For those of you that have read my previous TR guides, you'll find a lot of information is repeated in here. Please bear with us, as we have to treat everyone as if they're playing TR for the first time and it's quite hard to write this sort of thing from scratch.
A quick note though, I will NOT provide cheats here, as that goes against the purpose of the guide in the first place. I have cheats on my webpage, but you'll have to try and find 'em, I'm not gonna link to such an unworthy cause. For PC users, you may want to run the game in a window if you're going to multitask between this and TR, because the game can reactly badly to switching. Anyway, read on!
Note on fonts:
Normal text is nothing special.
Bold text will announce which button to push.
Text in italics will either be instructions on where to go next or used for stressing a point.
| Movement | Arrow Keys | Walk | Shift |
| Action | Ctrl | Sidestep | Shift (and a direction) |
| Jump | Alt | Sprint/Zoom out | ? |
| Draw Weapon | Space | Roll | End |
| Look | Delete | Inventory | Esc |
| Sidestep Left | Keypad 0 (Ins) | Sidestep Right | Page Down |
| Draw/Throw Flare | < | Crouch/Zoom in | > |
| Pause | P | ||
| Movement | Directional Buttons | Walk | R1 |
| Action | X | Sidestep (also Walk) | R1 (and left/right) |
| Jump | Square | Sprint/Zoom out | R2 |
| Draw Weapon/Return to normal view whilst zoomed | Triangle | Roll | Circle |
| Look | L1 | Inventory | Select |
| Draw/Throw Flare | Select + R1 | Crouch/Zoom in | L2 |
| Pause | Start | ||
Sorry any Dreamcast users, but I can't find your button references. If there are any DC users out there, can ya giz a shout at entombednerds@yahoo.co.uk? Cheers!
The best new inclusion was Bump Mapping. This uses a technique utilised by relatively new (during its time) accelerators where a texture can be raised above its surface and made to look "bumpy". This gives a far more realistic look to objects and makes everything look richer. As far as the TR series goes, this was the prettiest instalment, environment wise.
Volumetric effects was a biggy, so much so that Core rather over utilise the feature to almost comical proportions. What it does is make things like smoke and mist, which are translucent, and puts a body of mist/smoke in one particular volume of area. This basically means that you can run around on cold misty gound or jump a chasm that you can't see the bottom of, simply because it's too clouded.
Single skin technology was a good idea too. In previous instalments, there was a gap between the top of Lara's arm and her shoulder, or her thigh and bum etc. Now Core have implemented a singular skin into the engine, where there's always a perfect seam between her thigh and bum etc, perfect for those spotty fourteen year old boys called Norman! I have noticed it go glitchy before and still seen a gap between her arm and shoulder, but it generally works fine.
I'd call the look a radical change from previous games, but as my brother said, "it looks a bit..... cartoony". Well, I'd probably agree with him, but things certainly do look much nicer and I suspect that Core were trying to revisit the feel of TR1's look judging by all of the desert textures in it!
Note that all this prettiness is for PC and Mac only and not for you Playstation owning peasants! The Dreamcast has some of these features too, but not all of them. One of the most obvious exclusions is volumetric effects. How boring! :-( One late, last minute inclusion that I forgot before is that there's this really cool dripping effect when Lara climbs out of water, that ends after a few minutes. ;-)
This creates a very interesting loading situation, instead of loading up one really big level, it creates a large area made up of small levels, which are linked to each other. Each level has something that is used in other sections, so you'll have to jump between them a lot.
In order to change between levels, you usually have to run through a hallway or a similar narrow section and you'll be there after it has loaded. As you do this a lot, you'll start to get annoyed by the loading screens but thankfully, they don't take too long!
Now I have to say that this is my favourite of the TR games, as it makes a return to the appeal of TR1, with actual TOMB RAIDING and has a similar adventure feel, but pulls it off with much greater style. It does cause some major confusion though, as the areas are seriously huge, you'll find yourself spending several days on one area. Value for money or what!?
