Level reviews

"Mixed feelings toward this levelset. While I loved the atmosphere and setting for the most part (the Great Wall at dusk was just breath taking), the gameplay often felt dull and uninspired, with a lot of running back and forth which to me was pure padding. The worst offender was definitely Venice, where the author has you shimmying around so many rooftop edges that it seemed to drag on forever. It was a nice tribute to the original TR2 levels though. 2 hours, 9 secrets. 12/25" - Treeble

"(9) Gameplay & Puzzles: While I do love most of TR2, I am not a fan of the ship levels, so I was happy to see a 5-level "remake" of TR2 that had no ship areas. The thing is, although this adventure is categorized as a "remake", this term undersells it in my opinion, as the gameplay is totally fresh (and awesome). There are many areas that will remind you of TR2, stirring up plenty of warm nostalgic feelings, but it really is a "retelling", with the builder's own unique storytelling and scene-setting, instead of a "remake". Exploration is engaging throughout the adventure, and while there are no super-revolutionary puzzles, there's a great variety of problem-solving tasks and platforming. Venice, level 4, is by far the strongest level gameplay-wise. It's very non-linear at times, but the challenge is absolutely worth it once you finally tie all of the canal areas together. Offshore rig, level 2, isn't quite as interesting as the other levels, but it's still enjoyable. My issues with the gameplay mostly lie with the very strange difficulty curve in terms of traps; there are some action-packed delightful trap sequences in level 1 (Great Wall part 1), but there are no traps for the rest of the game after that. I think the gameplay would have been improved if traps were sprinkled in here and there throughout the 5-level adventure (or at the very least, made a return in level 5, Great Wall part 2). In other words, if the builder had better paced adrenaline-based tasks, mixing them up with chill problem-solving tasks. I was also a bit annoyed at the ridiculously long ladder climb that the builder made the player perform in level 3, but I can forgive that, given the absolute blast that is level 4. (9) Enemies, Objects & Secrets: The builder's selection and placement of classic enemies and decor assets were well done, although the adventure feels pretty anti-climatic without a final fight of some sort. There were also, strangely, a few rooms in Venice that were really lacking in objects. As mentioned above, I would have liked to have seen more traps aside from those in level 1. (10) Atmosphere, Sound & Cameras: The atmosphere and the way the builder connected all of the architecture is stunning, particularly at the Great Wall and in Venice. It was especially enjoyable to see the passage of time and environmental changes between Great Wall part 1 and 2. Sounds, music cues and cameras were good, although I would have liked to have heard tense music for timed runs. In addition, the flyby in Venice was too long and not very helpful in terms of showing next objectives; multiple shorter flybys throughout the level would have been more helpful in providing objective guidance. I still think this category deserves top marks, though. (8) Lighting & Textures: The builder's use of color is very good, and the adventure looks attractive from start to finish. I especially enjoyed the sunset color palette utilized in level 5. It was a shame that texturing was pretty sloppy in Venice, with regular misshapen triangular tiles (this issue is less frequent in the other levels). There's many underwater cracks, too. Lara appears 2D/flat in some rooms, indicating that the builder needed more consistency with sun bulb application. Overall, I had a wonderful time in this nostalgic medium-to-challenging difficulty adventure, and would urge anyone who enjoyed TR2 to give it a try. The Venice level is the star of the show, and I will absolutely replay it in the future. 9/9/10/8." - nerdfury

"This is a superb homage to Tomb Raider 2 and even though it commences in familiar environs the landscapes are different enough to label this as a homage and not a remake and I must admit to enjoying every minute of the three plus hours I spent here. You have some delightful traps, some thinking puzzles and hard to get to secrets. Enemies are few except for the Vienna level where you are set upon at almost every turn and that level was quite complex (although you can get to the second part without finding the garden key or should I say acquiring the garden key as you can see where it is but getting to it is a whole another exercise). The level felt like TR2 even though it is played with the TR4 engine so kudos for that. Well done Nick." - Torry

