Tomb Raider 2 run (complete)

Edit history:

MMAN: 2005-09-30 10:08:12 pm

2005-09-23 10:27:34 pm

I've done TR 3, and have managed to get over my problems with the giant spiders, so now I guess it's time to do TR2 Smiley

.

I thought TR2 would be quite difficult in terms of survival, but my initial practice has shown it is not half as hard as I remember, and there is plenty of health and ammo (most provided by enemies).

In my inital encoding I've noticed that the game seems to encode worse than TR 3 (at the same settings), making some parts almost unwatchable. So I'll experiment with using slightly higher bitrates than the TR 3 run (hopefully TR2 having less advanced graphics means the videos are a smaller size so this won't have many implications).

I'll post my times for the first four levels after I've done the opera house.

Thread title:

Hellchamp.

2005-09-23 10:41:15 pm

I LOVE ALL SPEEDRUNS

yeah mman

run for gold Wink

ok i know only TR3
my brother has played

but i dont see TR2
and it would be cool to see
and i know the game Grin

MMAN

2005-09-24 01:20:24 am

I've got the first four levels done now, the times are:

Great wall: 3:52
Venice: 5:28
Bartoli's hideout: 8:00
The Opera House: 4:17

I had some competition on the Great wall; someone has actually managed 3:49, but as I had moved on before that happened I decided that this was good enough, I think all that's left for a better time are really small optimizations.

Venice: The Twin Galaxies record is apparently 4:14, I have no idea how that was got, I'm guessing it has something to do with the speedboats, as the path I took could likely never get that even when perfectly optimised.

Bartoli's Hideout: The chandelier room has a big shortcut, and the detonator can be completely skipped as well (it's so easy to do it's laughable, it almost makes me question the use of the detonator in the first place Smiley

).

Opera House: With a moderate difficulty curve jump you can skip about 70% of this level, and the boss does not need to be killed. I did use a large medikit when I could have got away with a small one, but I don't think it matters much.

I've also uploaded them (they are my "tasters" until the run is complete). The Opera house has a section I appended on the end as an FMV cut FRAPS off (TR3 seemed to avoid this problem), and the sound is out of sync, I'll fix that at sometime. You can also see what I mean by the quality being dodgy in places.

The website only lets you download 100mb an hour, so you probably can't get all of them in one go:

http://rapidshare.de/files/5455071/TR2greatwall.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5455738/TR2Venice.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5456328/TR2Hideout.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5456747/TR2Opera.avi.html

I've got the first four levels done now, the times are:

Great wall: 3:52
Venice: 5:28
Bartoli's hideout: 8:00
The Opera House: 4:17

I had some competition on the Great wall; someone has actually managed 3:49, but as I had moved on before that happened I decided that this was good enough, I think all that's left for a better time are really small optimizations.

Venice: The Twin Galaxies record is apparently 4:14, I have no idea how that was got, I'm guessing it has something to do with the speedboats, as the path I took could likely never get that even when perfectly optimised.

Bartoli's Hideout: The chandelier room has a big shortcut, and the detonator can be completely skipped as well (it's so easy to do it's laughable, it almost makes me question the use of the detonator in the first place :) ).

Opera House: With a moderate difficulty curve jump you can skip about 70% of this level, and the boss does not need to be killed. I did use a large medikit when I could have got away with a small one, but I don't think it matters much.

I've also uploaded them (they are my "tasters" until the run is complete). The Opera house has a section I appended on the end as an FMV cut FRAPS off (TR3 seemed to avoid this problem), and the sound is out of sync, I'll fix that at sometime. You can also see what I mean by the quality being dodgy in places.

The website only lets you download 100mb an hour, so you probably can't get all of them in one go:

http://rapidshare.de/files/5455071/TR2greatwall.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5455738/TR2Venice.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5456328/TR2Hideout.avi.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/5456747/TR2Opera.avi.html

Hellchamp.