Quibbles aside, the new inventory allows for the player to combine weapons with certain types of ammo or even attach items to them (like a sniper's scope). The coolest thing in the inventory that has been sorely lackng since the original, is the compass. It's great for navigating through underwater sections and I wish that it were in all of the other episodes too.
The new methods involved add a nifty feature to auto targeting, the old system, and manual targeting too. The new feature added to both is the ability to switch targets with the Look button, meaning that you can selectively alternate between targets, allowing you to concentrate ammo expenditure evenly etc.
The manual targeting feature is very interesting indeed, Lara won't aim at something until you hit the Look button, therefore if you need to shoot at something in the room but avoid shooting at the other, you can avoid any accidents. Very cool!
Normal Ammo can be used at decent distances but doesn't do as much damage as Wideshot at close range. Wideshot can't be used at long distance but is devastating at close range, with the pellets spreading outwards, making anything up close mincemeat!
The scorpions are the best things though, because when they bite you, Lara gets drugged and the screen starts shaking, it's pretty cool and stomach churning!
This introduced a very good idea, where you could have the traditional method of targeting used in previous episodes, or you can use the new manual targeting system. The old method was easy to use, but got on your proverbial chest muscles because she'd quite often be aiming at something that you don't want to aim at, then you hit Action and......
The new methods involved add a nifty feature to auto targeting, the old system, and manual targeting too. The new feature added to both is the ability to switch targets with the Look button, meaning that you can selectively alternate between targets, allowing you to concentrate ammo expenditure evenly etc.
The manual targeting feature is very interesting indeed, Lara won't aim at something until you hit the Look button, therefore if you need to shoot at something in the room but avoid shooting at the other, you can avoid any accidents. Very cool!
Okay, Lara will be standing there doing nothing much at all, so while you're not doing anything, I might as well get the extreme basics out of the way. Note that Werner Von Croy will be going on about the place with no particularly useful info, just ignore him for the first bit here because I'll be wanting to take you through the extreme basics.
You'll notice that there's a needle that swings around with a red tip (sorry for sounding so patronising to anyone who knows how to use one by the way!). When the tip is facing up, you're facing north, if it's facing right, then you're facing east etc.
If you're facing a different direction to my instructions, exit out of the inventory (hit the Inventory button again) and turn Lara around and see if you're facing the right direction yet. If not, keep turning around and checking until it's correct.
Follow Werner until he starts to touch something on a wall, which happens to be a switch for setting off a spiketrap around the corner. If you rush on ahead of him and go around the corner, then you'll be skewered on the area of floor with small holes in it. So yeah, wait for him.
Sorry for moving on too quickly there and having to come back later, it's just that it's important that you follow Werner. Now follow him around the corner and stick by him, because there will be some wild boars that he needs to kill. When they're killed, Werner will move on, follow him and he'll take you to a waterfall section. The next section will require a standing jump and a mid-air grab, once werner's finished talking (I'll also continue with my walking tutorial).
In order to achieve a mid-air grab, first jump forwards, now let go of Jump
and hold Action.
You'll want to let go of Jump and hold Action about 1/4 to 1/2 of a second through
the jump, so be quick about it.
Lara will now be holding onto the ledge for as long as you hold Action.
In order to climb up, tap Forwards and Lara will get on top of the platform.
If you wanted to drop off, just let go of Action. Right, onto the next then!
Anyway, you probably want to actually do one, right? Tap Backwards once, now hold Forwards and a small amount of time after (about 1/4 to 1/2 a second), hit Jump. Now trust me on this, Lara will not jump until she's at the very edge! Now grab onto the ledge just like last time. If all went well, Lara should be standing on the platform that you were previously aiming at. If not, read the sodding instructions more closely!
Now follow werner around the left corner and he'll tell you about subtle cracks within the walls. These can be grabbed onto and used to climb on. In order to get there, run up to the next available platform and climb up and on.
This is a late entry here, so please excuse it if it looks a little odd, paragraph wise! To climb onto the available platform, simply hold Forwards and then Action.
