Tomb Raider the Angel of Darkness LEVEL 19: VON CROY'S APARTMENT
(NOTE: You begin the level without weapons, though you still have whatever ammo and health you've collected. You'll need to get your hands on some guns, but first things first....)
Werner's apartment has obviously been ransacked, but at least the bad guys left plenty of bullets lying around. You can pick up quite a bit of stuff before "The Cleaner" shows up. I only tried a few different combinations, but it seems like you can pick up the Jackal Walking Stick (near where you start) or the RIGG 09 (near the dining table), then explore as much as you want. When you pick up the other item (walking stick or gun), the Cleaner appears soon after.
Here's what I did. First pick up the Jackal Walking Stick near the start. Then search the desk area. Here Lara gets more information about the Sanglyph and Lux Veritatis. Don't venture out into the foyer yet. The Cleaner has rigged laser tripwires to bundles of explosives. If Lara sets them off she'll be killed.
There are 3 Rigg clips on the kitchen floor and counters and bandages behind the spiral staircase. Kick down the wooden door near the staircase for a lower-body strength upgrade. Pick up 1 viper and 2 Rigg clips in the hall beyond. Go up the back stairs to the bathroom. Find more Rigg ammo here, plus a small medipak on the wall. Open the door to the bedroom. (It doesn't open from the other side, so if you come up the spiral stairs, you'll need to go back down and break down the other door to get into the bath.)
In the bedroom, search the writing desk for intel on the mysterious Cabal. Find 2 Rigg clips on the floor and 2 more clips in the closet along with a large health pack. When you've got all the ammo, come down the spiral stairs to the kitchen. Go around the dining table, grabbing up the 2 Rigg clips that aren't next to the gun.
(NOTE: One of the times I played this level, the clip near the square column bugged out and allowed me to pick it up about 15 times. Several other players have also reported this, but I can't figure out why it happens.)
Save your game. Now grab the Rigg and the 2 clips lying next to it. (Not exactly state-of-the-art, but it'll have to do for now.) The Cleaner runs in through the open door from the hall, fires on Lara end then moves away from Lara and takes cover—behind the kitchen counter, the dining room table, the spiral stairs, etc., depending on where Lara is. (Definitely some of the best AI in a Tomb Raider game.)
He can dish out quite a bit of damage. So try and keep under cover yourself. Shoot when you can, and duck behind furniture or hide behind walls or columns when the Cleaner is shooting. When he takes a bit of damage, he'll run back out into the hall. At this point you can finish exploring any of the apartment you haven't covered yet, or follow him into the hallway.
BOOBY TRAPPED HALLWAY: He's disarmed the laser tripwires in the foyer but set others out in the hallway of the apartment building. These prevent you from going left, so turn right and go to the end of the hall. Break through the red emergency door. (If you try this before getting the upgrade, Lara will tell you she's not strong enough.) Go through carefully; there are more lasers to the left. Pick up a Rigg clip and small medipak. Return to the hallway.
Go through the open door on the right. Pick up Rigg ammo on the floor among the newspapers and more behind the loveseat. The Cleaner blasts his way in through the wall. The loveseat offers a bit of cover, but the wall near the door is better. Shoot at the Cleaner until he runs off again. Then follow him. Get the chocolate bar on the table and the Cleaner's VIPER SMG and 2 clips.
There are new laser tripwires in the hall. Commando crawl to the right underneath the horizontal lasers. (Hold Duck then go into stealth mode. Use cursor keys to make Lara crawl along on her belly.)
Turn the corner at the end of the hall. Bombs explode, destroying part of the staircase and setting fires here and there. Avoid these or Lara will be toast. Jump down to the landing on the right. Jump the gap in the stairs ahead. Fire prevents you from entering the hall ahead, so drop down to the ground floor. Get the large medipak on the table and Rigg and Viper clips under the stairs.
Run/jump up the stairs. Stand in the corner and scope out the situation before going further. The Cleaner is now at the far end of the hall. As you get closer, he'll start to shoot, but don't shoot back yet. Instead plan to move toward him gradually, using the doorways for cover. You'll conserve health and ammo this way, and if you keep your weapon holstered Lara will be much more likely to run where you want her to go. Also, the Cleaner's gunfire can knock Lara back into the tripwires if they are close behind her—another good reason to get to the cover of the doorways.
As you pass the first set of explosives, the tripwires are armed and you can't go back. The remaining lasers cycle on and off (one has a beam at the bottom that stays on). You can run or jump past each one when it's off and then duck into the doorway beyond. There are a few ammo pick-ups on the way: Viper ammo on the floor just beyond the top of the stairs and Rigg clips in two of the doorways.
When you make it to the last doorway on the right, draw your weapon. Sidestep to the left and shoot at the Cleaner as soon as you can aim. It only takes a few rounds to bring him down at this range.
Cut scene: Lara comes downstairs to examine the Cleaner's body. She answers his ringing cell phone and recognizes Bouchard's voice. "Is she taken care of? Is she dead yet? We have to get back to Prague." Lara informs him she's not dead, but his little friend is. She vows to take care of Bouchard later. Finishing her search, she finds Mathias Vasiley's business card, which interestingly has the Lux Veritatis symbol on it. Guess it's time for a little road trip to the Czech Republic. Lara disarms the remaining bombs and the alarm system in the Cleaner's Jeep.... Some time later she arrives in Prague.
NOTE: In all the excitement of fighting and evading the Cleaner, you may fail to notice that several updates are made to your notebook during this level. Be sure to check them out when you get to Prague.
Copyright © 2003 - Stellalune (e-mail stella@tombraiders.net). Special thanks are given to the participants in the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup, without whom some parts of this walkthrough couldn't have been written. Feel free to copy, distribute and quote this walkthrough, but please include this credit line so people can send me their corrections, comments and suggestions. Also, if you'd like to offer this on your own web site, kindly ask permission first.
This page has been slightly modified. To see the original, click here.