Lara Croft. Unless you've been in a
coma for the past year or two,
you've probably heard that name
somewhere. For those of you who
experienced the first Tomb Raider
game, the second one will be pure
enjoyment. In Tomb Raider 2 you
again take on the identity of Lara
Croft, but this time you take on a
totally different story line. This time
Lara the great adventurer seeks
another artifact: The Dagger of
Xian. Legend says that the one who
drives the dagger in their heart,
acquires the power of the Dragon.
But this time, three other people
want this artifact, so Lara must fight
off whatever comes in her way,
including; dogs, tigers, pirhanas,
huge snow creatures, and many
more enemies than ever imagined in
the first game.
Tomb Raider 2 basically has the
same controls as the first game.
Except for some new moves such
as being able to climb up walls
(you'll need that in the Venice level
of the game), being able to wade in
shallow water unlike in the first
game where Lara swam no matter
what. Tomb Raider's Game Engine
(the thing that runs the game and
shows all those cool things) has
been meagerly tweaked by Eidos to
allow better special effects such as
Dynamic Lighting (used to make
flares and stuff), and to allow the
gamer behind the controller to move
Lara with better response.
This time around Lara gets
equipped with some new weapons
along with the originals, the new
weapons are: a harpoon gun for the
sunken ship level, and an M-16 for
blasting the living whatchamacallit
out of those tigers, and maybe even
some other weapon that we haven't
seen yet. In the first game most of
the bad-guys were animals, and
some dinosaurs, but thankfully, in
TR2 we finally get more human foes
to blast, as far as I know they're
guys, but there might be females.
Once again Eidos has done an
extraordinary job with the stages.
The stages include; China, Tibet,
Venice, and an underwater level
(Lara in a wet suit!). Each stage
consists of a couple or more levels,
but don't worry, you wont go
through this game like you have
through some of the others, this
game takes time (time that's worth
it). Tomb Raider 2 is a must get for
anyone who has played the original
and for anyone who hasn't played
the first one. Tomb Raider 2 is
available for both PC and Sony
PlayStation. Suggested retail price:
$49.99
SCORE: 9.0
