LEVEL 20: THE MONSTRUM CRIME SCENE |
Updated: 12/6/14(†) |
Items: 2 health items, claw hammer, fax, Obscura Engraving, cellar key, Strahov Low Security Pass
Weapons & Ammo: Scorpion X
Enemies: Czech police, police dog
Upgrades: upper body
Cut scene: A brief aerial shot of the square where Mathias Vasiley's apartment is located. Lara arrives, gets out of the jeep and comments on the weather.
SQUARE NEAR VASILEY'S APARTMENT: At the start of this level, your notebook is updated: Check on Mathias Vasiley. Another entry appears after the dialogue below: Look for fifth Obscura Engraving at Vasiley's. There's also an earlier entry Von Croy made about the art dealer. Approach the guy near the red car and talk to him.
Dialogue - Luddick the journalist: Lara will get the same basic information no matter what you say, but you'll get more info—and a bonus at the end of the level—if you're polite. (Choose the non-threatening dialogue options, such as "The one you're watching...", "You say he found something...", "Keep talking...", and "All of them?") Luddick tells Lara that Vasiley was silenced by the Mafia and the evidence taken to the Strahov, the Mafia center of operations in Prague. He also tells you a bit more about Eckhardt and the six major players on the bad guys' team. If you don't insult Luddick, he'll agree to get you a security pass for the Strahov. Lara agrees to pay for it and promises to meet him in ½ hour.
First, head down the alley near Luddick's car. There's a policeman at the end on the right. He was moving every time I approached, so I wasn't able to use the stealth attack. Kill him and pick up the CLAW HAMMER.
Cross the square toward Vasiley's building, the one roped off with yellow police tape. There's a trapdoor on the ground in front of the building to the right of Vasiley's. Use the hammer to break the lock. Then open the door and drop onto a ledge below. Drop down to the floor and get a small medipack. Then climb back out through the trapdoor.
Face Vasiley's building and head down the alley on the right side of it. Take care of the 2 policemen and dog here. Continue along the alley behind the building to a trapdoor. Use the claw hammer to open it and drop in.
SEWER TUNNELS/VASILEY'S CELLAR: Follow the tunnel to the water-filled trench. Turn right and continue to a rubble-strewn hole in the wall. (There are a few other side passages off this tunnel but they are dead ends.) Go through the rubble-strewn hole to Vasiley's basement. Go up the short flight of stairs. The red door on the right doesn't open yet. Go through the open doorway on the left and then up the stairs.
Cut scene: Lara catches Bouchard snooping around the apartment. She knocks him out and handcuffs him to a radiator.
Dialogue - Bouchard: Louis Bouchard apparently has no particular loyalty to Eckhardt or the Cabal. He gives Lara quite a bit of information on Eckhardt, who he believes to be the Monstrum, as well as the Cabal and the Obscura paintings and engravings. Apparently Eckhardt wants to revive the Cubiculum Nephili, also known as the "Sleeper," in order to breed the extinct Nephilim race back into existence. Bouchard tells Lara about the Vault of Trophies, one of the last Lux Veritatis strongholds, supposedly located somewhere beneath the Strahov.
After this dialogue, your notebook is updated. Lara needs to find the Vault of Trophies but first she must locate the last Obscura Engraving, hidden somewhere in Vasiley's place.
INSIDE VASILEY'S APARTMENT: Go through the wooden door into the main room of the apartment. Climb the spiral staircase to the upper level. Run around to the other side of the walkway and push/pull the small chest of drawers to get an upper-body strength upgrade. Climb onto the scaffolding and jump to the part closest to the window. Pull the chain twice to tilt the rose window outward and move a cabinet downstairs, revealing a small medipack. (Lara will not be strong enough to do this before getting the strength upgrade mentioned above.)
Take a running jump to the scaffolding on the other side of the window and pull the second chain four times. The first two pulls close the window. Pulling a third and fourth time tilt the window inward and also open the face on the grandfather clock downstairs. A brief cut scene shows the design inlaid on the wooden floor below. Three o'clock is prominent.
NOTE: If you pull the chains in the reverse order, right then left, you'll need to pull the right chain twice then the left chain four times.
Drop down off the scaffolding onto the walkway below and then return downstairs. Pick up the small medipack behind the chest you just moved and go to the clock. Press Action for a close-up of the clock face. Then use the Left and Right direction keys to move the clock hands to 3 o'clock. Then press Enter (Triangle on the PS). This opens a secret staircase in the middle of the floor.
Go down these stairs to a secret room in the basement. Examine the display cases. Three of them yield more information about the Peri apt Shards and the Cubiculum Nephili. (Your notebook is updated here.) The fourth case has what looks like a Star Wars Battle Droit head but no useful info.
Pick up the Vasiley Full Fax from the floor near the desk. Examine it in your inventory to find a secret code: 31597. Use this code at the keypad behind the desk to open the secret compartment behind the painting. Take the LAST OBSCURA ENGRAVING.
Return upstairs and go out the door near the desk. A brief cut scene shows Bouchard is gone. Exit to the hall. Approach the closed door on the left. In another short cut scene Lara opens a closet and Bouchard's body tumbles out. Search near his body for the CELLAR KEY. Follow the short hallway to the cellar (where you came in). Cross the room and go through the red door, which opens now that you have the key. Go up the steps to the alley behind Vasiley's building.
NOTE: Even after using the v. 52 patch, my game locked up when Lara approached Luddick here. I recommend saving before talking to him, just in case. For some reason approaching him from behind and then pressing Action to initiate dialogue seems to help. If that doesn't work, try approaching him from the left side instead and imediatly press Esc when the dialogue begins. Also, if you do experience the lock-up, try pressing Alt + Tab twice to go out and back into the game. This may fix the problem. (Thanks to Tom, Fernando, and sq99, respectively, for these suggestions.) If you can't get around this bug, you can download a PC or Macintosh savegame file for the start of the next level. The savegame page includes a link to detailed instructions for downloading and installing the files.
Dialogue - Luddick: The journalist tells Lara he was able to get her a STRAHOV LOW SECURITY PASS. He warns her of the dangers inside even as he seals the deal on an exclusive interview should she happen to find anything. He also sells her a SCORPION X machine pistol for 800 Euros and gives her a ride to the Strahov.
NOTE: Luddick provides the security pass whether or not Lara antagonized him earlier, but he'll only offer the gun if Lara was polite during their first encounter. In that case, as far as I can tell, you have no choice about whether to buy the gun. If Lara has enough money, this will happen automatically.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 1/16/07 - Rephrased a few sections for clarity. Added missed pickup below trapdoor in square, thanks to Joe and several other players. Added info on the clock puzzle, with help from Crafty. Also added possible fix for Luddick dialogue bug, thanks to Tom, and corrected the info about which gun Luddick sells Lara, thanks to Pauline.
11/25/12 - Added alternate fix for Luddick dialogue lock-up glitch, thanks to sq99.
12/6/14 - Added yet another Luddick dialogue bug solution, thanks to Fernando.
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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. Special thanks to Joe, Crafty, Tom and Pauline for their help with this level, and to the many people who pointed out the trapdoor in the square, which I had overlooked. 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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