Play Tomb Raider 2 Online

Summary

Tomb Raider II expands the classic third‑person, grid‑based exploration with a richer toolbox. Lara can still run, jump, shimmy and swim, but now she can hop onto a speedboat in Venice or a snowmobile in Tibet, zip‑line across chasms, and light dark corridors with limited‑time flares. The arsenal grows beyond her twin pistols to include a shotgun, dual Uzis, an M16, a grenade launcher and even a harpoon gun for underwater combat, while each level hides a silver, jade and gold dragon that unlock extra supplies when collected.

The team crammed these upgrades into the original engine during a frantic six‑to‑nine‑month sprint, a period the developers later described as both physically and emotionally taxing. Lara’s model received more polygons, a free‑flowing ponytail and extra outfits, and the camera was tweaked to smooth out awkward angles. An exclusivity deal with Sony meant extra marketing money, but also a mishap where demo discs shipped with expired copy‑protection, forcing Core Design to issue a rapid fix.

Critics praised the smoother graphics and deeper combat, earning the PlayStation version an 85 on Metacritic. Sales surged to nearly seven million worldwide, with the title lingering in the UK top‑10 charts for 29 weeks and becoming a staple of PS1 nostalgia. A quirky player‑made joke even emerged: trapping the butler Winston in the manor’s walk‑in freezer, a reminder of the game’s lasting community charm.

Storyline

Lara Croft returns in Tomb Raider II, hunting the legendary Dagger of Xian – a magical weapon once wielded by an ancient Chinese emperor that can turn its bearer into a dragon. Her search leads her beneath the Great Wall of China, where she is ambushed by a member of the Italian cult Fiamma Nera. The dying cultist reveals that their master, Marco Bartoli, also seeks the dagger, prompting Lara to follow the cult to an abandoned opera house in Venice.

In Venice, Lara stows away on a seaplane carrying Bartoli and overhears a plan to retrieve the Seraph, an object that unlocks the key to the dagger’s hidden chamber. She is captured and imprisoned on a repurposed oil rig above the sunken luxury liner Maria Doria, but escapes, dives with a submersible, and eventually recovers the Seraph from the wreck.

Using the Seraph, Lara flies to Tibet and reaches the Barkhang Monastery, where a monk who originally sealed the dagger is slain by Bartoli. She battles a monstrous guardian to obtain the key, then opens the dagger’s chamber just as the cult’s forces close in.

Bartoli plunges the dagger into his own heart, transforms into a dragon, and fights Lara among floating jade islands and animated statues. Lara defeats the dragon, pulls the dagger free, and escapes as the cavern collapses, causing part of the Great Wall to explode.

The Fiamma Nera launch a final, unsuccessful assault on Lara at Croft Manor, ending with a cheeky fourth‑wall break as she prepares for a shower. In the expansion pack The Golden Mask, Lara later explores a hidden realm in Alaska in search of a magical golden mask.