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Review
If the Cistern had you stuck in the toilet basin then this level has you feeling your way through the pipes. It is time to polish off the longest section of levels in the game. Tihocan's Tomb is one of those largely forgettable areas which nobody gets stuck on, nobody ticks off in best level polls, nobody wants to see AOD pay homage to in some form or another, and in which no newcomer writes an "I'M STUCK ELEN" thread in completely the wrong forum room. It is quite good, though. I for one do not mind reminiscing about it at all.
Having said that, it is a very easy level for one placed so far through the game. I suppose a level so linear is always likely to be, especially one as cramped as this. I wonder if the designers tried to bring a feeling of tight-space claustrophobia into proceedings? I would not know, never having suffered from such a problem. The only phobia I have come to realise I possess since I started playing TR is a fear of spiders. (because of Xian). I would be interested to hear from anybody who has a fear of tight spaces too see what they thought about this level.
Much of my interest in the area comes just as much from the environmental traps as it does from the animals. The crocodiles get some really great set pieces in this level, sure. But it is the way old hazards have been brought back and improved which provide what memories there are. Take the darts for example. Tedious in the Caves, dreadful in Qualopec, the everlasting supply of red-tipped wall arrows get a new lease of life here, all because one of the staff at Core had the bright idea of making the damn things cross back over each other. Cosmic! What a pity then that game industy mistrust of a player's abilities led to a return to the mundane old ways by the time Lara was fleeing Atlantis. I would love to have seen a really tricky room where darts fly out at all sorts of weird and wonderful angles. Incidentally if such records were kept then the darts from this game would probably go down in the TR1 geeks handbook for making the most spread out appearances of any other bit-part entity in the game. Take the following list for instance ;
1,4,9,14,15
Unless I am mistaken those are the numerical equivalents of all the levels in which the darts have made an appearance. (Example – Caves is ‘1’, Qualopec is ‘4’ etc). Aside from the obvious observation they turn up both at the beginning and the end of the game, there’s also an almost bizarre mathematical symmetry going on. If it wasn’t for the ‘14’ I think we’d be able to say something about square routes. (Like to the uninteresting tune of “What a pointless coincidence!”) . Below are some other lists of numbers whilst I’m on the subject. None are as spread out though. Some of the data items may be subject to changes. I don’t have a photographic memory.
Dinosaurs = 3,4
Bears = 1,2
Wolves = 1,2,3,4
Tigers = 5,6,7,8,9
Bats = 1,2,5,6,7,
Crocodiles = 5,6,7,8,9,10
Atlanteans (all kinds) = 10,11,12,14,15
Human enemies = 4,5,6,8,9,13
Swinging axe = 2,9
Boulders = 4,5,6,9,10,13,14,15
Spikes = 4,7,8,9,11,13,14,15
Ok, I’m bored of that. Let’s get back to the level in hand. Notice me mention the swinging axe in that list? Good, because a further example of ‘modified traps’ in the Tomb of Tihocan comes with the regeneration of this little obstacle, just when you thought it had been forever lost on the cutting room floor. In Vilcabamba it was very easy to get past three of them without even stopping to slap on some more Lynx. In Tihocan’s Tomb you have to execute a very dodgy little running jump to get past it in order to reach a lever. It’s very easy to die first time round, not necessarily at the hands of the axe but from not quite reaching the ledge beyond it.
The metal shutters aren’t so much modified traps as ‘modified traps from other computer games’. I hope I’ve made an adequate enough description by calling them ‘metal shutters’. If I haven’t then try and think of sharp metal doors that repeatedly snap shut and then open again. In the TR1 walkthrough I wrote a couple of years backs, I called them ‘mish mashers’ on careful instruction from my little brother, who has never played TR but once saw me struggling through the Sanctuary of the Scion and decided in his wisdom that someone dying from those metal doors would well and truly be ‘mish-mashed’. Fair enough. Whatever you call them, I seem to remember the concept being used in Prince of Persia back in the early nineties. There’s a simple counter-argument for what I’m about to say next based on whatever age minimum you think of a TR audience should be, but I think the way Lara interacts with the metal shutters is quite lame. The long defunct Persian Prince got properly sliced up whenever he got mish-mashed. Lara just dies in the same way as she she does when she gets shot. Also, there’s no way to back Pierre into Tihocan’s metal shutters and that just sucks. I used to do it to big fat guys with turbans and a had a great laugh. Oh well.
Some of the other rooms/corridors in the level are hit and miss. I like the standing jump and cling you have to perform in order to reach the crack above the spikes. You’ve got to admit it’s a fair pitfall. The warning is clearly there in the visuals. A trap like this is better than some of the rolling boulders you encounter in the Temple Ruins. They’re just vicious and don’t give you a chance. Back in the Tomb of Tihocan now, one room I’m not so keen on is the one where you’re pushing a block around in order to open a number of doors in the outer walls. The strategy for making all the kills is too simple (Climb onto the block), the writing on the floor is nondescript, and I’m sure there are some boulders in there somewhere.
Question – What do the films From Russia With Love (1963) and Candyman (1992) have in common? Answer – They both have scenes where a character pops out of somebody’s mouth, albeit one that isn’t real. In the aforementioned Bond film it was a billboard depicting Marilyn Monroe (I think), and in ‘Candyman’ it was a picture of the Candyman himself. A similar instance occurs in the Tomb of Tihocan, only Lara comes out of the mouth of what looks like a giant Codfish. It’s the catalyst for a massive change in direction for the level, and brings us finally to the much-anticipated demise of Pierre. He is shot in a gunfight with Lara. How he beat her to the Scion in the first place though given his obvious lack of GCSE’s ranging between A and C, I just do not know. Prior to this we get the chance to take ourselves through our first encounter with animals that are mythological as opposed to real. This part is optional. You can run through to where Pierre is and the gangly beasts won’t follow. I usually like to take at least one of them on though. You’re going to lose your ammo in three levels remember!
The Tomb of Tihocan is like a trash can for random ideas that are all curiously quite good. The post-codfish graphics are quite impressive too, and certainly stand up to parts of TRLR that are similar in design. Nothing wrong with a straightforward A to B structure now and then either. If TR was all about doing the Cairo levels, and ones like it, we’d never be able to play when we’re drunk. Mind you, I had a friend who liked to kill Lara in as many different ways as he could when he got drunk. I guess we can play the game no matter how intoxicated we are. We just can’t always play it properly. 7/10
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