History VideoGame / TombRaiderII

* AIBreaker: The boss at the end of the Ice Palace level will stop chasing Lara if she stands on a ledge or platform that's too high for it to reach, which is normal. However, standing in certain places on the ground level will also achieve the same effect despite the boss logically being able to reach and attack Lara. It will still flee after you shoot it until you get back on its level.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: Part of the game takes place in Tibet, so obviously yetis make an appearance. Then there is that thing at the end of the Ice Palace level.

* PlotCoupon: Lara needs to find the Seraph, a key unlocking the vault containing the Talion, a key to the Temple of Xian, where the Dagger of Xian is stored. Made even more blatant when you realize the Temple access is blocked by nothing more than a basic wooden gate.

* RuleOfCool: Let's face it, it's the most escapist of all ''Tomb Raider''s ever made and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the very reason why so many people like it]]. It also helps that the game is very self-aware of this. Just to list few things out of the very long list: an Italian cult[=/=]mafia started out by a stage magician in a pursuit of an ancient artifact, said artifact turning the user into a dragon, yetis and other cryptids, animated jade statues, locations clearly defying laws of physics, warrior monks, impossible car chases, obligatory ''T. rex''... The list can go on and on.

* PlotCoupon: Lara needs to find the Seraph, a key unlocking the vault containing the Talion, a key to the Temple of Xian, where the Dagger of Xian is stored. Made even more blatant when you realise the Temple access is blocked by nothing more than a basic wooden gate.

* [[ActionizedSequel Actionised Sequel]]: Much more gunplay and human enemies to be found and fought in this game, and this was one basis of criticism compared to the predecessor.

* GiantMook: A few of Bartolli's goons are positively massive, being easily twice Lara's size, and can take some serious amount of ammo to finally drop.

* GiantMook: Yeti monsters. Meanwhile the huge [[BuffySpeak bird-headed thingy]] in the end of Ice Palace is a BossInMookClothing.

* GirlinessUpgrade: Not by a wide margin, however compared to the first game, Lara sports a long ponytail, bigger lips, more curvaceous figure and a slightly more feminine voice.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Your first enemy encounter is a tiger (which is similar to the bears from ''[[VideoGame/TombRaiderI TR1]]'' difficulty-wise), not a bat. You'll encounter deadly traps in the deeper parts of the first level. Things only escalate from there.

''Tomb Raider II'' is the second game in the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series. The sequel to ''VideoGame/TombRaider'', was released in 1997 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and PC; a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn version was planned but dropped due to technical limitations. The next year, another sequel was released, titled ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII''.

* ContinuityNod: When starting the tutorial level, Lara mentions that after that [[VideoGame/TombRaider gruelling business last year]], she decided to build an assault course to build up her skills.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Your first enemy encounter is a tiger (which is similar to the bears from [[VideoGame/TombRaider TR1]] difficulty-wise), not a bat. You'll encounter deadly traps in the deeper parts of the first level. Things only escalate from there.

''Tomb Raider II'' received a five-level ExpansionPack on PC called ''Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask''. This time, Lara pursues the legendary Golden Mask of Tornarsuk, hidden under a Cold War-era Soviet mining complex in Alaska. These new levels are also bundled into the iOS port, accessed the same way as ''Unfinished Business'' in the ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' iOS port.

** One trap in the Temple of Xian has spiked walls closing in and Lara needs to get to the end of the room to throw a switch and run like hell to escape. There's a health kit in the middle of the room to entice players, but it's impossible to grab it and escape since there's no time to grab the item and reach the switch without being skewered.

* SchmuckBait: 40 Fathoms' Silver Dragon sits at the end of a room in plain sight. If Lara just runs towards it, four disguised trap doors fall out below her and dump her into a gunfight with some goons.

* PlotCoupon: Lara needs to find the Seraph, a key unlocking the vault containing the Talion, a key to the Temple of Xian, where the Dagger of Xian is stored. Made even more blatant when you realize the Temple access is blocked by nothing more than a basic wooden gate.

* SpikesOfDoom: You encounter them right in the first level in two flavors: pit of spikes and walls of spikes closing in on you. For the modern areas like the sunken ship or the opera house, you'll encounter pits of broken glass shards that serve the same purpose as spike pits. The Temple of Xian is also full of spiky death traps. Luckily, the spike/glass pits can be rendered harmless if you just walk through them whereas running will hurt you and falling on top of them gives the obvious result.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: As par the tradition, the humble shotgun. This time around, Lara starts her adventure with one. The stopping power is very good, ammo is plentiful and it remains a reliable option till the very end. It's also Lara's only weapon in the final level. Likewise, the automatic pistols has good stopping power and ammo is plentiful until the much stronger uzis are found.