2005-09-24 01:24:05 am

I LOVE ALL SPEEDRUNS

in one day? Shocked

MMAN

2005-09-24 01:26:52 am

I did some practicing over the last few days, and this is not my first attempt (I restarted as I had missed some shortcuts before), although most of my practice was focused on the Great wall. I'm also doing a separate playthrough to test all the shortcuts and stuff.

Saturn

2005-09-24 09:08:39 am

Excellent! Now we will have a complete Tomb Raider section. TR2 will also be a great thing to watch.

MMAN, you are playing the American version right?
I heard that in this version is a shower scene at the end if you beat the game very fast, is it true?

Anyway good luck to you for this run, I'm looking forward to it!

MMAN

2005-09-24 09:45:46 am

Quote:

MMAN, you are playing the American version right?
I heard that in this version is a shower scene at the end if you beat the game very fast, is it true?

Anyway good luck to you for this run, I'm looking forward to it!

I don't think the PC version is regional anyway, but it's the UK version.

The shower scene always happens at the end of the game, it's like a little bonus ending Smiley

.

CannibalK9

2005-09-24 10:11:29 am

give me your eyes!!!

This will be great to see, I spent far longer on TR2 than TR3 and since 3 was so good I'm sure it won't disappoint!

I don't remember how good I was, but I do remember it took about a minimum of 20 minutes to do Venice and that's my favourite level so Shocked

joeydoo

2005-09-24 04:26:13 pm

I look forward to this one. I just remembered the yeti's. That takes me back. I never did finish this game on my copy but I helped my friend complete it, taking it turns, then I couldn't be bothered to do mine. It's a classic for me though. Any plans to finish all the games through to the Angel Of Darkness?

MMAN

Edit history:

MMAN: 2005-09-24 07:24:01 pm

2005-09-24 07:15:03 pm

I don't have AOD (mainly because it is supposed to be crap), although I might get it when it's cheap to see whether it really is that bad.

I might do TR4 at some point, and maybe do an improved TR1 run, but I only have the playstation TR5, although I will need to capture from consoles at some point (for doing Probotector and Alien Soldier).

MMAN

Edit history:

MMAN: 2005-09-25 10:47:56 pm

2005-09-25 10:47:39 pm

I've done the "water" part of the game, the times are:

Offshore rig: 13:01
Diving Area: 15:37
40 Fathoms: 6:34
Wreck of the Maria Dora: 6:55
Living Quarters: 11:23
The Deck: 9:08

Offshore Rig and Diving Area have very few shortcuts, plus they have stuff like really long ladders which makes them kind of a chore.

40 Fathoms has a big shortcut where you just run through burners rather than turning them off

Wreck of the Maria Dora also has a huge shortcut where you pull a block through burners rather than turning them off. After two levels of this I'm pretty glad I picked up plenty of medikits Smiley

.

The middle section of Living Quarters can be skipped with a very simple jump, there isn't much other than that. I do get the feeling a running curve jump can get you to the exit early, but my attempts always fell just short.

The Deck route is kind of interesting as I skip the beginning sections then sort of do the level backwards. I do wander if there's a quick way to get to the storeroom key (rather than having to detour for the cabin key first).

I've done the "water" part of the game, the times are:

Offshore rig: 13:01
Diving Area: 15:37
40 Fathoms: 6:34
Wreck of the Maria Dora: 6:55
Living Quarters: 11:23
The Deck: 9:08

Offshore Rig and Diving Area have very few shortcuts, plus they have stuff like really long ladders which makes them kind of a chore.

40 Fathoms has a big shortcut where you just run through burners rather than turning them off

Wreck of the Maria Dora also has a huge shortcut where you pull a block through burners rather than turning them off. After two levels of this I'm pretty glad I picked up plenty of medikits :) .

