Antarctica: RX Tech Mine

What a handsome bloke, and such a large weapon...

Let your eyes adjust to the gloom of the elevator shaft and then climb into the crawlspace just above head height in one of the walls. Stand up when there's room. You're now in a passage forming one side of a square. If you run to the left you'll end up going around the square for ever, hearing doors open and close but never finding the way out.

Instead, walk around the square to the left. You'll find that there are doors in three of the sides but none in the last corridor. You'll not be able to find the crawlspace you entered by because it is covered by an open door now, but it is the first open door you reach after leaving the corridor with no doors. Now you're back here, walk forward a few paces until you hear a door close somewhere else in the square. Reverse and run around three corners until you reach a closed door.

You can now exit the square using the previously concealed crawlspace at floor level. Crawl along until you rweach a hole in the floor. Reverse and back down the hole to discover it is a ladder (phew!). Climb down to the bottom and pick up the MP5 ammo. Check out the animals through the window - they're actually mutants and if you wait long enough a friendly techie will come along with a flame thrower and put them out of their misery. Leave these techies alone and they won't bother you...

Push the button to open the door and go through into the snow cavern. Head along the passage past the light, into a large cavern with a huge steel structure. This is the meeting place of three mining railways and you'll be taking a trip in an ore wagon on all three! For now, just head up the walkway to the top of the structure and cross over the track to the control room entrance. Hit the lights in the control room and slay the mutant around the corner. Even as they die, they spew poison.

Climb on top of the control room and and cross it's roof heading diagonally left. Drop down and grab the rear edge of the roof, then shimmy along the roof to the left. At the ladder, lower Lara until she hangs by her hands, then pull her up so that her heels hang off the bottom of the ladder. Jump, spin, and grab. The small chamber behind the control room holds the Secret #1 - a small medikit and grenades. Note the closed door in here and then safety drop to the ground and kill the mutant which is hanging around.

The first ore wagon you should ride is the one on the middle tier of the structure. You'll want to brake only slightly on this run, just after you've crossed over the wooden bridge. Don't slow down too much, though as there's another jump coming up. Hit the track switch with your spanner before the car comes to a stop and survey the scene. Let the techie handle the mutant and then gab the Save Crystal. Duck below the drills and explore the snow bank at the far left wall - there's flares in a hole inside.

Head down the short passage and slide backwards down the steep slope, grabbing the end as you slide off. Drop and don't make any sudden movements when you land! A new manner of beast prowls this icy wilderness (check out the little cave with the steel plates in the entrance). Drop the mutant, then jump to the walkway below. Hang and drop to the lower ledge on the right. You can pull up here and crawl forward for an easy kill, but no goodies. Return to the ledge and jump for the crack. Work the shimmies like switchbacks, moving all the way to one side before dropping down and reversing direction by grabbing a lower crack.

Drop another mutant from the ledge at the end of the second crack and then jump for another crack and shimmy again. Pull up into a crawlspace at the end of this one. Be on guard as you traverse the tunnel - a mutant will meet you at the end! In the wide-open area, help your techie friend clear the mutants and then gather the crowbar from the metallic ledge crossing the pond. Jump into the pond (remember the icy water temperature) and grab the rocket from the small cave at the bottom.

You can spy a small crawlspace high on the wall in the snowy clearing. From the rocks to the right of the opening (where the light is), jump to the cliff and shimmy along the ledge (it's difficult to see this crack, but it's not a difficult jump). Throw the switch inside the crawlspace and return to ground level.

To exit the area, you have to use the piles of snow, running and jumping up to a passage in the dark area of the cavern. Start from the snow pile just to the left of the entrance (as you face it). Head up the hallway, ducking down below the drills. Go around the first crushing machine and climb the ladder nearby to see two more blocking your way. Use careful timing to dodge past them and climb up a series of blocks. At the top of the run, a mutant waits to breathe in your face.

Safety drop back to the mine railway and run along the tracks until you reach the ore wagon. Get in and ride on, around an S curve and up a hill. Don't brake on the hill, but brake as soon as the wagon makes the jump that comes afterwards. Then immediately swing your spanner at the track switch to make the wagon take the right fork. Don't brake again until after the wagon jumps the next gap but then brake and duck under three girders that approach fast. Soon you find yourself rolling into the main junction.

Back at the terminal, use the crowbar to pry open the door at the end of the ledge along the edge of the room, and claim the lead acid battery. If you return to the area of the first secret, you'll see that another door has opened in the small area. This leads to Secret #2 - a Save Crystal, MP5 ammo and Desert Eagle ammo, guarded by a mutant. Return to the junction.