* PlotCoupon: Lara needs to find the Seraph, a key unlocking the vault containing the Talion, a key to the Temple of Xian, where the Dagger of Xian is stored. Made even more blatant when you realise the Temple access is blocked by nothing more than a basic wooden gate.

* SpikesOfDoom: You encounter them right in the first level in two flavours: pit of spikes and walls of spikes closing in on you. For the modern areas like the sunken ship or the opera house, you'll encounter pits of broken glass shards that serve the same purpose as spike pits. The Temple of Xian is also full of spiky death traps. Luckily, the spike/glass pits can be rendered harmless if you just walk through them whereas running will hurt you and falling on top of them gives the obvious result.

* ArtEvolution: Lara got a significant visual upgrade in this game: Not only does she sport a ponytail in gameplay with its own physics engine that reacts to player movement, but she also has breasts that actually ''look'' like breasts, unlike the boxy, overly pointy ones from the first game.

** The dagger of Xian is this, changing the user into a dragon. Permanently. And with a relatively big weakness.

* EarlyGameHell: The very first level will easily get new players killed and even veteran players of ''Tomb Raider'' can get tripped up by the high difficulty at the start. The traps and optional ''T. rex'' encounters will be the source of death for most. You're also stuck with the pistols unless you managed to find all three dragon statues to snag the grenade launcher. Luckily, the later levels are not quite as fiendish at the first one, but they still require you to be on your toes.

* GoodBadBugs: Lara can break windows by ''performing a roll into them''.

* UnwinnableByInsanity: Running out of health kits can be this in some situations where you have to fight some enemies and depending on who they are, avoiding their attacks can be impossible. Another flavor comes in the form of being forced to take fall damage while progressing in the level. If your health is too low to make the drop safely and you have no supplies left to heal with, you better hope you have a save from an earlier state you can load from!

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Like in the previous game, there are hidden areas or locations that require specific movements to reach. Unlike the previous game, each secret contains a dragon statue that grants nothing at first. However, collecting all 3 statues in a level rewards you with a hefty supply of ammo, health kits, or sometimes a new gun if you didn't get it yet. Getting all the secrets will grant you all weapons and unlimited ammunition on the [[NewGamePlus next gameplay]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Not that glaring, since the entire game runs on RuleOfCool, but Lara would suffer from decompression sickness. First she dives for at least [[TitleDrop 40 fathoms]] (which is 70 meters), then very quickly ascends from that depth and ''then'' hijacks a plane, flying at high altitude, all in very quick succession.

** The grenade launcher, both the weapon itself and where it's found. The weapon fires at a low arc and reloads slowly, making the weapon less than ideal on mobile targets. The weapon can be found in the very first level if you found all the dragon statues, but it's located in a deep pit that has [[spoiler: ''two'' T. Rexes hunting you down]].

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: The two T. Rexes in The Great Wall level]].

** The game starts at the Great Wall of China and the end of Lara's adventure also ends at the same location (excluding the epilogue level, Home Sweet Home).
** The first Gold Dragon secret in the game, in The Great Wall level, requires that Lara [[spoiler: climb down into a deep, dangerous valley instead of using the zipline right away. The very final Gold Dragon, in the Floating Islands level, requires you to do the same thing at the end of that level as well...minus T-Rex fights. The fact that the situation mirrors the first one is supposed to be the clue to lead the player to it]].

* EarlyGameHell: The very first level will easily get new players killed and even veteran players of ''Tomb Raider'' can get tripped up by the high difficulty at the start. The traps and optional T-Rex encounters will be the source of death for most. You're also stuck with the pistols unless you managed to find all three dragon statues to snag the grenade launcher. Luckily, the later levels are not quite as fiendish at the first one, but they still require you to be on your toes.

* ExcusePlot: Roughly 3/4 of the game is spent on finding a key to open a gate. A pretty regular, wooden gate that by all means should barely hold together at this point of history. It gets extra points for [[AdventurerArchaeologist Lara's style of work]]. If the door had been opened after the first level, the plot would be resolved within 4 levels [[spoiler: and without Lara having to fend off a home invasion]]. Heck, the entire plot could be summed up as "Get magic artifact before the bad guy does." It also doesn't help that the game has the least amount of cutscenes compared to the rest of the games in the franchise.

* GoodBadBugs: Lara can break glass by ''performing a roll into them''.

* MasterOfAll: The Uzis. Great range, best fire rate, plentiful ammo (it's possible to carry 2 ''thousand'' rounds in spare, while extensively using the weapon throughout the game), sufficient stopping power and possible to use while jumping and running around. The developers knew of this since every level from the Tibetan Foothills and later practically showers you with ammo for the Uzis. The [[VideoGame/TombRaiderIII next game]] considerably {{nerf}}ed them.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Pretty much every other weapon is made completely obsolete the moment Uzis are found. That's in the 3rd level of the game. Out of 18.