The middle section of Living Quarters can be skipped with a very simple jump, there isn't much other than that. I do get the feeling a running curve jump can get you to the exit early, but my attempts always fell [b]just[/b] short.

The Deck route is kind of interesting as I skip the beginning sections then sort of do the level backwards. I do wander if there's a quick way to get to the storeroom key (rather than having to detour for the cabin key first).

MMAN

Edit history:

MMAN: 2005-09-27 11:25:15 pm

2005-09-27 10:45:55 pm

The run is complete!

I had a problem where whether FRAPS cuts off in FMV's is random, therefore I will have to append an end section onto a couple of the movies. Hopefully the quality issue won't be too much of a problem.

My times for Tibet and China are:

Tibetan foothills: 11:57
Barkhang Monastery: 24:42
Catacombs of the Talion: 8:12
Ice Palace: 6:41
Temple of Xian: 6:41 (yes, the same Smiley

)
Floating Islands: 13:52
Dragon's Lair (home sweet home has no time): 3:21

Final stats:
Final Time: 2:44:02
Secrets found: 0
Kills: 226
Ammo used: 6531
hits: 5776
Health packs used: 26.5

I'll give more detailed comments later, there's a small issue I have to sort out first.

The issue was that one of the videos was crashing when I compressed it, but I found it was just my computer being unstable as it worked after a restart.

Tibetan foothills is pretty straightforward, but I skip the drawbridge key and skip a lot of the "ramp" room.

I was quite suprised at my Barkhang time (longer than Tinnos!) but it makes sense as it is a very big level. There is one curve jump I could have done to skip a shimmy but it is extremely hard and only saves me about 10 seconds so I didn't do it.

A whole section of the Catacombs of the Talion can be skipped with an insanely hard curve jump. I did manage to work out some kind of technique after saving in various positions and trying about 50 times, but it's still pretty much 50/50 whether I make it, luckily after my practice the jump went fine.

Ringing the bells in ice palace is quite luck based (as the spread of the pistol bullets varies a lot), and I take a while to hit the second one because of that. I skip using a mask at one point by jumping over a balcony (unfortunately I still have to pick up the mask to open the path further). The boss easily goes down in 7 grenades, although I miss with one (I had 8 ), which I could have used on the dragon or something.

90% of the Temple of Xian can be skipped (including the Spiders Smiley

) with a very hard curve jump near the start, I find it kind of a shame as it completely takes the edge from the toughest level, although the curve jump to get to it is extremely hard.

Floating islands is pretty simple, but the enemies can bring some luck to it (they push you around a lot and can take huge chunks of health from you), as I had to run away from a lot of them to save ammo.

Dragon's Lair is just the final battles. The Dragon can be quite luck based as if it gets up close it is very hard to avoid being set on fire.

I think the appearance of enemies in Home Sweet Home is time based, therefore I take a detour to turn on the stereo as I don't think it changes the time much and is fun Grin

. For some reason Lara's shotgun blast in the final cutscene was silent, but it doesn't matter too much.

I thought I was picking up too much stuff but at the end I nearly had a serious ammo problem, luckily there was just enough to get me through. I use the automatic pistols a lot in the early parts of the games but in the later areas I generally use the Uzis, although the other weapons also have their moments. My medikits also came out ok although I think I had about 8 large medikits left at the end (I think I was out of small ones).

The run is complete!

I had a problem where whether FRAPS cuts off in FMV's is random, therefore I will have to append an end section onto a couple of the movies. Hopefully the quality issue won't be too much of a problem.

My times for Tibet and China are:

Tibetan foothills: 11:57
Barkhang Monastery: 24:42
Catacombs of the Talion: 8:12
Ice Palace: 6:41
Temple of Xian: 6:41 (yes, the same :) )
Floating Islands: 13:52
Dragon's Lair (home sweet home has no time): 3:21

Final stats: 
Final Time: 2:44:02
Secrets found: 0
Kills: 226
Ammo used: 6531
hits: 5776
Health packs used: 26.5

I'll give more detailed comments later, there's a small issue I have to sort out first.

