Author's Note: Okaaaay, so this was a lot harder to do than I imagined. I wanted to make it feel like TR 3 but not write down the level design word for word. Saying things like "and then there were spikes and then there was a boulder and then she climbed a ledge" over and over doesn't make for great narrative. I've specified most of the level design here at the opening of the game but I think for much of the unremarkable stuff later I'll leave it less detailed. Let me know what you think.

It was a sweltering thirty-three degrees Celsius in India. The heat was oppressive and the rain that fell in heavy intermittent drops did little in the way of providing relief.

The co-ordinates that Prof. Bailey had supplied led Lara to the top of a muddy hill in the middle of a dense jungle. Lara, observing her surroundings, made note of the rows of spikes positioned further down the hill.

The Infada tribe were a territorial sort, she mused.

With no option to descend safely Lara cautiously stepped forward, letting gravity and the loose ground beneath her carry her down. Remembering her skiing lessons she leaned forward slightly to maintain balance. She proceeded steadily until the ground suddenly became wetter and Lara found herself wheeling her arms forward to avoid falling on her back. She was moving faster now and the first row of spikes was zooming towards her. She bent her knees a little, preparing her well trained muscles to spring. She timed her moment and leaped forward, somersaulting over the deadly spikes that could have impaled her. Her momentum increased, the second row of spikes ever closer. At this speed she stopped thinking and just jumped well timed jumps, instinct driving her quicker than consciousness. Before she knew it she had reached the base of the hill, her momentum launching her forward, arms flailing until she crashed into the trunk of a bent tree.

"Oof!"

Lara stepped back, nursing her bruised forehead - the first of many bumps to come, she reckoned. She found herself on a ledge. The stone beneath her feet was definitely carved by hand, she could tell despite evidence of erosion. Beyond was a sort of courtyard overgrown by vegetation after centuries of abandon. She hopped down an examined her perimeter. The walls featured carvings typically styled of the late Vedic period, though they too had suffered erosion under thousands of years of rain and vegetation growth. A large tree had damaged a lot of the flooring with its overgrown roots. To the left was an impassable swamp which was not very useful. Below the lip of the hill were two iron wrought windows, one of which was recessed behind the bent tree. Lara climbed up behind the tree and examined the iron lattice. She was impressed by the metal work. The Infada tribe were indeed an advanced people.

"Hmm…" she pondered, giving the window a shake and finding it wouldn't budge. She glanced through the lattice work but it was too dark to see what was beyond. She frowned slightly, wondering what to do next.

She hopped back down and started walking forward from where she began when something on the floor of the yard caught her eye. It was a first aid kit, quite a modern one too. She wasn't the only one here it seemed. As she kneeled to pick it up she was taken by surprise by a flash of brown fur. A cheeky little rhesus monkey had snapped up the medical kit in its paws and regarded Lara as if mocking her.

"Now you give that back," Lara scolded but the monkey had dashed ahead taking the med kit with it. Lara gave chase, following the animal through a long hallway on the opposite side of the courtyard.

"I don't want to have to shoot you," she said drawing a pistol. As if the monkey had understood her, it dropped the item and sprung out of the end of the hallway that overlooked a body of water to the left. Against the wall before Lara was a large lever. Considering the rust damage from over the years, Lara doubted it would still work but nevertheless gave it a go. She pulled, putting as much weight on it is she could until the lever gave in with a groan and a lazy grinding of gears. She heard the grate of metal against stone coming from the courtyard.

"Nice!" she said, pleased with herself.

She collected the medical kit on her way back to the courtyard and climbed back up the ledge behind the bent tree. The lattice panel was now open giving her access to the room beyond. It was still too dark to see properly but from the dim light she could make out another lever at the end of the room. Praying the mechanism still worked she gave it a pull. It moved easily, clearly not as rusted as the other as it was tucked away from the elements. But something wasn't right. The ground beneath Lara rumbled and sound of something large grinding against stone sounded to the left. Lara whipped around. Emerging from the darkness loomed a wall of long, sharp spikes. Lara gasped and dove into the hollowed recess of the other window, but not quick enough to avoid a light skinning of the back of her thighs. She hissed through her teeth, clinging onto the iron lattice as the spikes passed by. She made a mental note to be extra vigilant of traps. There was something about this temple that the natives were trying to protect. Lara wondered if this Infada artefact was as unique as Prof. Bailey made it out to be.

She studied her legs, finding they weren't too much the worse for wear but decided to rest a bit until the minimal bleeding had clotted. She sat in the windowsill, her back against one wall, her feet propped against the other, and rooted through her back pack until she found her journal. Her small leather bound journal, along with a pen were kept in an airtight folder to protect them from water damage on her adventures. She flipped it open and started scribbling her thoughts on her findings so far as she had promised Prof. Bailey. She briefly sketched images of the wall carvings and marked an estimated date of origin next to them. She also sketched the lattice windows and levers, and listed a couple of theories as to how they worked. She wished knew for sure but that would probably involve deconstructing the mechanisms and possibly causing irreparable damage to the architecture.

When she was done, she packed her journal away and shuffled out of the windowsill. The scrapes on the back of her legs had dried and the stinging had subsided. She found that she was already dehydrated from the heat, and the sweat on her skin made her feel uncomfortable. She had packed fresh water with her but decided to ration it for later.

Lara made her way back to the next window only to find that it had shut again. She contemplated pulling the lever again, but would that re-trigger the spiked wall and would she make it out on time? Light from an opening above that was previously hidden by the spiked wall, caught her eye. She climbed it and found herself overlooking a piranha infested river. Attached to the roof of the opening was a zip line that traversed across the water to the other side.

"This doesn't look Vedic at all," Lara said with a frown. She wondered who else was here, if Prof. Bailey knew about them and whether or not they posed a threat. She was starting to feel a little disconcerted about it all, but with nowhere else to go and her curiosity getting the better of her she grabbed hold of the zip line and sailed across the river until she reached the stump of a tree. The tree looked as though it had been recently cut down and the foliage ahead had certainly been hacked away to provide a path.

"Tourists," Lara muttered with a roll of her eyes.

From the tree stump, she took a running jump into the passageway ahead. She stumbled through, her foot catching in some lianas, and fell gracelessly on the forest floor below. Apart from feeling a little silly she remained somewhat unscathed and proceeded on, undeterred by her fall. Despite the shade from the canopies above, it was still hot... though there is a difference between heat and humidity. Heat has a source such as the sun, and can be avoided given the right shelter. Humidity could not be avoided, and it was all around Lara, oppressive and claustrophobic, enveloping her body and filling her lungs. Sweat ran freely from her face and her lips were dry and cracked. Though having been exposed to all kinds of extreme temperatures from her years of adventuring, having been born and raised in England meant she was more accustomed to the cold and rainy weather there. She would have liked to tell her eleven year old self to appreciate her local climate.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the crack of a branch to her left. She paused, ears straining to hear any other movement.

"Must have been a bird," she dismissed after silence prevailed. She pushed on, eager to follow through with her quest. There was another crack and as Lara whipped her head towards the source of the sound, she found herself to be the target of a large Bengal tiger's hunt.

"Crap!" she hissed.