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Review
Not to be confused with Xian the warrior princess (Have I got that right?), the temple of the same name is the big grand daddy of the Tomb Raider 2 levels. If you get past this one, there’s very little chance you won’t go onto to finish the game. It was always going to take something spectacular to surpass the dauntingly epic obelisk that was Atlantis in TR1, but the Core Design maestros succeeded, and strangely by taking inspiration directly from that aforementioned classic. Look at one or two of the similarities. In Atlantis the objective was to get from bottom to top. In Xian, the goal is also to get to the top, only this time the player is shown what’s at the top before being dumped at the bottom. This is better, by the way. The game is saying “Look how far down we’re throwing you! You’ve got a hell of a hike back up”. With Atlantis, you could only guess at where it was you were going for the first half of proceedings. You weren’t quite aware of the trek to come. You weren’t as intimidated. It’s still the same deal, though.
Enough of that. Let’s look at Xian. The first notable thing you do in the level is fall down three of four gigantic water slides, complete with swishing blades and token early secret. In the world of alternative video gaming, this scene is almost a carbon copy of the Labyrinth section’s first act from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In the world of cinema, the scene is reminiscent of one from The Goonies, when Mouth and the gang temporarily escape from their pursuers courtesy of a long winding water slide in a grubby temple. Incidentally, I think it would have been hilarious if Lara landed in the pool at the bottom of Xian then turned to face the camera with her hands on her head shouting “Wow! A beautiful pirate ship!” We fans of dodgy teen movies from the eighties can dream.
Playing this section is entertaining, but we’ve seen most of it before throughout the game. Spiked walls closing in on you, races against time to find air, skulls and bones of muppet explorers who didn’t have the fall back of a ‘re-load game’ option. It’s all there. Even the statue with the moving sword makes a cameo. One thing that has been altered is the physical appearance of the rolling boulder. For some reason it’s now what can only be described as a rolling, un-heavy looking, steel cage type thing, the likes of which I haven’t seen since Gladiators was on the telly. It’s still more than capable of making pancakes out of tits and pigtails, though, so beware. Rumour has it Core did approach Jet and Shadow to pedal the damn things, but were shown the door during filming when the invisible man turned up and offered to do it for less money.
Funnily enough, it’s harassment from one of these ‘cages’ which provides for the level’s most spectacular moment. I’m referring to when one chases Lara down that narrow walkway and forces her to make a running jump to a nearby ledge. If Indiana Jones had been in this situation, he would run to the edge, leapt to safety, jumped back to the ledge again because he forgot his hat, then leapt back to safety again just before the inexplicably leaden-footed rolling thing caught up with him. Indy. Bless him. If had glue on the top of his head he’d be unstoppable.
The hall surrounding this walkway is full of lava and springs disguised as....things that don’t look like springs. You can use one of them to find a secret, but most of the time you’ll just scream in anguish as Lara uncontrollably bounces around like a lottery ball inside Guinevere. The lava meanwhile has the miraculous ability of making rocky islands disappear whilst new rocky islands appear somewhere else. All you have to do is press a switch and face the other way, kind of like the dynamite thing in Bartoli’s Hideout. This trick would also go on to be ever present in the rather horrendous (if I may so) Hall of Seasons section from AOD. Hey Presto! The room’s changed, and no-one quite knows how!
Words of praise do however go to Xian’s famous spider cave, which quite literally sends the s***s up me every time I go through it. Being arachnophobic doesn’t help. I was convinced there was going to be a big mummy spider around every corner I took. The lighting, length, atmosphere, and enemy count of this little sub-task are absolutely perfect. Hats off to the designers (No not you, Indy! You keep yours on). Dangerous animals in fact are the only enemies you face in the Temple of Xian. Bartoli and his cronies must have been too scared to come in, either that or they did attempt to come in but thug with bat’s weight broke the water slide.
The other room I like but so far have only vaguely touched the surface of, is the one with the Venetian statues. Aren’t those seemingly endless rows of other statues disturbingly creepy? They remind me of the scene from Scream 3 where Jenny McCarthy gets bumped off in a room filled with a million and one identical black costume racks. I can also point to a room in survival horror game Resident Evil for astute comparison. You know, the one where the room fills with green gas if you don’t cover the grates in the floor.
Overall, it’s a mammoth place this level. There’s enough content here to keep you stuck long through the weekend. Most of it’s good, even at times we feel like one or two things are being slightly over-used in terms of the game as a whole ( spikes, rolling things, even springs). The Asian style deigns are superb, though. You never quite know what texture the walls are going to be in the next room you’re heading to. It’s not like the Great Wall, or Venice, or practically every other level, where everything looks the same. Visually the Temple of Xian is a complete medley of colour, the result almost of what might happen if an artist’s palette was stamped in by a big size twelve boot. The Temple of Doom never had it so cheery. 9/10
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Scores
Best part –I’d say the spider cave, but the huge double-sided arena with identical features also wins artistic praise.
Worst part - Sitting and wondering how a gigantic spinning wheel can run perfectly backwards and forwards up a rope bridge. It looks like one of those toys Victorian children had, the one they would have slid up and down a piece of string held by either hand. That said, Lara probably have the same toy in modern day finishing school, albeit the large version we see here.
Secrets – 2/3 good ones. One is a ‘gimme’. The other two are good challenges.
This level is most like – None that I can think of. It’s almost one of a kind. Any ideas yourselves?
Best idea for a computer game I came up with whilst writing this post – “Tomb Raider : The search for one-eyed Willy’s rich stuff”.
Best quote from The Goonies film – “Hey guys! I’ve been saved by the pincers of power!”
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