LITTLE TOMB OF EGYPT

Level by Terry Barrett (Dhama)

Walkthough by Phil Lambeth

Lara slides down into a sloped passage. Continue down, but do so hurriedly and scamper to your right at the bottom to avoid the chasing spike ball. Continue through the passage until you reach a gauntlet of spike traps. They don't pose a major problem; if you continue running after pausing briefly at the start, you should stay just behind each rising set of spikes, which will then lower just as you reach them.

Pass a closed door to your right and turn the corner to overlook a new room. The large vases on either side are empty but can be shattered if you're in a destructive mood. Go on down and throw the floor lever to lower a grate up in the north wall. Then go back up the ramp and jump to the hanging rope. Swing forward and jump off to land in the north opening in the wall. Step forward and the door ahead will open automatically.

Enter the crypt and the coffin becomes electrified momentarily while a mummy gropes forward in your direction. Go around the coffin while evading the mummy and throw the floor lever. Then pull up into the nearby alcove and threw another floor lever. Hop back down and return to the previous area. The door down the east ramp is now open, so run down there and enter a darkened room with a central pool surrounded by moveable jackal statues. First pick up the flares in three of the four corners, then step up onto the ledge surrounding the pool (whereupon the entrance door closes with a thud).

Push all four jackal statues onto the nearest corner tile, and the south door opens. However, there's a flame guarding the floor lever that you need to extinguish. Doing so is deceptively simple. Just step into the alcove and the flame goes out before you can catch on fire! Throw the lever to open an underwater gate, reverse roll and jump into the pool. Swim into the north passage and continue until you can pull out.

You find yourself with statues of hot-breathed lizards and resting rams on blocks. There's a closed gate in the SE corner and several veil-lined openings that can be utilized in no particular order. Starting with the opening in the middle of the north wall, go on up the ramp and throw the floor switch in the upper room. Wait until you're ready to leave before shooting the large vase, so the large mummy inside won't have a chance to bother you.

Run back down the ramp and turn to your left. Make a hairpin turn to the left and through the next opening in the north wall. Pick up the HAND OF SIRIUS, throw the floor lever and note the nearby imprisoned mummy. Leave this room, turn left outside and enter the adjacent opening in the east wall. Pick up the HAND OF ORION and throw the floor lever. So far, so good. Go back outside and make another hairpin turn to the left. That burst of action music as you step up to the threshold of the east opening is your cue to step back and quickly side flip out of the way of the descending spike ball. After it rumbles into the pool, go up the ramp and throw the floor lever before releasing the mummy from the vase on your way out.

Go across to the SE corner and you'll find that one of the gates is now open. Go inside and locate the floor lever in the alcove. Throw it as the gate closes behind you, barring your retreat. However, the west gate is now open, so head down that passage until you reach a deep room lined with pillars. If you wish to detour for a pickup, you can use the pole in the dark corner to your right to reach the floor. Head over to the west wall and side flip to your left for a large medi-pack. Climb back up the pole and back flip to the ledge.

Take standing jumps from pillar to pillar in a westerly direction. When you reach the third pillar, you can take running jumps into the alcoves on either side for the SHOTGUN and some shotgun ammo. (Note the opening in the ceiling above you; you'll be visiting there later.) Resume your jumps westward, and when you reach the last pillar a couple of mummies will come out to welcome you. A closed gate is ahead, so jump across and run past the mummies. Turn to your right to locate the receptacle for the Hand of Sirius, the left for the Hand of Orion.

It doesn't matter which one you use first, so let's go with the Hand of Sirius on your right. Go through the north passage as the door opens, with the mummies in hot pursuit, and turn right to go down the ramp. The hole in the middle of the floor looks empty, but if you hop down into it (from the right or left side, for reasons that will become clear shortly) a scorpion will hop down right beside you. Quickly back flip to safety and kill the scorpion, then squeeze delicately past the flame that has appeared near the entrance.

Go up the ramp past the waiting mummies and head down the facing passage. A spike trap is triggered as you approach, so pause until the spikes retract and then go around to the other side to push the floor lever. Jump straight ahead over the floor lever to return, else you'll trigger another spike trap on either side of you. Go up the ramp and turn left at the top. In the next room to the north is a hole with a spike trap that's triggered upon your approach. Kill the skeleton, then reverse roll and return to the outside area.

Place the Hand of Orion in the other receptacle and head down the south passage when the door opens. Turn to your right and run up the ramp into a tiny room with what appears to be an empty hole in the floor. But jump down into and you find that you've been joined by a scorpion. Back flip out of the hole and kill the scorpion, then run down the ramp and up the facing one. Same scenario, except this time you'll find a small medi-pack in the hole. Back down the ramp, turn left and go up into the room to the south. Wait for the spike trap to be triggered, then go around and throw the floor lever. As before, jump forward over the lever to return.

Squeeze past the mummies and return to the outside area. The west door is now open, so go inside and find a sort of crossroads. The south passage is closed, the north alcove is too steep for you to grab and pull up, so head up the west passage and pull up into a subterranean area.

