(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 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.