Now run up against the wall and face it squarely. Hit the Action button and Forwards to grab onto the crack. Now keep holding onto Action and then hold the Right button (not always obviously, you'll also want to go left sometimes!). Lara will start shimmying sideways, keep going until the area above her head turns from an obstruction created by the wall to a big gap that's large enough for Lara to climb into. Keep holding Action and then hit Forwards. Lara will now climb in and you'll have mastered shimmying.
Now start running through the tunnel that you've just entered, following Werner. There'll be a strange camera angle soon, but don't let it throw you off, just keep running forwards until you get stopped by the next instructional cutscene from Werner.
Now face away from the new room, facing the corridor that you were just in. Now tap backwards and immediately press and hold the Action button. Provided that you were within a running step's distance, Lara should be facing against the wall, grabbing onto the platform. If it didn't work and you're still standing, just repeat the steps and you'll be there. If you missed grabbing the platform, just do it quicker next time.
Now turn around and follow Werner around the turn, he'll say something about artefacts on the bottom of pools or something, I always skip past that twaddle anyway! Now you'll have to jump into the water and learn how to actually swim.
The actual steering of Lara is handled by the Movement Buttons, which act in almost the same way as basic pilot controls. Forwards will make Lara pitch forwards and down and Backwards does the opposite and makes Lara pull upwards, towards the surface. Left/Right don't make her tilt like in aircraft, but make her turn left/right, like rudder pedals do.
Try swimming to the surface, by holding Jump and facing towards the surface. Once you break the surface of the water, Lara's oxygen meter will start filling back up again. Movement around the surface is quite different and is more akin to walking really. The Movement Buttons will make Lara move around, with Forwards making Lara go forward etc, with Lara turning with Left/Right.
In order to swim sideways, hold either the Step Left or Step Right button. Pressing nothing will simply result in Lara treading the water constantly. In order to go below the surface again, hit the Jump button, Lara will now invert herself and duck back under.
Now swim back to the surface and regain her oxygen. Turn to face the East, we're going to get some secret objects before moving on. Duck below the water and swim to the right side of the big structure-big object-with a waterfall at the top thingy (now shortened to big thingy) and into the gap available. Follow it around the turn and another and you'll come to two medkits, pick them up and swim back out to the main pool area.
Now, Werner did actually give an instruction about a switch being in the area, so face towards the big thingy and swim to the left of it. You'll reach a platform which is low enough to climb onto. Swim against it and then hold the Action button and Lara will then get out of the pool. Face towards the left and you'll see a switch to throw for the next section.
Walk up to the left side of the switch (the the pointy thing at an angle) and align Lara so that she's facing the switch, so that she can push it forwards, not move it sideways with her arms, if you get my drift, just don't face it from the direction you just came from.
Now make sure that she's properly aligned and then hit the Action button. The bridge will lower behind you and Werner will run over the bridge and past you. If it didn't work, try moving around a bit, because you're not in the right position. In this case, sidestepping would be very advantageous, on PC, you have the choice of either using the Step Left/Step Right keys, or holding the Walk button and hitting Left/Right. On the Playstation and Dreamcast, you only have the choice of using Walk.
Follow Werner around the corner and you'll end up in a misty hallway, where Werner will trigger a switch in the wall and make a rather large door open. Run through the door and keep following him.
Turn to the left and face the bit of wall that looks different, somewhat like a ladder actually (shock, horror, amaze)! Run up against the ladder and make sure that Lara is facing it fairly squarely. Then press and hold the Action button and Forwards, Lara will jump up and grab onto the highest rung that she can and put her legs on the ladder to help support herself. Pressing Forwards will make Lara go up the ladder and vice-versa, while the Left/Right buttons make her move left/right. Letting go of Action will make Lara release the ladder and hitting Jump will make her flip off of it, backwards.
Anyhow, climb up the ladder and Lara will make her own way onto the top of the platform. Now walk over to whichever side of the switch needs grabbing and throw it. Once the switch has been thrown, a bridge will come down for Werner to walk over. Now You have to make your way back down.
Do a saftey drop down so that you can grab onto the ladder, then hold down to climb down it. If you missed the ladder the first time, simply shimmy sideways until Lara is align with it and the she'll grab on.
Now face to the west and go through the alley to the left. Follow it all the way through until you reach Werner, where he'll tell you how to do a monkey swing.