Head along the ledge to the SW and face the rope. Take a standing jump forward and grab it. Without sliding up or down, swing forward and jump off onto the ledge. (If you slip and fall down into the water, there's a place at the east end where you can pull out, climb up and try again.) Turn to face west and take a standing jump and grab the crack in the wall. Shimmy to the right and pull up into the alcove. Turn around to face east and take a standing jump and grab to the pillar ahead. Pull up and take a standing jump to the next pillar. Make sure you're facing east and climb up the pole. When the top of Lara's head is flush with the top edge of the fully lighted square ahead (no higher), back flip into the opening in the west wall.

Turn around and go inside the passage to throw the floor lever. A brief cut scene shows a door opening near a mummy, so you know where to go from here. Reverse roll, jump back to the pole and slide down to the top of the pillar. The easiest way to get back is to face SE and take a standing jump down to the ledge, holding down the action key to make sure you don't bounce off a protruding rock and into the water.

Come to think of it, Lara really does need to take a swim. Jump into the water and locate a gate in the east wall that opens as you approach it. Swim inside and dogleg around to your left when you reach a fork. Ignore the underwater explosion and pick up the GRENADE GUN for some serious mummy hunts later on if you wish. Exit to the main pool and swim around in a clockwise direction until you reach the ledge near the east wall where you can pull up out of the water. Turn right, jump across to the facing ledge, pull up to the higher ledge, turn left and drop down through the veiled opening.

The south door down below is now open, so squeeze past the mummies (or simply blow them away with the grenade gun) and climb up the pole in the next room. Back flip into the passage above, turn around, light a flare and follow the long passage as it twists and turns until you reach the area overlooking the pillar room you crossed earlier. Go to the other side, killing the scorpion along the way while avoiding the hole in the floor, and pull up into the opening to your left. Run to the end of the passage, say hello to the mummy (before blowing it away) and throw the floor lever. Quickly retreat and hop down into the previous room. The other door on the right is now open, so pull into the passage and follow it to a room with a cartouche receptacle on your left and a closed door to your right. Step on the trigger tile in the middle of the room to open the door, shoot the scorpion that scuttles inside and follow the passage (the door closes behind you) around a corner. There's a hole there with another scorpion waiting there to be killed.

Shoot the vase at the end of the passage and pull up to your right past the steam blower (while noting the closed door to your left and the mummy just beyond). Step forward and pull up into the higher passage to your left, and walk out to the edge of an opening overlooking a deep room lined with sloped pillars. Turn around and use the ladder to climb down to the ledge below. Face south and take a running jump and grab to the ledge jutting out from the wall. Pull up, turn left and take a running jump to the ledge in the SE corner. Climb the ladder and back flip to the higher ledge in the south wall. Turn around and take a running jump to the next ledge. Pick up the BA CARTOUCHE as heroic music plays.

Hop back, grab the edge and safety drop to the ledge below. Turn to face north and take a running jump and grab back to the beginning ledge. (Those sloped pillars seem to be decorative only, with no essential purpose, although if you wanted to be fancy you could use them to cross the room and return.) Pull up and climb the ladder to the passage above. Return to the room with the receptacle and place the cartouche to open the door to your right. Step forward and slide down the ramp onto a ledge overlooking a very interesting room.

About midway down the ledge, turn to face east and take a standing jump down to the sloped pillar below. Keep the jump key depressed to bounce off it to the next sloped pillar, and from there to a ledge with the large jackal statue at the other end. Pull and push the statue (you can hang-drop and shimmy past it) to the colored tile on the other side of the ledge. This releases a spike ball which in turn opens a door in the pool below that provides access to a hand artifact.

Take a running jump to the suspended ledge to the east, then turn right and take a standing jump to the higher block. Step forward and take a standing jump and grab to the pole ahead. Slide down to the ledge below. (This concluding segment is the most beautiful part of the entire level, so enjoy it.) Turn around to face north, and ignore for the moment the rope hanging down to your left. Jump forward to the long ledge, then turn right and take a running jump to the block in the east wall. Hang from the west edge of the block and safety drop to the ledge below. Use the pole to the south to slide down, but watch the spikes at the bottom. Back flip to safety well before you reach the tips of the spikes (they have some kind of aura that's very harmful to your health).

Jump into the pool and swim over to the SW corner. Locate the alcove containing the HAND OF SIRIUS and pick it up. Surface and pull up onto the platform with the two coffins. Take a standing jump and grab to the edge of the pool and pull up onto the ledge. Return to the spike-guarded pole in the east wall. Get prepared to take some unavoidable damage, take a standing jump and grab to the pole and climb up. Back flip onto the ledge and jump over to the roof of the central structure. Use standing jumps to get to the top of the pyramid, then stand on the NE triangle. Walk forward onto the darker surface and take a standing jump NE onto the slightly sloping surface next to the long ledge. Hop the gap to the smaller ledge south and turn to your right.

Take a standing jump and grab the rope ahead. Slide down to the bottom, swing forward once and jump off to the facing ledge. Run forward and place the Hand of Sirius in the receptacle. Go through the open doorway to your right to end the level.