Tomb Raider: The last Revelation

Karnak

LEVEL 11: GUARDIAN OF SEMERKHET

• Secrets: 3

Drop through the hole in the floor. Slide down the ramp to a hallway with a circular blade trap. To get through, stand Lara as close as possible without injury, position her at the center of the blades facing into them, then roll as they begin to open. (You can also do a diving roll--i.e., jump while sprinting--to get through, but I find this more difficult. Or, stand a few steps back from the blade and as it opens, take a standing jump-grab.) Continue along the hallway, passing through a second circular blade trap. Slide down the ramp.

MAP ROOM: Cross the room, taking note of the two golden receptacles on the walls. Climb up to the ramp on the west side. (The other ramp is too steep to climb.) Go through the crawlspace to the next area.

ROOM WITH LEDGES, BLADES AND TIMED DOOR: Approach the wheel edge-on, turn it several times to raise the door on the ledge to the right. The door begins to close as soon as Lara lets go of the wheel. And, to complicate things further, slashing blades pop up from beneath the ledges in the areas marked with red x's in the diagram. If you keep moving, they'll miss you. So, run forward along the ledge, cutting to the right to avoid the hole in the left corner. Or, take a standing jump over the wheel and run forward then right. Keep running to the end of the ledge and jump to clear the gap and land on the next ledge. If possible, press Right while Lara is in the air to pivot so she's ready to go when she lands. Run along the narrow ledge and jump at the edge to land on the L-shaped ledge ahead. Veer left and run (or crawl or roll) under the closing door. Keep going to get past the final set of blades. Once you reach the end of the last ledge you're safe. Jump to the platform with the pedestal.

Approach the pedestal from the back to avoid the 3 blades that shoot out from the font and sides when you take the GOLDEN VRAEUS. Drop down from the ledge and make your way back to the other side of the room. Be sure to avoid the square depressions, as some of these contain concealed blades. There's a small opening below where you entered. Go through to a ladder, climb up, then return through the crawlspace to the ledge with the wheel. Go back the way you came, through the first crawlspace, to the MAP ROOM. Use the GOLDEN VRAEUS in the triangular receptacle.

Cut scene: The mechanism on the ceiling activates, tracing a path over the map with a beam of golden light. When the beam alights on one of the pyramids, it opens revealing the GUARDIAN KEY.

Take the key and use it in the other golden receptacle to open the nearby trapdoor. Drop in and slide down the long ramp to the hall below.

GUARDIAN HALLWAY: At the end of the hall to the left is a barred door. For now, go to the right, toward the corner. As you pass the two smaller barred doors, you can hear something banging on the other side. (EEK!) Continue to the raised area of floor and pick up a small med-pack. Jump to grab the handholds on the ceiling and traverse back the way you came. Just beyond the ramp where you came in, 2 bats will attack. Drop to the floor to kill them. Go back to the corner and start traversing again.

Just before the end of the hall, you'll come to a small opening high on the left wall. Traverse so Lara is right up against the wall, drop and grab the edge of the opening. Crawl through a fairly long passage to find secret #1 (38/70), a room with shotgun shells and explosive arrows on top of the chests.

There are also 4 flame niches. Reach into the niche on the west wall (the only one that oscillates on and off) to get a box of wideshot shells. Wait for the flame to die down and reach in a second time to operate a mechanism that causes the flame in the opposite niche to begin oscillating. Reach into that niche for some Uzi clips, then again a second time to make the flame in the niche to the right (near the ladder) begin oscillating. Go to that niche and get a large med-pack. When you do this, the flame in the remaining niche goes out. Don't reach into it, though. There are no goodies inside, only a mechanism that releases a swarm of beetles. Climb the ladder and follow the crawlspace back to the GUARDIAN HALLWAY.

Follow the hallway past the bend toward the lever at the end of the hall. You don't need to pull the pull the lever. Instead, stand in either corner near the big barred door and wait a moment for the GUARDIAN to burst through. (NOTE: This is what happened in my game. If you find it doesn't go that way, pull the lever and let the guardian out.)

This big bull is armored like a tank, so he can't be killed, and he packs a quite a punch when he gores Lara with his horns. Basically you need to outrun him while doing the business at hand. If you can get him to charge into a wall, you'll gain valuable time while he backs up and turns around. To complicate matters, a small flock of bats (3 or 4) begins to gather around as you're running. You can try shooting them as you go or wait until you get to a safe spot.

