Classic Tomb Raider features a gameplay formula that is still appealing in its uniqueness to this day - I have no knowledge of any games that do this high-stakes platforming with an emphasis on exploration gameplay loop, and it's a shame because it's an idea with A TON of potential if you apply modern design sensibilities to it.

What we have here is definitely not modern, with tank controls and a clearly less than graceful dev cycle. I'm two games in, and I can already tell that Core's development pipeline for this franchise was absolutely insane (no doubt because of pressure from Eidos), and these games very much needed more time to breathe. Level design feels overtuned at times, with beginner's traps, and in the final couple of levels some incredibly awkward jumps, and I think it goes on for too long - It's 17 (big) stages plus an epilogue. The first level throws a trap gauntlet at you, that probably discouraged many players, the final boss requires you to do an action that isn't entirely clear, this game with fall damage thinks it's a good idea to have levels with springboards, among other things.

All of this is alleviated thanks to saving anywhere. I would have done that regardless with save states, because I've played TR1 as intended (i.e., you can only save on one-use crystals) and wow, what a fucking unhinged idea for this kind of game. I'm interested in revisiting TR1 with free saves now.

TR2's bigger emphasis on combat initially greatly annoyed me, but I just got used to it, and the game drowns you in ammo and health packs, and using Lara's arsenal is actually fun. Combat is mega clunky don't get me wrong, and armed enemies have god-like accuracy, but I didn't think it was a tragedy or a deal-breaker.

TR2 strikes an interesting balance between linearity, and key-scavenging exploration, and my biggest issue in solving puzzles actually ended up being the low quality of the graphics: multiple times, there was a switch that just blended into the background, or maybe it was too damn dark and underwater, and I simply didn't notice it. This game has some rather poor visual conveyance at times, the Floating Islands level is a great example of the clusterfuck pipeline behind this, it felt like a series of randomly placed platforms. It really is abundantly clear that Core Design did not have the proper structure to do annual releases for games like these.

And sorry to purist fans of the series, a game like this absolutely needs an in-game map, and it's mental that it doesn't have one - and I'm well aware that no game in the series has this feature. I can't stress how much better it would have been with a map, could even be a Hollow Knight-style map, where you fill it in as you progress through the level.

I've decided to go for the original PS1 release here, but when I get to TR3, I'll certainly just play the remake. The tank controls were kind of annoying at times, and the framerate dropped to some headache-inducing stuff.

Classic Tomb Raider is hella clunky and kinda rushed, but the still fresh concept and formula make the series interesting enough for me to continue my journey through the franchise.

TR2 is a really annoying game because I feel so torn on it. On one hand it’s a genuine improvement over the first with much more variety and a improved sense of scale and spectacle, and on the other it’s just as frustrating, not fixing things that a sequel should aim to sort.

The story is very minimal again, in fact I had even less of an idea what was going on this time. But the cutscenes are animated better and are definitely more action packed.

There were some gameplay improvements however the remaster added these to 1, so not really noticeable for me. However Lara can now climb certain walls… very slowly. No control or camera issues were fixed, and level design is still a massive double edge sword. The variety is much better in terms of the places you visit, and this helps inspire more natural feeling stages. But they are still jam packed with instant kill beginners traps, awkward jumps that feel extremely inconsistent and plenty of dark rooms where flares can only help you so much.

Combat is once again awkward, and they throw so many enemies at you It often feels completely unfair. Lara’s arsenal has grown, and I like some of the new weapons available, but it doesn’t really help when the enemies swarm you before you get a chance to use them, making the Uzis still the best choice as Lara can fire them to her side.

I think they handled level secrets a lot better, instead of just finding a random place to stand in, there are 3 artefacts in each stage that will grant you a boatload of ammo if you manage to find them all. I prefer this due to the fact that they can been spotted from a distance, and the reward feels more worth it.

I have to credit the vehicles again too, they control remarkably well and really vary up the gameplay, I wish there were a couple more.

There are bright spots, such as a couple of vehicle sections, but I felt the need to save constantly just to not lose progress.. and that’s not fun.

It’s a shame that despite these positives, the levels get too long and complicated, it doesn’t feel like they really learnt anything from the first game, and things that I will excuse TR1 for don’t get the same pass here. It’s better, but not by much - 6.6/10

Remastered version too, I decided to do a "no healing" challenge run, but turns out there was no achievement for it.. welp. Also did all secrets.

