|
Review
Core’s ‘floating’ encore proceeds fisticuffs with both dragons and house burglars. This is climax time. Bartoli the dragon has nowhere else to run to, and if he did he would only burn the place down and waddle sheepishly through the embers. He must be destroyed. The flying guardians cannot forfil their potential inside indoor levels. They must be destroyed also. The ninja’s wear stereotypical black costumes akin to those usually worn by baddies in the Karate Kid movies. They too must perish, if only for their lack of class. Oh, and do I really need to give a reason as to why house burglars should fall victim to a spot of bad luck?
Last night, by the way…..
The Karate Kid- Well, that new neighbour of ours seems like an alright guy. Don’t you think so, Mr Miyaghi?
Mr Miyaghi (busy attending to a bonsai tree with a pair of toe clippers) - No, Daniel son! Neighbour wears black karate uniform. Black is symbol of evil. Most likely neighbour turn out to be guy you end up defeating with the crane kick in this year’s tournament.
The Karate Kid - Yeah, unluckily for him, huh? Mind you, it isn’t all bad for ninja’s in black uniforms. Some of them get recruited into the world of popular film and video entertainment. I met a guy last week who claims he had a bit-part in Tomb Raider 2 for the Playstation and P.C.
Mr Miyaghi Doesn’t surprise me Daniel son! I myself was asked to be a ninja in Tomb Raider 2.
The Karate Kid - Really? Wow! How come you didn’t accept?
Mr Miyaghi Can never travel to England, Daniel son. Must stay here and attend to Bonsai!”
The Karate Kid - Oh.
The game (TR2) abandons all pretensions of being half-puzzle, half action during these last two offerings before the credits. From hereon in it’s all about how quickly you can draw you weapon and aim it. The first indication of this comes with the last stand of the flying guardians right at the start of the Dragon’s Lair. Strangely, the setting here is almost exactly the same as the one at the beginning of the Tomb of Qualopec level in TR1; square room, doors in the middle of each of the four walls, enemies popping out from them every time you pull the available levers. The only thing missing it seems is a rolling boulder, but that’s no bad thing. I also seem to remember a room vaguely similar to this (albeit much smaller than the aforementioned two) in the Lost City of Tinnos level from TR3.
Slightly more enjoyable is the next area, the one with the dark room infested with large pillars and energetic ninja’s. The chore of wiping out the latter feels like a satisfying action scene from a Steven Seagal movie. There’s more room to move around in, too. You’ve no idea how much the outstretched circumference of a large spear limits the amount of ground you can actually walk on with a degree of safety. The ninja’s when trying to gang-bang you may have all the team co-ordination of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ back four, and but at least from a gamer-enjoying-his-video-game point of view they give you plenty of room to manoeuvre in. Two of them also kindly drop the appropriate keys that allow you access to the next section. Cheers, maties!
The battle with the dragon is like one of those Internet I.Q quizzes that just drag on and on depending on how gullible you are. I put the damn thing down on its knees nine times before realising there was probably something I wasn’t doing right. Core obviously expects you to go on even longer than that, because they’ve dumped enough spare uzi ammo under the water to keep a Colombian gunrunner in business for months. Why a dragon would have water in his lair in the first place, and worse still enough to fill a small reservoir, is another question. Lara of course totally rubs in this lack of forethought during the fight, first surviving being set on fire as she runs for a water hole, then by returning moments later completely healed and without a single burn mark on her entire body. Either the health packs are magical health packs or that dragon is blowing farts. Anyway, once you’ve pulled the dagger out of the dragon it’s time to mimic the ending of TR1 and sprint heroically out of the building before it collapses around you. Half of this we control. The other half we watch.
The shootout back at the Croft Mansion is the first and only time to date we’ve been given a sting-in-the-tail climax for our money. It’s a welcome addition to the main levels, but was clearly only thrown in late in the day. Not much time has been spent thinking up interesting ways for Lara to best the thugs, and some of the more interesting parts of the grounds are not even made use of (the assault course, the attic, the maze etc). Also, the motivations of those henchmen going there in the first place are quite dubious to me. They’ve seen the fate that awaited Bartoli when messing around with the Seraph, so why would they want to get it back again? I can only imagine their trip over from Rome to London is entirely revenge-based, bloody retaliation for Lara killing their leader. The Bond flick Diamonds are forever ends on a similar tone.
So, TR2 comes to an end. This is still the best game in the series IMO. The levels are consistantly great all the way through, where in most of the other entries there is the occasional horror of a level littered in amongst all the good ones. The path of the adventure is more exciting that in any other, the increased amount of shooting you have to do is fun, and the graphics and backdrops look fab. The music is also fab. I had more fun playing this Lara game than any other. It’s the one I would keep if I had to ditch five of the six. God I’m in a good mood now. Cya’s.
^Top |
