LEVEL 18: GALLERIES UNDER SIEGE | Updated: 1/16/07(†) |
Items: Respirator
Weapons & Ammo: 4 ammo items, Mag Vega automatic
Enemies: museum guards, Cabal commandos
Upgrades: lower-body (sprint ability)
Run forward up the stairs. Turn left then right up the next set of stairs. Keep going up. The guard in the gallery on one of the landings drops a Vector clip when you kill him. Grab it and continue upstairs.
Cut scene: Gunderson's men infiltrate the Louvre with the aid of tear gas and large automatic weapons.
Continue upstairs. Take out the guard, grab his Vector clip and follow the hall to a door with poisonous gas leaking through it. Go through. Now you'll need to get one of the respirators shown in the short cut scene before Lara runs out of breathable air.
NOTE: If you used the bug in the Louvre Galleries level to get extra respirators, you can equip one of them now. However, you must still proceed to the respirator cabinet in one of the WORKROOMS (below), because for some unimaginable reason, opening it also provides the sprint skill upgrade, which will be essential later in the game. Going this way also opens the way to the exit.
Here is another useful bug, which apparently only works in the PlayStation 2 version of the game: When Lara's breath meter is nearly depleted, save your game (in a new slot in case it doesn't work) and reload. Lara's breath meter should be back at 100%.
Just inside the door, take out the SWAT-team guy on the left. He drops the MAG VEGA (not loaded). Grab it and run through the door behind him.
NOTE: I found that the Impactor works great on the SWAT team members. Shock them from a slight distance, put away the gun and keep running toward them. By the time you reach them, they'll disappear and you can pick up anything they drop. You'll spend less time breathing the foul air, and this also helps make up for Lara's unfortunate tendency to run like a drunken sailor when she's got a weapon out and there's a target nearby.
Run through the next gallery. Another commando slides down a rope from the ceiling. Shoot him and grab the Mag clip he drops. Go through the doorway at the end of this gallery, then turn left. Shoot the commando in the stairwell and pick up another Mag clip. Run up the stairs and go through the door at the top.
MUSEUM WORKROOMS & OFFICES: Run forward and shoot the SWAT guy down the hall. Go through the first door on the right. Once inside the lab, go through the glass doors and turn right to face the cabinet with the RESPIRATORS. Grab one (unfortunately you can only take one) and use it by selecting it from the Items section of your inventory. Now Lara can breathe without taking damage. Keep an eye on your breath bar, though. When it runs down, you're back to breathing the poison gas. You should have plenty of time to finish the level before then.
When you get the respirator, Lara also gains the ability to sprint, a special lower-body upgrade. To sprint, press the Look button while running. (See the Controls page for more info.)
Return through the automatic glass doors but before exiting the lab, pick up a package of health pills in the second blue cabinet on the left. Return to the hallway, turn left and go to the end of the hall where you came in. A brief cut scene shows a light coming on above a door, which happens to be located downstairs in the galleries. Go through the door and down the stairs.
BACK IN THE GALLERIES: Two commandos lurk on the other side of the open door. Kill them and continue through this room and out the door on the left. (This is the door with the light above it, which you saw in the last cut scene.) In the next gallery another commando slides down a rope. Wait for him to hit the ground. Then shock or shoot him and keep going; he doesn't drop anything.
NOTE: The gallery where the commando abseils down from the ceiling is labeled "Gallery 2" in the Louvre Galleries map, from level 10. It was inaccessible during that level.
In the next room, you can go through either doorway. You'll meet another commando just inside. Deal with him and his teammate at the bottom of the stairs. Continue downstairs and through the open doorway on the right into a hallway with red walls. There's a ladies' room through the closed door to the right, in case Lara needs to touch up her mascara. There's nothing useful inside, though. Head toward the other end of the red hallway and enter the next gallery.
POSSIBLE USEFUL BUG: Several players have reported a trick you can use to hang onto the shotgun when Lara loses her other weapons at the end of the level. Just before this level ends, draw the V-Packer shotgun and save your game. Then when the new level (Von Croy's Apartment) loads, Lara may still have the gun equipped. As far as I know, this only works in the PlayStation 2 game, not the PC or Macintosh version.
Cut scenes: Kurtis and Lara finally get together...a textbook example of boy meets girl, boy frisks girl and steals painting, boy and girl make daring escape from heavily armed goons with the aid of a little magic...swoon! Unfortunately it ends badly. They're both knocked unconscious and Bouchard's doorman is seen leaving the scene.
Lara awakens with Bouchard hovering over her. He claims he was monitoring the police radio and heard about her predicament. Naturally he rushed down to the Louvre to lend a hand. Lara is not buying his story, though she's not above using a user for a lift. She demands that Bouchard take her to Von Croy's apartment. During the ride, Bouchard tries to grope Lara and tells her about another Monstrum killing—this time in Prague. Lara, beginning to put the pieces together, guesses the victim was the dealer Mathias Vasiley.
When they reach Von Croy's place, Lara insists on going in alone. Bouchard, the dirty dog, uses his cell phone to make a call. He tells the person on the other end, "She's inside now. You can send in the cleaner."
FMV: Lara enters the apartment. When she reaches the mirror, she flashes back on Von Croy's murder, filling in a few of the blanks that she was unable to remember before. She recalls her argument with Werner, then him yelling at her to get out of the way. The man she saw leaving Rennes' Pawn shop enters the apartment and shoves her aside. He kills Von Croy and uses his blood to paint the symbols on the wall. Now Lara knows she's not at fault. The trick will be finding the person who is. (If this movie doesn't play in your game, see the note below.)
†UPDATE HISTORY: 1/16/07 - Rephrased a few sections for clarity, added info on respirator, breath recharge and shotgun bugs.
TROUBLE PLAYING FMV MOVIES: There are two types of cinematics in this game, cut scenes rendered by the game engine and full-motion video sequences. If your computer won't show the FMV movies during the game, you can watch them using Windows Media Player or another similar program. Look for the movies in the folder C:\Program Files\Eidos Interactive\TRAOD\Data\FMV, where C: is your hard drive. (Or, they can be found on the second game CD in various folders. Just search for *.mpg.) The movie at the end of this level is EN_FLASH.mpg, though the file name may differ for non-English versions of the game.
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Copyright © 2003- - Stellalune (). I am eternally grateful to the members of the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup, whose contributions to this walkthrough are numerous. Thanks also to the developers of Fraps, the program used for all AOD screenshots. Thanks also to everyone who contacted me about the respirator and shotgun bugs (Lina, Cliff, Brittany, Shawn and others) and to alvinkhorfire for alerting me to the health pills in the lab with the respirators. Feel free to copy or print this walkthrough for personal use. By all means, share it with friends, but please include this credit line so people can send me their feedback. No part of this walkthrough may be reproduced on another site without permission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Follow this link for details about this site's advertising and privacy policy.
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