Hit the Jump button and then almost immediately press and hold the Action button. Lara will grab onto the bars and hold onto them like everything else that she grabs onto. In this case, Lara's basic movement works like walking in this case, where Left/Right make Lara turn and Forwards makes her move along the bars, although Backwards has no effect here.
Keep moving along the bars until you arrive over the available platform, just past the next wall's edge. Just let go of Action when you want to let go of the bars.
Now follow Werner through the next corridor and turn left in the dark area and runs towards the light. Now stay close to him, as he'll take you through to where you need to go, but he'll have to kill some wild boars first. These boars may hurt you mildly, they will charge at you. You'll want to lure them in the direction of Werner, because he'll kill them with his knife.Now would be a good time to to practise avoiding enemies by jumping out of the way of these boars, try jumping sidewats and backwards for the best result. Once the boars are killed, you and Werner can move on. Head around the building to the right and run into the building with the gong looking thing hanging down in the entrance and go to the right hand side of the room.
Now stick to the outside edges of the room (because there are some spike traps around the place) and exit the room. Werner will be waiting for you.
Crawl through the tunnel and take the fisrt left in the darkness and you can enter a separate little section. In here is a gold skull, crawl on top of it and hit the Action button so that Lara will pick it up like before and as usual, make sure that she's properly aligned with it, so try moving forwards or backwards if you can't get it immediately.
Now turn Lara around, so that she's facing the direction that you came from and crawl back into the passage way and into the darkness. Now a cutscene will play (that I couldn't exit out of) and Lara will pick up the famous backpack that she's always had. When the cutscene's over, turn around and go to the switch and throw it like before, it will make a big round obsturuction move into the room which wil allow you and Werner to walk through the entrance it was obstructing.Crawl back into the hole where you came from and head towards the daylight. Werner will now mention Lara's backpack, when that's over move over to the door and Werner will talk about sprinting, which is the thing we'll cover in the next paragraph.
Now Werner will start sprinting off, follow him and keep sprinting. You'll come into a room full of
dart traps (which are poisonous, so keep moving) and a door that's slowly closing at the other end of the room.
This is the really important part, so keep sprinting onwards and just before you hit the door at the other end,
hit the Jump button and Lara will do a really cool diving roll thingy under the door and through.
If this didn't work for you, your timing is a little bit off, just crawl under the door instead.
Now follow Werner around to the left and up the small slope and keep following him upto the doorway. A cutscene will play, where Werner will talk about two paths to be taken. I must explain this part, there's two possible ways of going through here, one for elite players that have collected all the goldskulls and one for the normal people who haven't. You won't have them all because it would interrupt the learning process if I showed you where they all are, so try doing the level again later if you want to see the elite path instead.Werner will now throw a switch in order to open a door for you to run through, follow him through it and if you lose him, simply run forwards and then turn right and you'll meet Werner in a large and misty room. In here is a Tarzan Rope above for you to swing on to make it to the next switch.
Now keep turning left while you're in this area until you come back out into the big room. Turn right and run around the horseshoe and onto the small bit of platform that juts out on the end of this horshoe platform.
Now do a running jump and mid-air grab onto the rope, Lara will either grab on or miss and fall into the water below (just repeat the previous steps if that happens). Once she's grabbed on, you can experiment with the controls. Left/Right will make her turn on the rope, Up/Down will make her move along the rope and letting go of Action will, like always, make her let go.
Now we have to actually get across this section and throw a switch on the other side, so we'd better go there. Hit the Sprint key to get Lara to swing on the rope and hit the Jump button to jump forwards, off of the rope and onto the available platform. Note that this can be very hard to get the trick of, as it all relies o inertia, I'd recommend swinging when Lara's on the backwards half of her swing and starting to move forwards for the maximum effect. You may have to take a few swings before you can jump off, but remember to jump off once you're actually overlapping the oposite platform.
Now run off to the right and throw the switch available. This will open a really big door that Werner's waiting near and the two of you can run through. Run back to the edge of where you just landed before though, because I'm going to teach you a cool move before we move on.