Good follow up to the first, pretty different levels and atmospheres, a lot of semi-hitscan enemies but you can learn to manage them all. The platforming was good, I just didn't like a couple levels that were very action oriented (notably tibetan foothills and dragon lair). Venice section is fun, "ocean" section maybe has one too many levels, tibet was really good except that intro level, and then the last stretch has some very solid dungeon crawling, maybe temple of xian is a little too big though.
I did all secrets for this, but I had to have a guide on the side to make sure I didn't miss any, since a few levels have points of no return and therefore missable secrets, that's very unfortunate.

(First time playthrough as part of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered)

Tomb Raider II is an improvement over the first game in just about every way, but not a dramatic improvement.

One of my biggest complaints about Tomb Raider was the lack of variety -- there were only four different locations, with some of the locations running far too long. Here, Lara gets a chance to visit several interesting, though largely less "tomb-y" locales. From the canals of Venice, to an underwater shipwreck, to the Great Wall of China, Tomb Raider II feels much larger in scope than the first game, and with exception to the aforementioned shipwreck levels, even the different levels in each location feel relatively unique. The level design, too, plays much better than before; levels are more linear and tightly designed, but they are not overly-simplified to the point of triviality. I especially love the final set of levels in China; they're weird, wacky, difficult, and stand out after a series of less interesting levels in Nepal.

The combat was another sour point in the original game, and though Tomb Raider II is mechanically identical to its predecessor in that department, there are two key band-aids applied to make the combat less frustrating than before. Firstly, the (primarily human) enemies are slower and more predictable than the fleshy beasts that filled the Egypt and Atlantis levels in Tomb Raider, so less time is spent fighting the camera to focus on an enemy racing around you. Secondly, Lara has a larger arsenal this time around: an M16, grenade launcher, and automatic pistols add some additional variety to combat encounters. All of the guns feel weightier in their sound design, and blasting armed thugs to bits with is a blast, though the bullet sponge enemies in the last few levels zap some of the enjoyment out of the kickflipping action. Still, it's preferable to the unrefined and frustrating encounters of Lara's previous outing.

One unfortunate casualty of the heavier focus on combat is that there aren't any memorable puzzles in Tomb Raider II that compare to a setpiece like St Francis' Folly in the first game. There's a few sliding block and switch-based puzzles, but they feel like an afterthought. This may be a limitation of the simple mechanics, but the lack of puzzles is a glaring omission that would elevate the game that much more.

Overall, I enjoyed Tomb Raider II a good bit, and it is more refined than the first game, but it doesn't feel like the best version of a Tomb Raider game that it could be. Playing this immediately after the first game, the simple mechanics feel like they're being stretched thin -- some more movement abilities, complex puzzles, and a trimmed runtime would have cemented this as a classic for me. As it stands, it's an improved version of the first game that still has not nailed down the pacing and gameplay variety.

Tomb Raider II is a step up from the first game in terms of level design and pacing, but the untouched combat somehow got even slightly worse.

The game starts off in familiar territory, ancient ruins that contain your fair share of Tombs, but what blindsided us back in the day was now we are also going to populated city levels such as Venice. TR2 has such a nice variety of locations that the pacing feels right, and you're in the same type of underground environments for the entire game, which keeps the game feeling refreshing.

The levels are much better designed too. They feel more like Zelda dungeons than a hodgepodge of rooms with switches. This time levels can feel pretty long, but at no point did I ever feel like I was stuck or did not know what to do next. I was always running to my next objective.

One of the worst things about the first game, which almost ruined for me was the combat, which remains untouched here. The problem here now is that you are fighting humans as the majority enemy, which isn't fun since they are all bulletspoge hitscanning enemies. The worst kind of enemies in anygame. Especially a game where movement is not the strongest suit, hitscanning enemies made this almost a frustrating experience. Good thing the game gives you enough health packs and resources to deal with them if well managed.

I liked the direction of where the series was going with Tomb Raider II, and just like the first game, it shines when you're exploring/platforimg and solving puzzles. Unfortunetly this time around there is a lot more combat with the worst enemy type ever. However due to the great level design, I still fairly enjoyed my time with this.

Recently, I watched The Passion of the Christ, a film that re-enacts the last few hours of Jesus's life. Whatever your religious beliefs, it's hard not to be inspired by the stoicism and fortitude of the man as he endured untold suffering with nary a sob.