* RuleOfCool: Let's face it, it's the most escapist of all ''Tomb Raider''s ever made and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the very reason why so many people like it]]. It also helps that the game is very self-aware of this. Just to list few things out of the very long list: an Italian cult[=/=]mafia started out by a stage magician in a pursuit of an ancient artifact, said artifact turning the user into a dragon, yetis and other cryptids, animated jade statues, locations clearly defying laws of physics, warrior monks, impossible car chases, obligatory T. Rex... The list can go on and on.

* SchmuckBait: 40 Fathoms' Silver Dragon sits at the end of a room in plain sight. If Lara just runs towards it, 4 disguised trap doors fall out below her and dump her into a gunfight with some goons.

''Tomb Raider II'' received a 5-level ExpansionPack on PC called ''Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask''. This time, Lara pursues the legendary Golden Mask of Tornarsuk, hidden under a Cold War-era Soviet mining complex in Alaska. These new levels are also bundled into the iOS port, accessed the same way as ''Unfinished Business'' in the ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' iOS port.

* AllJustADream: The mysterious [[spoiler: Nightmare in Vegas]]. What exactly was going on in that hotel - one that includes Winston, bizarre, cheesy billboards, a Talion guardian locked up in a zoo, and 2 T-rexes on the streets?

* DisneyAcidSequence: The unlockable 5th level, [[spoiler: Nightmare in Vegas]].

* SoftWater: A ridiculous example in the secret 5th level, [[spoiler: Nightmare in Vegas]]. Lara has to jump off the 3rd story of a hotel and aim for a small trapdoor on the ground level that opens up just as she approaches...and dumps her in a pool of water.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: Eventually Lara finds herself running through caverns made entirely of solid gold, as well as rivers and lakes of molten ore. At one point she comes across a literal gold volcano. She helps herself to absolutely none of it. Although it's justified in that she has no way to extract the gold, and the molten ore kills her on contact like lava. Since Lara is obviously very wealthy, she would likely have no use for taking the gold back home.

* GiantSpiders: They show up in the Temple of Xian. Fortunately, they are rare, because they can take ''serious'' punishment.

* BookEnds: The game starts at the Great Wall of China and the end of Lara's adventure also ends at the same location (excluding the epilogue level, Home Sweet Home).

* BottomlessPits: One of the main hazards in Floating Islands.

* GlassCannon: The Dobermans in Venice have a vicious bite, but don't require many bullets to take down.

** The gold dragon statue in [[spoiler: the Ice Palace]] takes the cake for being super obscure to find. The room it's in is hidden behind a movable block whose texture almost perfectly blends in with the surrounding walls. Not only that, but the statue itself is across a large gap that has no platforms to jump on at all unless you take a LeapOfFaith and land on the invisible walkway.

* NothingIsScarier: While the draw distance has improved from the last game, everything beyond said draw distance is a black void. This makes for a very chilling effect at the start of the 40 Fathoms level where you start off at the bottom of the seabed with no source of light and surrounded by pitch darkness everywhere while you try to find a source of air as a shark swims afters you.
** This is also the case for Floating Islands, with its black bottomless pits everywhere.

* TutorialFailure: A strange case where the tutorial in a sequel does a worse job at explaining Lara's moves while the first game did a better job. You won't actually learn how to perform Lara's moves until you botch a section in the obstacle course, which will lead to a lot of trial and error. This was most likely due to the developers assuming that people already played the first game and remembered the mechanics. Furthermore, there's no indication in the game that you can now invert mid-jump or underwater.

* AntiFrustrationFeature: Like in the previous game, there's one level where your equipment is stolen, but you still get to keep all the ammo and medi-packs you collected. Two of the sunken ship's levels will have you take mandatory fall damage that requires you to be at full health to survive (though the first one can be reduced significantly with a few clever manoeuvres) and both instances will have a large health pack next to the drop just in case you don't have any.
** As the game is much longer than the previous one, it helps ''immensely'' that you can now save at any point, including on the Playstation version.

** The first Gold Dragon secret in the game, in The Great Wall level, requires that Lara [[spoiler: climb down into a deep, dangerous valley instead of using the zipline right away. The very final Gold Dragon, in The Floating Islands level, requires you to do the same thing at the end of that level as well...minus T-Rex fights. The fact that the situation mirrors the first one is supposed to be the clue to lead the player to it]].

* DirectContinuousLevels: All throughout the game, in true ''Tomb Raider'' fashion; "Catacombs of the Talion" and "Ice Palace" in particular are linked together in such a way that you end up backtracking to certain areas of the former in the latter level, not unlike certain levels in the previous game.

* DualWielding: It wouldn't be a Tomb Raider game without this trope. Lara's signature twin pistols return, along with dual semi-automatic pistols and dual Uzis.

