My favourite third-person action-adventure, Gamespot's 5.7 review is the worst I've seen and completely misjudged
I will admit that Eidos did milk this franchise almost to its doom, with a sequel of lower and lower quality and innovation appearing year after year. This sequel also misses the creator of Lara, Toby Gard, but the high quality of this game doesn't seem to miss him. Tomb Raider II is divided into 18 levels that are set around 6 locales that feel much more distinct than the original's; The Great Wall of China, Venice, Wreck of the Maria Doria (named after real sunken ship SS Andrea Doria). The levels also look far better than the original, replacing the rather dull palettes of browns with more vivid browns. There are new animations for Lara, new costumes and other new aspects of the game that enhance the game much further. Such as the vehicles, which feature prominently in two levels of the game. The speedboat quickly zips around the canals of venice instead of labouriosly swimming everywhere. Parts of the first game, which were rather annoying, were changed. The save system forced you to replay large sections of the game if you died. Also, anyone who felt that guns were underused in the first game will be glad that there is giant increase in the amount of human enemies who increase the difficulty of the game. So, to wrap up, the puzzles were still great, the amount of innovation made it feel different from the first and you still felt that sense of danger and adventure in the world. Don't listen or bother looking at Gamespot's review. This game surpasses every other adventure game I've ever played. Finally, getting the Playstation version is probably the best option; mostly because it is the most widely available and because the controls are mapped best on to the console's pad.