Introduction

Just recently, I was made aware of the fact that 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Tomb Raider 2, released in 1997 for PC and the original Playstation.

So, what's so special about Tomb Raider 2?

The fact that I spent countless and countless of hours playing it, and upon realizing that it's the 20th anniversary, I immediately went to check on my girlfriend's PS3 whether or not was available for purchase on the Playstation Store, and much to my joy it was!

Not only was it nostalgic to go through a game from my childhood, but it was especially nostalgic pulling an all nighter while doing it.

Just like when I was a kid, except this time I didn't have to do in secret after my parents had gone to sleep.

Although I'm sure my parents really knew why I was always so damn tired on school mornings, having only slept an hour or two if I was lucky.

They just allowed me to think that I was so very clever.

Tomb Raider 2 was my first Tomb Raider game, which I got in 1997, and I can't even remember how I got it. It wasn't a Christmas or birthday present, or anything like that, so I guess my mom just bought it for me for some odd reason. I don't remember ever wanting it, since it was unappealing to me as it had a woman on the cover, and of course, being a boy, I wanted to play as a man.

However, since I was a young gamer, and it was a new game to test and play, I did give it a try.

Let's dive in and see how it went.

Story

I never really touched on the story of the Mega Man X games that I reviewed, since it's such a non-factor in the overall scheme of things, and though about skipping it here, too, but I'll briefly summarize it.

Basically, you are Lara Croft, a super rich tomb raider/thief, who basically travels around the globe collecting rare and valuable artifacts for money.

Lara is actually a pretty cool character, even if she doesn't have that much depth to her in the first few games of the classic series.

Lara's the type of thief who wants information, breaks into someone's property to acquire said information, then stays there to study that information. Instead of escaping and then studying it.

No, Lara simply gives no fucks, and that makes her a really fun character. She's a tough as nails femme fatale, and the reason I was even thinking about Tomb Raider recently was because in my mind, I modeled a female character in my fictional story after Lara Croft, since I needed a badass female.

It was quite an undertaking, actually, in the mid 90s to convince gamers, who at the time were almost exclusively males, to buy into this female lead character who would shoot, jump, kill, run and dominate just as any male character in gaming up till that point.

Yes, Lara was overly sexualized with her overgrown boobs and whatnot, but I feel that her sex appeal is so over the top that it's not really meant to be taken seriously. I don't see why it would bother anyone. It's not like Lara's boobs are any more unrealistic that her superhuman jumps and her ability to flip and change direction mid-air. It's a videogame.

The artifact that Tomb Raider 2 focuses on is the Dagger of Xian - an ancient dagger, used by the Emperor of China, that is supposed to have magical powers. Unfortunately for Lara, she's not the only one after the dagger, since the leader of the Venetian Mafia is also obsessed with the history if this dagger, and is doing anything he can to get his hands on it.

What ensues is an adventure around the globe in search of the dagger.

The story is very simplistic ad bare bones, but Tomb Raider, at least in the beginning, was about the gameplay. And Lara's boobs. But mostly gameplay. As well as Lara's ass. But still the gameplay was the most important part.

Gameplay

Tomb Raider 2 was built on top of the Tomb Raider engine, and came out only a year after the release of the original Tomb Raider.

The first game was okay enough as far as gameplay went, but the decision to use the same engine gave the developers the opportunity to save time, and spend it tweaking and perfecting the engine.

The end result was a much more enjoyable and smoother experience.

Tomb Raider is a 3rd person action adventure game, mixing shooting and platforming, with puzzles in between for variety.

With today's standards, the control scheme and camera are definitely dated, and it can be a frustrating experience going back to a game like this. I know it was for me!

But the gameplay is also hooking, there as an immense sense of satisfaction when you finally progress through an annoying part, finally mastering that difficult jump.

Tomb Raider 2 truly is a look into gaming's past - to a day when we had this weird love/hate relationships for games that simultaneously frustrated and entertained us like no other form of media.

I said it a few times in my Mega Man X reviews that kids today have it too easy when it comes to games.

Tomb Raider does not hold your hand, at all. Tomb Raider is like "Fuck you, now go out there and try to survive". And that's actually pretty great.

As you progress, you really feel like you've accomplished something. So few modern games give me that feeling, whih is why I've almost given up on modern gaming altogether.

The biggest enemy of all in 3rd person adventure shooters in the 90s was the camera, which was terrible nearly without fail, but I'm happy to say that the camera in Tomb Raider 2 gave me almost no trouble at all.

This was a surprise to me, but an enjoyable one!

Yes, it was wonky at a few spots, but 99% of the time, the camera was where it needed to be, and goddamn that was rare in games like this in the mid to late 90s. Anybody who was a gamer back then knows what I'm talking about.

Shooting happens with a lock on mechanic, and the game allows you to freely move around and jump and dodge enemy fire while doing it. It's clunky like it's 1997 at first, but once you get used to it, you'll manage it. It's not like the action mechanics are a thrill ride, but they get the job done. It takes practice, but then again Tomb Raider 2 is a difficult game, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.

And that's why we like it! Or at least that's why we should like it!