Anyway, get out of the pool and meet Werner near the door. He won't guide you as normal here, so just run into the dark passage way and keep going. In a few seconds, you'll have passed the training mission, huzzah!
A quick note, save game if you haven't already done so. Hit F5 if you're on the PC or you can go into your inventory choose "Save" from there.
Righto, time to start then!
Run through the first door ahead of you and turn right up the passage, turn left once you reach a well lit section near window looking thing (great English there!) and keep moving onwards.
You'll come to a section that ivolves tricky holes which you'll have to jump over now. Do a standing or running jump over the first hole (either is okay) and climb onto the next platform. Walk to the next edge and do a running jump and continue forwards and onto the section below you.The camera will now shist to a shot of Werner running around below you. He's going to walk through a door which you'll be able to reach if you're quick, so run on into his section. If you missed him, simply look to the top left of the doorway facing west and you'll see a crawl space. Just go through that if you didn't make it.
If you look to your right (north), you'll see Werner (if you were quick enough) crawling into an area with light streaming into it, you should climb into it too. Run through the pasage way but stop once you reach daylight, or otherwise you'll fall into an annoying pit. Run around the pit until you reach the opposite side.
Go through the available doorway and follow the passage way, turn right at the end of it and you'll see a big black area, which is of course, a big hole. ;-) Above you will be some vines which'll act as monkey bars. You can jump up to them once you're on the sloped bit of land. As you can guess, jump up, grab it and climb over to the other side.
Ru on and you'll now be in a room full of climbable blocks, run around to the left of the block immediately in your path and climb up the side of it. Climb up onto the next one on your left and then face right. Grab onto this next platform (you may have to jump straight upwards and grab onto this one) and follow this platform along to the gap at the end.
Jump the gap to the next part. You'll see a bunch of platforms to run along, but I always just jump straight over them, directly to the arch with the foliage hanging down from it. Now run across the bridge and turn right at the end of it. Notice that Werner's being a right git and is running against the door, waiting for you to open it.
In order to open this door, you'll have to throw a switch. Face right and you'll see a hole in the wall. Make sure that Lara's properly aligned and hit the Action button and Lara will throw it like any other switch. The doors shall now open and Werner will take off without you, the jammy git!
Go through the door you just opened and run into the dark passage. There's two available paths here and it doesn't matter which you take, just turn left or right and head towards the nearest available light. Run into the next little passage way and you'll have finished the stage! Enjoy the cutscene, despite the fact that you can't skip through the effing thing!
If it doesn't work the first time, try moving Lara into the centre of it. If you find that Lara keeps climbing onto the block, it's because you're hitting Forwards before Action. Make sure that you HOLD Action for a second before hitting Forwards. If this still doesn't work, then it's not moveable! Look for another block.
To do an "On the Spot", simply hit the Roll button! Note what Lara does and then try a "Running". To do a "Running", run forwards and while still running forwards, tap Backwards and Lara will roll again. Got it? Good. :)
I don't want to give anything away, but I'd suggest trying this after jumping off of a ladder. You've been told, use it!
Press Draw Flare once to pull out a flare and light it; press again to throw it in the direction Lara's facing. Lara can climb or swim while holding a flare, but she'll drop it when it goes out or she draws weapons. (In TR4, pressing the Space Bar/Triangle makes Lara drop a flare without drawing weapons.
Note that flares can also be drawn out one at a time by using the inventory.
Firstly, there are three parts to the inventory; the ITEMS, the INVENTORY and the GAME options. While in game, enter the inventory by hitting the Inventory button (shock, horror, amaze!). The first menu that you'll be provided with is the INVENTORY menu. Everything'll be in a circle which can be rotated with Left or Right.To use an item, hit Action or Enter on it. This can be used for drawing weapons, using Medi Packs, everything. Hit the Inventory button again if you wish to exit the screen.
If you hit Down, you'll be presented with the GAME screen which can be used for things like loading/saving games, changing controls, adjusting the sound volume, etc, etc, etc. Basically everything utilitarian that doesn't actually have anything to do with the game itself, but effects everything in it and how it works.
