I cleared the last enemies from outside the temple on my first attempt, although it was a pretty close thing, relying on me running away and picking them off one by one. I approached the bridge, and was confronted by a huge monster. I readied myself for battle ... and then he was blown off the bridge. Genuinely funny.
Climbing around the temple was quite stunning, with a real solid feeling of ruin and adversity. Climbing the cliffside as the building falls was really exhilarating, even if it's a false excitement since none of the debris would ever actually hit Lara.
It's a good job that it takes a long time to transfer a Sun Queen spirit from one body to another, because Lara took quite a while to work around the outside of the temple, killing soldiers and guardsmen alike. Lots of killing. There was then a boss fight, facing the large monster from the bridge, which was a classic videogame encounter: wait for him to attack, dodge around the back, shoot lots; wait until weakspot is exposed (the head) and attack; repeat two more times with additional enemies appearing throughout.
More cutscenes, followed by an anti-climatic quick-time event sequence to kill the final enemy. At the time, this felt like a suitable exciting and clever ending to the game, with Lara finally getting her hands on her signature twin pistols and using them to finish the enemy off. Looking back, however, it's a shame that it wasn't more of a fight, since simply aiming and hammering the trigger buttons in turn meant that it was over all too quickly.
And killing him meant everything was OK again - so why didn't Lara do it before, at any of the many times she was hiding and he walked past? Why wait until Sam was actually undergoing soul transplant surgery?
Anyway, the final cutscene finishes with Lara saying that she's not going home, in an obvious way of allowing the player to run around the island collecting all the bits they may have missed. How, exactly, she plans to not go home given she's on a boat sailing to England isn't clear. I'm guessing she got to a port and went straight to an airport to get back on the island, given that she's not showered or changed clothes when restarting. The other odd thing is that in some areas there are still soldiers running around trying to kill Lara and talking about Mathius as if he's still alive. News travels slowly.
There were relatively few things I'd missed on my playthrough - one additional tomb (no idea how I missed it), a few relics and documents which were now on the treasure maps, and a few challenges. For the last of these I must admit I looked at a guide on the Internet when I couldn't find things immediately. One of the old flags, for example, was up near the top of a radio tower which you couldn't climb. One of the GPS beacons was on a platform which I had to line up two bouys to get to.
So, not just complete but all areas are 100% complete, Lara's at the maximum skill level and all weapons are fully upgraded. Looking at the achievement list, the only things I'm missing are to do with multiplayer or killing soldiers in a certain way, which I can't be bothered with. In order to get enough salvage to fully upgrade my weapons I killed quite a few deer in the first level - doing the same but with people who fire back doesn't sound appealing.
Climbing around the temple was quite stunning, with a real solid feeling of ruin and adversity. Climbing the cliffside as the building falls was really exhilarating, even if it's a false excitement since none of the debris would ever actually hit Lara.
It's a good job that it takes a long time to transfer a Sun Queen spirit from one body to another, because Lara took quite a while to work around the outside of the temple, killing soldiers and guardsmen alike. Lots of killing. There was then a boss fight, facing the large monster from the bridge, which was a classic videogame encounter: wait for him to attack, dodge around the back, shoot lots; wait until weakspot is exposed (the head) and attack; repeat two more times with additional enemies appearing throughout.
More cutscenes, followed by an anti-climatic quick-time event sequence to kill the final enemy. At the time, this felt like a suitable exciting and clever ending to the game, with Lara finally getting her hands on her signature twin pistols and using them to finish the enemy off. Looking back, however, it's a shame that it wasn't more of a fight, since simply aiming and hammering the trigger buttons in turn meant that it was over all too quickly.
And killing him meant everything was OK again - so why didn't Lara do it before, at any of the many times she was hiding and he walked past? Why wait until Sam was actually undergoing soul transplant surgery?
Anyway, the final cutscene finishes with Lara saying that she's not going home, in an obvious way of allowing the player to run around the island collecting all the bits they may have missed. How, exactly, she plans to not go home given she's on a boat sailing to England isn't clear. I'm guessing she got to a port and went straight to an airport to get back on the island, given that she's not showered or changed clothes when restarting. The other odd thing is that in some areas there are still soldiers running around trying to kill Lara and talking about Mathius as if he's still alive. News travels slowly.
There were relatively few things I'd missed on my playthrough - one additional tomb (no idea how I missed it), a few relics and documents which were now on the treasure maps, and a few challenges. For the last of these I must admit I looked at a guide on the Internet when I couldn't find things immediately. One of the old flags, for example, was up near the top of a radio tower which you couldn't climb. One of the GPS beacons was on a platform which I had to line up two bouys to get to.
So, not just complete but all areas are 100% complete, Lara's at the maximum skill level and all weapons are fully upgraded. Looking at the achievement list, the only things I'm missing are to do with multiplayer or killing soldiers in a certain way, which I can't be bothered with. In order to get enough salvage to fully upgrade my weapons I killed quite a few deer in the first level - doing the same but with people who fire back doesn't sound appealing.
