EX OBLIVIONE (Demo)
Level by Nelthanion
Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, with the help of Doggett TV's video walk
Demo Level: SARKOMAND
Step forward to trigger an impressive flyby through two connected courtyards. When it's over, run toward the NE end of the pool, locate the triangular hole on the floor, jump in and swim down to find the TOWER KEY on a raised slab. Surface and jump out (you can't pull out), run up the N steps and go right to find shotgun ammo on a flat stone monument. Go back down to the courtyard, run SW alongside the pool to a stone shelter supported by four columns and insert the Tower Key in the column receptacle to open the trap door blocking the W ladder and to summon a warrior.
Climb the ladder, pull up and deal with the warrior (who may be stuck in a wall by the time you get there), go across the N bridge and hop up right or left to get to a terrace. Loop around left to the S wall and run off left at an angle to land on a lower ledge for shotgun ammo. Hop down to the courtyard, climb back up the nearby ladder, go across the bridge and hop up to the terrace, and this time run forward onto the terrace and turn left to face the wide W opening.
Go there, jump to the S side and go past the closed door. Shoot the small clustered jugs to reveal a small medipack and climb up onto the NW block. Run off with grab NW to land in the window opening, shoot the window and follow the hallway down to a lower room. Get into the sunken floor hole so you can stoop low enough to shoot the NE items for a small medipack. Then open the trap door and drop down to the room below to find the HOUSE KEY near the S wall.
Exit N to the courtyard and run past the huge statues and central pit to the NW passage that brings you to another section of the courtyard that you'll explore soon. Turn around to deal with the warrior who was sneaking up on you from behind (again, assuming he's not stuck in a wall), then return to the previous courtyard and loop around to go up the nearby steps to a back hallway. Go past the keyhole to the terrace to find a small medipack in front of a closed door. Go back to the keyhole and use the House Key to lift the W gate.
Enter the room, shoot the NW window and step out onto the balcony to a fixed camera and pick up another small medipack. Jump W over the railing to grab the crack and shimmy right around the corner. Release to activate a jump switch that lifts an underwater gate somewhere. You're back in the new section, so jump into the pool and locate the opened gate near the NW corner. But first, open the underwater door in the opposite (S) wall of the pool (the block with the lighter texture) and pull the underwater lever to open a trap door somewhere.
Flip turn, swim back into the pool and loop around right to the SE corner. Find the small triangular opening and swim inside to see the opened trap door. Surface, pull out for SECRET #1 and pick up shotgun ammo and a small medipack. Swim back to the pool and past the opened NW gate. Keep to your right and swim up a shaft to find a ceiling switch that opens a gate in the fortress. Swim back to the pool, flip turn, surface and use the lower ledge to pull out.
Go across the bridge and past the opened SW gate. Follow the passage to a room and hear the sound of another gate opening up in the E wall. You can see the ladders ahead, but first, make sure you're at or near full health, stand at the N edge of the floor hole, hop back to grab the edge, drop down onto a breaktile and stand jump forward onto a slope. Slide, grab and shimmy right to the corner where you can see another slope far below you. Don't simply release, but pull up, hop back and hit the action key so you'll glide down and land on the slope at the cost of about half your health. Slide, grab and release to land on another breaktile with another slight loss of health, and simply allow it to crumble so you'll slide safely to the ground. Or, you could hop back from the slope without grab to land on a second breaktile, stand jump forward to the lower slope and safety drop onto the third breaktile, but this would cost you even more health. There may be an alternate health-preserving way intended by the builder for you to get down, but nothing I tried worked for me.
Note the closed E gate and go through the S opening to alert a warrior. Continue through another S opening and come to a deep pit. Save your game. Stand jump SW to grab the slope, pull up, jump without sliding onto a breaktile and run forward onto the adjacent breaktile. Turn right and take standing jumps off the next two breaktiles to grab a crack in the W wall. This last jump is the trickiest, as Lara tends to swerve to her right instead of grabbing the crack. Shimmy right around the corner and pull up near a wall switch that opens a nearby gate.
Stand jump SW to land on a slope, slide and jump with grab to glide into the S opening. Run forward and turn left to face more breaktiles. Take standing jumps onto the first two, followed by a running jump off the second one to grab the last one, pull up and run forward into a mine shaft. Shoot the waiting warrior and pull down the wall switch to lift a gate further along. Follow S and E to an alcove where you'll find the LUNAR RUBY. Just outside the alcove, pull up W into a crawl space and drop down the other side.
