and you'll soon reach the bottom where you saw the ladder surface earlier. Climb up into a crawl space with several openings. Take the first opening to your right and stand up in an icy passage. Pull up into the W opening and immediately hop back and side flip as a boulder rolls by. Wait for the boulder to stop moving, then pull back up into the opening and go up the ramp to trigger another boulder up to your left. Continue up and trigger two more boulders in this manner, then proceed up until you reach a crossing. Turn left and find yourself back in the hub room. Note that the openings you've already explored are now blocked off.

NW Opening

Go down and around the corner to an opening that overlooks a deep room. When you hop down to the block below, a door closes behind you. Continue straight down to the floor, turn around and look at some traps that you can to trigger (whether it's necessary to do is another question). First, run across a corner of that tile with the red dot to bring three boulders crashing down. Climb onto the lower W block, face E and side flip right to trigger a set of spikes. Climb onto the next higher block, side flip right again and a second set of spikes should be triggered. Go into the W passage, turn right into the alcove and pull the chain to open the gate in the W wall. Go there through a fixed camera and save your game before you enter.

Stand right as you slowly walk inside and the gate shuts behind you. Just before breaking the threshold, turn 45 degrees to your left and stand jump into the N - S corridor. By doing so I was able to avoid  the deadly traps that would otherwise have been triggered had I simply run into the corridor. You can even take a running jump over the breaktiles at the end of the corridor and land in the next room without breaking any of them. Another gate closes behind you, however, shutting you in.

Use the left reach-in switch to raise a block behind you and trigger an extended flyby. The reach-in switch on the right yields a large medipack. The one in the middle releases a horde of beetles, so leave it alone. Use the raised block to climb up through the ceiling hole (your game may crash here, depending on which way you're facing, so avoid pulling up E or N). If you step on the N red tile you'll trigger a flame blower, so just exit E and run across the breaktiles to a crossing. Turn left, then right and run up the ramp to the hub room.

NE Opening

Follow the passage to another room where the gate closes behind you. Hop into the NE alcove for a small medipack, continue N into the next room to find another small medipack on the NE corner plinth. Go to the W wall, find the column with the ladders and climb either one. Jump N onto the higher pedestal, hop E to the next column and save your game before hopping to the first of three collapsing platforms against the N wall. Quickly jump the three platforms and hop up SE onto the next column. Or, you can take advantage of something the builder overlooked by simply taking a running jump to the second platform, thereby avoiding the triggering of whatever causes the platforms to drop.

When you land on the second column a door opens high up in the S wall. You can reach it from here with a running jump and a jump with grab into the opening. Hop down onto the central column and jump from there into the NW alcove. Pull up W and follow the passage to an apparent dead end. However, the "dead end" is actually a pushblock, You can't pull it onto what appears to be a marked tile (that would be too easy), so push it to reveal an opening. Follow the new passage to the other side of the pushblock and push it once. Go back around to find your way blocked by the pushblock. Pull it twice into the passage, go around once more and push it N. Go around to the left, hop onto the block and pull up left into an upper chamber.

Hop onto the column ahead and push the huge red button to lower a block in the previous area (that I wrongly guessed earlier was a marked tile). Go back there, face SE and hop down with grab to glide into the lower S passage. Follow to a floor hole, safety drop down and find yourself next to the hub room. Go inside, place your Eye artifacts in the four yellow receptacles and watch the concluding cut scene.