Tomb Raider II Remastered - Review

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Console: PlayStation 5

As I said in my review of Tomb Raider I Remastered, I own the entirety of classic Tomb Raider games now and that it was only a matter of time before I tackled the next game in the series. Well, it took me longer than expected to get to the 2^nd game, the aptly titled Tomb Raider II, but I have arrived at it at last. With the original Tomb Raider, I had already played its remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary and thus knew what to expect. With Tomb Raider II, I knew very little going in. What I knew of it is strictly related to its development. As Tomb Raider I became a big hit on the original PlayStation, work started on a sequel immediately, but on a tight deadline.

As taxing as making an entire game in 9 months might've been on the people of Core, by all accounts, they delivered. Tomb Raider II was received just as well as its predecessor, giving gamers in the 90s another excellent action-adventure game that built upon the original. From better graphics, more inticrate level design to new gameplay mechanics such as vehicle sections. Perhaps those improvements will make this a more enjoyable game for me to play? Tomb Raider 1 was, after all, a very mixed experience filled with both very fun and very frustrating moments.  

Without further ado, let's talk about Tomb Raider II and see if this sequel will treat me better!

After her quest to find Atlantis, Lara Croft's next big expedition takes her to China's Great Wall. She's there looking for the Dagger of Xian, a supposed mystical weapon once used by an ancient Emperor of China to command his army. Under the Great Wall, she finds a locked-off chamber where she is ambushed by a member of a mysterious cult. Before taking his own life, the cultist reveals that his master is also seeking the Dagger and for more than just fame and fortune. Getting to the Dagger before the cultists do sets Lara on another globetrotting adventure, one that brings her to the picturesque Venice all the way to the treacherous Tibetan mountains.

When it comes to the story, it feels like Tomb Raider II tries to make it more of a big thing. The cutscenes are a tad longer and grander, Core clearly doing their best to make them even more like scenes from an actual movie as they could back in 1997. It’s nice to see Core trying to step up their narrative but even so, the story here feels like something of an afterthought. 

At one point I found myself in thaht sunken cruise ship but I can't tell you why I was there nor did I recognize it was a sunken ship at first. The game never made that clear. In that sense, this story isn't that much better than the first which also felt like it was more or less just stringing together places the developers wanted to visit. Worse even, as that title has a clear and memorable villain. The big bad here is just some random guy Lara never directly interacts with until the final level, looks similar to the rest of his cult and has a name I can’t even remember.

They made a good attempt to give this game a stronger narrative but it’s an unsuccessful attempt.

What is a success, even if it is only noticeable if you play this game with the original graphics. In the first Tomb Raider game, Lara's iconic ponytail was nothing more than a knot due to limitations the team encountered. The same went for the skyboxes, which were nothing more than empty black voids. Here, Lara has her braid in the game itself and the skies are, well, actually skies. Whenever I went back to these classic graphics, because of their better lighting, these improvements were nice to see. 

Regardless of which graphical mode you choose, you have to contend with a couple of bugs and glitches. Doors that open and immediately close themselves again. Action prompts and outfits that fail to load. It's all small stuff, really, but it's stuff that added up and annoyed me by the end. Lara wears a bomber jacket on the cover but I can't actually wear it because of a well-known bug that still isn't fixed? That lack of polish and seeming lack of interest from Embracer Group to fix things is not good to see, to put it mildly.

The obliguatory comparison between the new and old graphics. Note that even the classic graphics has a skybox this time around. 

With all of that said, it's time to move on to the meat and bones of this game: the gameplay. In that, not much has changed. Because of that tight deadline there wasn’t much time for innovation. Tomb Raider II does what the first game did, leaning into the elements that made that game so enjoyable to many but tries to do it better. With success – for the most part.

The game is still a mix of exploration, puzzle solving and combat, each seeing some upgrades. The levels feel better designed with easier to grasp level layouts and more variety between them. I don't remember walking into dead ends or just stumbling around not knowing what to do. I knew what to do, where to go, I just had trouble actually pulling off those things. Levels vary in length, sometimes taking you over an hour to complete while others are done in about 15 minutes or so.

Tomb Raider I’s levels were all roughly the same in size hurting its pace and creativity a bit. Here, the shorter length and relative lack of enemies felt nice to break up the pace while the longer levels felt more like ‘an event’. When I saw that there were around 40 items to find, excluding those three dragon statue new to this game as an extra set of collectables, I knew I was in for quite a ride.

