Croft again. Well, a year later Laura was back and better than ever, with a new treasure

to find and enemies to shoot in the creatively titled, Tomb Raider 2.

The story focuses on the Dagger of Xian, a legendary weapon that has the ability to turn

a person into a dragon. And of course, like all mystical powerful weapons, someone is

out to get it and use it for bad reasons. So Laura is out to find the dagger and save

the world. The game’s story is interesting and does a decent job keeping your attention,

although it is predictable and forgettable. It will take you all around the world, starting

with the Great Wall of China and eventually to Venice, and Tibet.

All of the levels look great with the much improved graphics. For the Playstation, these

were some impressive looking textures, and the character models are improved. Laura still

has a bad case of shovel face, and her body is still that of a fantasy. A very polygonal

fantasy.The levels are even bigger than in the first game and make good use of the games

lighting effects. But with these larger levels comes some harder puzzles. The puzzles in

them much more difficult. Expect to get lost often while you backtrack looking for a switch

you missed.

The gameplay is still the same from the first game, which is not a bad thing. You will do

your jumping, climbing, and shooting as you hunt for treasures in order to advance to

the next level. Laura still has her now famous handguns, which will be your go to but the

game also has some new weapons such as a M16 and one of my personal favorite weapons, a

harpoon gun. The combat is much more prevalent than the first game, having Laura thin down

the populations of both endangered species and man.

The platforming is just a sensitive as before, relying a lot of blind jumps. Thankfully you

can save from anywhere. There are also some vehicle section, such as driving a boat through

Venice, that mix up the action. And there are still those annoying swimming levels,

which are still just as frustrating.

And while all this sounds great, there is something about that game that doesn’t wow

like the original. The first game was a huge shakeup for gaming, and this one just follows

behind. It doesn’t really take any risk, and is mostly more of the same. While this

isn’t that big of a problem for the sequel, it was a sign of things to come for the series.