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Tomb Raider 3 Overview & Walkthrough

Tomb Raider 3 Overview

In November 1998, Lara Croft returned in another action-packed adventure. We pick up her trail in India, where she's hunting for a missing artifact, the Infada Stone. While following the Ganges downriver, she runs into a Scottish scientist, one Dr. Willard, who is also looking for the stone. He informs her that it is actually one of four artifacts carved from an ancient meteorite. The search for the remaining artifacts takes her to London, a tropical island in the South Pacific, then to Nevada's Area 51. After finding all the artifacts, Lara heads for Antarctica, where the plot thickens.

Platforms: Originally released for PC, Macintosh and PlayStation 1. Now also available for PS3 and PSP as a download from the PlayStation Store.

What's New Since TR2: More detailed environments and enhanced graphics, including dynamic lighting, rain, snow, smoke, mist, and other 3-D effects. Lara's arsenal now includes the powerful Desert Eagle pistol and rocket launcher. (The pistol, shotgun, Uzis, harpoon gun and grenade launcher carry over from TR2, and an MP5 submachine gun replaces TR2's M-16.) New vehicles include a quad bike (ATV), underwater propulsion unit, inflatable motor boat and mine car. Lara gets some fresh moves as well. She can now traverse hand over hand (monkey-bar style), crouch, crawl and sprint. Also, instead of being completely linear, the middle locations—London, the South Pacific and Nevada—can be played in any order.

save crystal

Saving Your Game: As in TR1, the PlayStation game requires you to pick up a save crystal each time you want to save your game. PC and Macintosh players still have unlimited saves. The crystals do appear in the PC and Mac games. They function as small health power-ups. Perhaps the designers intended to have save crystals in the PC game, then scrapped the idea but for some reason didn't remove the crystals. (PC and Macintosh savegame files are available in case you make a bad save, want to skip a level, etc.)

Secrets: As in the original TR, the number of secrets on each level varies (from 0 to 6). Secrets consist of ammunition, medipaks, save/power-up crystals and the occasional weapon. A chime sounds when you locate a secret, and the stopwatch in the main inventory ring indicates the number of secrets in the current level and how many you've found so far. This also appears on the statistics screen at the end of each level. There is no reward for finding all secrets in a level, but finding all secrets in the game allows you to access the bonus level, All Hallows. And, as always, my walkthrough includes the location of all secrets.

If you haven't found all the secrets and want to play the bonus level, you can use the PlayStation all-secrets cheat or download a savegame file for PC or Macintosh.

Tomb Raider 3 screenshot

Bonus Levels: Aside from the extra level in the game (above), there is also a mini-sequel, The Lost Artifact. This is a complete, stand-alone game, though smaller sized at only six levels. It is available only for Windows and Macintosh.

Tomb Raider 3 & Windows 7, Vista or XP: You'll need to do a bit of tweaking to get the game to run under Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP. My Downloads and Tech Support Links pages include more information.

Becoming an Expert Raider: If you've never played Tomb Raider before—or even if you have—I encourage you to check out my TR3 Controls and Gameplay Tips & Strategy pages. They include pointers on moving Lara through her environment, conserving health and ammo, using the menu and inventory systems, and much more.

Tomb Raider 3 Walkthrough

Please read these IMPORTANT NOTES & WARNINGS about game bugs, patches and the best order to play the different areas. They may save you many hours of frustration.

Training Level: Lara's Home Includes Lara's treasure room, racetrack & instructions for getting the quad bike out of the track.

India Levels

Jungle
Temple Ruins
The River Ganges
Caves of Kaliya

Temple Ruins screenshot
Nevada Desert screenshot
Nevada Levels

Nevada Desert
High Security Compound
Area 51

South Pacific Levels

Coastal Village
Crash Site
Madubu Gorge
Temple of Puna

Coastal Village screenshot
Aldwych screenshot
London Levels

Thames Wharf
Aldwych
Lud's Gate
City

Antarctica Levels

Antarctica
RX-Tech Mines
Lost City of Tinnos
Meteorite Cavern

Bonus Level: All Hallows

RX-Tech Mines screenshot

Madubu Gorge Screnshot

High Security Compound Screnshot
Some screenshots courtesy of Katie's Tomb Raider Webpage.


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