"5 levels game in 3 solidly made locations with objects and textures from TR2 that play well with gluent gameplay. The wall (8 8 8 8) It was a pleasure to have seemingly free and relaxing exploration here before dealing with a very fun series of trap rooms. I only had wish that the ending point to be more evident for we have no clue and had to look at the walkthrough only for that, anyway a very good level to enjoy. Off shore rig / The tower (7 8 8 7) This part appeared to be quite easy and not quite eventful but after a while it became more interesting gameplay wise with a couple of good ideas until you climb long ladders when you enter the tower , a level where the main fun is to raid a big room with ledges once drained and once half-flooded. I notice that the horizon through the see-through textures disappeared sometimes in these two levels. Also to enhance the atmosphere the author could have added sfx sounds for the numerous metallic ledges and added a couple of short flybys , for example to show the lowering of the ledges for the camera shot was too short to understand where that was. Venice (8 9 9 8) Oh no not again a Venice level where you have to vainly swim in every canal to make sure you don't miss something ! the level appear to be boring and not very pretty in the beginning , but after reaching the first room with the chandeliers followed by one of the best flyby ever made , it really became quite much exciting with also more pleasing looks, and in this Venice level there is plenty of jumps from balcony to balcony or awning and chandeliers to jump to and that you can change the height, all this was quite fun. Back to the wall (7 8 8 8) It was good to return here to end the adventure , at dusk this time, this part is shorter , basically you have to move a crate of tnt , find a couple ok keys , use a zipline , to eventually enter the red monasteries we saw at the very beginning of the game , not a lot to do here except avoiding a burners trap before placing the prayer wheels which seemed to serve no purpose but that was a good adventure all the same. Quite recommended." - eRIC

"I'very enjoyed every minute of this game. It's nice and full of references to TR2. The game is a walk from China to Venice through the Offshore Right. Finished in 4:40 with 5 secrets." - Loupar

"This level series is a worthy tribute to Tomb Raider 2 because it is not a remake. Instead, it takes elements from various Tomb Raider 2 levels, and the author created his own gameplay. There are the traps from the Great Wall of China, the numerous enemies and the fan to deactivate from the Offshore Rig segment, and the enemies to defeat, the jumps to perform as well as the keys to find from Venice and Bartoli's Hideout. The decorations are spot-on throughout the whole level series. The seraphs replaced the dragons as secret items, and the main goal is to find three prayer wheels." - Sakusha

"This excellent TR2 inspired adventure brought back fond memories of that game. Lara visits the Great Wall, the Offshore Rig and Venice in.search of 3 prayer wheels. Gameplay is nicely done as were secrets and enemies. Highly recommended." - Ryan

"I played this fairly lengthy level set over a period of time in early March. However, old age being what it is, I forgot to review it and owe Ian a debt of gratitude for jogging my memory. This is not a remake at all, but rather a tribute to the memory of TR2, and it's very nicely done. The individual levels are faithful to the design presented in the commercial package, but the gameplay is fresh and new. While not difficult, it gets complicated at times, and I was glad to have Jose's walkthrough close by while I was making my way through it. The lighting is consistently good, and the environs are pleasing to the eye. The gaming community continues to be blessed by new builders who provide consistently rewarding entertainment for us. High recommendations." - Phil

"Had this been a commercial release,it would have been a worthy legitimate sequel to TR2. Using the familiar textures from the Core release,the storyline follows Lara as she revisits three of the locations from the original adventure while utilising entirely new areas.The Oil-Rig locations are neatly put together,although somewhat maze- like;while the adventure is bookended by a splendid romp around the Great Wall (the first encounter mostly comprises hair-raising gauntlets,while the second is more of an exploration).It's the Venice level which provides the solid backbone to the adventure,though;as it's positively gargantuan - although perhaps a little too much so for it's own good.Its non-linear progression gets highly confusing at times;and,although beautifully constructed and successfully conveying the impression of a wholly plausible location,contains perhaps a few too many blind alleys and sections of canal that don't really go anywhere.Enemies in all five levels are never overdone,but spice up the gameplay very nicely;while the puzzles are mostly about searching out keys (many of them can only be picked up after complex and creative progression). Thanks to evocative and skilful lighting,the atmosphere is completely absorbing (especially in the two Oil-rig levels;and the beautiful Venetian setting);while cameras are generally well placed (a few more hints would not have gone amiss,though),and one fly-by in the Venice level,in particular,is absolutely outstanding! Nonetheless the fourth level,for all its brilliance,somewhat outstays its welcome and is rather exhausting.Overall,though,you're guaranteed at least four hours of continual enjoyment;and this adventure deserves to become a classic." - Orbit Dream

