SAVE-SCUMMING: THE GAME
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Talk about having to write the same review twice. Tomb Raider II was
released just one year after
its predecessor, and today it feels more like a stand-alone expansion than a proper game.
There's not much separating the two. Since the release of Tomb Raider, Core Design had been bought by Eidos Interactive. The mastermind behind the
concept, Toby Gard, was not given creative freedom in
creating the sequel, and consequently left the company. In spite of this, Tomb
Raider II contains only a few, very minor gameplay changes. The story does not
shift the focus in any particular way either, still concentrating on Lara's
adventures rather than fleshing her out as a character.
What's drastically changed, however, is the general tone of the experience. In this sequel, the exploration of ancient tombs and sense of abandonment is mostly gone. It is replaced by a spirit of grand adventure and sensationalism more akin to contemporary action movies. Some new levels take place mostly outdoors, in full daylight, with Lara running atop the Venetian rooftops and across the Tibetan foothills, killing droves of human opponents and animals in the process.
The most striking difference is the addition of dynamic lighting. This necessitates flares as a new resource. Since you cannot hold both a flare and a weapon simultaneously, there are a few instances where you have to run around in areas of complete darkness if you want to be able to defend yourself. This adds an element of horror, and I wish that Core would have dared to experiment with this a little more.
These changes add new flavor and a little variation. They might not add up to much of an improvement, but more of the same old Tomb Raider we knew would have made the sequel seem even more like a quick cash grab. So even if Core chose to tonally point the series in a somewhat new direction, for this sequel at least the core gameplay has still not veered far away from what's essentially trademark Tomb Raider.
The story is wholly new as well, and just as weak and minimalistic. Piece by piece, it's revealed to us through primitive in-engine cutscenes or horribly stiff, pre-rendered ones. Most of the voice actors deliver their lines in thick accents, making them all but inaudible. I had to check the plot up online to fully understand, and boy was it no Booker Award-winner:
Lara Croft, some Tibetan monks, and cult leader Marco Bartoli all vie for an ancient MacGuffin called the Dagger of Xian. Whoever possesses it can plunge it into his or her own heart and become a dragon. It lies buried somewhere within the Chinese Wall, and Lara has to trek the globe for a key that opens the tomb. Then she must go and open said tomb.
With all those puzzle pieces on the table - can you guess who, or what, will be the final boss?
What's drastically changed, however, is the general tone of the experience. In this sequel, the exploration of ancient tombs and sense of abandonment is mostly gone. It is replaced by a spirit of grand adventure and sensationalism more akin to contemporary action movies. Some new levels take place mostly outdoors, in full daylight, with Lara running atop the Venetian rooftops and across the Tibetan foothills, killing droves of human opponents and animals in the process.
The most striking difference is the addition of dynamic lighting. This necessitates flares as a new resource. Since you cannot hold both a flare and a weapon simultaneously, there are a few instances where you have to run around in areas of complete darkness if you want to be able to defend yourself. This adds an element of horror, and I wish that Core would have dared to experiment with this a little more.
These changes add new flavor and a little variation. They might not add up to much of an improvement, but more of the same old Tomb Raider we knew would have made the sequel seem even more like a quick cash grab. So even if Core chose to tonally point the series in a somewhat new direction, for this sequel at least the core gameplay has still not veered far away from what's essentially trademark Tomb Raider.
LARA THE PSYCHOPATH
However, with the promise of action, Tomb Raider II also focuses more on combat. This is arguably the game engine's weakest point. Core introduces new enemies, weapons, moves and even a couple of vehicular sections. Like before, both Lara and her enemies auto-aim at each other, and so gunplay is like a war of attrition. Your best bet is to find a way behind your opponent, make a quick 180-roll and fire away. That's the one move the enemy cannot replicate, because they still turn like tanks. Most of your loot will come from fallen enemies, so killing them can actually be beneficial.The story is wholly new as well, and just as weak and minimalistic. Piece by piece, it's revealed to us through primitive in-engine cutscenes or horribly stiff, pre-rendered ones. Most of the voice actors deliver their lines in thick accents, making them all but inaudible. I had to check the plot up online to fully understand, and boy was it no Booker Award-winner:
Lara Croft, some Tibetan monks, and cult leader Marco Bartoli all vie for an ancient MacGuffin called the Dagger of Xian. Whoever possesses it can plunge it into his or her own heart and become a dragon. It lies buried somewhere within the Chinese Wall, and Lara has to trek the globe for a key that opens the tomb. Then she must go and open said tomb.
With all those puzzle pieces on the table - can you guess who, or what, will be the final boss?
The levels are visually more impressive than the first game's, with a richer color palette and even a few examples of environmental storytelling. The designers of the Maria Doria levels deserve special praise. The claustrophobia of exploring a ship laying on the ocean floor brings us closer to Tomb Raider's roots than anything else in the game. Because what else could you call a sunken passenger ship but a tomb? As it is turned upside down, there's for once even a twisted logic to most of the obstacles hindering Lara's progress - not to mention the strange item placements. I had played Tomb Raider II before, and this is the only location I distinctly recalled.
CUTS AND RETAKES
Unfortunately, from a gameplay standpoint the Maria Doria levels also illustrate Tomb Raider at its rock bottom. They are filled with underwater combat, unavoidable fall damage, time-consuming box puzzles, confusing level design and weird enemy placement. The level called The Deck has a particularly flawed moment where you're stuck outside on the top deck of the ship in a colossal cave, given no clue where to go next. There are several possibilities but none of them work. The visual cue you need can only be spotted from a certain point at the early part of the level.Refusing to look up the solution, I spent an hour running through the same caverns before I found it. By then I felt like garbage, and no sense of achievement could cheer me up.
And overall, Tomb Raider II seems built upon the notion that the player completed the first game. It is harder than its predecessor. Repeated moments of unfair instakill - like unavoidable fall damage, undetectable traps, or even being turned the wrong way whilst sliding down a slope - call for frequent save-scumming. Rushing into a location expecting anything does not help. You sometimes need to have experienced death to know what's expected of you.
This turns saving and loading into essential parts of game progression, like cuts and retakes, which ruins the flow of cinematic action. This is not how the first game worked. The levels of that game functioned as some kind of code to be cracked, or a language to be deciphered. Once you got the hang of it, you had but to explore carefully to be able to guess what was expected of you - and you'd be right. That's sometimes true of Tomb Raider II as well. But ever so often you might look down a slope and wonder: "Should I ride this front or back first?" Given no visual clue, you're left to pure chance. And if you guess wrong, death is the only way forward.
I know a lot of people find Tomb Raider II to be the pinnacle of the classic Lara Croft adventures. I personally prefer the original for reasons of atmosphere and level design, but I'm also aware that the choice comes down to personal preference. I know none of them are without flaws - it's just a matter of what flaws you are able to overlook.
To proponents of Tomb Raider II I can also admit that I may have played this game a little too soon - only a couple of months after the first, which I already back then admitted felt like hard work. Fans back in 1996 had to wait a year for the sequel. They would've felt no fatigue, no burnout, nothing but pure anticipation for the new adventure. According to Mobygames.com, work on techno group The Prodigy's third album, The Fat of the Land, was delayed because all group members got sidetracked playing Tomb Raider II. That's a level of hype I couldn't muster.
Will I play keep playing the series? Yes, but I will bide my time and give it the fair shake that every game deserves. Don't expect a Tomb Raider III review before the turn of the decade.
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