I needed some of that Christly forbearance to beat Tomb Raider II, which makes its predecessor - which was no cakewalk - look like... well, a cakewalk. To put it simply, this game knocked the stuffing out of me. It may well be the hardest game I've ever beaten. When I finally got to the credits, my stats showed a playtime of 11 hours and 25 minutes. My Steam playtime for the game says 20 hours. Even if one subtracts the hour I spent setting the game up and testing out different modernizing patches, that leaves 7 and a half hours in limbo. Guess where they went? That's rights: deaths and wasted progress. This ain't your goo goo ga ga 'press X to not die' reboot-ass Tomb Raider. This is hell.

I have very fond childhood memories of Tomb Raider II (locking the butler in the freezer is as universal an experience as believing Marilyn Manson had a rib removed), but as with the original, it's only 20 years later that I'm actually finishing this game. After Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, this one was my childhood favourite. It certainly has a remarkable array of improvements over the first game. The graphics are much better: Lara has a braid and actual boobs now, instead of the infamous triangle. While the NPC models clearly didn't have the same care lavished on them, there seem to be a lot more polygons in everything else this time around.

The levels are huge in scope and well-designed, creating a myriad of memorable moments. It's a testament to the skills of Tomb Raider II's development team that they managed to create a convincing facsimile of the deep dark ocean - complete with terrifying great white sharks - in a 1997 game; and rework the limited engine of the original to add vehicles (including a delightful tribute to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's motorboat scene); and heck, that they managed to complete this game at all, in its extremely contracted six-month development schedule. These people slept under their desks and splashed their faces with cold water to keep working on this game. I salute them.

The only gaffe: an overabundance of combat. This is not the game's strong point, and while new weapons are welcome and the old ones' sound effects have been punched up, the M16 and the harpoon are cumbersome to use. I do like the focus on combat from one perspective - it furthers Lara Croft's characterization as a badass, take-no-prisoners heroine.

The gameplay has also been expanded, and trust me when I say they'll make you use the full range of Lara's new moveset. This is a game where the final levels expect you to backflip off a ladder, do a mid-air somersault and grab onto another ladder while dodging a swinging blade, all at a height where the fall damage alone could kill Lara ten times over - but for good measure, there's a lava pit beneath her too.

But therein lies the appeal of classic Tomb Raider. If you get drawn in, it's impossible to let go. TR II does a good job of satiating this appetite for tribulation with its epic length, sprawling environments and brutal platforming. The only caveat is that it's clearly designed for expert players. I strongly recommend that newcomers try the first game to find out if they're willing to tackle this one.

I feel like such a hypocrite playing Tomb Raider II, as all of the things I enjoyed about the first game seemed lessened, whilst the things I hated there were more of. Yet for some reason, I had so much more fun with this game than the prior.

For most of Tomb Raider II, the atmosphere of isolation and the unknown is completely missing, replaced instead with a fun variety of environments, from the canals of Venice, to the interior of an abandoned Opera House, to the wreck of a ship at the bottom of the ocean, and beyond. The level variety meant I was never bored, always finding it a thrill to explore the different environments, with a much greater variety than the slightly different shades of brown and grey you'd find in the first outing.

The platforming was equally as satisfying here, with very fun to solve puzzles in environments that weren't as tedious to explore when lost, and very creative use of the same control systems that really rewarded you experimenting with all of the movement options available to you.

In the first game, I found combat very frustrating. At first, I felt my stomach drop at the amount of human enemies this game featured - very much fearing for the worst at the new action focus. Yet for some reason, with the change in environments, I found it nowhere near as annoying as the first game. The new weapons, and increase in medkit and ammo drops meant the combat was way more fun. I still found movement during combat an issue, especially towards the end of the game, but overall, an improvement.

One noteworthy level was the Barkhang Monastery. Fighting alongside the monks and exploring the very open level was an absolute highlight for me - probably my favorite in the franchise so far.

The main criticisms of this game probably fall to the last few levels, where the fun did start to wane a little for me. I found the end level especially fairly unsatisfying, though this may just be to playing it all in a reasonably condensed amount of time.

This game has left me thoroughly excited to explore more of this franchise, and really cemented why these games have had so much staying power throughout the years.

For an entry that I didn't play all that often as a kid this turned out to be my favorite game in the series so far. Collected every secret, too! Never done that before for any of these games.

It improves upon the first game in every way possible and the level design is just impeccable, so much creativity and ambition is showcased here. The vehicle segments can be a little janky but still satisfying to pull off successfully. I also have to appreciate the secrets being more simplified for this entry, only having to find 3 of them in each level for a much bigger supply of rewards is a lot more doable and worth seeking out.