"This levelset proves that it doesn't have to literally be a TR2 level to feel like it. What's amazing about this levelset is it's made of a completely different map than the original, while still maintain the aspects of it, like some memorable places (the natural pool, the room with spiders and stairs and the traps area in The Great Wall, rooftop area with the bad guy in Venice, 4 doors room in the base level, and more), improved original objects like chemical barrels, and of course the improved textures. However, It can't really be called a remake as it doesn't really preserve the purpose and storyline of the original TR2. Now let me review these parts of the levels which I categorize: CHINA, BASE, and VENICE. - CHINA - The landscape and the architectures are superb. We can really see the supposedly abandoned Wall and temple. The stones created from the partially destroyed-by-time Wall, and the corpses along the way make it seem believable. The mixture of The Great Wall with its natural surrounding and the mysterious ancient Temple with its strong oriental architecture is really great. What are missing here are the areas of fascinating landscapes that can be explored but are actually empty. It would have been nice if those areas were included in the puzzle elements of this level. What's really nice is it offers stunning flybys over the breathtaking environment. - BASE - I'm not a fan of base levels, but I gotta applaud the Builder for creating base levels that look cool. However, the backtracking can be frustrating sometimes because of the long stairs (you know Lara isn't a fast climber in the classics) and the purpose of finding card keys can be repetitive. And once again, I have to mention the empty space. Sometimes there are rooms like the barracks that only contain some pickups and that is it there. But the cool rooms with nice texturing and lighting really create the atmosphere and won't let you stop exploring. - VENICE - An interesting Venice level. The builder really explored his creativity and put worthy efforts here. I gotta say that this map is a whole new wider world than the original Venice level from TR2. This is actually a non linear level with lots of backtracking, with tons of jumping over the canopies and balconies. This level is elegant with stunning flybys and nice camera angles. One thing that's unfortunate is we don't get to ride a boat even though there are two of them that act as regular objects. And a couple of things more to be mentioned are the combats are fine, the bad guys and dogs are well put, especially in the Base levels. It can be annoying that sometimes we have to fight a gang of these at a time, but that's how fight scenes work. Even though most people would agree that combat isn't the main aspect of Tomb Raider, it's still an important one; and the second is the secrets, they're put in nice places that are fun to explore and worth the effort To sum it up, the architecture and the environments are fascinating, the lighting is great, the combats are fine, the secrets are interesting, the atmosphere is decent, and the flybys are stunning. The puzzles may need a few more works in order to avoid repetition. This level is an innovative effort in remaking Tomb Raider 2." - Nephilim

"I like remakes with a twist. And Nick did a great job with this one. You travel from China (the best of them all) to Venice, see an Off Shore rig and explore the Tower and then back again to the Great Wall in China to visit the monastery there. Texture wise it could use some TLC though and perhaps a bit more camera work would make life a tad easier. But exploring is high on the list and do look in every nook and cranny or you can miss some vital object. Didn't get all the secrets so a replay on a later day is in order. The enemies are well placed and some of them made me jump in my chair, always a good sign. Less appealing are long ladders and crawling as well as the illegal slopes you find here and there. Oh well... I still had a good time." - Gerty

"A TRLE that had some Textures that appeared out of place. Furthermore the Puzzles were a bit Tedious (Especially in venice). The Traps in the Great wall were quite fun but after that it got really unintresting. Another point was the really long ladder in the tower level (Which was from TR2) this one was too long. On the return to the great wall we had a little excitement blowing up a building." - JoeTheCrazyGamer

