Tomb Raider II
PlayStation
Nostalgia Factor:
Back in 1996 the gaming world, myself included, fell in love with Tomb Raider. The game was such a massive hit that there was no doubt a sequel would be hot on its heels… which it was. Almost exactly one calendar year after the first game came out, Tomb Raider II hit store shelves. You bet your sweet patootie I went out and got this game immediately.
I was really hyped for this game. Almost every day after school I would take the bus to the Blockbuster near my house and play the demo that they had on display. Crowds of people gathered around me, completely in awe at how good I was at the game. I had the entire first level basically memorized before the game had even hit store shelves. Once I did get my hands on an actual copy of the game, real life went out the window. I spent days, weeks, maybe even months completely wrapped up in the world of Tomb Raider II. It took me a while to beat the game, but once I did I went back and started playing it back from the beginning again. I loved it. As much as I liked the first game in the Tomb Raider series, I thought its sequel was infinitely better. If I was to compile a list, Tomb Raider II would easily make my top ten favorite games of all time.
This is one of those games that I like to revisit every five years or so. I don’t have anything else going on in my life right now. I figured, since I haven’t played Tomb Raider II since I started writing these reviews, that now would be a perfect time to revisit it. Is it still top ten material, even 22 years after its initial release? Let’s find out.
Story:
This game has a good story, but not necessarily a very deep one. It starts with Lara exploring the Great Wall of China, looking for an ancient dagger that is hidden inside of it. She discovers a seemingly impenetrable door, where she is attacked by a goon who is watching over said door. Lara interrogates the goon, who spills the beans that a guy named Bartoli has hired him to keep watch over the door. Bartoli himself is off somewhere else looking for a way to open the door. Lara decides to go to Italy to pay Bartoli a visit.
In Italy, Lara fights through a bunch of Bartoli’s thugs. She discovers that he is searching a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean for a way to open the door. Lara stows away on a plane headed to the offshore diving rig, but is attacked and knocked unconscious by one of Bartoli’s lackeys. Lara awakens without her guns or any of her equipment, and she has to bust out of her cell and recover her lost items. Items in tow, Lara hitches a ride on a submersible headed to the sunken ship. After several underwater stages, Lara recovers the artifact and heads to Tibet, where she uses the artifact to unlock the key to the mysterious door. Key in hand, Lara returns to the Great Wall. Unfortunately, Bartoli beats her to the ancient dagger, and uses it to stab himself in the heart, turning himself into a dragon. Lara defeats the dragon, retrieves the dagger, and escapes the crumbling ruins with her life intact. Returning home, Bartoli’s remaining goons swarm Lara’s mansion. In the game’s final dramatic act, Lara (in her bathrobe) defeats the attacking goons, killing them all.
With Bartoli no longer a threat to her or her household, Lara strips completely naked for a nice relaxing shower…. psych! Har har har, very funny game makers. Very funny.
So yeah, a very basic “get the ancient item before the bad guys do” storyline. There is not depth much to it. You can completely forget about character development or anything along those lines. But I still like it. Heck, I like it even more than Shadow of the Tomb Raider's storyline, and that game has a lot more going on than this one. Just goes to show you that more isn't necessarily better.
Gameplay:
You can’t talk about a PS1 Tomb Raider game without first addressing its control scheme. If you are a younger gamer or someone who has just recently entered the world of gaming, you may find this control scheme to be a bit archaic. The left and right buttons on the D-pad turn Lara left or right. Up makes her run forward. Down makes her take a hop step back. You can’t just pick a direction and go. These are what has been described as “tank controls.” Some people just can’t get past the controls, and they don’t give Tomb Raider a chance. Maybe it is just because I grew up playing this series, but I never had an issue with the controls. If you are one of those people who skipped over the early Tomb Raider games because of the controls, I have to tell you that you don’t know what you are missing out on. These games are E P I C.
As far as changes go, only a few minor tweaks have been made to the classic Tomb Raider formula. Lara can now pull out flares to light her way in dark spaces. You can also drive vehicles in this game, most notably a speed boat and a snowmobile. As far as gameplay innovations go, that’s about it. Not much has changed from the first game in the series. I do have to give a shout out to the new save system, however. Tomb Raider II definitely handles saving better than both its predecessor and its successor. In the original Tomb Raider, you can only save at set save points located throughout each stage. In the third Tomb Raider game, you have to ration a finite number of save crystals that you use to save your game. In this game, you can just save whenever the hell you want. Seeing as how you are going to be dying quite often, this is great as it will save you lots and lots of backtracking if you are a constant saver like me. Quite frankly, if Tomb Raider III had had this game's save system, I would have liked it a lot more than I did. All the early Tomb Raider games should have had Tomb Raider II's save system. It baffles me that they didn't.
