For my review of the main game, please see here. For Tomb Raider II: Gold, I'm just reviewing the Golden Mask expansion pack.
The English language is home to many beautiful turns of phrase. One such expression I've particularly grown to like is, "Fuck me." You'll want to familiarize yourself with it before starting The Golden Mask. When a game starts off by dropping you in deep water with a great white shark, forcing you to swim for all you're worth as you collect harpoons and a spear gun to fend off said shark which will be chasing you the entire time, and you climb out onto dry land only to immediately be attacked by three snow leopards and half a dozen rolling boulders, that's what your reaction will be.
And all that's before the invisible pikemen show up.
For Tomb Raider veterans, The Golden Mask is a satisfying expansion pack. The first two levels especially are on par with the base game in quality, and they finally figured out how to make combat fun - give Lara some actual room to maneuver. They're also very cinematic - to a fault, almost. The environments are interesting, with Soviet imagery adorning the walls in the first couple of levels, replaced by cave paintings as you venture deeper underground.
Gameplay-wise, though, some of the later parts feel like they had less thought put into their design. One of the puzzles is frustrating enough that solving it through guesswork is as effective as applying actual brainpower, and I got through one of the platforming sections by sheer luck because there's no way in hell the limited camera would let me see where I was going.
However, nitpicks aside, this is a solid set of levels. It nearly matches the base game in quality, and delivers more of the thrilling platforming action that makes this series so rewarding.
There's a super-secret bonus level called Nightmare in Vegas, that you can get by collecting all the secrets. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to access it honestly: the best I can do is YouTube it. 100%ing these games is a pipe dream left to better men and women than I. For me, just getting through this expansion pack with minimal deaths is a matter of pride.
The English language is home to many beautiful turns of phrase. One such expression I've particularly grown to like is, "Fuck me." You'll want to familiarize yourself with it before starting The Golden Mask. When a game starts off by dropping you in deep water with a great white shark, forcing you to swim for all you're worth as you collect harpoons and a spear gun to fend off said shark which will be chasing you the entire time, and you climb out onto dry land only to immediately be attacked by three snow leopards and half a dozen rolling boulders, that's what your reaction will be.
And all that's before the invisible pikemen show up.
For Tomb Raider veterans, The Golden Mask is a satisfying expansion pack. The first two levels especially are on par with the base game in quality, and they finally figured out how to make combat fun - give Lara some actual room to maneuver. They're also very cinematic - to a fault, almost. The environments are interesting, with Soviet imagery adorning the walls in the first couple of levels, replaced by cave paintings as you venture deeper underground.
Gameplay-wise, though, some of the later parts feel like they had less thought put into their design. One of the puzzles is frustrating enough that solving it through guesswork is as effective as applying actual brainpower, and I got through one of the platforming sections by sheer luck because there's no way in hell the limited camera would let me see where I was going.
However, nitpicks aside, this is a solid set of levels. It nearly matches the base game in quality, and delivers more of the thrilling platforming action that makes this series so rewarding.
There's a super-secret bonus level called Nightmare in Vegas, that you can get by collecting all the secrets. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to access it honestly: the best I can do is YouTube it. 100%ing these games is a pipe dream left to better men and women than I. For me, just getting through this expansion pack with minimal deaths is a matter of pride.