Tomb Raider 2
History
Lara Croft has hit the computer game world by storm with over two million copies sold and climbing. Lara has become something of a cultural icon, the unattainable tough, reliant, intelligent, and athletic female that drives men and women wild. Lara has even stirred the feminist fringe who claim she is being exploited by her sexist male admirers and creators. Lara has been the subject of articles in the main stream press, including The London Times and The Daily Telegraph. What is there not to like?
Lara is on tour with U2, crashing through a brick wall on her motorcycle and grabbing Bono from the stage. It seems that even rock stars lust after and take a back seat to our virtual heroine. Lara will have a pop single record coming out that will be recorded with ex-eurythmic David Stewart.
Lara arose from the mind of Toby Gard, the game designer of Tomb Raider, who was tired of looking at muscle-bound stereotypic heros in scanty clothes with several days of untended stubble. What can be more pleasant than watching a luscous female form going though all the game acrobatics needed rather than some guys. Out of such an undercurrent of homophobia are Tank Girl-like heroines born.
Jeremy Smith, managing director of Core Design comments on his company's female creation, "I think that Lara is now probably the third best-known character in videogaming, after Mario and Sonic." In fact Lara is so popular she may marry Mario and adopt Sonic as a pet, just as a marriage of convenience, since they really should do a game together. The plot and character are so appealing that Hollywood is making overtures of doing a film with Lara Croft as the main character.
Company Line
Game Play
Plot
The plot puts our heroine archeologist with the big guns right smack in the middle of Chinese mythology surrounding the lost, ancient and magical Dagger of Xian. Our female Indiana Jones has to deal with a fanatical and violent Chinese Italian cult (Marco Polo did more than play horse games? -Ed.) and an equally violent minor cult of Tibetan monks, while trying to locate the knife.
Like the last game and other edutainment titles like Carmen Sandiago, Lara gets to look pretty in a variety of global locales, including Venice
Graphics
Animation
Voice Actors
Listen to Lara: Hello from Lara, Let's Go! 16-bit, Let's Go! 8-bit, Ready? 16-bit, Ready 8-bit, How about... 16-bit, How about... 8-bit, Jumping 16-bit, Jumping 8-bit, The Last Thing 16-bit, The Last Thing 8-bit, Ah! Air! 16-bit, Ah! Air! 8-bitMusic Score
Sound Effects
Utilities
Compare to
Nothing can compare except maybee the forthcoming Core Design's Diablo-like Deathtrap Dungeon.Multi-player Features
Even though many would love to have multiplayer Lara Crofts running around on the internet blasting one another, Core Design and Eidos have no immediate plans for supporting such immoral mayhem. Gavin Rummery, Tomb Raider 2 project leader, comments on such exploitive behavior, "Lara was really made to be a 'single player' kind of girl, certainly no more than monogamous." Gavin feels that Lara's autotargetting would make the game somewhat messy for his exquisitely coiffured and stylishly dressed maid. Besides the fact that Core designers are tapped out in the multiplayer concepts area, after so many exhaustive sessions with Lara one-on-one. Company officials have been quoted as "looking into ways of sharing Lara in the multiplayer arena, but then of course with Lara's independence, it is unlikely she would agree to be used in this way. We are thinking of leveraging our assets with the Lara Croft motorcycle racing game, or a Lara Croft graphic adventure, but we only have so much time to work on these projects, even if Lara is willing."Future plans
Lara Croft's Tomb Raider 3 is being planned as we speak. Jeremy Smith comments, "there will be a Tomb Raider 3, but not for a while. We have to rest up once we get through with our second encounter with the exhausting heroine. You know Lara packs quite a punch and still keeps coming back for more. We get tired and have to rest up between."Cheats, Hints, Walkthrough
Journalists
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References
Gara Whitta, PC Gamer, volume 4, number 8, August, 1997, pg. 70 - 79.