"One second into the game I was shocked at what I thought to be yet another remake of TR 2 and especially Great Wall. But thankfully, a few moments later it's clear that there are only several allusions to the original levels and both gameplay and atmosphere are almost completely different. I especially liked the open landscape in the first level with several towers and bridges along the titular wall, with colourful, yet close to the original, texturing and decent if a little bland lighting (which applies to all levels in this game). There is not yet much spice in the gameplay, with a longer trap sequence being the highlight in an otherwise fairly low paced and almost dull level. Things improve slightly in the second part on an oil rig; there are some timed runs, a few mild puzzles quite a lot of platforming to do which all feels pretty classic but it's quite sophisticated in that. The only real things I disliked were the too well hidden high passage (to the red card) in a place where you won't search for it and that you can actually bypass finding the blue card as you can climb out of the water at the slope and backflip on the ledge, one of three shortcuts in this game that should have been found and fixed IMO. (Ok I'll leave the cat out of the bag: The second one is in Venice, as you can jump directly on the wall above the trigger of the long flyby, and the thrid in the last level, as you can dive over the fence to the monastery from the top of the hill, so that using the TNT isn't actually needed.) Venice is quite the centrepiece of the level, it's a gigantic city level with lots of space to explore, with very non-linear progression, some of which is for optional shortcuts sadly, a lot of keys to find, enemies to fight and kilometres to run - while it does become tedious at parts and there are not exactly many creative tasks or puzzles, I thought the whole thing is quite professionally put together and reminded me nicely on the original Venice level, while, as said, it's not a remake at all. It's no wonder, obviously, as the builder seems to have a grasp on building nice Venice or Rome levels. The last level is a revisit to the first level, with an excursion into the monastery where a few things have to be solved (including a timed fire run - which can also be solved without using the lever ;)) before you can complete the quest. There are a few very unusual but definately great cutscenes in this game, often cleanly applied (save for a few misplaced textures) and realistic visuals, nice use of sounds and well placed enemies and objects. The nine secrets are hidden very much in the style of TR 2 and it's quite nice to find them all. So perhaps a bit lacking diversity in the gameplay, that means a few more puzzles and tasks different to extensive exploration (while still quite strong at that), not enough care in terms of unwanted shortcuts and the need of a few tiny cosmetic changes are the only in an otherwise quite strong and nostalgic level that is recommended to everyone. Spent 1:35 hours in here." - manarch2

"Although classified as a remake, this is really more of a re-imagining and a most enjoyable one it is too. The Great Wall, Offshore Rig and Venice retain many of the original elements to provide a nostalgia rush, coupled with entirely new gameplay and events. It certainly looks impressive, particularly the Great Wall scenery and that's a section Lara returns to once she's found all three prayer wheels, so don't worry if there are areas you can't access the first time around. I especially enjoyed the Venice segment, with the shooting out windows, leaping around on awnings and altering chandelier heights firmly in place. It only lacked a speedboat run to make it perfection. The entire game took me more than four and a half hours to complete and I had a great time. highly recommended." - Jay

"Not great puzzles, but I really enjoyed this adventure. I think sometimes could be certain backtracking, but perhaps I was lucky and I didn't suffer serious issues in that sense. Enemies are well balanced, and I found enough ammo to not use the pistols. I found only 8 secrets. There are not difficult tasks and the gameplay is often fluid except in Venice, a very huge level with a lot of places to explore and some vital keys to find. I missed some more musics and some camera hints in certain locations; ex: in the tower level when you pick up the wheel and the door to the helicopter opens. There are some minimal defects with the textures in small triangular surfaces, but usually the environments have a very good appearance. All in all the best adventure from this author. Thank you very much for this hours of fun. Highly recommended." - Jose

