Tomb Raider II (1997)

First time playing though the older games and not having nostalgia for it definitely affects it. I finally got a little used to the controls after playing TR1 but it still feels very clunky and aged. But I don’t think the modern controls from the remastered would be a good idea either considering how the game is built. It at least feels ok enough now. The gameplay has improved a lot from TR1 and there is less going back and forth hitting random buttons all the time. The puzzles are more fun and less bs too. Hub areas are still somewhat a thing but they aren’t as cookie cutter “get 5 keys from rooms around the hub” as previously which improved the game a lot. The story is nothing special but good enough. Don’t have much to say about it. Audio wise it is pretty decent. The little voice acting that exists is nice and doesn’t sound as broken as in TR1. The ambience sounds are really atmospheric and a bit creepy and fits the game perfectly. I did have some bugs however. The cutscenes don’t work at all, they are just black with only the sound playing. I had to look at YouTube for those. Then at some point in the game I had a door that was supposed to be open but wasn’t. That completely soft-locked the game. I had to use a save editor to change the position of Lara so she would be in the room behind the door so I could continue. That was pretty frustrating. In summary this game feels very aged but is playable enough if you simply want to experience the originals. Some patience is required though. I took a 2 year break half way though the game because I ran out of it lol. I suppose you could play the remastered version instead for a more stable playthrough but I wanted to experience the game as it was back when it came out. Plus, I already owned the originals anyways.