Now it's time for your second wagon trip. Take the lowest track and follow it to the left. Duck as you pass under the two girders and then immediately stand and swing the spanner to hit the track switch. Duck under the next girder but don't brake until after you've cleared the gap. Duck under two more girders and then wait for the wagon to come to a halt.



Follow the hallway where the wagon stops. Press the button to open the door and follow the passage to slide down a ramp into a room with steam coming out of the floor. As you head down the room a large mutant comes barelling out of a side passage. Take him out and then head down the passage he came from. You'll come to a crawlspace on the right after a few twists and turns. Follow this until you find yourself under the floor of the steam room.

Pick up the shells and a rocket that are lying around and then exit the same way you cam in. You'll have noticed another big mutant in the steam room above you - he noticed you too and is waiting to ambush you in the twisty passageway. When he's dead, follow the passageway to the end (into a room fenced off from the steam room) and climb the ladder here to the top.

Head right and press both buttons in the hallway (the first is your return route to the ore wagon). Go through the door that opens next to the second button and enter a hut in an underground cavern. A big mutant will rush in as you approach the door - kill it and take the small medikit and Uzi ammo that it drops. Pick up the Desert Eagle ammo near the door and exit. At the bottom of the pool under the broken crane is a starting handle and some more Desert Eagle clips - you'll not pick up both in a single dive!

When Lara's warmed up again, return to the hut and look for a door near where you crawled into the hut. When you press the button nearby to open it another big mutant rushes out. When he's dealt with you can go to the end of the hallway and jump over the gap where you climbed the ladder. Take the first door this time and return to the ore wagon.

Ride forward, duck under the girder, then brake for the curve. Climb the hill, ducking under the girder near the top. Then immediately stand to whack the switch with your spanner. This send you along the track to pick up a Save Crystal - otherwise you'll return to the junction without it.

Now it's time for the last ore wagon. Ride it up a hill and down the other side. Don't brake for the curve or you won't make the gap. Duck down after the gap and stay there as girders and drills whistle by overhead (they're tricky to see individually - the camera concentrates on the wide angle for effect). The wagon will stop in a cave with a large water pool.

Get out and take a running jump for the flares on the snowbank neer the cavern entrance. Then concentrate on the crane in the middle of the pool. Put the battery in the slot at the side of the crane and the starting handle in the control panel at the back. This will cause the crane to start lowering the submersible to the bottom of the pool.

You'll wish you were going down in it soon - you have to jump in the freezing water and swim down to and under the submersible to enter it via a hatchway in the bottom. It's a tricky swim, but not too bad. You can do it in two stages if you wish (there's a dry passageway just by the yellow light in the cave wall), but given what you have to do next, it isn't worth it.

While warming up in the submersible, peer into the water and locate two green lights in a steel section below you. You can't see it from here but there's a passageway between those lights and a little above them. During the next section, don't be afraid of pausing the action and using medikits while underwater - they'll prevent you from drowning.

Swim for the passageway. Go through and immediately hang a right and swim to the end of the room. Near here there is a passage to the right which leads to air and a large medikit. You may not feel like making the detour for it, but if you do it will help you survive the long swim! The exit is up the long shaft in the corner of the room, but by now you will be relying on underwater medikits to save you from drowning. Make sure you swim through the Save Crystal and climb out at the top as fast you can. Phew!

Warm up, pick up the small medikit and then climb into the next cavern. The flame thrower here is harmless to both you and the mutants that may be milling around, so ignore him completely. Head past him to a passageway up in the cavern wall. There's a mutant in here to put to sleep, but no goodies, so don't hang around. Cross the rope bridge and take out two more mutants (one on each side of the hut) before heading around to the right, past the carved stone heads. Stand on the edge of the chasm and look down and to the left.

There's a cave in the cliff face. Jump to the very steep slope next to the cliff and slide backwards down it, grabbing the end. Drop and enter the cave to find Secret #3 - a large medikit, Desert Eagle clips and grenades. Return to the cave entrance and take a running jump from the ledge across the chasm to another ledge. Take another running running jump across the chasm to a small triangular ledge.

Now take a running jump along the cliff face to another triangular ledge on the same side (it's not too difficult but you can lean right as you jump to make sure of your landing). Climb into the alcove above this ledge for some grenades and then take a running jump from here to the ledge below the bridge. Climb onto the bridge and head for the steel cabin.

Before entering the cabin, climb up on the roof and retrieve a small medikit from the far end. Then push the button near the hut entrance and go in to end the level and make a startling discovery...


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