Trivia / Tomb Raider II

• Creator Backlash: Creator Toby Gard left Core Design during the development of this game, due to "Creative Differences" (he was unhappy with Lara's over-sexualization), and co-founded Confounding Factor. Their first game was Galleon, a Spiritual Successor to Tomb Raider which took about ten years to make. It was actually pretty damn good but bombed on release. Confounding Factor closed down shortly afterward.
• Money, Dear Boy: The reason the developers endured terrible work conditions was Eidos promising them royalty checks and bonuses if the game sold well.
• No Port For You: The Golden Mask expansion pack was released only on PC and then to iOS later on. A console version was never made and despite the base game being on Steam, the expansion pack was never released on Steam. The 2024 remaster would finally bring back the expansion pack across all platforms.
• The Other Darrin: Judith Gibbins takes over as Lara Croft in this game, replacing Shelley Blond from the first (although Blond's voice is still used in wordless moments, like Lara's groan when pulling herself up onto a ledge). Interestingly, Gibbins doesn't sound remotely close to Blond; her Lara has a much deeper voice.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The Fan Remake has been in legal limbo since the release of the demo. Square Enix', then the owner of the copyright to the franchise, had their legal department send a cease-and-desist to Nicobass the day he released the demo. They no longer have the copyrights but have effectively blocked any further development since 2017. CDE Entertainment, the next owner of the copyright, maintained enough ambiguity on the matter to keep the gag going, not helped by the fact that they green-lighted the development of the remaster of the game, which came out on February 14, 2024.
• Troubled Production: Eidos gave the dev team only eight months to develop the game right after they finished making the first one. According some interviews with them, this caused the dev team to go through a lot of burnout and endure other grueling conditions, such as working seven days a week, taking naps under their desks, splashing their faces with water to wake themselves up before having coffee, and one developer nearly going through a divorce because he hadn't seen his wife in two years, which made her think that he was having an affair.
• What Could Have Been: The game was originally going to have dynamic lighting to reflect the passage of time, such as going from day to night. This was never realized in the final version - it wasn't until Tomb Raider III dynamic lighting other than flares was added to the game engine, and the "passage of time" lighting wasn't impremented until the 2013 reboot.

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