#marco bartoli

It's the year 2026 and I can't believe we're still getting fun new lore for Tomb Raider 2 🥹

Temple of Xian 🐉🗡️

An extra long post for a long level 💕

The beginning of the China levels and where everything just starts to slowly go downhill. I thought we were so close, the game taunts you and makes you think that you are nearly there as they present you with the dagger. To be honest, I thought that was it, that we had actually done it and then I remembered that I’m sure there was a dragon somewhere because my dad cursed at it so much. And when I realised it, I fell down into the hole and absolutely panicked thinking that I missed something and was heading to an instant death. But no, we were introduced to the rest of the level that we would have to complete as it had only just begun. It was at this point, I reloaded the game 5 times because as I went down the first time, I heard the blades and tried to dodge them like crazy - whilst being unable to see anything at all! Then we went over the edge of a waterfall and as we fell, I caught a glimpse of the first secret. Upon falling into the water, I wondered if there was a way to get it and then I realised, I had truly screwed up as I noticed the small shimmy spot we could use. So after several retakes, finding out that there was also a boulder as well, I managed to grab the secret and came to realise, this level was going to be a complete and utter hell for me. I did not realise how true that statement was, or that this place was quite literally trap central and would truly test my limits.

The fish seem to take more life off of us now, or that may just be me being crap at swimming, but they weren’t a bother at all, it was the tigers that made me jump as when I jumped to evade, I jumped straight onto a jump pad and think I broke into tears. I was so sure, so certain that we left all that behind in the Tibet levels, but I was so wrong. This game continued to punish me for thinking I knew everything, it proved me wrong at every point it could give me. The switch we encountered opened up the ladder that lead me to a lava pit-like room. Lots of dangling and failing to grab in the air moments have happened here. And I got reacquainted with some spiders. To be honest, I first thought that was the spider cave that @positivelyamazonian​ was talking about, but I am such a goddamn fool. This is purely because my dad wouldn’t let me watch him play this level so I was drawing an absolute blank on everything and thought this was a breeze. Little did I know, there were more spiders to come by later. 

By pulling yet another switch, we were granted access to a beautiful room. The temple exterior was stunning to look at, the exterior matched that to the balconies we saw in Tibet which I absolutely fell in love with, you cannot stop me from falling in love with the beauty of this game. I do not care how old it is or if the graphics are “outdated”, it still manages to surprise me with the bright colours which contrast the environment and how, although it contrasts it ll, it doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

When we went in, that was when the fun began, there was jumping with timed doors, can’t stand timed doors, you can fight me on timed events. But there was also a pitch black room, and guess what? As per usual, I did not prepare for this as I had no flares, Zero, zilch, nada, none. I absolutely abuse my flares so badly, to the point where when I need the the most, I can’t even find single one. To be honest though, when I entered the room, I didn’t think it would be too bad as I used my pistols as a source of light once more to make my way around to pull the switch. Only to be ambushed by a tiger. I screamed. I most definitely screamed and I will not deny it. My tired self was hitting a wall and it was about to hit one further after I had taken care of the tiger, I left to make more progress. Who knew the people who designed this level were heartless as they gave us a ladder, with blades to dodge, and it’s dark? It’s like they knew all of my worst nightmares. Core, you absolute madmen, I loathe you but I love you so bad for this. It’s smart and it definitely took me more than a couple of attempts to do this and my tired self definitely got super frustrated. A tired Croud gets emotional and there are no limitations to it all.

Then there was the dragon seal part. Hah. This was the part that I felt so confident about at the start, only to be proven wrong ever so quickly as I would grab the seal, having a great Indiana Jones moment when we ran from the boulder and jumped at the end. The camera angle threw me off but I loved it, I knew I could’ve changed it back by pressing “look”, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to bask in this moment! After collecting the seal, I went on to sneak a look around the back of the dragon we encountered. I found a switch, some spiders and plenty of ammo. I was absolutely in love, up until I made the fatal mistake of pulling the goddamn switch and then, oh it gets better, I SAVED THE GAME. That, my good friends, seemed to be my demise as I was practically a heap on the floor trying to perform these jumps that in all fairness, I felt were basically impossible. I can’t do fancy jumps very well, they aren’t my forte, but this level was only just beginning to test my ability to do so, as I found out last night. After getting through these jumps, I met my old friends once more. The god forsaken jump pads. I swear if there are more, I was about to strangle someone because I died countless times, they also added boulders to the jumps I needed to make.

I despised this part of the level.

Luckily we got the second secret from this level, but boy do I wish I never pulled that stupid switch. I died far too many times just on this part alone. It was after all this that my tired self took me to a place where I thought I’d be able to make progress. Saving me in front of the ladder near the waterfall and then finishing it there. Literally, my tired self thought that would help. 

It seriously did not.

I had no clue as to where the dragon seal needed to go. So I started off this part of the playthrough with joy~ Lots of sarcasm intended here because it took me a good 20 minutes to realise where I needed to go and what to do. I literally went through the chasm with the lava all over again, only to pull the switch, to close the doors and then have a eureka moment and realise it had to be behind those doors somewhere. I’m not the smartest of people, never said I was so you’ll have to bear with my idiocy for these playthrough review things~ (Still not sure what to call ‘em though?)