If you hit Up, you'll get the ITEMS menu (although you'll need to hit it twice if you're in the GAME menu). This contains every trinket or key that you've picked up. Every time that you hit Action on a key hole, the ITEMS menu will come up and you can choose which key you want to use.
The use of the compass is fairly easy, with north being at the top and if you're facing tht way, the red tip of the needle should be facing in that direction. You'll have to exit the inventory and turn Lara around before you can change your direction though.
As far as enemies go, I'd recommend wideshot on large things, like giant scorpions and bosses etc, as it will be far more efficient than small enemies (don't shoot small scorpions or bats with this!). Normal ammo should be used on medium/small to medium enemies, as this way you won't be wasting pellets.
This is basically just a rule of thumb however, the amount of ammo that's distributed between the two types justifies the use of both more often. Therefore some advanced usage has to come into play. If you want to use Wideshot ammo on medium size targets, like humans, I'd recommend running towrds them and firing whilst within one or two feet of them, it'll be devastating to them! If you're wanting to use Normal ammo however, I'd use its advantages to the max, by using it for medium range attack. Try jumping around your enemy from within a few metres or so and let the shots keep going. The use of Normal ammo at close range isn't especially efficient, so this will give you a good opportunity to avoid the fire of the current enemy and do some fairly decent damage as well if you can keep your distance a little.
In this section and the crossbow section, I'll write about the advantages/disadvantages between these two weapons. To cut a long story short, this gun is a "fire the gun, the bullet then immediately hits the destination" weapon. This makes it a weapon for targets that are constantly moving, as you don't have to account for a time delay. As far as setting off switches by firing at certain targets goes, I'd use either the revolver or the crossbow, it just depends on which of the two has more ammo at the time.
If you're going to use this, it's generally a good idea to charge your enemy and fire at them, aimed at dead centre. Otherwise, it'll miss and just veer off to the side, so you certainly want to hit it on the first time! A good place for them is when a bunch of enemies are grouped together in a small, enclosed space, beneath you. This way you can just fire and forget, let the damage fly!
Once you've picked it up in the game, choose either the revolver or the crossbow and go to the "Combine" part. You'll then have a choice of combining ot with something, choose the laser sight, obviously. Now, equip your weapon and then hold down the Look button. Now if you want to zoom in or out, hit either the Zoom in/Zoom out button! ;P
Alt and -: Reduce Resolution
Alt and +: Increase Resolution
Alt and Enter: Switch between Windowed and Full Screen mode.
F5: Save Game
F6: Load Game
F7: Perspective Correction Toggle (quicker gameplay but looks odd)
F12: Toggle Between Fullscreen and Windowed Mode
Note that if you have the update patch installed, you can't use your old savegame files, so install the patch before starting the game, or otherwise your time will be put to waste. For those of you that like to seriously play with the controls (usually "h4rd k0r3, |)3/\/\0ni(, Quake playas" that were the first to try mouse play), the update patch will aslo allow you to change the basic movement keys as well, these being forwards, back etc.
The Tomb Raider series wasn't designed to run on laptops, as it's designed to use the numberpad 0 key, which isn't available on laptops. So if you're using a laptop, take the time to change the key to something availalbe on your laptop's keyboard. Please consult your manual for how to change the keys.
Ahhh, the end of another, four down, two to go! This one was really hard to write, honestly. In order to do this one, I had to do an overhaul with the previous format due to the entire game being overhauled. This makes my previous info mostly useless in this instalment, so this one took a few weeks to write in the end. This was also more of a walkthrough too, which is a different writing style to what I'm used to! Never mind, the next guide (TR Chronicles) should be a fair bit easier to write than this one.
After Chronicles comes the fun stuff, we'll give you all the tips that we can think of, being advanced players and all. Why shouldn't you share in our knowledge of in-game tricks, and bugs and flaws that can be taken advantage of? No reason at all I say, so I hope you lot like it (it may come in sections though as we'll keep wanting to add bits of info over time)!
If I've forgotten something or if there's something that you're stuck on or you don't understand, email me at
entombednerds@yahoo.co.uk.