I also find the theming of the places Lara goes to more interesting. The original stuck to more 'standard' adventure locations that you'd expect such as Greece and Egypt. Here, we also go to an abandoned theatre in Venice where the bad guy has his lair and the wreck of a sunken cruise ship in an underwater cavern. We visit places such as The Great Wall of China itself too so you don't have to worry if that's more your fancy but I appreciate these more 'out there' ideas for levels. They’re more memorable, more fun to talk about with friends and stand out more. They're more than ‘just’ an Egypt level, if you know what I mean.

In terms of gameplay, Lara jumping in a boat or the like are the new ‘big’ thing… and I'm not a big fan of them. The controls have been a point of contention with these remasters. Whatever control scheme you choose, classic tank or modern ‘fluid’, there are problems to deal with. Neither is all that great but, with some practice, they work. Because of my experience with Tomb Raider I Remastered, I didn't have as much trouble with the controls this time around. After an hour or two of finagling I got back into the groove. That never happened with the vehicles which control poorly in both cases, feeling stiff and unnatural. In both big vehicle levels, I actually played as much of it as I could on foot because riding on these vehicles was so annoying.  

When it comes to the combat, Core gave Lara more weapons to use. From a harpoon for underwater sections to a grenade launcher that positively obliterates enemies. That last one really was a godsend for me. Right from the start, this game throws a lot of mooks at you who can dish out some serious pain to Lara, capable of taking you down in just a hit or three. These might not be nearly as bad as those bullet sponges of Egyptian monstrosities of the first game, but are nonetheless more troublesome to deal with than they're worth. Their bullets can bend around corners for crying out loud! This makes the opening levels of this game a lot harder than they have any right to be.

You will be doing a lot more fighting in Tomb Raider II than you did in its predecessor.

This leads me beautifully to my next point: this game might be more straightforward in its level design but it is also a lot tougher. Not only do we have all those bad guys to deal with but this game also just loves its deadly traps. From pitfalls to glass shards, there are a lot more of them here to ruin your play session. I also have the distinct feeling that platforms are placed further apart, making the platforming itself harder as well.

And then there is the lighting. When you go in a cave or underwater are dark places by nature. Tomb Raider II decided that, among the Yetis and magical daggers, that was a bit of realism they just needed to add in and took that too far. There are lots of locations so dark you can't see anything without lighting a flare. This, to me, feels less like adding a new gameplay mechanic for the sake of adding a new dimension or fun feature but simply to make things harder and more tedious. 

A higher challenge for a sequel can be nice for returning players but not the way Tomb Raider II goes about it. All these ways to make things more difficult, yes, but also more frustrating. They try to offset this somewhat by letting you save anywhere, anytime so you don’t have to backtrack as much if you fail a jump.

The sheer number of times I missed jumps by a hair; fell through a trap I couldn't even see because it was so dark or got shot dead by an enemy who shouldn't even have been able to hit me from that angle is immeasurable. I did save myself a lot of trouble by putting down regular saves, but if you forget to do so because you’re distracted playing the game, you could easily find yourself trying to get through that many sections dozens upon dozens of times.  

This is a core issue of this title. Tomb Raider II is more difficult but not in a challenging, fun, way. It’s more difficult in a frustrating, arbitrary way. There have been fewer games that got under my skin like this game has. That made me just want to stop playing the game altogether, the promise I made myself that I'd review every game I play be darned! 

Thanks to the use of a cheat code, the one that instantly filled up my inventory weapons, ammo and healing kits. Knowing that I could just hit enemies back hard and could heal virtually anytime made getting past the frustrating bits and get to the good stuff, the atmospheric sense of discovery, easier. I shouldn't have needed a cheat code to just enjoy the game in the first place at all though. Core should've balanced things better, made sure that the challenge didn’t undermine the fun, but they didn’t and that's a shame. 

And with that big issue out of the way, it's time for the finishing touch. 

Conclusion

Tomb Raider II is just like the first game: a mix of relaxing and fun puzzle solving and frustrating, archaic game design. When the game hits, when the levels are interesting and varied and they don't flood you with enemies it was a joyous and even relaxing adventure to play. When you're in a level that is way too long and obtuse, filled with traps that you only know are there because you fell victim to them once before and stuffed with hard hitting, outright broken enemies the game is an exercise in frustration. 

As such, even with its improvements such as more focus on story and better weapons, this sequel is just as much of a mixed bag as the original is. That makes my final recommendation pretty clear: only play this game if you've already played a classic Tomb Raider game before and liked them. If not, then your time and money is better spent elsewhere. 

My completion total. I thought that would be fun to share.