I found my thoughts drifting over the early years, decades ago, when I played the Intellivision games by Mattel. Then I thought of all the great games I had played on I-Pad before the in-app invasion. Some days I sat by my window and watched the rain. I felt that there was something more for me, out there somewhere in the great, mysterious world.
Finally, I packed my duffle bag, one of my few souvenirs left remaining from my military days, and set out to find that indefinable something which I longed for.
It took some time, and I sought wisdom from many sources. Sometimes I would get a clue from someone in a little village or a coffee shop in a city. A whisper here or there from the lips of a stranger with a far-away gaze. A gaze that bespoke having seen sights that would boggle my mind. I followed my ordained path to the high Himalayas, to a cave and a wizened old man with a long white beard and skin like leather. His name was Roth and he spoke in a whisper.
"What do you seek, my son?"
I looked at him hopefully and replied, "The field where I game has become overgrown with the weeds of in-apps and other things. I hunger for gaming that is deeper, more intense and yet reasonably priced."
He laughed softly. "Aye. I thought you had the look of a gamer. How old are you?"
"62," I said.
"Shit," he muttered, under his breath. Then he sighed and said, "Do you have a P.C.?"
"Sure."
He paused and I felt that he was about to utter something of vast import. His eyes went vacant, as though he were viewing another world. A world of action and adventure, meant for grown-ups and those who needed an edge to their entertainment.
"STEAM," he croaked. I removed my gloves and grabbed a stub of pencil from my pocket to jot down the word, nodding my head in enthusiasm.
"If I take a steam, will it open my mind to something higher?"
"No," he intoned. "It's a gaming platform, on line. Go there, GO!" Then, as I put my gloves on before entering the region of howling wind and snow outside, he said something else.
"Beware that damn wolf in Tomb Raider."
Flash forward about two months. I have downloaded the Steam file from their website. Carley bought a gift card for me to use on the site. I checked out the vast amount of games. I saw that the store had incredible sales, constantly. I bought Crysis 2 for $4.99. I bought Skyrim, which I had heard so much about. And yes, I bought Tomb Raider, on sale for $4.99.
I was a bit afraid to buy Tomb Raider because the guru in the cave had cautioned me about a wolf. My wife said, "Hey, he didn't say you shouldn't buy the game, just beware of the wolf."
I reasoned that this was true and besides, he had to be pretty wise, since he had his own cave and all. So I started playing the game.
I was shocked by the exceptional graphics and eye-popping visuals. It has a terrific story too. Lara Croft, a young explorer, is the star and she is on a voyage to the tropics, hoping to find a lost city or civilization. She wouldn't mind a little treasure and adventure to go with it. Unfortunately, her ship sinks and she finds herself separated from her friends. A band of modern cutthroats are prowling the island and killing people, as well as taking captives. They talk about a Queen who won't let anyone leave the island until certain elemental forces are satisfied by a human sacrifice. They appear to have their hearts set on Lara's friend, Sam,( a girl) as the guest of honor at the sacrificial rite.
You play the game as Lara and have all sorts of cool adventures. I found myself trapped in a tidal cave with odd hanging baskets and old mines from World War 2. It took some jumping and puzzle working to escape. How can this woman possibly jump like that in those tight jeans?
I had to hide from thugs, walk along a precipice on a mountain trail and jump from one ramshackle building to another as they fell apart in an earthquake.
I explored tombs, (hence the name) and found crates full of junk that I sold for improvements to my gear. I took weapons and ammo from undesirable folks who sought my early demise, or worse. I climbed a communications tower with breathtaking views all around. It was so high and the graphics so realistic that I almost had a little fear and adrenaline related to the heights. I radioed for help and talked to a pilot who was coming to rescue our team. However, I proved to be the siren song that led him and his crew to their doom. Our foes shot the plane down just as I had zip lined hundreds of feet to the ground. I had to flee the incoming pieces of plane in some of the most intense and electrifying gaming of my life. I was hanging by one hand from a cliff. I crawled up and breathed a sigh of relief, then saw a piece of the plane's fuselage cartwheeling toward me.
I was swept to one of many deaths by a roaring river that impaled me on a discarded pole. Ouch! I fought legions of macho dudes. Sometimes I killed them silently with arrows, whittling down their numbers so that I could confront the survivors on somewhat equal ground. I had to jump from cliff to cliff to reach a pilot who had set off a smoke signal. I used zip lines to slide a 1000 feet and shot arrows with a rope attached to bridge a breathtaking chasm. My character, Lara , had so many wounds that she began to look like a pin cushion. She honed her survival skills and even burned a wound with a piece of hot steel to cauterize it.
Once, she walked into a trap and was hanging upside down in a room full of dead and decomposing bodies. You could almost smell the stench. She swung back and forth until she could roll her body up and undo her bonds. She had to fight her way through a shanty town as she watched sunset approaching, knowing that her friend Sam would be sacrificed at the last rays of the dying sun.
And yes, there are animals to fight. At one point, I had forgotten the guru's admonition concerning the wolf. Then, I went into a creepy cave on a mountainside searching for some of my friend's gear. His name is Roth, also, like the guru (couldn't be the same guy) but he is injured and lying at the crash site of a plane.
Anyway, I am walking apprehensively through the cave and there are bones and skeletal decorations everywhere. It stinks to high heaven and I am thinking to myself. "If this is the cave of the dreaded wolves, they need to clean the place up. They live like animals!"
I find Roth's backpack and turn to leave the cave, when I am attacked by the aforementioned wolf. The attack is so sudden and savage it made me jump a foot off my chair. It turns out that this wolf is like a gamer legend. There are you-tube channels dedicated to showing folks how to kill the rascal. I know because I went to every one of them, after dying 50 times or more. There are on screen prompts during the fight in which you hit the A and D keys to struggle left and right, then hit the F key to kick the vicious rascal in the chops, etc. There is blood flying and Lara screaming and it would give a kid nightmares. I found that the best thing to do is not panic but slowly follow the on-screen prompts, then, once out of the cave, seek therapy.
I have been playing this game for a month and am less than half-way through it. It may well be the best game I have ever played and I can't recommend it more highly. Even the wolf seems not so bad now... no, that's a lie, I still hate that thing and I am glad I killed him with a knife, or arrows, whatever.
From the sweet sunshine outside this ###### cave, I'm CE Wills.
P.S. I forgot to tell you that I gained XP by shooting chickens. Once a dead chicken was laying on a beam across an abyss. As I tightroped across, I tried to pick up the chicken. A foolish endeavor, to be sure. Even Colonel Sanders would scarcely try to get a chicken at the risk of his life.
P.P.S I hope to give you an update on my progress through Tomb Raider, as the days churn by, here at the author's green retreat. I'm CE Wills.
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