I have to comment on the visuals and soundtrack as well. The graphics and art style feels a lot more polished and have better direction overall than the first game and the soundtrack is pretty iconic. Once you hear the violins of Venice you'll never forget it.

It might be an intimidating entry for newcomers since the controls are still tough to master and the levels are incredibly huge and challenging, but once you get used to it you won't find any platformer as precise and rewarding as this one.

Right off the bat, TR2 feels a bit more fluid than the first game. Albeit, still using tank controls the game feels just a smidge more refined in that regard. I'm not struggling as much moving around through areas and crevices. That could be due to my playtime with these games as of late, but I think TR2 is just designed better and is more spacious.
There are some jumping with backflip switches added in this game which I had to learn on the fly, which didn’t bother me too much but I wish it was fleshed out better.

I think the heavy amount of variety in gameplay has improved the experience from the last, although it kinda feels like a different game entirely sometimes. Still HARD, but the puzzles aren't as complex. At least in the first half of the game. Also, this game gets insanely dark at times and I mean the lighting. Whether I switched between OG or remaster, some sections were pitch black or pitcher black. The addition of flares though, was neat and taught you to navigate with caution.

The hefty addition of human enemies keeps you on your toes and item management is treated with much more care. I liked this a lot, because it taught me to conserve certain weapons and use my medical kits more wisely.

I'm not sure if I'd say TR2 is favored over TR1, purely for nostalgia purposes. But I think the argument that TR2 is a better game is a fair assessment.

It took me just over 17 hours to finish, and I really loved the beginning and end of this game. The middle section with the rig is a bit of a slog, but a 2nd play through down the road might not be as painful.

Sicherlich keine Revolution, aber in nahezug jeder Hinsicht eine Evolution des aus dem ersten Teil bekannten Spieleprinzips.

Grafik, Steuerung, Schwierigkeitsgrad, Leveldesign: alles wurde einen Tick moderner, schöner, schneller, besser durchdacht. Die etwas bessere Grafik lässt vielfältigere und leichter erkennbare Schauplätze entstehen. Die Waffenvielfalt wurde erweitert, ebenso darf Lara nun auch mit Fahrzeugen wie Motorbooten oder Schneespeedern durch die Gegend heizen.

Das Spiel wurde ein wenig mehr auf Action getrimmt, wobei das erste Level mit einer zeitkritischen Action-Passage hier nochmal heraussticht. Im Vergleich zum ersten Teil trifft Lara auf deutlich mehr menschliche Gegner und wird dadurch deutlich häufiger in den Fernkampf verwickelt.

Durch Musikstücke wird nun auch versucht, dramatische Situationen und Spannung zu erzeugen. Das funktioniert gelegentlich, manchmal aber auch gar nicht. Der finale Bosskampf ist zum Beispiel völlig unterwältigend, da ohne Musik.

In many ways, Tomb Raider 2 represents a quantum leap forward for the series, and it's the title that cemented Lara Croft as an icon of pop culture. The first one build a foundation of glob trotting adventures, the sequel erected a monument. A quickly glued together monument as I soon found out. A monument that manages to amaze you but dont look too close or it will clearly show its many cracks due to a blazingly fast dev cycle. With design decisions that lead me to absolute controller snapping frustration at times. I was still determind to see it through to the end, be it do to my new found love for the first game or my general couristy for retro games. And as much as TR2 turned out to be a very cruel mistress, I wanted to see for myself why so many fans see this as the peak of the series.

Tomb Raider 2 starring Lara Croft has you follow the British adventurer to the Great Wall of China, where she hopes to uncover a mystical Chinese dagger. Upon finishing the first level, we are treated with a similar cutscene to the end of the first game's stage. Lara is ambushed by a henchman, and we get a brief exchange explaining what the goal of the rest of the game is going to be. Turns out theirs a Venetian cult after the Dagger as well, led by a man named MARCO BARTOLI! So the race is on to find the artifact before they do. The story is more fleshed out than before, but not by much in my opinion. There is more of a through line for the levels, but by the end Core Design have made it clear that this is only a vehicle to drive the exploration. You are here for the badass Girl on the cover and her no fucks given attitude. You bought the game to explore spectacular locations and shoot bad guys, and that's what your getting.

