The Great Pyramid

We’ve made it!  The final level.  It’s a relatively short one, but packs everything in; bosses, puzzles, trap gauntlets and killing things.  It’s one of those levels that makes you glad you’re playing the “save anywhere you want” PC version rather than on the PlayStation.

The start of the level.  There’s no gentle easing into the boss fight here; you’re just chucked down directly in front of the Abomination (I’m not being unkind, that’s actually its name).

Getting too close to it results in being repeatedly bashed on the ground and swung about like a rag doll.  It’s really not pleasant to watch, especially as Lara tends to get her angry shooting expression stuck on her face, which, from far away, looks like she’s screaming.

The overly-dramatic death of the Abomination is rivalled only by the crocodiles.  Seriously, it took about ten minutes of flailing about and looking anguished before he finally exploded.

Back into the womb, oh what joy.

Sooner or later, Lara comes back to the Scion.  You can’t pick it up (which just sucks) so you’re forced to shoot it.

Shooting the Scion results an earthquake and a plethora of special effects.  The shaking screen suggests it’s time to leave.

I seriously do not know how anybody playing on a PlayStation would have the patience to finish this level.  There are only four save-game crystals according to Stella’s walkthrough, which is about six hundred less crystals than there are ways to die.

Oh look, another fire trap, a la Palace Midas.  Too bad I never learnt how to get past it.

Your exit from the fleshy part of Atlantis also serves as some kind of grotesque visual birth metaphor.  At least, that’s what I thought it was.  I can’t be the only one.

Oh, look, Natla’s back!  And now she can fly.  Still has ugly shoes, though.

A few rounds of Uzi bullets later and Natla finally falls to the ground, dead.

…okay, maybe not quite so dead.  What the hell? (what the hell, what the hell, what the hell?)

This time she’s definitely dead.  Probably.

Her job finally complete, Lara slides out of Atlantis.

Woo!  The end!  I underestimated myself when I predicted a 2014 finish date.

When the hell did this bit happen?!

As I stated before, this is indeed the end of the game.  But the end of the blog?  No chance.  There’s still a big heap of Tomb Raider out there to play, and we’ve still got at least four good games to get through.