NUCLEAR THREAT
Level by Luca Torchetti
Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth
Lara begins in an alley separated from what looks like a track area by a fence
and an iron gate. You can't jump over the fence, so follow the alley around to
the left. Nothing to do beyond the barriers, so run up the ramp to a large
balcony. There are three crowbar doors in the west wall, but nary a crowbar in
sight. It appears at first that there's nowhere to go and nothing to do, but
stand at the top of the ramp and look north. There's a hard-to-see jump switch
in the wall, so take a running jump and activate it. The crowbar door on the
far right is now open, so go there and find the motor bike.
However, don't be too quick to ride off in search of further adventure. First,
kick in the SW corner and try not to shriek when the startled rats scurry over
your boots. Enter the next room and look around. Don't bother to call an
ambulance for the soldier; he's quite dead. There are two floor levers. The one
on the right opens a gate down in the lower level. The steaming one on the left
gives you a screen shot of a closed crowbar door somewhere.
Go to the previous room, mount the motor bike and drive it down the ramp. Turn
left at the bottom and drive through the open iron gates into the next area.
Run over the two SAS inside and dismount. Run to the dark NE corner and pull up
into the crawl space. Pick up the large medipack at the
end of the passage (for some, this registers as SECRET
#1) and get back down to the motor bike. Drive it over the floor at
the SW corner, which then shatters. Dismount and throw the floor lever, then
leave the motor bike where it is (you have no choice, really), pull out of the
pit and run back up the ramp to the room where you found the motor bike. The
trap door in the room beyond is now open.
Drop down into the passage (ignore the harmless rats), step over the corpse of
another soldier and pull down the ceiling trap door. Turn around and pull up
into a pink-tinged passage. Yuck, another dead soldier. Run past him and note
the three jump switches on the wall ahead. To your right is a passage with
several side openings.
The function of the jump switches isn't made clear at this point, but go ahead
and activate them all. Then go down the west passage and take the second
opening to your right. In the back north wall is a crawl space. Go inside and
turn to your right. Lower Lara down into the next room and throw the floor
lever. Shoot the barrier blocking the door in the SW corner and kick the door
open. As you enter the passage you trigger a minor earthquake. Try to ignore it
and kick open the next door. Step over the dead soldier and don't mind the
disabled sentry gun to your left. Turn right and pick up the REVOLVER near
the gap in the floor. There's a closed door on the other side of the gap, so
safety drop down through the hole to the shallow water below.
There are two more closed doors down here in the corners of the partially
flooded room, so step up onto the irregular rocks, face north and jump up to
grab the edge. Pull up, step forward to the NE corner and jump up to grab the
next higher edge. Pull up and turn around to note the jump switch in the south
wall. Step away to get a better look at the alcove to the left of the jump
switch, and you'll see that there's an SAS inside
waiting to draw a bead on you. Kill him, then jump across the gap to activate
the jump switch.
When you drop down to the partially flooded room you'll find that the NE door
is now open. Go inside and shoot the SAS
quickly, then pick up the LASER SIGHT he
drops. Don't enter the NE passage unless you were able to kill the SAS before
he activated the alarm system, as otherwise it'll be guarded by a sentry gun.
However, if you were quick on the trigger, step inside for SECRET
#2 and a large medipack. Then go back to the previous room and
pull up through the hole. Turn to face east and note the slanted crawl space in
the wall. Take a standing jump and grab to it, pull inside and lower Lara down
the other side. You'll fall a distance into some water. Swim out into a
maze-like area and turn to your left. Follow the red passage north and turn
right into the green passage. Follow the green passage until you emerge in a
trench out in the open. Pull up to your right and watch the flyby as it takes
you through this underground chamber and ends higher up at a jump switch.
The block you're standing on seems to be breathing, but ignore that and step up
onto the higher portion of the ledge to your right. You'll excite a trio of
bats, so get rid of them before continuing up for the shotgun
ammo. Turn to your right and take a standing jump over the water to a
block in front of the north passage. Enter as torches light spontaneously in
front of you. Turn the corner and note the swinging blue ball. Combine your
laser sight and revolver and shoot it (although it's low enough that you can
use your pistols if you wish). A horde of locusts flies
out of the wall to plague you, but there's not much you can do until they start
to give up and dissipate.
Run up the short ramp to the right to a crawl space, then crawl through to a
block on the other side. Take a standing jump forward and grab the crack. Pull
into the crawl space and stand up in the tunnel beyond. Jump up to grab the
crack and shimmy to your right past the flames as far as you can go. Release
into a dark passage and turn to your right as another earthquake rumbles
through. Walk across the bamboo bridge to the block underneath the jump switch
you saw in the flyby, and activate it. A cut scene shows a door opening down in
a hole somewhere.
Take a running jump over to the east block and pick up the shotgun
ammo. Jump back over to the bamboo bridge and return to the spot where
you dropped down into the passage. Jump back to the crack and shimmy left past
the flames. Drop down, turn to your left and follow the passage until you reach
the spot where you saw the door opening in the cut scene. Pull up into the
north passage and kill the SAS who comes forth to challenge
you. Don't take the left fork at the intersection, as there's a sentry
gun in an alcove around the corner waiting to spray you with flames
at close range.
Instead, take the right fork and you'll soon come to an opening where the
sentry gun's vulnerable back side is revealed. Since the gun is pointing away
from you, neutralize it (no, blow it to smithereens) with your combined
revolver and laser sight. Now it's safe to go back and take the left fork,
which brings you to an opening overlooking a lava room. Turn to your right
inside the opening and take a standing jump to the next ledge east. You have a
choice of taking the east bamboo bridge or the north bamboo bridge. Let's take
the north one first, since there's a closed door blocking your way to the
east.
