Greece Artefact – 20x20x20 challenge

Level by The Tiger

Walkthrough by dmdibl (David Dibble)

This level is no more than 20 blocks wide, 20 blocks long, and 20 blocks tall. There are new moves when Lara is hanging from a crack or ledge: Jump (Alt) to leap higher; Down Key to leap back/twist.

Slide down, and pause to watch a flyby of an attractive area. Turn around and spot a great white shark cruising in the water. Sharks are beneficial, a natural part of the environment. Shoot it. Go south to the last pillar (you may notice that Lara tends to do a forward handspring at odd moments).

Dive into the water and swim west, to the right of that pillar, forward into a triangular hole in the wall, keeping left inside to avoid spikes. Swim left, down, and to right to pick up a small medipack. Continue swimming west through twisty passages, and use an underwater lever at the end. See a camera shot of a trapdoor rising. Swim back out, surface, pull out of water.

Stand by the second pillar at this end, facing north, and jump up to grab that trapdoor, pull up. Jump right (NW) for a large medipack. Jump back to trapdoor, then left (SW) to throw a wall lever in the left corner. A trapdoor goes up in the water at the north end. (In my game, the wall lever returns to its original position as if it were timed, but the trapdoor at the north stays up.)

Go north at water's edge, jump to the raised trapdoor, jump N to a wall crack, and shimmy right around the corner almost to end. With Lara hanging, press Down Arrow (keep Ctrl pressed), she will twist and leap back to the rocks behind, and grab the crack there. Shimmy right around the corner. Again press Down Arrow, Lara twists and leaps back to the top of a ladder. Pull up, go straight forward to jump up to a wall crack.

Shimmy right one block, and press Alt. Lara will jump upward to a higher sloped ledge. Hang and shimmy all the way left, then press Down Arrow, and when Lara twists and leaps back use a hard right curve (without grab) to guide her onto a high grate. (This is much easier than having Lara pull up on the slope, and do a conventional back flip/twist, hard right curve, and grab.)

Standing on the grate, turn left (W) and make a running jump/grab to a crawlspace behind vines. Crawl through and continue right (N) to the end. Back off the ledge, hang, drop and grab a crack below. Shimmy to the right, and see a pair of patterned tiles below, although Lara can't reach them yet. Shimmy to the right end, press Down Arrow, Lara twists and leaps to grab a crack on the opposite side. Shimmy left, drop to grab a lower crack, shimmy right, press Down Arrow, and Lara leaps back (use Ctrl or she will hit her head) to land on a patterned tile.

Use a wall lever here, and see a gate open at the top of a ladder. Now to get out is simplicity itself, reverse what Lara just did, but press Alt to jump upward. That is, running jump/grab across, shimmy left, Alt upward, shimmy all the way right, Down Arrow to twist/leap/grab across, shimmy left up the slope, Alt up. Here Lara can pull into a crawlspace, and crawl up and left to get back out.

You might think that Lara could hang from the crawlspace over water, and use Down Arrow to get back to that high grate—it doesn't work. Instead when Lara falls into the water she will have to climb back onto the nearby trapdoor in the water, face north, jump to a wall crack, and repeat the procedure of several paragraphs up to get back up to that same high grate.

On the high grate, Lara wants to jump to the north, but she will have to face more toward the NW, and jump with a hard right curve around the rock in front, and splash down into the water beyond. Turn left (W) and swim to the end. Climb the ladder all the way to the top, then climb down once. Back flip with Ctrl and Alt both pressed, and Lara should hit the back slope and bounce forward to grab a higher ladder. Climb to the top slope, then climb down once, and back flip to a ledge behind (where the gate opened).

Climb up south, and continue through a short sloped passage to a waterhole on the right. You may need a flare here so that Lara can see to swim up a little ways and pick up Side Entrance Key. Get back to the sloped passage, get down to the tiny water channel and swim east, before the end turn right to pull up at a waterfall and drop down into water below. Swim past the nearby trapdoor and pull out on a ledge. Make a U-turn right to find a door and keyhole, use the key to enter.

Jump onto a block ahead north, look around. Here is the deal. Lara wants to get up to a high ledge SW. There are three ways to do this. Worst: The obvious. Make a forward jump to the lowest raising trapdoor, back flip, then turn left—that kills the chances right there. Making that left turn takes too much time. Better: The author's way. Make a back flip to the lowest raising trapdoor, jump forward and keep running in a hard right curve around the corner to jump and reach the third and highest trapdoor. Seems like a lot of effort. Best: Stand Lara in the SW corner of the block, facing back toward the entrance. As the lowest trapdoor raises up, side flip to it. Immediately side flip left, back to the corner on a higher trapdoor. Jump forward right to the highest trapdoor. Keep running right if needed to press against the right wall, jump, grab, pull up.