In addition to shooting, Lara obviously jumps and climbs, and the game has good detection when it comes to grabbable surfaces and ledges, it's rarely unfair. What can be unfair sometimes, however, are the jumps. They're not terrible by any means, and definitely much better than its contemporaries, but you need to be precise with your jumps and your landings in order to hit the landing zone.

The game is every bit from 1997 as you would expect.

It has not aged as well as, say, the Mega Man X series, even the SNES trilogy, prior to the Playstation generation. But this is understandable, the mid 90s was a difficult and challenging time for game developers. 3D was a new thing, and many developers were struggling with the jump from 2D to 3D, not really understanding how gaming would function in a 3D environment.

This is why it can be rather unfair to compare something like Tomb Raider to something like Mega Man X, or Super Mario Bros. 3, both of which had the luxury of being released during a time where the mechanics and the platform were fully understood and realized.

What the first few Tomb Raider games deserve praise for, then, is revolutionizing gaming during a new era, paving the way for a lot of modern games.

Tomb Raider began the journey, and Tomb Raider 2 perfected the formula which showed how a 3D action adventure game works.

Kids, if it wasn't for Tomb Raider, gaming today would be a lot different. A lot of games and developers took a lot from Tomb Raider, especially Tomb Raider 2.

The levels vary from the Great Wall of China to the beautiful Venice, to a sunken ship, to ancient catacombs and temples. The levels are very well designed and complex, often offering several ways to progress through them.

The vast levels and genius level design was what I fell in love with as a kid.

I have thing for games that take me on a voyage around the globe, through different countries and cultures. And a great game is able to convey it to me that the adventure is indeed spanning several different locales.

Tomb Raider 2 does that.

My personal favourite levels are the four levels that take place in an upside down sunken ship.

I loved the levels as a kid, and they were the main reason I wanted to replay the game now. I couldn't wait to get to the ship levels.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the other levels, as well. I can honestly I say very much enjoyed all of the levels in the game, as far as their atmosphere and design went. I also think they are the best in the entire Tomb Raider series, and a big reason why Tomb Raider 2 is generally though of as the peak of the classic series.

And good level design is something that never ages.

Graphics

What does, and will, age, however, is graphics.

Tomb Raider happened during the awkward transitional era from 2D to 3D, as previously discussed, and the original Playstation era graphics were not pretty to look at even when they first happened.
This transitional period was a necessary one, and it's absolutely understandable that it took mastering to really make games look good in 3D, but it wasn't until Playstation 2, XBox and Gamecube that games started to look good again post-2D era. Nintendo 64 also struggled with its blocky polygon graphics, so this wasn't just a Playstation thing.

A lot of time has been spent on making Lara good, and she looks a lot better than in the first game. She even comes with a fully functional ponytail this time! The way the ponytail physics work is actually quite impressive, honestly.

The other character models are way, way less impressive, and barely even look like human beings. But it's okay, it doesn't take away from the experience, and is totally forgivable, at least in my eyes.

What Tomb Raider 2 does bring to the table, though, is just the overall atmosphere of the different levels. And even though the textures can be blurry and dirty, the locales have a soul that makes up for a lot of it. Since the levels differ so much from each other, it really brings brings it to the forefront just how well the different levels capture the feeling you would have in these locales.

So, while it's not impressive for modern eyes from a technical standpoint, it's impressive from an artistic standpoint.

And that makes it visually an enjoyable piece of work. It's the overall artistic direction that has aged really well, despite the technical shortcomings.

It's also worth noting that the levels are huge, especially for the game's time, which makes it even more understandable that textures and whatnot are not all that amazing everywhere.

Music

Continuing with the atmosphere theme, the soundtrack of Tomb Raider 2 is simply heavenly. It's marvelous. From the main menu theme to the violins of Venice and all the way to the hymns of the ancient temple.

There's not a single bad track on the soundtrack, and the entire soundtrack is easily worth a listen even outside of the game.

The music really brings the levels to life, and really compensates for the aforementioned graphical limitations.

Tomb Raider 2 uses its music very sparingly, though. It's not on constantly, and only plays occasionally, which makes it have a larger impact when it does, in fact, play.

I quite like this. The sections where there is no music just goes to underscore the fact that you're all alone in this big world, and need to rely on yourself to survive. It really creates a feeling of loneliness that I even remembered before booting up the game, 20 years later. There's something very cool about it.

And then when the beautiful music finally starts to play, it's endorphin inducing.

This would not be achieved if the music was on constantly.

Overall

How does Tomb Raider 2 stand against the test of time, then?

Really well!

Its age does show, there's no denying the fact that it was released in 1997, 20 years ago, and gaming has changed and evolved a lot in 20 years.

But not always for the better, I'd argue. And Tomb Raider 2 really showed me this fact. There's no difficulty curve in Tomb Raider 2; it's fuck you from the start, good luck with your life.

It's an enjoyable adventure that spans from one side of the globe to the other, and while it can be frustrating and at times rage inducing, when you finally figure out how to progress, you realize the rage was all worth it. The game is simply demanding you to master it before giving you anything.

This is how games used to be, kids!

You needed to work for it, goddamnit.

Tomb Raider 2 is a landmark game, and since it can be bought for like 5 bucks at the Playstation Store, you really owe it to yourself to give it a try if you never have.