Turn left at the bend and enter the passage. You'll find a floor lever at the
SW corner. Throw it to open the east door, then return to the bamboo bridge and
the connecting ledge against the south wall. Turn left and follow the bamboo
bridge to the east. There's a gap in front of the passage, so be careful not to
fall into the lava. Jump across to the ledge and turn to your right to face
another bamboo bridge. This one is booby-trapped, however, so run straight
across it quickly as flames ignite to follow you. (It may even be a good idea
to save your game before you start.) The camera angle becomes fixed during your
run, which always makes things more difficult, and you need to take a jump near
the end to avoid a flame that's ignited in front of you.
When you reach the far passage unscathed, turn to your left as another
earthquake jiggles your moveable parts. Go through the short passage into a
sloped lava room. Face NW and take a running jump to the stable ledge against
the west wall, and from there take a standing jump to the much smaller ledge in
the NW corner. From there take a curved running jump across the lava into the
east passage. Follow the irregular passage, crawling as necessary to progress,
until you reach a confined area over the flaming bridge. Step up to the east
wall and turn to face south and very slightly west. Jump to the left bank so
that Lara slides down facing forward, and jump off to grab the crack in the
west wall. Shimmy to the left and around the corner until you can pull
up.
Looks like you've returned to civilization. Jump down into the hole ahead and
crawl into the west duct. Turn left at the bend and lower Lara down the other
side into a room with a burning flame. Through the window you can see the
outside area where you drove the motor bike earlier. The small barrel against
the north wall is empty, so kick open the door in the SE corner and also the
next one ahead. You get a cut scene as you enter the next room, but it appears
to be only the elevator door to your left. However, as you start down the
stairs to the right, the elevator door opens and out pops an SAS.
Reverse roll and kill him quickly, then step into the elevator and activate the
jump switch to open a trap door behind you.
Don't just jump down through the opening, or you'll fall to your death. Go just
outside the elevator, face the south wall, jump back and grab the edge of the
hole, then release and immediately hit the action key to grab the crawl space
in the darkness below. Crawl through and turn to your left. As you near the
opening ahead, raise up to a crouch and draw your revolver to kill the SAS
awaiting you in the next room. Lower Lara into the room below. Don't go down
the north passage, which is guarded by a couple of sentry guns on either side.
Instead, head toward two bays of floor levers in the next room to the
east.
Don't go down the NW passage either, as that one is also guarded by a sentry
gun. You need to go down the adjacent passage, the one presently made
impassable by a row of flames. You turn them off by using the floor levers. The
solution, courtesy of Kristina in the stuck thread, is to push all four of the
first bay of levers (the ones against the south wall). Then, facing south and
counting from your left, push the second and fourth levers in the second bay.
All of the flames in the passage have now been extinguished. On the way down,
blow up the sentry gun and step past it to pick up the small
medipack. There's also a trap door in the alcove where the sentry gun was
stationed. Pull it down and crawl into the passage above for SECRET
#3 and the GRENADE GUN.
Drop back down and go north down either passage and turn left at the end.
You'll pass a control room to your left that's presently inaccessible. Continue
to the west end, where you'll find a closed door to your left and a jump switch
to your right. Activate the jump switch to move a block somewhere. The passage
behind you leads nowhere, so pull back up to the previous room, make a hairpin
turn to the right and jump down into the hole in front of the closed door. This
passage does lead somewhere, so follow it to the end for some grenade
gun ammo. Then go back and locate the overhead trap door in the SE corner.
Pull it down to reveal the control room you saw earlier, and kill the SAS before
climbing up into it.
Activate the jump switch inside to open the exit door. Before leaving, note the
pattern on the control panel. The red squares represent fire tiles in the next
room that you need to cross. Outside, you find yourself beyond the two sentry
guns mentioned earlier, and to your right is the "green room" with
the hidden fire tiles. The large medipack and shotgun ammo lie on fire tiles,
so leave them alone. I found getting across to be a matter of trial and error.
Indeed, I made it across unscathed only once, but I wasn’t able to repeat my
success. If you find yourself after numerous tries unable to get across
without catching fire, simply dash across, save your game when you reach the
other side, and when you reload Lara will no longer be on fire. It's cheating,
I know, no less than using the flycheat, but hey, it works.
Kick open the door to set off another earthquake and kill the SAS
inside. He'll drop the WEAPON CODE KEY
(picking it up disables the sentry guns in the previous area). Throw the nearby
floor lever to raise a block beneath the closed door you passed earlier.
Retrace your steps through the green room (using the same save-reload trick to
save time, if you wish), go past the now silent sentry guns down the south
passage, make a horseshoe turn to the left and go down the NW passage, turn
left at the end and locate that closed door at the west end. Step into the
alcove, now that the block has been raised, and kick the door open.
Step inside another control room for a flyby of your next area. Pick up the MINE
POSITION DATA from the pinkish slab (although it seems to have no useful
function), then activate the jump switch at the top of the nearby ramp to open
the door down below. Go down into a rumbling room crawling with SAS and
pick them off one by one (staying away from the central area, which is deadly).
There's a rocket in the process of taking off, so quickly go to the NE corner
and throw the floor lever to close the roof opening. This brings more SAS
running, so dispose of them. Then climb up onto the grating surrounding the
rocket and throw the second floor lever to lock down all systems. Kill the
additional SAS who appear, then leave this area as the room continues to rumble
and shake.
Run back the way you came, past the room with the eight floor levers, and turn
right. The door to the south is now open, so enter and kick in the door to your
right. You find yourself on the ground floor, where the elevator would have
taken you had it not been out of order. Throw the floor lever at the far end of
this room to open the door around the corner. Go outside into a familiar
courtyard and exit via the SE gates. Continue straight forward through the next
open gates, near the spot where you began, and the level ends.