Tomb Raider II is a great sequel for the original game. It offers some new features, new locations, new outfits for Lara, some new weapons and it introduced the Croft Manor, in which you could train your mad parkour skills and, of course, lock that old fart in the freezer.
The game takes place in ancient China and your goal is to search for a legendary dagger that turned a Chinese Emperor into a dragon. Some monks have defeated the dragon and locked him (and the dagger) into a secure crypt. A gang of goons, led by Marco Bartoli (it does not get any more Italian than this) also wants the dagger and tries to wipe you out and get the dagger for themselves.
You take many detours on your way to China and end up in Venice, Tibet, an offshore rig and, at the end of the line, ancient China. You fight Marco Bartoli and his buddies, wildlife and, oh yeah, Yeti’s. Normally I would say: “Wow, is that a freakin Yeti??” But I fought dinosaurs in the first game so nothing surprises me anymore (except the abomination at the end of Tomb Raider III, that thing was nightmare fuel). In the end, Marco finds the dagger, turns into a dragon (yeah.. I know..) and you need to kill his ass. After this (should not be hard with your Terminator arsenal by now), you get the dagger, go home and crack open a cold one.
Tomb Raider II offers a lot of new level variation and some vehicle stages like a speedboat in Venice, and a snow scooter in Tibet. Lara can also do some new tricks and her controls are improved a little.
The graphics received a nice upgrade from the first game, although still running on the same engine. Still, they are still playable, even today.
Sound design is still the same as the first game. The controls have improved somewhat, but are still very stiff because of the Tank Controls.
You can now collect hidden gems in levels. When you collect them all, the game grants you a nice bonus like a nice health pack, a new gun for your mobile backpack armory, or more bullets.
And speaking of bullets, this game shifted its focus a little bit more on combat. You get enough crypt and tomb exploring for sure, but the amount of people that you murder in cold blood is still unmatched in any other Tomb Raider game as far as I know.
With the introduction of the new weapons like the Harpoon Gun and M-16, Lara goes full Rambo in this game and, because the balance between combat and tomb raiding is still good, I actually enjoyed it.
My only setback with this game was its difficulty when solving puzzles. The whole charm of this game is to find solutions and figuring out how to proceed, but I remember a certain switch puzzle that took me hours to figure out. It was pure guessing. And, in true Tomb Raider fashion, it had eight switches, so the possibilities were almost endless. Still, this is a case of “git gut”.
Tomb Raider II is a worthy sequel to the first game and the added improvements and variation the game offers are nicely done. The game is a lot harder than the first one but with the new skills, the added legion of goons that try to dispose of you and the Yeti’s, this makes sense.
This is another classic that you just have to experience, at least once, in your lifetime.
