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Lara begins her adventure in Prague in typical TR style, in the freezing cold and of course, it's snowing. Great environmental graphic effects. You can almost feel the cold. There doesn't appear to be any doors open around the perimeter of the center park square, but there is a man hunched over a car, looking at his notebook. Lara approaches the car. |
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This is Luddick. He's a local newspaper reporter and he's looking to get information on the Vasiley murder as well. Luddick fills Lara in on all the details and the fact that he thinks the Mafia is involved with this, and they are all based out of the Strahov right there in Prague. Lara pries deeper for more information about Vasiley and what he was doing. Luddick knows only that the killing was gruesome. |
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Luddick agrees to help Lara to get into the Strahov in exchange for money and exclusive story rites. Lara agrees and leaves. Walk down the alley, right be the car. Draw your weapon. As you round the corner, a security guard spots you and starts shooting. Take him down quickly. In the corner, by the trashcan, grab the claw hammer. Nothing more here. Run across to the other side of the square and around to the back alley of Vasiley's apartment (the one with the police tape). |
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There are 2 security policemen and a guard dog patrolling the back alley. Load that new machine gun. As you round the corner, take care of business, one at a time. None of them leave anything behind and I didn't find any goodies lying around. The door at the bottom of the stairs, leading to the basement, is locked. Down the narrow section of the back alley, there's a storm grate in the ground. Lara can use the claw hammer to break the lock. Open the grate and safety-drop into the tunnel. |
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This is a dark and dingy storm drain access tunnel. Walk to the open sewer area and then to the right. There's nothing of any interest on the other side of the sewer, and at this point, there's no point getting wet? Especially in the wintertime? Along the walkway, there's a hole ripped in the concrete wall. It looks like it was caused by an explosion and is a forced entry. Inside, Lara sees furniture, storage cabinets and papers thrown all over the place. |
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Go up the stairs and work your way to the main floor apartment area. As Lara walks along the last corridor, an action sequence begins, and there's our good friend Bouchard, rummaging around. Lara sneaks up behind him and knocks him out. After lots of questionning and finally getting some straight answers, Lara ties up Bouchard to the office radiator, and tells him to sit tight while she goes to find the 5th Obscura engraving that Vasiley has hidden. |
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Vasiley's apartment is huge. This is the library and living room. Along the wall, are alot of antiques and paintings, but no goodies. The front doors are locked. Up top on the second floor, are a series of tall bookcases on either side of a mural stained glass window.. Very impressive! Go up the spiral staircase to the 2nd floor. Walk to the far side along the balcony. There is a chest of drawers, that are movable. Push the chest towards the scaffolding. Lara gets a strength upgrade. |
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Climb up the scaffolding to the top. Engage [walk]. The scaffolding is in 4 sections. Go to the left and jump to the far section on the left side of the stained glass window. On the wall is a chain. Pull the chain twice. The glass window pivots and a stream of light points into the apartment. More importantly, an antique on the first floor moves, revealing a medpack in a secret wall compartment. We'll get it later. Jump to the scaffolding on the other side of the window. There's another chain on the wall. |
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Pull this chain 2-3 times. The glass window will pivot in the other direction. On the 3rd try, the screen camera cuts away to the number 3 in Roman numerals (now lit-up by the light), emebdded in the zodiac tile floor in the middle of the room. Odd? At the same time, the cover to the grandfather clock pops open? Hmmm... Jump to the next set of scaffolding and drop down to the floor, then walk down the spiral staircase to the main floor. Go get that hidden medpack first, then find the grandfather clock. |
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Using the directional buttons on the left-side of the controller, move the hands of the clock to 3:00pm. Wait for a second. A cut-away scene shows the zodiac floor tile falling away, to reveal a spiral staircase leading down to a secret room. Cool! Carefully go down the stairs to Vasiley's little private museum. |
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This is like the Louvre! Perfect glass display cases with priceless ancient artifacts. Vasiley must have been quite the collector. Not unlike Von Croy or Lara herself. Each display case has a history lesson. Lara learns more about the Lux Veritatis and the struggle to keep the paintings hidden. The 3 Periapt Shards and how they control a secret divine power. All good stuff to know. It is becoming clear, that Eckhardt and the Cabal are behind all this. |
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On the floor, by the desk, there's a piece of paper marked Vasiley Full Fax. One he sent to Madame Carvier. Along the back wall there's a keypad. Hmmm... maybe a secret vault or chamber? Look at the fax from Lara's [Items] listing. At the bottom there's a secret code 31597. Punch this into the keypad.. The painting moves away exposing a small shelf. There on the shelf is the famous 5th Obscura Engraving. Now we're getting somewhere! |
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Grab the engraving and go back up the spiral staircase. Go out the door back into the office. Bouchard has disappeared. Go out the hallway. Check the door on the left. As you pull it open, Bouchard falls down, dead, into the hallway. He's been murdered. Grab the set of keys in his hands. Go back down to the storm sewer area. There's a red exit door by the steps. The keys work. Lara exits out the stairwell that we first saw when we came down the back alley. |
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Lara's new contact, Luddick, is waiting for her by the streetlight in the back alley. He's been able to get a low level security pass to the Strahov warehouse area. He also has a new Scorpion X gun, which she has to pay $800 for, of course. He explains more details about all the strange things going on inside.. Kinda creepy. He gives Lara a ride to the Strahov. LEVEL ENDS. |
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