And spectacular locations they are indeed. Tomb Raider 2 tops the first game in big ways. From the Great Wall of China in the opening to giant underwater ship wrecks, the leap in quality is honestly incredible. The latter being my absolute favorite level in the game. Many people may pick Venice or the Temple of Xia as their number one but for me, it's the Maria Doria. Swim to the bottom of the ocean and enter an upside down wreck of a cruise liner ? Get out of here, that's too good. It represents the absolute gold standard Core Design can achieve with excellent level design. They really have managed to strike a great balance of linear levels and sprawling key hunts the player can just get lost in. Other highlights include the entire set of Venice stages, the Barkhang Monastery and the mad gauntlet when returning to the Temple of Xia. The atmosphere once again kills across all the levels. The finale in the Temple of Xia is especially strong, and it also represents the perfect segway to talk about the best and worst aspects of the gameplay.

There has been an overall increase in difficulty, and it expects much more from the player in terms of knowing Lara's improved move set. Croft Manor has therefore been greatly expanded. There are better opportunitys to test your skills in high stress situations with additions like the new assault course, and the manors many new secrets. I highly recommend you not skip this tutorial stage, not only because it will help teach you the controls, but also because it's a tone of fun. Don't forget to lock the butler in the freezer. Going into the actual levels though, as much as I applaud the new movement options, midair roll and all, the level design often seems to utterly hate you. There are many, many instances of traps you can't possibly see coming unless you died to them at least once. A specific slide in Offshore Rig comes to mind. Where Lara will slide straight into a spike trap unless the player knows to slide down the exact right way the designers intended and grab the ledge. Your ability to tolerate the many similar situations in almost every level is what will make or break the game for a lot of people in my opinion. I can also extend that olive branch of shit to the less than stellar vehicle segments. The boat in Venice was a neat idea, but I have to give a big shout-out to the fkn snowmobile in Tibetan Foothills. A seemingly weightless snowmobile made out of paper and fueled with dynamite that loves to send you speeding off cliffs when you just want Lara to go in a straight line. Hope you saved a lot. Tibetan Foothills is by far the worst stage in the game, and it even manages to be the shining lowpoint for another bad aspect of TR2: The combat. Combat needed serious improvements, Combat has in fact seen no improvements. Pretty much all it comes down to is that they increased to amount of enemies present in each stage aswell as how much ammo they tank. You do have more weapons now, like the M16 and Grenade Launcher, but that doesn't help when litteral armies of angry Italian men, various wildlife and ancient Chinese warriors have it out for you. You will see many familiar scenes of Lara being pushed into corners, riddled with bullets and getting speared to death followed by reloading. Hope you saved a lot.

Even all that controller snapping frustration, I still came away loving the game more than the original by the time I reached the surprisingly cheeky ending. Maybe I contracted a sever case of stockholm syndrome but I think it once again speaks volumes about Core Designs masterful ability to make absolutely engrossing levels, a compelling main character and a journey that clearly showed me why Lara's fan base has stayed so loyal to her. Tomb Raider 2 kept me deeply hooked like no other game and while I'm still going to take a break from the series for a bit, I can not wait to return and see what Tomb Raider 3 has in store for me.

Отличный сиквел. Левел-дизайн стал сложнее и интереснее, в первой части уровни бывали прям минималистичны совсем на мой взгляд. Появились новые механики, расширяющие платформинг. Стало больше сюжета и катсцен, добавляющих истории эпичности. В этой части правда разработчики уже стали непоследовательны в геймдизайне, ожидая от игрока действий, которые он вообще не знал что можно делать. Сразу можно вспомнить злополучные окна (которые теперь оказывается можно разрушать) и поворот в прыжке (который в туториале в доме не обьясняется и без него не пройти две секции на последних уровнях). Но даже так, Tomb Raider II это очень фановое приключение даже сейчас, если привыкнуть к управлению и быть готовым к порой филигранно точным требованиям к платформингу.

Why the fuck is 50% of this game set on a fucking shipwreck? Why is there so much combat? The combat is ass. Later in the game they start putting like 6 dudes with auto aim into rooms or just have Snow Leopards spawn around corners in pairs. The controls are still jank as fuck too. The Level design is thankfully still really good. I do not get why they make you explore things that aren't tombs for half of this. TR1 had this great balance of exploration and combat, everything felt well laid out. TR2 has you doing jank ass vehicle sections while exploring mostly buildings while 45 guys show up to shoot at you. I do not get it at all.

Excellent sequel to the first game.

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.