TEMPLE OF MERENPTAH

 

Level by Duffgamer

 

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth

 

Despite what you may read in the reviews, don't build this level with the revised wads.  I tried that and got some weird and undesirable results.  Using the original files that came with the Level Editor I experienced an unusual animation while monkeyswinging as documented below, but that was the only difference I noted.  You also play the entire level without any flares. 

 

Begin in a large room with an indoor pool.  Run forward, jump into the pool and swim to the bottom for the GRENADE GUN, noting the closed gate on your way down.  Swim back up, pull out and note the closed doors in the N and S walls.  Run to the E side of the room and note the suspended boulder over the crawl space.  There's a nearby torch and an unlit brazier, so your obvious task is somehow to ignite the brazier so you can light the torch and burn the rope and cause the boulder to fall.  As noted in the reviews, you could now run/jump across a corner of the sloped block and trigger the boulder, allowing immediate access to the crawl space, but if you did that you'd bypass almost all the gameplay provided in this level.

 

Instead, go to the E side of the NE pillar and jump up in the darkness to grab the ladder.  Climb up six rungs and back flip into the higher passage.  Turn around, run to the other end of the passage and pick up the CROWBAR.  Jump back to the ladder and climb down to the floor.  Go toward the W end of the room and open the S door with the crowbar.  Go to the end of the hall and turn left to head down the stairs.  Greet the skeleton with a grenade, then locate the ladder about halfway down the stairs.  Climb up, shift right and drop down onto the ledge for SECRET #1.  Pick up the SHOTGUN and shotgun ammo, and get back down to the stairs.

 

Continue down the stairs and follow the passage until you trigger a flyby that takes you through the next room.  Safety drop to the floor and jump into the pool for some shotgun ammo.  You'll alert two crocodiles in so doing, so pull out of the water and kill them with your pistols.  Jump back in and swim into the N opening.  Pause for the crossbow arrows, but don't continue for now, as all you would find at the other end of the passage is a closed gate.

 

Pull out of the water and climb up onto the block against the S wall.  Jump up W to grab the ledge and pull up.  The wall here is climbable, so climb up, shift right and drop down onto the higher ledge.  Take a running jump and grab W to the next ledge, and continue in a clockwise direction until you reach a block in the N wall.  Jump up to grab the ceiling, and monkey swing S and then E (note the highly unorthodox animation) until Lara drops onto a ledge near an opening in the E wall.  Go there, shoot the wooden barrier and enter a room where you'll find a large medipack, a spare SHOTGUN and the GATE KEY (a flyby reveals that the gate you saw earlier in the first pool is now open).

 

Leave this area and return to the tall room.  From the end of the ledge, take a running jump and grab to the SW ledge, then jump down to the next lower ledge W.  From here take a running jump and grab W to the next ledge.  Safety drop to the block below, jump into the pull and swim through the N opening.  At the end you'll find that the gate that was closed earlier is now open, so swim into the first pool, surface and pull out W.  Two skeletons awaken, so draw that grenade gun and blast them away with a single shot when they approach together.  Open the N door with the Gate Key and enter an outdoor area.  Kill two wild boars and continue through an arched passage S to an alley.  Go E and under a double archway to a lakeside area.  Shoot two crocodiles, then jump into the lake and swim forward a bit to arouse a third crocodile.  Go back to the shore so you can kill it, then resume your swim.

 

Swim to the left side of the house.  Just past the house, turn right and swim into a small opening.  Pull and locate the REVOLVER.  Get back into the water.  The current keeps you from swimming any farther E, but you can pull up on the N bank and follow a passage hewn in the rock.  Run down the ramp and get ready to hit the sprint key when an overhead boulder is triggered and released.  Turn right at the bottom of the ramp, where you'll be safe, and enter a new area.  Go down the stairs, and when you reach the last step crawl under the darts.  In the next room is an apparent spike gauntlet which turns out to be a burner gauntlet.  Jump up to grab the ceiling, and monkey swing past the flames (again with that grotesque animation). 

 

In the next room, what appear to be spike tiles aren't, but some of them erupt into flames as you enter.  Go to the dormant tile NE and jump up to grab the edge of the slope after saving your game.  Everything up to now has been routine and mundane.  This next sequence is neither, and it would have been a gamestopper for me had it not been for the following tip provided by Scottie.  Pull up, slide down the other side, jump off to the second slope in the corner, slide a short distance and jump to the third slope with a very slight curve to the right so that (1) you will be in position to jump off facing forward and (2) you land precisely on the edge of the slope.  Without sliding at all, jump off the edge of the third slope and you just may, after numerous efforts, grab the edge of the facing pillar.   Pull up and save your game again so you won't have to repeat this ordeal.  Jump to the adjacent pillar for a small medipack, then jump back and pull up through the hole in the ceiling.

 

In the room above, climb up onto the block against the E wall and pick up the UZIS.  Doing so lights that brazier in the room where you started this level.  Drop back down through the hole, safety drop to the room below, use the monkey bars to get past the row of flame tiles, and remember the darts as you make your way through the next room.  Squeeze your way past the boulder and run up the ramp into the bright sunny outdoors.  Jump into the water and swim to your right to the sandy beach.  Wade out and run forward underneath the archway.  Follow the streets back to the passage where you first entered the outdoor area.  Turn left in the opening room, pick up the TORCH and light it from the nearby brazier.  Stand under the rope and it will catch fire to release the boulder.

 

You have no further need of the torch, so toss it somewhere, climb up onto the block and lower Lara down the other side of the crawl space.  Follow the passage to a gap.  There's a large medipack down there, but jumping down to get it will trigger a flame tile.  Instead, jump over the gap and climb up into a crawl space.  Follow past an opening to your right (which leads to a room riddled with spike traps that apparently is not intended to be explored) until you can stand up in a small room.  Pick up the GATE KEY and hop into the water hole at the corner.  Follow until you can pull out into an area on the inside of the closed gates you saw earlier.  Use the Gate Key in the single gate to open it.  Go inside and you'll run into the finish trigger.