Family Life

Here’s our intrepid explorer, Lara Croft, poised high above a pit of bubbling lava. It’s hot. The ledge she’s on is slowly receding into the wall. She has to escape. There’s only one way out. There’s a ring in the wall (pointed to by the blue circle) that she can jump and catch with her grapple. But the ring will also retract back into the wall in nine seconds, dislodging the grapple and dumping her into the fires far below. No time to think. Must act. And the smallest mistake is fatal.

This is the sequence:

• Jump off the ledge to a slope in the corner.
• Jump off the slope and throw the grapple to catch a ring in the wall.
• Swing from the grapple while running along the wall to the far corner.
• Release the grapple, jump off the wall, and throw the grapple again to catch a second ring in the opposite wall.
• Swing and run to the next corner.
• Release the grapple, jump and grab a crack in the wall at the far side of the pit.

That should do the job. Oh, and it all has to happen in less than nine seconds. I’m on attempt #127. That’s a lot of plunging to a fiery death.

This afternoon was nice and relaxing. Everybody was down for their nap. Nothing scheduled. Quiet. So I got to spend some quality time with my computer. In particular, a couple of hours playing Tomb Raider Anniversary. I didn’t get very far, because it’s a particularly difficult level, and the situation was very tense and fast-paced and nerve-wracking, but overall a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Eventually the boys woke up and wanted to come and see what I was doing, so I had to quit. The game is scary for small children, and running around shooting things gives them too many wrong ideas. They’d watch me play for hours if I let them, alternately glued to the computer screen or dashing out of the room in fright, only to creep back when their curiosity got the better of them.

We played Hot Wheels car racing instead, something they can safely duplicate with their real-life toys, and no nightmares.

PS: Click the image for a larger version.

UPDATE: I continued playing later that night (much later!) and successfully completed the escape maneuver, and went on to complete the level. After that pit, everything else was easy by comparison.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 at 11:28 pm. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.