Follow the dark passage past an opened gate to a previously explored area. Shoot the baby spiders and go through the N opening to the far room. Turn right, go past the opened E gate and step on an elevator block that brings you up a long shaft. When you reach the top, go through the W opening to a room you visited earlier. Climb one of the E ladders and go past the opened gate to another familiar room. Go through the E opening, stay left and go down the steps to the courtyard. Run SE past the statue and find the ladder in the corner.
Climb up to the ramparts and run forward to the open terrace. Bear a little to your right, get on the NE block and jump down NE to find a receptacle for the Lunar Ruby. Place it and get on the block for a running jump NE down to a ledge near the opened N doors. Go on through as the doors close behind you and run down the steps to a green-tinted room where two warriors are waiting. There's a closed gate at the end of the N steps. From the bottom of the steps go to the E wall, pull up onto the ledge and turn to face SW. Light a flare to find the barely discernible platform and stand jump to grab it. Pull up and stand jump SW to the next platform. Face the E wall and stand jump with grab to glide into the opening.
Follow the passage to a small room with a flaming bowl for SECRET #2. Pick up the SHOTGUN, flares and small medipack, return to the opening and drop to the floor. From the bottom of the steps jump over the obstruction to grab the ladder. Climb up to the crack and take a rolling back flip to grab the higher ladder. Climb up a bit, shift right around two corners and release to activate the jump switch that opens the gate at the top of the N steps. Go there and shoot the baby spiders in the next room.
Go to the NW corner to find an opening. Crawl through to an ice-covered hub area and go first through the W opening. Vault up a few times and continue W to a ledge surrounding a vast outdoor area. Turn left and run off onto a slope that allows you to slide to the lower level. Your goal here is to find and pull a series of wall switches, and to deal with what takes place in between.
First, run straight W alongside a field of designer tiles. Pull the switch on the block at the N end (1 of 4) to lift a gate in the trench to your left. Hop across the trench and pull the switch on the W side of the next block (2 of 4) to lift a gate in a section of the trench directly behind you. Turn right, hop over the trench and run S across the tile field and alongside the steps to a switch in the far wall (3 of 4) that releases a giant scorpion and lowers a cage that was blocking the wall switch (4 of 4) on the block behind you. Don't pull it yet, or try to shoot the scorpion, but allow it to skitter into the trench, go past the raised gates and kill something dangerous waiting for you at the end in the tunnel near the block with the first wall switch.
When you hear the enemy's death rattle, lure the spider back to the S wall, pull the last wall switch to close the gate and keep the spider from following you along the trench, run N along the tile field, hop into the trench near the first and second blocks and into the tunnel on your right. Be aware that if you draw your shotgun in this area, for some reason you'll catch fire and die. Crawl through the opening and locate the STAIRWAY KEY dropped by the slain enemy. Go through the W opening and turn left at the crossing to find the receptacle for the key. Gates open outside and at the same time a trap door opens at the top of the W ladder shaft, so climb up to a courtyard near the tile field and go up the W steps past the opened gate.
The gates shut behind you and a 2-D remote camera kicks in as you proceed to a plinth bearing the SANCTUARY KEY. Your surroundings change when you pick it up, so go through the W passage toward a closed gate. Hop up left into the opening and follow the passage around the corner to a floor hole with a revolving blade. Time a jump to grab the E face of the ladder, climb down toward another revolving blade, drop to grab the crawl space when the blade moves away and quickly pull inside.
Pull down the wall switch in the next room to hear the sound of a gate opening and back into the crawl space. When the blade moves away, lower Lara inside to grab the ladder, shift left to the N face and climb up past the blade. Shift right back to the E face, climb up and time a pull into the crawl space. Crawl forward past the lifted gate, stand up and follow the passage to a hallway leading to an underground tunnel. Drop down through the floor hole to the hub area you visited earlier.
Go through the E opening and follow to a S opening leading to a red-tinted room. Enter and loop around left to find the receptacle for your Sanctuary Key. Use it to open the doors to your right and navigate the E room by avoiding the skull floor tiles. Enter the E room and turn left into a N hallway lined with more floor skull tiles with no path to get across. Take a running jump NE to grab the crack in the wall and shimmy left until you're able to drop down safely. Hop over the last skull tile into the next room and take another left to face your next hazard.
