The funny thing about Tomb Raider II is that you go through basically the whole game playing levels rooted in real environments around the world, and that feel kind of *videogame real*, with architectural norms, naturalistic landscapes, and a sense that you're exploring abandoned places, then you get to the final level and all bets are off. Suddenly bad guys are jade statues come to life who can fly, and for some reason they make animal noises, while the level design has transformed into a fever dream of jagged edges and green islands floating in empty space.

It's like after making two games with this engine the level designers had it so completely mastered that the only thing left to do was to make a surrealistic deconstructed design that abstracts away everything but the core mechanics — running, jumping, grabbing, shooting, pulling levers, dodging traps — and the big thematic motifs of the game — the twisted fate of an ancient Chinese emperor, a dark power lying dormant, and a life-or-death struggle to protect or uncover the dagger that holds the power.

It's a weird and wonderful way to cap off the story of a brilliant, imaginative 3D action-puzzle-adventure game. And somehow, after traversing Venetian canals, an abandoned opera house, Great Wall ruins, a huge Tibetan monastery, a palace of ice, a sunken oil rig, and more, this surrealistic abstraction feels completely natural.

Unfortunately the TR2 team would move onto a different project and then leave the company after this, their plans of a two-year TR3 development cycle with new engine tech scuppered by Eidos management. Their replacements did a fine job on three more games with the original engine, but I would have loved to see what the level designers Heather and Neal and level editor programmer Gavin Rummery could have come up with if they'd got their way.