Tomb Raider II

Lara Croft was no longer a hot new thing — she was a phenomenon, and Tomb Raider II knew it well. The sequel to the legendary 1997 adventure bet on the proven formula and added more of everything: more weapons, more enemies, more sprawling spaces and a markedly faster pace. The British studio Core Design took what worked in the first game and polished it into a form many remember as the peak of the series' classic era.

Where the first game focused on lonely wandering through silent tombs, the sequel widened the lens into a grand adventurous spectacle. Lara travels from a sunken Venetian lagoon through the Chinese highlands to a shipwreck on the ocean floor, accompanied throughout by considerably more aggressive opponents — instead of animals, there are armed gangs of human adversaries. The combat was given more room, and with it came an arsenal that delighted anyone longing for a more action-oriented approach.

The core gameplay, however, remained untouched: acrobatic leaps along ledges, searching for hidden levers, solving spatial puzzles and that characteristic feeling of standing on the edge of a chasm, gauging whether the jump will land. The grid-based movement controls and fixed camera demanded patience, but it was precisely this deliberateness that made every conquered section a small victory. The game also introduced an iconic element — the return to Lara's mansion, where you could roam the villa, train and, by tradition, lock the butler in the freezer.

Tomb Raider II became one of the best-selling titles on the PlayStation and definitively cemented Lara Croft as one of the first true icons of the gaming industry, a character who reached far beyond the gaming community. At a time when 3D adventures were still searching for their language, Core Design's series showed what cinematic action archaeology could look like.

Today the sequel is a window into an era when the 3D genre was only taking shape — and at the same time a surprisingly fun ride, if you accept its rules. The atmosphere of vast, abandoned places and the satisfaction of a well-timed jump still work today.

Why play it: The classic Lara Croft adventure in its most action-packed and grandest form, a 3D gaming milestone that shaped an entire genre.