"Living Quarters" analysis

[Scottlee]

Anyone who reads this column regularly will know that I'm not a great fan of the TR level names. Games of this quality deserve better than Caves, Jungle, Antartica, Colloseum, and THE Colloseum, to name but a few. Such laziness reminds me of games from over a decade ago, when titles like Mickey Mouse's Land of Illusion threw up bright ideas like "Forest" and "Lake". Don't get me wrong. It could be worse. A lot of games in the eighties would use nothing more than "Level 1" and "Level 2" as their description of what was to come, which is not of course to say that something as ambiguous as Lud's Gate particularly gives the game away. I think I'm just trying to be positive now and emphasize the fact things really could be worse.

"Living Quarters", a somewhat unmemorable bridge between HC-Mission Impossible (Maria Doria), and HC-MI:2 (The Deck), is another two word title. *Gasp*. And like the aforementioned TR3 section, it also incorporates a slightly wonky truth within its name. Just as there was no actual 'gate' in Lud's underwater sewage system, there also aren't places in TR2 "Level 9" where people live. There's a theatre and some settees towards the end of this area, but folk don't really live in a theatre or on a settee unless they're a tramp. I also recall many instances in films where some seafaring old dog has announced "I'm going back to my quarters!", then trundled off to a private bedroom, or a study. I don't know. Maybe I've got the terminology all wrong here. However, just to show you how so many of the TR2 level names could be at least be objected to on the grounds of reality, here's a list of what they might also have been called....

1 - Within the Great Wall catacombs
2 - Venice back streets
3 - Bartoli's mansion
4 - Bartoli's hideout (More appropriate here than a level ago
5 - The race to turn the annoying hooter thing off
6 - Saving private monk
7 - I bet you can't 40 fathom what to do!
8 - The remarkably well kept interior of the Maria Doria (The new version even rhymes)
9 - The Entertainment quarters
10 - The alternative universe in Bartoli-land where water is remarkably absent on the ship of a deck that is supposed to be residing on the bottom of the ocean (That came out a bit long. I'm going to have to work on that one)
11 - Tibeten terrorist arms bazaar
12 - Geordies versus the Scots
13 - Yeti central
14 - Boing boing palace
15 - Water slides R'us
16 - The alternative universe in Barto...(second thoughts, leave that one as it is)
17 - The Uzi clip storage pit
18 - "Sorry I wasn't able to help, Lady Croft, but I if you hadn't locked me in the freezer...."

(Before anyone whinges about me trying to turn this series into Carry-on-Lara, I actually got bored and stopped being serious after about No 4)

The Enterta...sorry LIVING quarters level, is split into two sections, kind of like some of the TR levels from yesterday year (Lost Valley, St Francis' Folly). The first half is puzzle based, with the second far more preferring to be a slug-fest. Nothing unusual about that combination existing in Lara's life then! There are also quite a few other more small-scale homages to her adventures from the past. The opening is similar to 40 Fathoms, just not as horrific. The theatre brings back memories of the Opera House. And slightly less obviously this time, the up/down engine puzzle is not too many worlds away from the Cistern predicament. Don't think I'm being critical by name-checking comparisons though. I'm classifying these similarities as homages, not rip-offs. In the case of the Cistern thing, it's taken me three whole years of replay after replay to make that connection, so there you go. In the time leading up to this year I could never quite put my finger on what that damn engine room reminded me of.

Funnily enough, it isn't the actual puzzle in the engine room where I think the big quality is here. I much prefer to talk up the dilemmas involved with some of the running jumps. If you can ignore the fact some of TR2's danger can be sidestepped by careful use of the save-anywhere policy, there are quite a few 'pause game' moments in this area where the player wonders whether or not Lara has what it takes to leap over a gap. The placement of the first secret is one example. I spent forever sizing up that jump, and a further two years after that wondering if I could run-jump back to where I'd just come from instead of dropping down and doing a detour. It's surely a good thing if players are still unsure about jump sizes an entire nine levels into the game.

Despite what I said before, categorizing the area into two distinct sections is probably slightly unfair on the 'bridge' between the two, where I can think of at least two other effective moments worth noting. Firstly, the slow shimmy across the glass-pit is extremely nerve wracking. The timer is slower than hell, but you're not to know that when you first start shimmying. Secondly, the larger room just prior to that is clever in that it boasts so much for you to work on in such a small space. One question though – Is the double jump that gets you from the ground and up onto the pipes a St Francis’ Folly homage or a St Francis’ Folly rip-off.

The theatre area causes slight confusion because for a long time previously we’d been led to believe everything on the ship was upside down. Well it isn’t in this room. Not that there’s much to do here anyway. It really is a poor man’s Opera House in so many ways. My Fair Lady and Hamlet?!?! The seating architecture looks more befitting for a stage show of Keith Harris and Orvill. And in the royal box seats where upper class Winslet-types once sat perting their lips and waving their cigarette holders, there now resides a crowbar wielding football hooligan who was probably taking a slow boat to France '98' when he got lost and ended up in here.

It's absurdly easy to get through this section, with only the lack of ammo on the dead bodies causing the player to worry. But if you've been carefully stock-piling over the previous few levels, even that little danger won't come into play. I've nothing against the Ent....Living Quarters. It's just a bit of a random selection box between the good, the easy, and the downright stupid. Well shiver me timbers! Here's a carefully hidden switch tucked away behind the stage curtains. Maybe if I pull it, some mysteriously hidden entity will cause the the bunker out in the larger room to fill with water up to just the right height to enable me to reach the Deck level. Perfect. 8/10

Best Part - The Shotgun shells are a scant reward for cleverly manoeuvring the block in the corridor adjacent to the engine room, but a satisfying one.

Worst Part - Act 3, Scene 1 - Hooligan#26 mistakes Lara for the ThomasCook representative who sold him the slow boat

Secrets
All good. One is remarkably similar to a secret from 40 Fathoms, and another is very painfully visible from any number of vantage points. Still satisfying though.

The 100th link I came across when I typed 'Living Quarters' into the Google search engine

http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/nby/sha/8879438.html

There you go. Buy your own something or other for 400 dollars. Personally I think I'll pass.

This level is most like
40 Fathoms

Pop-up advertising - Added at least 2 minutes to the time it took to write this post

[Rommie]

Hehe thats funny
Are you going to write a Temple of Xian analysis?

[Annacia]

Holding true to form Scottlee

[Bokkie]

Great review Scottlee!

Your level names are even better than original

[caisenma]

Originally posted by Scottlee:
12 - Geordies versus the Scots

A more frightening prospect than any Tomb Raider level, I feel.

Excellent, as ever.