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Review
"Even the coppers aren't afraid to bury people out in the desert over here".
- Robert De Niro, Casino
This would be the ideal moment to go into the whole ‘choose your next adventure’ debate, but refreshingly (at least I think), I’m not going to. There have been a million threads on it around here culminating in only two end statements of any worth ; 1.The choose your next adventure thing was something I did/didn’t like, + 2.It’s best to choose the Nevada Desert as your first location because otherwise your ammo and health pack haul will suffer in the long run. Glad we’ve got that out of the way then. So, here we are in one of the hottest regions of the U.S.A, and just to bump up the temperature a touch more, Croft is in town looking for an artefact.
It strikes you as being a lazy sort of place does that whole Nevada area, and this is aptly reflected in the game. I mean let's face it; the biggest danger to Lara on this level is getting sunburn. There's not much else that can kill you. The snakes, though poisonous, look small and pathetic compared to their counterparts from India. The human enemies are probably the easiest to kill in the entire series. What are they supposed to be anyway? Sand farmers? Mechanics? They do a nice "Oi!", but generally fall over the minute Lara so much as sneezes on them. They might as well be groupies of a tacky Las Vegas rock band, who got stoned during the concert and winded up getting lost in the desert. Poor sods.
What else is there? Eagles (easy), electrocution (which unless you're stupid is impossible to die twice from), and a rolling boulder dislodged after the dynamite blast (again, something you can only really die from once). Aside from that it's a leisurely stroll through the afternoon heat. Even the running water drops you safely into a spot you don't have to reload from. There’s one smarter than the rest yokel who hides in the pocket of a badly drawn pool table and then jumps out at you, but apart from that, nothing.
And now a treat for you forum members. Here’s a rare, never seen before photograph taken by a member of the Core pre-production unit on a trip to Nevada back in 1997. I believe the intention was to travel over there and scout possible things they could use in the level. Well ok that isn’t true, but anyway…
Lara's green mobile makes a guest appearance, incidentally. It ought to come with a tag on it -"The green mobile, suitable for all surfaces, grass, sand, whatever. If left to its own devices, likely to find its way by itself to a spot convenient for the next time you want to use it". It is great, though, isn't it? It jumps big gaps, it runs people over, it drives up the side of buildings. As the Geordie lad from the London levels would say - "You canny whack it". To be fair however this is a far more suitable place to use the damn thing than in India. There are wide open spaces aplenty over here, and you can at least drive around and have a bit of fun.
Occasionally throughout your wandering around you get to see a stealth plane flying overhead. We know they’re stealth planes because there are only two exact spots you can see them from. Must be something to do with the sunlight reflecting off the cliff faces in a certain part of the landscape or something. I don’t know.
Structure wise it’s a bit of a two parter. First up comes the long hike through sand and cliff. This is pretty dull. Second up is more of a ‘retrace your own steps to flick switch A to open Door B to Fry Yokel C’ sort of deal, the kind of tomb raidering which makes us all feel really clever when in actual fact we’re not being. At one point Lara must drive her buggy onto the top of a building to retrieve a pass code. Well it’s obvious that’s where it would be lying around isn’t it?
Yokel #A – “Where shall we put the secret pass code? Shall we put it in a safe?”
Yokel #B – “Nah. Put it on the roof. It’ll be safer there.
Yokel #A – “But what if there’s a gust of wind?”
Yokel #B – “There won’t be. It’s Tomb Raider”.
Yokel #A – “Good point”.
It’s hard to know what to really make of this level. It’s far too easy coming off the back of India, and there aren’t half some nondescript buildings and man made structures to scratch your head at and wonder what the hell their purposes are meant to be. The scenery just about absolves all this however, and who knows, maybe a nice carefree ‘gimme’ is just the thing to unwind with after the struggles of the previous four levels. Depends how you see it.
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