* FanRemake: Nicobass, an established level-maker, is currently working as the leader of a four-person project (original was made by the team of 8) focused on remaking entire Tomb Raider 2 using Unreal Engine 4. Demo of the first level is already released. More details can be found on [[http://tombraider-dox.com/ the project's site]]. It's often referred by the fandom as the "20th Anniversary Game".
** Unfortunately the developement seems to be on hiatus now as there haven't been any updates since the release of the demo. So much that the remake is on verge of plummeting into DevelopmentHell.

* InvisibleBlock: The gold dragon statue in the Ice Palace level sits in a room with seemingly no way to reach it. There's actually a row of invisible blocks you can stand on to reach the statue, but nothing hints at the block's existence and you have to make a LeapOfFaith to reach said blocks.
* JumpScare: There's a lever underwater in the Living Quarters level that's guarded by a giant eel. You won't know it's even there until you approach the lever where the creature will quickly lash out at you. Not only the eel looks scary, it uses the same chomping sound as the sharks and will inflict heavy damage on you if it manages to bite you.

* MasterOfAll: The Uzis. Great range, best fire rate, plentiful ammo (it's possible to carry 2 ''thousand'' rounds in spare, while extensively using the weapon throughout the game), sufficient stopping power and possible to use while jumping and running around. The developers knew of this since every level from the Tibetan Foothills and later practically showers you with ammo for the Uzis. [[VideoGame/TombRaiderIII Next game]] considerably {{nerf}}ed them.

* NewGamePlus: If you found all secrets and begin new game immediately after beating it, you'll be rewaded with the entire arsenal and it won't require any ammunition to use.

* RuleOfCool: Let's face it, it's the most escapist of all Tomb Raiders ever made and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the very reason why so many people like it]]. It also helps that the game is very self-aware of this. Just to list few things out of the very long list: an Italian cult[=/=]mafia started out by a stage magician in a pursuit of an ancient artifact, said artifact turning the user into a dragon, yetis and other cryptids, animated jade statues, locations clearly defying laws of physics, warrior monks, impossible car chases, obligatory T. Rex... The list can go on and on.

* ShoutOut: The way how Lara dispatches one of the jeeps chasing her is a recreation of the famous Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior shotgun scene, with a sudden leap out of the cabin and shooting the driver at point-blank range.

* TutorialFailure: A strange case where the tutorial in a sequel does a worse job at explaining Lara's moves while the first game did a better job. You won't actually learn how to perform Lara's moves until you botch a section in the obstacle course, which will lead to a lot of trial and error. This was most likely due to the developers assuming that people already played the first game and remembered the mechanics.

''Tomb Raider II'' is the second game in the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series. The sequel to ''VideoGame/TombRaider'', it was released in 1997 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and PC; a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn version was planned but dropped due to technical limitations. The next year, another sequel was released, titled ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII''.

Lara is after the legendary Dagger of Xian, which is said to give its owner "[[LiteralGenie the power of a dragon]]". She finds herself in conflict with Italian mob boss/cult leader Marco Bartoli, who is after the same item. Locations in the game include Venice, an offshore oil rig, the sunken ocean liner Maria Doria, Tibet and the Great Wall of China.

Creator Toby Gard left Creator/CoreDesign during the development of this game, due to "CreativeDifferences" (he was unhappy with Lara's oversexualisation), and [[StartMyOwn co-founded Confounding Factor]]. Their first game was ''Galleon'', a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Tomb Raider'' that took about ten years to make. It was actually pretty damn good, but bombed on release. Confounding Factor closed down shortly afterward.

* PaletteSwap: Sasquatch is just yeti model, but brown rather than white.

** Unfortunately the developement seems to be on hiatus now as there haven't been any updates since the release of the demo. So much that the remake is on verge of plummeting into DevelopementHell.

* FanRemake: Nicobass, an established level-maker, is currently working as the leader of a four-person project (original was made by the team of 8) focused on remaking entire Tomb Raider 2 using Unreal Engine 4. So far, the works are going at steady pace, with all game-elements already being created and tested. Demo of the first level is already released. More details can be found on [[http://tombraider-dox.com/ the project's site]]. It's often referred by the fandom as the "20th Anniversary Game".

* BoringButPractical: The shotgun, full stop. Medium range, medium power, common ammo, still perfectly fine against the lion share of enemies. To a lesser extent, the automatic pistols, which are basic pistols in every regard, but with double the damage. Unfortunately, they are quickly [[OvershadowedByAwesome rendered obsolete by Uzis]] by the very next level.

* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Like in the previous game, there are hidden areas or locations that require specific movements to reach. Unlike the previous game, each secret contains a dragon statue that grants nothing at first. However, collecting all 3 statues in a level rewards you with a hefty supply of ammo, health kits, or sometimes a new gun if you didn't get it yet. Getting all the secrets is just for pure bragging rights.