Lemmings 2: The Tribes

"They Were Smart Enough To Build Themselves An Ark, But They Can't Take Themselves To It?"

The Story
Long ago, the lemmings arrived on an island known as ''Lemming Island'' and made their homes. They were each given a piece of a legendary Tailsmen to guide them along their way. Along with the Tailsmen, a prophecy was given that said at some time darkness would overcome the land and destroy the lemmings. But the lemmings have prepared for that. They have made an ark to send them to safety. All that's needed is the legendary guide to guide them towards the ark.

Graphics
8/10 - OK, the Beach tribe graphics aren't all the great. The colors are bland and that sun in the background is just plain annoying in my opinion. Once you pass that, the graphics get a little better. The Outdoor tribe is about as plain, but it doesn't have that sun in the background. Once you pass THAT the graphics get much better. Now you've got pyramids and sphinxes and hieroglyphs. Wow, is this the same game as that place with the sun? Believe it or not, it is. The graphics are pretty sweet from now on. The Highland tribe has the best background in my opinion.

Sound
8/10 - I like the sound effects. They put it back to a ''Yippee!'' instead of a ''Boing'' when they jump in. There's also a distance effect. If the lemming makes a noise on the right side of the screen, it'll come out louder on the right speaker. However, this isn't good on a monaural television. The music varies and usually fits the mood of the surroundings. The music to the Beach and Outdoor tribes are slow and dull. The Circus tribe is downright annoying. The Cave and Shadow tribes are average. The rest are actually pretty good. My personal favorites were the Sports and Highland tribes' music.

Control
5/10 - A lot like Lemmings, but with a few flaws. First, selecting a command will unpause the game if you had it paused. So, if your lemming is about to walk off a cliff and to his doom and you want to give him a Builder command, so you select it. The game unpauses and he falls off the screen. Not good. Second, the fan. If you select the fan, then pause the game so you can move it to where you need to use it, when you unpause the fan will no longer be selected. So, you need to go back and reselect the fan in which case your lemming will probably be dead. There is a quick key, but sometimes you'll hit another quick key. Speaking of quick keys, the lock-on command is a pain to turn off.

Gameplay
9/10 - Basically like Lemmings with a few added things. For example, you'll notice you have a heck of a lot more commands at your disposal. Things like ''Laser Blaster'' and ''Thrower'' and ''Swimmer'' are now here. These commands change from level to level except for the Classic Tribe (which has the regular Lemmings commands the whole way through). There's also the fan which blows a lemming around when it has a certain command. For example, a Surfer. When you give the lemming the command, he'll get up on his surfboard and just stand there. You have to activate the fan and blow him across the body of water. There's also the Lock-On command which allows you to select a lemming from the crowd to something. Very useful.

Challenge
5/10 - One thing about Lemmings 2 that I didn't like was that you don't rely as much on puzzle solving. In Lemmings, you had to figure out how to get up that cliff without Builders or figure out how to save that Blocker so you can make the 100%. This game is just a matter of ''Use that command around here''. In fact, you only need to kill 5 lemmings in the entire game, all of them to Exploders (Formerly Bombers. Bomber is a different command in game). There's only a few times when good timing is essential. Once you know how to do the levels, most of them are easy. Even ''Odyssey'' is incredibly easy if you know how to do it. Only exception is ''Brigadoom!'' which can drive anyone mad.

Replay
3/10 - The ending is good for a few laughs, but the only reason I picked it up after finishing was because of a bug in the save system.

Pros and Cons
Good Points:
- Lemmings can fall further without splatting.
- The save system.
- Most of the music is great.

Bad Points:
- The game doesn't rely so much on puzzle solving, just using commands when you need them.
- The annoying Control traits.

Should I Get It?
Did you love Lemmings? Grab this.

Overall
A few control problems did hinder my enjoyment as well as the game not being as dependant on puzzle solving as the original, but it's still a good game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/02, Updated 10/13/02