Tomb Raider II

"Ok sequel, but looks a bit Dated"

Tomb Raider 2 is the Sequel to the huge Tomb Raider. Obviously. While this game isn't exceptional, it aint as bad as Tomb raider 3.

Tomb Raider 2's story is about the Xian, a dagger that would turn the leader of a faction into the world's greatest army. The intro kicks off with a Dragon outside the Great wall of China, where some Chinese men are being killed. One soldier pulls a dagger out of the Dragon, which then Crumbles into a Skeleton. The soldier takes the dagger off to a sealed room, Where he suffers a fate presumably worse than a Bullet to the head. Lara kicks off at the great wall in search of the dagger. She runs into a Mafioso, who says he works for Marco bartoli, and he wants 2 Keys, One in the bottom of an Unspecified oceaon, and the other in Tibet. Lara learns that only she can stop this dangerous Madman from doing something we don't know about. Oh dear a bit muddled, But the story does take you to various locations, Tibet, Venice (Oh Yeah) and Even A Surreal world (I think). But these Locations failed to have the impact on me that the first had, and the Tension goes as there is a distinct increase in the amount of Human enemies.

The Graphics are a little improvement, But the areas are mostly Urbanized and are different to Tombs, so I can't really know. I do know they are still a little Blocky, but is passable for these days. Sound is alriight, Decent gunshots, But Voice acting is awful. As a Tibetan monk you have some idiot impersonating him, and Lara's actress is So wooden she could marry Pinnochio.

Gameplay is as good as ever, It is very similar to The Original. It is not too hard to do, but a little frustrating at times. New moves include the wall climb. There is also a lot of variety in levels. The best feature is the Vehicles. Lara - With the help of some cool music, can Drive a Snowmobile or a Speedboat. Have fun!

The game is not as long as I hoped it would be, but there are a fair amount of levels, and varirty in them that keeps it going. You wont come back for much else though.

Time has not been fair to this game. The Concept's the same, But the age factor makes me award this a 6. You will find it cheap these days, and it is still a challenging adventure, So why not?

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/01, Updated 03/05/02