Take a running jump W over the skull tiles to land on a safe spot. Stand jump NW, W and SW to reach the next room. Turn right, stand right at the entrance to the N room and take a running jump to a safe tile. Take a walking running jump (walk and up arrow keys followed by the jump key) NW to the next safe tile, turn around and jump E to grab the crack in the column, shimmy left around the corner and drop onto the next safe tile. Turn left and take another walking running jump to the NE ramp. Go up to a ledge and take a running jump N across the deadly floor to grab the far ledge. Pull up to face another room riddled with floor skull tiles.
Look to your right for a ramp leading into the room and use it to take a running jump NW to a safe tile. Take a walking running jump to the NW entrance and go up the ramp. Loop around left to the top, hop into the S room and shoot two baby spiders. Climb the ladder at the back of the room and pull up into a room with a number of skull poles. Go to the S edge that overlooks the lava below and take a running jump to the column top. Look up SW to see a medallion behind a raised cage in the far corner. Draw your shotgun while continuing to look up and fire at the medallion. It will shake a bit and a nearby gate will open when you hit it (thanks, nad and Petaludas), allowing access to the last secret when you get up there. Turn left a bit, stand jump S onto the slope, jump off to grab the crack in the column, shimmy left around the corner and release to drop onto a slope. Slide and back flip onto a block.
Hop up W onto the ledge, turn right and face a slope between you and additional hazards. Stand jump to grab the slope, hang left to avoid the swinging chain and when you hear the sound of the spears snapping, pull up, slide a bit and jump off the spear field to land on a safe ledge. Turn right and run off SE to land on a block next to a wall switch that opens the gate behind you. Reverse roll, run past the opened gate and up the steps to a room where a flameblower activates upon your entry.
Save your game for a timed run, and when the flames subside run forward and pull down the wall switch. Take a rolling back flip, run back down the steps and hop onto the raised cage just past the opened gate. Turn left and pull up onto the higher ledge before the timed cage lowers. Take a running jump SE into the opening and continue with another running jump NE between the skull poles to return to a previous ledge. The E gate is now open, so follow the passage around and up to a ledge overlooking the lava room.
Turn left and slide backwards down the slope. Grab at the bottom and drop onto another slope. Jump off without sliding to grab the column crack, shimmy left around the corner to find a ladder, back flip onto a slope and jump without sliding to grab the ladder above the crack. Climb to the slope at the top and save as you're pulling up. Take a rolling back flip to land on another slope, slide and jump off near the bottom with grab so that you'll hopefully land inside the passage without triggering the breaktile. Otherwise, you'll be required to make a tricky curved running jump out of the opening to grab the W ladder. However you get there, climb up the ladder and shift left to drop down onto a ledge.
Loop around to pull up into the N opening. Hit the look key to break the fixed camera, turn around and take a curved running jump into the darkness to grab the higher W opening. Pull up and use the wall switch to raise a nearby platform. Drop back down, go to the opening and hop NW onto the raised platform. Loop around left and hop up SW past the gate you raised earlier with the shotgun for SECRET #3. Run S, take the shotgun ammo from the plinth and go into the side alcoves for a small medipack and the AMULET OF KON. Return to the opening, carefully hop down NE and go around to jump back to the SE opening.
Go around to pull up into the N opening once again. Save your game and take a curved running jump NE, curving sharply to the right to land on a corner slope. Jump off with a roll (unless you're lucky enough to land facing backwards), jump off the facing slope and grab the ceiling. Monkey swing to the wall, drop and grab the crack, shimmy right and pull up into the crawl space. When you can stand up, run forward and take the PASSAGE KEY from the plinth. Go down the W side passage and slide down the slope backwards.
Grab the edge as a spear trap is triggered behind you, pull up and take a rolling back flip to grab the edge and pull up onto the now-safe ledge. Pull up higher and follow the passage to a floor hole. Drop down to confront two warriors and safety drop to the hub cavern below. Go through the N opening and follow around to a slope. Slide down, run forward and use the Passage Key to open the W gate. Go on through, down the steps and approach an opening gate as the level ends.