dinahcat
03-03-08, 20:25
(I know...I finished my re-play diary...but one mor thing before I move on to TR2)
There are so many stories that just the landscape, architecture and “things” lying around the levels in TR1 tell without ever really being noticed. The first thousand times I played this game, I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to these elements, but after playing anniversary and then re-playing TR1 again, I actually starting thinking about these things. I really don’t know how much of this actually passed through the developers’ minds or how much of the back/untold story was written as background/environment, but I have made speculations and will share them here.
It all started when I was pre-playing Natla’s Mines. Surprisingly, I really didn’t think about any back story until I reached this level, but this is the first level that really got me thinking about this! I don’t know how many times I played this level and just accepted all of the surrounding details as “law’, so to say. Everything made sense, for some reason. Without questioning why, it made sense for a drill to be there, a boat on the water, crates everywhere, and even a small city near the pyramid. And the fact that it was Natla’s Mines…didn’t think much about the title of the level either.
But now that I think about it (call me blonde or blissfully ignorant) The story didn’t really start when Lara followed Natla into the mine. The story probably started shortly after Natla escaped from her cryogenic prison. I get the feeling that Natla was drawn back to the Pyramid, like and animal instinctively returning to it’s breeding ground, but she found it buried…encased in the mountain. As time went by, Natla started a business in order to front and fund her excavation of the pyramid. This is the location known as Natla’s mines. The crates were most likely supplies and such that Natla’s workers needed to work in the mine. The drill was there to excavate, and the boat was the only route in and out of the mine. In TR1 there were also the small fuse locations, and the one was an auto drilling machine with a conveyor belt…again necessary minig equipment to free the pyramid.
Strangely, there were no workers in the mine when Lara arrived. I wonder if maybe she had let them go after the pyramid doors were accessible. Or more likely, she killed them all and tossed them into the lava to destroy their bodies. I men, come on, she can’t fire the lot of them only for them to go spread the tales of Atlantis rising to the surface!
I also often wondered how everyone got ahead of Lara when we see Shotgun Guy (“Kold”) on the deck of the boat after Lara dives in the water. I have a theory about this too. You hear a boat being lowered and Natla saying “Are we ready yet?” I propose that Natla, Cowboy and Skater Kid were already in the boat. After Lara dove in the water, Shotgun guy joined them and they headed to the cave. Obviously they would travel faster than Lara can swim. They tied up the boat and headed in. All of the adversaries were stationed off the main path, not the second path that starts behind the waterfall. Natla probably revealed her true self once they got near the lava. I propose that she told Cowboy to stay at the top of the Lava flow to watch for Lara because in order to get across the flow, she would need to spout wings and fly. I mean, really, can you see Lara hopping back and forth across all those platforms?
Because she only has two hands, she could only take two people…she elected to take Shotgun Guy and Cowboy, leaving each in a different area to deter Lara if she were to come in.
I also imagine that Natla had her own way of opening those front doors. Since the inside of the pyramid was “alive”, I imagine that the pyramid remembered her, so to say, it welcomed her with open doors. The key that Lara found was the layman’s way in. Once Natla strolled through the first egg room, she could spread her wings and wing to top to start reanimating her babies and commence the hatching process.
And personally, I don’t think that Natla’s transformation in to the fireball shooting, wing bearing demon was a result of the Lava fall…I mean, her clothes were intact and didn’t burn off. I think the wings were an instinctual thing. The gun however…I get the feeling that while Lara was trying to make her way back to the Scion room (to shoot it) Natla rose up from the Lava and went back up to the Scion, transformed her arm into the gun and then created the Lara Doppelganger to try and destroy Lara since all her other flunkies failed. (Now THAT was evolution on steroids, IMHO.)
Any way…I didn’t mean for this to drag on so long. Just some thoughts that make sense to me. I don’t think we needed it spelled out for us…just a lot of deep thought and imagination.
There are so many stories that just the landscape, architecture and “things” lying around the levels in TR1 tell without ever really being noticed. The first thousand times I played this game, I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to these elements, but after playing anniversary and then re-playing TR1 again, I actually starting thinking about these things. I really don’t know how much of this actually passed through the developers’ minds or how much of the back/untold story was written as background/environment, but I have made speculations and will share them here.
It all started when I was pre-playing Natla’s Mines. Surprisingly, I really didn’t think about any back story until I reached this level, but this is the first level that really got me thinking about this! I don’t know how many times I played this level and just accepted all of the surrounding details as “law’, so to say. Everything made sense, for some reason. Without questioning why, it made sense for a drill to be there, a boat on the water, crates everywhere, and even a small city near the pyramid. And the fact that it was Natla’s Mines…didn’t think much about the title of the level either.
But now that I think about it (call me blonde or blissfully ignorant) The story didn’t really start when Lara followed Natla into the mine. The story probably started shortly after Natla escaped from her cryogenic prison. I get the feeling that Natla was drawn back to the Pyramid, like and animal instinctively returning to it’s breeding ground, but she found it buried…encased in the mountain. As time went by, Natla started a business in order to front and fund her excavation of the pyramid. This is the location known as Natla’s mines. The crates were most likely supplies and such that Natla’s workers needed to work in the mine. The drill was there to excavate, and the boat was the only route in and out of the mine. In TR1 there were also the small fuse locations, and the one was an auto drilling machine with a conveyor belt…again necessary minig equipment to free the pyramid.
Strangely, there were no workers in the mine when Lara arrived. I wonder if maybe she had let them go after the pyramid doors were accessible. Or more likely, she killed them all and tossed them into the lava to destroy their bodies. I men, come on, she can’t fire the lot of them only for them to go spread the tales of Atlantis rising to the surface!
I also often wondered how everyone got ahead of Lara when we see Shotgun Guy (“Kold”) on the deck of the boat after Lara dives in the water. I have a theory about this too. You hear a boat being lowered and Natla saying “Are we ready yet?” I propose that Natla, Cowboy and Skater Kid were already in the boat. After Lara dove in the water, Shotgun guy joined them and they headed to the cave. Obviously they would travel faster than Lara can swim. They tied up the boat and headed in. All of the adversaries were stationed off the main path, not the second path that starts behind the waterfall. Natla probably revealed her true self once they got near the lava. I propose that she told Cowboy to stay at the top of the Lava flow to watch for Lara because in order to get across the flow, she would need to spout wings and fly. I mean, really, can you see Lara hopping back and forth across all those platforms?
Because she only has two hands, she could only take two people…she elected to take Shotgun Guy and Cowboy, leaving each in a different area to deter Lara if she were to come in.
I also imagine that Natla had her own way of opening those front doors. Since the inside of the pyramid was “alive”, I imagine that the pyramid remembered her, so to say, it welcomed her with open doors. The key that Lara found was the layman’s way in. Once Natla strolled through the first egg room, she could spread her wings and wing to top to start reanimating her babies and commence the hatching process.
And personally, I don’t think that Natla’s transformation in to the fireball shooting, wing bearing demon was a result of the Lava fall…I mean, her clothes were intact and didn’t burn off. I think the wings were an instinctual thing. The gun however…I get the feeling that while Lara was trying to make her way back to the Scion room (to shoot it) Natla rose up from the Lava and went back up to the Scion, transformed her arm into the gun and then created the Lara Doppelganger to try and destroy Lara since all her other flunkies failed. (Now THAT was evolution on steroids, IMHO.)
Any way…I didn’t mean for this to drag on so long. Just some thoughts that make sense to me. I don’t think we needed it spelled out for us…just a lot of deep thought and imagination.