Review: Tomb Raider II

By: Kirk Hiner

I once read a review of a Jackie Chan movie--I believe it was for "Rumble in the Bronx"--in which the reviewer stated something to the effect of "The thing about Jackie Chan is that, after seeing one of his movies, you want to be him." After marvelling at the pool hall scene in the aforementioned movie, that comment certainly held true for me.

Until now. Now I want to be Lara Croft.

I don't need to tell you who she is. I don't need to tell you from what game she comes. If you haven't heard of the Tomb Raider series by now, then you should just log off and crawl back to that rock under which you've been hiding. Lara has become such an icon that she's even been a question on "Jeopardy." In fact, the only place Lara hadn't been seen was on the Macintosh. But thanks to Aspyr Media, that no longer holds true. And believe me, dear reader, it was worth the wait. Pound for pound, "Tomb Raider II" is easily the most entertaining game of 1998...in any category.

As Lara Croft, your mission is to recover the Dagger of Xian, which legend states has the power to literally turn into a dragon those who are willing to thrust it into their heart. To retrieve the dagger before other interested parties do, Lara must travel to far away locales ranging from the beautiful Venice to the creepy wreck of the Maria Dora, to the fabled Floating Islands. Each area contains a multitude of mazes to navigate, traps to elude, and--of course--nasties to kill. You're provided with a slew of guns and plenty of health power-ups, but your most powerful weapon is Lara herself.

This woman's atheletic abilities are astounding, and her stamina would put George Foreman to shame. Executing jumps, flips and slides is half the fun of "Tomb Raider II," the other half is figuring out exactly where to jump, flip or slide. This is what sets "Tomb Raider II" apart from most other games in the action genre; it's less fighting and more thinking.

But this doesn't mean that "Tomb Raider II" is lacking in action. Heavens, no. There are more than enough deadly mercenaries and wild animals to kill, but there are also crumbling walkways, rolling boulders, sheer cliffs and spiked walls with which to contend. Quite often, you escape one trap only to find yourself stuck in a more difficult one.

Although the graphics in "Tomb Raider II" aren't up to "Unreal" standards (mercenaries have a habit of disappearing into walls or sloped floors when killed, and Lara herself looks somewhat disjointed, kind of like a digitized Pinnochio--minus the nose, plus the...well, you've seen the pictures), they're still better than 90% of what's currently on the market. With a 3Dfx accelerator, the water and lighting effects are top notch. Without, they're par.

The sound is exceptional. Everything from the rush of a waterfall to the distant--or perhaps not so distant patter of scampering spiders greatly enhances the game's general ambiance. The sound also provides clues as to what you should do next. The music swells when the action is about to heat up, and you sometimes hear a faint jangling when you're near an object of importance.

A special note should also be made of the "Tomb Raider II" controls. Unlike with "Unreal," they're very easy to use right away. The game even presents you with an obstacle course on Lara's estate to help you master her moves before you start the expedition. Lara runs by default, but holding the shift key slows her to a safe (and somewhat sexy...I'll admit it) walk. Shift walking will also automatically stop Lara from accidentally stepping off any ledges.

And this may be common knowledge, but I'll mention it nonetheless as it's the first Easter Egg I've found on my own since the Quark XPress alien. When pulling Lara up a ledge, hold the shift key along with whatever you use for the action key. This causes Lara to pull up into a hand stand before gracefully arching backwards to land on her feet. Seems that Tara Lapinksi has some competion, and you just know that she's not as good with a harpoon gun.

Another benefit to the "Tomb Raider II" controls is the fact that you don't always have to see what you're shooting. If something is attacking from off screen, Lara will find it and raise her weapons. She also keeps the target in sight even while running, so you can concentrate on other things. However, if being attacked by two or more nasties, be sure to lower your weapons after killing one. If not, Lara will continue to pump bullets into the dead body even while being attacked by someone...or something else.

So what's my nitpicking problem with this game? There's always one, after all, and in "Tomb Raider II" it's the save game function. Hitting escape pulls up the menu ring, from which you can hit the down arrow to open the game functions. You must then hit return to open the passport which brings up the "Load Game" feature. Now I'm not a moron--no matter what my grade school teachers so often wrote on my report cards--but all too often I accidentally loaded a saved game rather than save the spot I'd currently reached. That extra step to move from the load menu to the save menu, especially when the saved games retain the same titles, is one too many to make when I'm thinking about those sharks that are currently circling Lara. Also, "Tomb Raider II" keeps track of how many times you've saved the game. When that number gets above four hundred, it pretty much drives home the fact that you would've gotten your butt kicked at MacSoft's National Macintosh Gaming Championship in San Francisco.

But anyway, I now understand the gaming market's love for "Tomb Raider II," as well as its infatuation with Lara Croft. I mean, from a female's stand point, it must be cool to finally have a powerful and intelligent female character to control. From a male's standpoint, it's hard to look at a woman's backside for hours at a time without developing somewhat of an attachment to it's owner, even if that owner is computer generated. And now we've got "Tomb Raider Gold" on the way, and I doubt that "Tomb Raider III" will be far off. There's even talk of a Tomb Raider movie in the making. You can bet that if it costars Jackie Chan and has, of course, one or two good swordfighting skeleton scenes, this reviewer will have found his nirvana.

Genre: Action

Platform: MacOS

Format: CD ROM

Developer: Core Design, Westlake Interactive, Eidos Design and Aspyr Media

Publisher: Aspyr Media

Requirements: 80MHz PowerPC, 16MB RAM, MacOS 7.5.3, hard drive, color monitor, 4X CD ROM, QuickTime 3.0 (included).

Network feature: Yes

Retail price: $49.99

Availability: Out now

Raised on Intellivision and "Tron," Kirk Hiner has been an avid gamer ever since he was tall enough to look through the viewfinder on the Battlezone upright. Although he makes a living using a PC (not by choice) to design websites for Dynamics Online, Inc., Kirk never strays from his 9600/200 or 3400c for computer gaming. When he's not playing the latest Logicware release, he can either be found working on his next "never to be published" novel, rereading anything by Kurt Vonnegut or watching RAW is WAR.

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February 09, 2010