Use the wall lever in the SW corner. Jump (or sprint off the edge) to the new trapdoor in the NW corner. Turn around to face south, make a running jump into the opened doorway. Use the wall lever at the end, see a gate go up in a pool. Now get out of this passage and room and back outside to where Lara started. Dive into the water, under the ledge, and in the west find the big gate that opened, swim inside.

Careful, those are sharp spears in the pair of vases. Swim right to the NE corner, and pull out of the water. Turn right (S) and jump to the climbing surface. Get on top (straight across, Lara can see an artifact through a window), and take a running jump to the NW corner. Go through a short passage, drop down, turn right. Obviously, Lara needs to jump across to the crack and shimmy left while avoiding the flame emitter. It may help to save the game when the flame starts up, and reload immediately, but I didn't find that as useful as it sometimes is. Just time the flames.

Shimmy left, but don't turn the corner. Press Alt for Lara to jump up. Press Down Arrow for Lara to twist and jump back/ grab. Now shimmy right, timing the first fire emitter. There is a second fire emitter in the corner, and Lara needs to jump from its square. Wait for it to die down, shimmy so Lara is onto that corner square, press Down Arrow to twist and jump back/grab so that Lara doesn't hit her head, and land on the NE corner block.

With Lara's back pressed against the back (E) wall, centered on the block, turn to face sort of SW for that low opening there, and make a standing jump/grab into it, so Lara doesn't hit her head. Go inside, right around the corners, and use the wall lever at the end.

Come back out and drop into the water. Swim right (S) into the room with the two vases full of spears, and go right (W) into the next area through the single gate that opened. Caution. Once through the gate swim left to avoid spikes, and use an underwater lever on the wall. Rotate, swim past the spikes, and surface in an opening in the NW, pull out of the water. Do a standing jump SE, and go to a pedestal to take the Treasure. Things happen, the room transforms.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the water below. Pull up onto the pillar in the NW. Turn east to see the underwater lever in an overhead water channel. Careful, there are currents in the water that will sweep Lara backwards into spikes behind. So take a running jump toward the underwater lever, and start swimming. When Lara reaches the lever, pull it. She can go straight up here for air, if needed. From the underwater lever, drift and swim toward the spikes west, then swim left (S) in the water channel to the SW corner, into an open gate there. Swim down, find an underwater lever to throw. The adjacent gate opens, go a little forward to use the next underwater lever for the last gate to open.

Save the game.

What generally happens—and this is a mistake—is that Lara swims forward, the water vanishes, and she falls into cold water. If Lara ever falls she is lost, and can never get out. Lara must swim from water column to water column to the end.

Going out (W) from the gate that just opened there are two squares with timed columns of water, and these two are synced together. To the right of the second column there is another, out-of-sync timed water column. To the west of this there is a gap, then a water column against the north wall that is static and therefore safe.

The level author states that Lara should swim out a half second before a water column appears, so that then she gets the full time to swim to the next water column. So Lara has it right if she swims out from the opened gate and starts to fall, and is then buoyed up by an appearing water column. Swim to the next square forward, then right into a water column that should be appearing. There is a static water column to the left, along the north wall, and reaching that is good. However, the level author prefers to have Lara continue with a hard right, making a U-turn to head back to the side of the entrance gate. Lara swims and falls out of the water, but grabs a wall ladder ahead. She climbs into an alcove next to the entrance gate (keyhole here will be used soon).

From here the level author feels that the rest is easy. Standing in the alcove, Lara can see the alternating water columns, and see what is required. Ahead, along the right wall of the hallway, there is an alternating water column, then next a static water column. Once Lara reaches that it is easy to reach a farther static wall of water where the hallway turns; there she swims right, and continues north in the center of the channel.

Lara swims north through timed spikes. After the spikes there is a final oscillating water column to get through. Swim through the last timed water column and into an alcove. Now Lara is safe. The water alternates here, but Lara can swim against the N wall, and easily throw a wall lever once there is air. Then swim down to left or right of the wall lever, so that when the water turns to air Lara drops out onto ice.

Run back south on the ice to the turn in the hallway, and on the right find a low crawlspace with Poseidon's Key. Crawl in and get it, and get out. Go back east toward the original entrance, climb the ladder, and use the key in the keyhole. The gate opens at the north end, so drop down and run back there.

Go up the passage, pull up several times, then pull up and crawl through to a puddle of water. Go right (E), slide down, and the level ends.

11 December 2011