There are a few new weapons thrown into the mix. The two machine gun-like weapons were my favorite to use. The grenade launcher is awesome in theory, but has a very limited range. Same thing with the automatic rifle: cool in theory, but not practical to use very often in the game. You have to stand completely still in order to use it, and in a game where you are constantly jumping and flipping around while firing at your enemy, this doesn’t translate well. In the rare situations where you can practically use this gun, it is great because its so powerful. Unfortunately these situations are too far and few between.
The scope of Tomb Raider II is much more impressive than the first game. The stages aren’t necessarily all caves or tombs. There are many large, open areas to be seen here. To me, what makes this game really click is its level design. The stages are SO well designed. Before I started playing, I was looking forward to a small handful of stages that I remembered as “classic” stages. Not just classic Tomb Raider stages, but all-time great video game stages. The Opera House, the Barkhang Monastery, the Floating Islands. Turns out, there are a lot more iconic stages in this game than just those three. Nearly every stage in this game is classic or iconic in some way. Aside from maybe one or two clunkers (I could have done with one fewer underwater stage), this game delivers the goods. There was never a moment where I thought “ugh this stage sucks. I wish I could skip it.” Each stage is just so dang fun to play.
Graphics:
Again, if you are a younger gamer or someone who has never played a classic Tomb Raider game before, you may find its graphics to be a bit primitive. Lara looks better than she did in the first game, but the overall look and feel of the stages is the same. Expect to see lots of messy, pixelated surfaces. There are also many small glitches everywhere to be seen, but nothing game breaking. Mainly you can just see through walls or the camera will screw up and disorient you for a second or two. But like I said, nothing game breaking.
While the graphics may look a bit messy or sloppy at times, I am willing to forgive this. I grew up playing this game and I remember when this was cutting age stuff. You have to admit, some of the lighting effects are pretty darn cool, particularly when you are using flares to light up dark areas.
Where the game really shines, however, is in how it creates atmosphere. A lot of this has to do with the game’s music and sound effects, which I will touch on in my next segment of this review. But you can’t deny how well-designed this game is. Whether you are cruising through Venice on a speedboat, swimming around the bottom of the ocean with sharks in hot pursuit, exploring a moldy old sunken ship, or trespassing in a dark cave filled with giant, nasty spiders, Tomb Raider II really makes you feel like you are a part of the action.
Sound:
Voice acting is… fine. Like I said, this game is a little light on storyline and character development. Not a whole lot of emphasis is put on good voice acting, and it shows. In-game, Lara’s voice is a lot more natural than it is during story sequences. I like her little grunts and groans and how she goes “ah-ha” when she picks up an item.
Music in this game is sparsely used. You really only notice it when something intense is happening or you enter a new area. Most of the time you explore in silence. Not complete silence, however. As I said above, this is an extremely atmospheric game. Walk through the streets of Venice and you hear running water, birds chirping, and the sound of Lara’s footsteps. During the sunken ship portion of the game, you can hear echoes, dripping water, and all kinds of other small little atmospheric effects that really sell you on the idea that you are walking around on a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. This is a game that really does a wonderful job at pulling you in and making you feel like a part of the action. Those sunken ship levels really fueled my paranoia and kept me on the edge of my seat, even when nothing major was going on.
Overall:
Tomb Raider II is a challenging game, and I can’t lie about that. There were a few frustrating moments for me where I kept dying repeatedly, even though I knew where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to be doing. Some of this is just the natural challenge of the game. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you aren’t making it through this game without dying. Another part of this ties into the game’s control scheme: it is very, very touchy. You have to line up your jumps perfectly. You have to make sure you are holding the walk button so you don’t fall of the edge. You have to watch where you are rolling. Sometimes you have to slide down a steep incline and jump from ledge to ledge without a whole lot of time to think about what you’re doing.
There were times where I was really starting to get pissed off. Like, I KNOW I have to slide down this slope, jump at the bottom of it, grab onto the ledge in front of me, drop down, slide down another slope, and jump and do a backflip at the bottom of the slop to grab the ladder in front of me. Tried it once and died. Okay cool, now I know what to do. Tried it again and died. Tried it again and died. Again. Again. Again. After multiple deaths I would randomly get it, even though it felt like I hadn’t done anything differently than I did before. It was really annoying. Like I said, everything has to align perfectly and your jumps have to be timed perfectly. You know how they say football is a game of inches? Tomb Raider II is a game of centimeters.
Occasional frustrations aside, I can't bring myself to seriously criticize this game. It is as close to a perfect video game as you can get. An iconic main character, iconic stages, fun combat, creative puzzles to solve, one of the most immersive atmospheres of all time - this game has it all. Still top ten material in my mind? You betcha.
Final Score:
A+
If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:
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