There were more traumatising times to come as we found the place for the seal as there were traps everywhere, like I mentioned before, this level was basically trap central and was testing my ability to manoeuvre all of them. Which might I add, isn’t very good. We did some swimming during this part of the level as well. Oh boy, I love swimming! So much sarcasm here because I was limited to my breath and I can’t handle the pressure of the times and everything and I panicked a whole lot. The spike traps before this part were easy to get around, this though was a whole new breed of difficult. They put my two worst fears into this, the swimming and time constraints. I died so many times that I think this level honestly started to break me. My mum came over and told me to stop playing and, by her words and not mine, “Because you’re clearly struggling and need a guide. Try again another day once you get used to the controls.” I never scoffed loudly at my mum in my life, but literally I had a moment where I was like, “You offered me a guide? Excuse me?!” And it was literally then that I beat the underwater part of the level. Quite literally, I was that quick at it because she told me that. It felt like something out of a movie with how quickly it all happened. She only turned around afterwards and said that she didn’t mean it and wanted to “inspire” me. I was so emotional, always have and will be, that I was in disbelief that I beat this part rather than what she said anymore. The fact she made the guide comment was blown away by beating this swimming part, that I forgot all about it. It was unreal. My mum also patted me on the back for it, can I add that in too? Did it anyway, don’t care. This level has made me reach this point completely!

We had more swimming to come though as we swam and I started to realise it was getting super dark. I began to curse myself again. This is where flares would’ve come in handy but noooo, I was a dumb-dumb who used them all up before in brightly lit levels. I struggled. I really did. Dark areas and swimming, where I cannot pull out the unlimited pistols, was starting to make its way into my top three fears. It truly was. I struggled but we made it in the end.

It wasn’t long after all that that I truly found out that the chasm I was at before, with the couple of little baby spiders, was NOT the spider cave. Oh how I began to wish it was. I saw cobwebs and I began to think, it’ll be an army of baby ones. I also spotted flares which I cried upon using. I only had six uses of them and was going to try and use them properly and not waste them again. What a stupid promise I made as we were surrounded by the little spiders and then all of a sudden, some bigger ones came out. I seriously screamed the first time it popped up. That cave is so dark, it’s so menacing and terrifying to encounter. I had to do it as suddenly, the grenade launcher became my best friend and I quite literally used it for dear life. I wouldn’t stop using it. There was no tactical thinking when I was in there and I think that’s the thing with the spider cave - you don’t think because thinking gets you killed!

As I climbed up to try and make my way out, we encountered yet another one, falling from the sky and oh god, I wanted to cry so bad. That single large spider killed me good so many times, I refuse to count or even say how many - it was a stupid amount to say the least. But we made it out, we had managed to conquer the spider cave. I shouldn’t have taken the warning lightly and have thought it was so simple. Because truly it wasn’t. The way they used the darkness against you, like in some of the previous levels, was fantastic. There was a pulsating glow as well, which I don’t even want to know where it came from, but it added something to this part of the level. An ambience? Maybe, it gave did truly give me big Alien movie vibes. It certain made me continue to feel uneasy throughout the rest of the level.

We also found out during this level, there are more jump pads and spinning blades and oh god, eagles are terrifying when they are up close on the screen. Their faces just terrified me and that was when I made it past the jump pads which were honestly a huge pain in my side.

Upon stumbling into some more large doors, we’re greeted with a spiked wall to try and dodge and move out of the way of. It was a different way of using the spiked walls, having run along them in order to make it to the other side. We also got to ride down the back of the dragons once we had managed to grab a hold of the key that we needed. But when we used the key, I had no idea what opening we had created. To be honest, I didn’t look at the cutscene so I had not a clue where anything was. All I heard was a panel had opened up and I looked to see that a door to another dragon had opened up. There is definitely a theme of dragons going on here, no idea why. So I thought to myself that we needed to go down the dragon to the bottom, nope. I was wrong. So I did this several times to only then notice that the top of the dragon is pretty much a flat surface to land on. So after performing several jumps, we made it to the ladder we were able to now climb. 

And then I heard my worst enemy once more. We had more blades and more awkward jumps to do. Can I just say, I can only just do backflips off of the ladders, nevermind doing somersaults in the air and all that fancy stuff! I certainly died here a couple of times trying to do this without getting too close to the blades, trying to figure out the right way to make it to that opening. I also had a blonde moment, forgetting I could shimmy over to the opening and instead thought I needed to do some more fancy jumping to make it over there. If you play the level, you may know what I mean because the slope there is to fool you!

That was when we reached the end of this level. We had another cutscene where Bartoli had claimed the dagger of Xian and Lara would watch from the beams up above. What made me giggle was when she looked so shocked when he stabbed himself with the dagger, I understand it’s a serious moment and it wasn’t a moment of “shock” like I thought it was. But the reaction was a bit funny nonetheless for a tired old me. It’s like, she has killed so many of his goons throughout the game without batting an eyelash and when the man stabs himself, she is confused or similar? I loved the meme that @a-return-croft-manor​ had made about this because it’s made me giggle all morning after playing it. I loved the end of the cutscene because to me, that stand in the doorway just shows that Lara now means business and she’s ready for the finale. 

But this level has been a challenge, it really has and I have enjoyed it. (Makes me sound like a bit of a masochist) but it has truly been fun, if not frustrating at the same time. It’s a good mix as it makes me think and tests my ability to do things that I’ve never thought I’d have to do before. I used to think all these moves were something that experts did simply for a laugh or because they felt like it. But now I know that this game pulls no punches and makes you realise that you must be able to do even complicated moves. I kinda love it for that because the game is pushing you, not punishing but yeah, it really tests your limits. Oh by the way, no flares now! Yep... ran out of them by the end of the level again... I really hope I don’t need them! But it shows that the use of darkness in this level is fantastic, it makes you think twice before using a flare, something I haven’t learned yet, and debate whether it’s necessary. Although I don’t seem to be lacking in ammo any time soon, so maybe they just wanted me to develop a fear of the dark? Or perhaps they wanted to see if I was stupid, which I have been a couple of times, and use some of my weapons (other than my pistols) to light up the room. But either way, a very intriguing, if not intricate level!