Run through the doors where the bull came out (next to the lever) and follow the passageway around several bends to the end. Here you'll find a room with a small, rectangular niche, two unlit torches mounted on the walls and a closed door. There's also a small med-pack in the middle of the floor. Reach into the niche to grab a wooden TORCH. Run back down the hallway to the bend near the open doors and lever. Here you'll find a lit torch mounted on the wall with a step below it. Climb up and light your torch. Run back to the room with the two unlit torches and use your torch to light them. This opens the closed door near the torch on the right. Run through and drop down into the passageway below. Whew! Safe for the moment. . . and you've found secret #2 (39/70).

Kill any bats that follow you down. Then continue along the passageway, which leads to a small room with shotgun shells, a large med-pack and a quiver of arrows on pedestals. Approach each pedestal on a diagonal to avoid the blades that slash out when you take the item on top. When you grab the med-pack, a spiked ball drops down from a trapdoor in the ceiling, so avoid this as well. Return along the passageway to the torch room.

Run all the way down the hall, past the torch and lever, past the small barred doors and the hump in the floor, past the ramp where you slid into this area, and past the secret crawlspace, to the barred door at the far end of the hall. Keep an eye out for another bat here. Position Lara in front of the door (but clear of the narrow alcove, so you have room to jump) and wait for the guardian. When he's nearly upon you, jump to the side out of the way. It may take a couple of tries, but he should break the door down for you.

BIG ROOM WITH EYE SYMBOLS: Run through the busted door and into the middle of the room. Note the three eye symbols on the square blocks--two flanking the entrance, one in the middle on the other side of the room. You'll need to play matador again, positioning Lara in front of each symbol so the bull charges and smashes it. Use the Look key so you can see the bull coming and try to jump as late as possible without getting gored. Use med-packs as needed.

You only need to have the bull break two of the symbols to start: the single eye on the west side of the room and the left one of the two flanking the entrance (left when facing them). When these two are broken, a door opens to the right of the single symbol. Run through this door. At the end of the hall make a U-turn and climb the ladder to the upper level. Head to the left (north) around the perimeter of the room to a stairway leading up. Enter the room at the top cautiously, avoiding the spiked ball that drops from the ceiling. Pick up Uzi clips, shotgun shells and a small med-pack from the ledge.

Return downstairs to the upper level of the EYE SYMBOL room. Head around to the opposite (south) side. Climb through the hole in the ceiling above the hump in the floor to discover secret #3 (40/70). On the pedestals are a small med-pack, shotgun shells and a large med-pack. Take your pick because you'll only get one. When you take the first item, the other two pedestals will ignite. Be careful on the way out. Two spiked balls drop from the gray trapdoors in the ceiling. If the second ball drops near the doorway (I think that taking the shotgun shells causes this), you'll need to crawl out beneath it.

If you haven't already made the bull break the third eye symbol, you can do this fairly easily from above. Go around to the southeast corner of the balcony, where it overlooks the rectangular pillar with the eye symbol. Jump to the top of the pillar. Dangle Lara from the edge of pillar above the symbol. It may take a little while, but the bull should eventually run into the symbol and break it. (I found that traversing around the edge of the pillar to whichever side the bull was on helped get his attention.) When the symbol breaks, a door opens on the west side of the room just opposite this pillar. Drop down, roll and run through that door. Run to the end of this hallway and climb the ladder to end the level.

FMV sequence: Lara emerges to find the ex-guide guarding the exit from the tomb. She draws her guns.

"Hands on your head," she demands. "Take me to Von Croy." Their attention is drawn to a helicopter taking off. "Where's he headed?" Lara asks.

"You waste your time," the guide replies.

"This attitude problem! You people need to learn some manners. Tell me now, or you've just run out of time."

With both Lara's pistols pointed at his head, the guide relents. "Alexandria," he manages to murmur just before Lara whacks him hard with the butt of her pistol.

She takes the guide's robes and, in this disguise, makes her way aboard the waiting train. Meanwhile, back inside the tomb, the naked guide encounters the evil god. His screams fade into the whistle of the locomotive. Lara climbs into a boxcar and whips off the red robe.

"Your work force," she announces to the empty car, "is about to be delayed."

(BUG NOTES: Some PC users have experienced a game crash between the GUARDIAN OF SEMERKHET and DESERT RAILROAD levels. Also, some players have experienced a bug in this level in which one of Lara's arms won't work.)