"The first level is a bit a halt because of some unintended access making it unclear which locations the author really wants us to save for later. Also at first sight the place shows the very exact fragment of the wall we know. But don't let the initial geometry repulse you, for this is one of few old traces. The locations were totally reconstructed just like if Psiko's time paradox has rearranged whole chunks of the map. This also involves traps and this simple operation - unlike many sophisticated ones - has improved them a lot, because it's always a surprise to witness these familiar things in totally unexpected places. Each next level is more advanced than the previous one, you can see how the author was learning things during the building, and he learnt a lot - playing with fire, water and electricity, a detonation explaining an extra-block width of a window encountered four levels before (mind blown), nice timed runs, challenging yet not overdone enemies, realistic puzzles including possibly THE most realistic of circuit board kind, also classic secrets and very interesting pickups (I laughed at the "Second Yellow Card", show me another builder who kills boredom this way). All form a brief game yet of quality usually matching the standard of TR2, with preultimate unit being definitely the best Venice level I played since BtB2010, and even without checking all of them from that period I can tell it by true cityscape architecture, excellent platforming utilizing plenty of moves on all floor elevations and a masterpiece flight sequence through the bulk of district scenery. If the preceding levels had some flaws, it's worth to wait for this one. When you thought the rooftop key couldn't require more effort, the game throws you back to the Great Wall, to render the very first key from TR2 the last one obtained before entering the Monastery. It pushes the "different look" aspect so far that I wanted to address all remake builders with "watch and learn', but instead I wonder if this redux adventure can even be classified as remake. In the end the monastery gave me the same vibes I had in sadly underappreciated levels of Franco Bula, though I again missed some monks, if not surviving the sacking then returning to their domain as the mission concludes. Of course throughout the game I was disturbed by missing samples, shortcuts via advanced moves or unexistent yet desired gameplay fixes, for instance if that underwater door in the Rig wasn't timed, getting the pool secret wouldn't require a backtrack, and the Tower didn't have to require so much climbing. But I still enjoyed this remake much more than any other of the last year and I particularly need to thank Jorge for being skeptical about it, because my will of verification took over and might have given me focus on this adventure much earlier than I normally would." - DJ Full

"A great remake of some classic TR2 levels.Although they are completely different now, they keep certain characteristics from the originals. The Great Wall - Just like some 20 years ago, you start your adventure on The Great Wall of China.Again, it's filled with traps and locked doors.There are also a few ravens that still surround the ancient place and they are very angry for what you did to their friends long ago.Once again, it's a promising start of the adventure. OffShore Rig - After the abandoned Great Wall, it's time to re-socialize yourself.Here you are once again surrounded by people, dogs and many doors that require key-cards.There are some tough fights, some good puzzles and a few tight timed runs.There is also one pretty obvious shortcut that bypasses burning flames and cuts a solid portion of the level.It's up to your conscience if you're gonna use it or not.Things like this are the reason why I couldn't give 10 for gameplay.I also didn't like how certain items are unfairly hidden, especially considering that the game lets you proceed far away before realizing that you're missing the item.Still, if you can overlook those details, it's a high quality level. The Tower - My personal favourite.It's basically the second half of one big level.It starts with the longest ladder climbing ever (yes, it's longer than the one in Diving Area).After that, you will come to the main area where you have to do some engineering with water and electricity.It's highlight is one tall narrow room with many platforms and ladders which you have to visit both dry and flooded.Very enjoyable! Venice - Just as the original level from TR2, you start in a linear area where you have to open several doors to proceed, while in the second half you have a huge area to explore.It's the most complex level in the series and it's brilliantly designed.Maybe it's a little disorienting but hey - it's Venice after all.You will recognize certain classic themes like the chandeliers that change heights, followed by well-known audio tunes.There are many enemies in this level and they are often in groups, so Bartoli has definitely learned his lesson.Unfortunately, there are also some overlooked things like one dead-end spot and certain shortcuts.Those things shouldn't happen with such high number of mentioned testers. Back to the Wall - It's time to finally reach the ancient monastery and bring those Prayer Wheels back where they belong.After you place TNT in the right spot and detonate it, you will find the place you were looking for....well, unless you don't get stuck inside the illegal slope next to the end of the world.Yup, the roofs of the monastery allow you to shimmy more than you were supposed to.If we ignore that, than I can say this is the worthy conclusion.This monastery isn't as big (and frustrating) as the Barkhang, so you will enjoy your short visit while keeping the feeling of accomplishment. Bottomline, one of the best remakes in recent years, definitely worth your time." - Tolle87