Palace Midas

Another year, another Tomb Raider-breaking computer problem.  This time the hard-drive decided to crash, forcing a complete reboot and the loss of all my degree work, and, even worse, my Tomb Raider save games.
Luckily, I still have the level-skip cheat engraved into the memories of my fingertips, and so I was quickly able to get back up to where I was, albeit with less health packs and ammo than I had pre-crash.
Anyway, on to Palace Midas, which is a fairly entertaining level; although, after Colosseum, running repeatedly into a wall could be afforded the same praise.

We start off by being pushed into a small pool decorated with pictures of dolphins, bastards of the sea.  Sad to know that people idolized them even in those days.

A cornerstone of the Tomb Raider experience is non-linear environments with multiple path-choices.  In theory, I support this method of gameplay, but in practice it makes me confused and a little angry.  I spent a lot of time in Palace Midas in a state of irritated befuddlement.

Behold!  Nudity in a Tomb Raider game!  It may not be Lara’s pointy breasts, but you can bet your life that someone, somewhere in 1996, was getting off on it.

Will the depravity never cease?!

Upon this pillar lays Tomb Raider’s unreachable medipack, something that Core Design included in a few of their Tomb Raider games.  According to this Tomb Raider Forums post by thevman, there was supposed to be a secret path leading to it, but I personally think that they put it there for a laugh.

The point of this level is to insert three gold bars into these holes to open the level exit.  The ancient Romans even provided a handy instructional poster to illustrate this.

Lara is suckerpunched by a gorilla.  I actually screamed when this thing leaped at me, which means I’m continuing to forget what happens in this game.  Yay!

This fire trap is one of the obstacles you must traverse to get to a bar.  I’m sure there’s a logical way to beat it, but my method (consisting of “jump like hell and consume a lot of medipacks”) worked just fine.

Remember that block I was scared of back at City of Vilcabamba?  This one is even worse!  Especially if you imagine those white bits are bone…

Here is a garden.  I include a picture of it because it’s pretty.  It made a nice change from rock and angry lions.

The blocks you collect through the level are actually lead, not gold, but thankfully you’re in the one place in the world where that don’t matter.  Although it suddenly occurred to me, staring at this statue; isn’t Midas a Greek god?  So, aren’t we in Greece?  Jesus Christ.

And here’s what happens when you jump onto Midas’s hand.  Note how Lara looks mildly curious, at best.  There’s that emotionless Kiriyama we all know and love.

Here’s another lovely little trap I found.  Believe it or not, Lara could put her head between these jagged blades without ill effect.

And we’re another level closer to the end.  Considering I started this blog in 2009 and have completed about seven levels between then and now, I should be done with Tomb Raider by 2014.