Tomb Raider II is an action-adventure platform game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released in 1997 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation as part of the Tomb Raider series and the sequel to the 1996 video game Tomb Raider. It was ported to Mac OS in 1998 and an expansion pack, Tomb Raider II: Golden Mask, was released by Eidos for PC in 1999. The expansion pack includes four bonus levels.
Follow me as I play through Tomb Raider 2
The Plot:
The story of Tomb Raider II surrounds the mythical “Dagger of Xian”, a weapon which was used by an Emperor of China to command his army. By plunging the weapon into its owner’s heart, the weapon has the power to turn its bearer into a dragon. The last battle fought with the Dagger ended when the warrior monks of Tibet removed the knife from the Emperor. The Dagger was returned to its resting place within the Great Wall.
In the present day, near the remains of the Great Wall, Lara Croft investigates the legend of the Dagger. She is attacked by a thug who claims to work for Marco Bartoli, leader of a cult called ‘Fiamma Nera’ who has an obsession with the ancient lore. After travelling to Venice, Lara makes her way through Bartoli’s hideout and an opera house where Bartoli’s men are plotting a heist. Lara follows Bartoli aboard his aeroplane, but she is knocked unconscious.
The plane lands at an oil platform. The Fiamma Nera have killed the rig’s staff and are carrying out excavations on a sunken ship called the Maria Doria, a luxury ocean liner which was owned by Marco’s father. When Lara regains consciousness, she retrieves her weapons and makes her way through the oil rig. She learns from an imprisoned Tibetan monk, Brother Chan, that the shipwreck carries an ancient Tibetan artefact called the Seraph. Lara dives alongside a submersible to discover the shipwreck, and searching throughout the remains she eventually retrieves the Seraph.
She heads towards the Barkhang Monastery in Tibet via aeroplane. There she is helped by monks in confronting the thugs of Marco Bartoli. She finds and uses five prayer wheels to open a room to hold the Seraph. She continues her journey inside the catacombs to find the Talion, a key used to open the door to the dagger. Exiting the caves, she takes off in a jeep. Two guards follow Lara, but she escapes, shooting the guard and causing their vehicle to crash into a tree.
Back in China, Lara opens the chamber holding the Dagger. Before she reaches the artefact Lara is plunged into the catacombs beneath the Great Wall. She makes her way back to the chamber, but Bartoli has used the dagger and is carried through a portal. Lara goes through the portal to a realm with green floating islands and warriors which come alive when triggered. She moves to the room where she witnesses Bartoli transformed into a dragon. Lara renders the creature unconscious and pulls the dagger from Bartoli’s heart, killing him. The whole tomb begins to collapse, and a part of the Great Wall is destroyed. Lara escapes and is knocked unconscious upon landing outside the tomb, but she regains consciousness the next day. Lara returns home and is cleaning the dagger when an alarm goes off. The remainder of Marco Bartoli’s men have tracked her down to England and are invading her mansion. She overpowers them. The final shot is of Lara, disrobing before entering the shower. She breaks the fourth wall as she turns to the player and says: “Don’t you think you’ve seen enough?” She then blasts her shotgun at the player.
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