Right well here is a change of post as I thought I would do one on a video game and I have gone back into the vaults for this one as I am currently playing it, Tomb Raider II, which was the sequel to the very successful original Tomb Raider game. So let's give this one a looksee...
The story follows Lara Croft (voiced by Judith Gibbons) who is on the search for the Dagger of Xian, which was a legendary weapon used by a former Emperor of China to command their army. The dagger is said to turn whoever possess it into a dragon once they stab the dagger into their heart. The emperor was then said to be have been killed when Tibetan warrior monks removed the dagger from his heart and it was then placed to rest in within the Great Wall of China. Lara in the modern day travels to the Great wall where during her search she is attacked by a thug who says he works for the Venetian Mafia boss, Marco Bartoli, who is obssessed with the legend of the dagger. Lara then follows and tracks Bartoli to his hideout in Venice and later an opera house where Bartoli intends to perform a heist. Lara manages to board Bartoli's plane just before take-off but she is then discovered and knocked unconscious. Lara eventually comes to, finding herself on an oil rig and her weapons and equipment have been removed. Lara then works her way through the rig, regaining her weapons, she takes out several of Bartoli's men and she soon finds a captive Tibetan monk, who tells her that Bartoli is carrying out an excavation of a shipwrecked luxury ocean liner, the Maria Doria. On arriving at the Maria Doria, Lara searches the ship and kills more of Bartoli's thugs and she eventually finds an artefact called the Seraph. Lara then travels to Tibet and arrives at the Barkhang Monestary where she searches for five prayer wheels, which will lead to a room that will hold the Seraph. Lara fights more of Bartoli's men and the monks also help her as well in taking them down and Lara eventually enters the catacombs where she finds a key, the Talion, which can be used to open the door which will lead to the dagger. And Lara's travels finally take her back to China where she intends to find the dagger, but she must try and find it before Batroli does or else there could be serious repercussions for the explorer and indeed the world....
Tomb Raider II was a big success on its release back in 1997, just a year after the original game came out. And to this day TRII really suceeds in being a thoroughly entertaining video game and to this day it still stands up very well as a game in its own right and is still one of the best entries in the series as it greatly expands on the original. The game also saw a few updates and upgrades in both Lara's movement as well as more weapons and more enemies (mostly human enemies) for her to kill. The game's levels are also very big and in some cases can take a couple of hours to work through (yep that's right hours!) particularly the later levels in Tibet and now the player can save the game at any time they want unlike the first game where Lara had to move onto triangles that were scattered throughout the levels.
In terms of the gameplay TRII is largely very accessible and easy to play and Lara's movement is pretty simplistic (albeit perhaps a bit sluggish by the pacing of modern day gaming) but she has some new moves such as climbing ladders and she can perform mid-air rolls to land in the opposite direction. Lara also has access to a variety of weapons and new weapons in addition to her dual guns, she also can use a harpoon gun, an M16 rifle, grenade launcher as well as automatic pistols. Lara can also auto-aim as before and lock onto her enemies as and when she points at a particular one and this in itself is rarely problematic (except maybe in the Monks level). Lara can also drive a couple of vehicles, namely a speedboat (which she uses in the Venice level) and also a snowmobile (where she drives in Tibet). And another addition to the game is the use of flares, which Lara can light up when she is in a darkened area and the flare will naturally illuminate these areas, but they only last a relatively short time before they go out.
As for the game's graphics well for its time TRII is still an excellent looking game and while the character models are still pretty primitive and crude looking by today's standards, the game's envrionments are still pretty impressive visually speaking. Some of the levels in particular have a great design especially the Tibetan monestary and also in Venice and given the size of the levels its quite impressive that the visuals are as good as they are for their time. The game also has a much improved lighting system and there are some excellent shades and colours to the lighting, which is also helped by the use of the flares, which can brighten up dark passages of the game. The game also utilises FMV (full motion video) cut scenes where we see more graphically enhanced versions of the characters and the visuals and are used to tell the back story as well as the story in between levels.
The game also has an excellent music score composed by Nathan McCree, who also worked on the first and third games in the series. The score is largely electronic and synthesizer based and it is very effective and atmospheric as well as rather evocative of the period in terms of gaming back in the late 90s and its well worth a listen to on its own even. As for the voice acting well this is where the game probably falls down a bit as the new voice actress for Lara Croft, Judith Gibbons is a bit underwhelming in the role as her delivery is a bit bland especially after Shelley Blond's much better performance in the original. Although Gibbons still does provide one of the game's best lines right at the end where Lara has defeated her enemies and she is about to undress and get in the shower she turns to the camera and says "Don't you think you've seen enough?!" and she grabs her shotgun and shoots it at the screen!
As for the game's flaws...... well yes Tomb Raider II isn't perfect by any means and most of its problems probably are down to the game's somewhat sluggish movement system and if you have been away from the earlier games you may find it will take you time to get used to Lara's movements, which it has to be said are less than fluid! In fact in the very first level in China I was finding myself become more frustrated at trying to control Lara at even trying to get her to do a simple jump onto another ledge, which would ultimately end with me slipping or missing the jump and falling back down to where I started! And it is also all too easy for Lara to mistime her jumps and fall to her death, where she screams out and she lands and breaks her neck (with that rather horribly graphic sounding neck snap!). The same also applies in some of the time based traps such as areas where Lara must jump over things such as big spikes, spinning wheels and not to mention floor panels that have flames on them and at any time Lara could be a victim to one of these.
The game's graphics are also a bit of a minus in some respects as the character models are of course pretty crude by today's standards and there are also several issues of graphical clipping as when some enemies are killed and lie dead (in a planked position no less!) you see them partly fall into the floor. Then there are some characters such as the monks who can defy gravity by even walking through walls or blocks, yet somehow Lara can't do that herself! (I think she has been cheated, or perhaps there is a hidden God mode where Lara can do all of that!). The monks also in terms of being characters are quite helpful in the game to Lara but they can also be a bit of a pain as they can get in Lara's way when she is trying to take down enemies in the game and they get in her way as they try and kill the bad guys instead, which is particularly annoying if you are trying to go for every kill in each level only to have some Tibetan monk get there before you! But you of course have to be careful not to kill any of the monks because if you do they will come after Lara with a vengeance and kill her instead (this took me FOREVER to figure out when I first played the game back when it was released!).
Another issue with the game is perhaps while the levels are pretty big and expansive they are perhaps also just a bit too big and you feel you are spending quite alot of time getting from A to B just to basically retrieve a key to open a door to enter a new area. Some of the enemies in the game can also be a pain in the ass such as the thugs in the Tibetan foothills level who are on snowmobiles as they can drive right through Lara, which makes it all too easy to kill her and she doesn't stand much of a chance if they do. Then there is also a problem with the use of flares in the game as there plenty of darkened areas to be found in TRII and to be honest at times there just aren't enough flares at hand and Lara is reliant on the pickups from her dead foes, who only occassionally drop flares but its mostly just medpacks and ammo that they leave behind.
But that all put aside.... Tomb Raider II is still an excellent game which makes a for a lengthy and very entertaining single player game experience and it holds up very well even to this day and is well worth checking out if you haven't played it in quite a while.
And I will leave it there for now and will be back soon.
Night!
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