The issue was that one of the videos was crashing when I compressed it, but I found it was just my computer being unstable as it worked after a restart.

Tibetan foothills is pretty straightforward, but I skip the drawbridge key and skip a lot of the "ramp" room.

I was quite suprised at my Barkhang time (longer than Tinnos!) but it makes sense as it is a very big level. There is one curve jump I could have done to skip a shimmy but it is extremely hard and only saves me about 10 seconds so I didn't do it.

A whole section of the Catacombs of the Talion can be skipped with an insanely hard curve jump. I did manage to work out some kind of technique after saving in various positions and trying about 50 times, but it's still pretty much 50/50 whether I make it, luckily after my practice the jump went fine.

Ringing the bells in ice palace is quite luck based (as the spread of the pistol bullets varies a lot), and I take a while to hit the second one because of that. I skip using a mask at one point by jumping over a balcony (unfortunately I still have to pick up the mask to open the path further). The boss easily goes down in 7 grenades, although I miss with one (I had 8 ), which I could have used on the dragon or something.

90% of the Temple of Xian can be skipped (including the Spiders :) ) with a very hard curve jump near the start, I find it kind of a shame as it completely takes the edge from the toughest level, although the curve jump to get to it is extremely hard.

Floating islands is pretty simple, but the enemies can bring some luck to it (they push you around a lot and can take huge chunks of health from you), as I had to run away from a lot of them to save ammo.

Dragon's Lair is just the final battles. The Dragon can be quite luck based as if it gets up close it is very hard to avoid being set on fire.

I think the appearance of enemies in Home Sweet Home is time based, therefore I take a detour to turn on the stereo as I don't think it changes the time much and is fun  ;D . For some reason Lara's shotgun blast in the final cutscene was silent, but it doesn't matter too much.

I thought I was picking up too much stuff but at the end I nearly had a serious ammo problem, luckily there was just enough to get me through. I use the automatic pistols a lot in the early parts of the games but in the later areas I generally use the Uzis, although the other weapons also have their moments. My medikits also came out ok although I think I had about 8 large medikits left at the end (I think I was out of small ones).

MMAN

2005-10-06 08:59:30 pm

The run has been on the "needs verifiers" list for a few days now, I'd better mention it just in case a potential verifier didn't notice or something.

stx-Vile

Edit history:

stx-Vile: 2005-10-06 09:37:07 pm

2005-10-06 09:36:33 pm

The man made of sticks

I enjoyed the bits of these runs that I did watch... I haven't watched all of it because this is a series of games that I have never played, despite them being the kinds of games that I would enjoy, I think. I'm holding out on watching the whole runs in case I decide to track down some of them.

At any rate, it looks like you did a good job. Thanks for the effort. Smiley

hest

2005-10-15 11:43:42 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I'm doing a TR2 run myself and it will be faster than MMAN's. However, I use some glitches on some levels wich make things abit faster. So the times arent really comparable becasue MMAN doesnt use any glitches.

Is it possible for me to upload my run once it's done? I mean would you accept it on your site?
I would suggest the both runs would have diffrent catagories, a note after mine; Uses glitches. Or something like that.

NightTwister

2005-10-26 11:25:06 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

can someone do a Tomb Raider 2 run Complete for PC as well plz?

Psychochild

2005-10-26 11:35:16 pm

Well... why? There's not all that much, if any, difference gameplay wise between the two that I know of...

MMAN

2005-10-27 01:34:21 am

Quote:

can someone do a Tomb Raider 2 run Complete for PC as well plz?

Maybe I've interpreted your post wrong, but look at the forum name; when was this NOT a PC run of the game? Huh?

TreebleTR

2005-11-10 09:37:40 pm

Hi!

Is this run being verified? I've been looking to watch it for some time now 8)

Thanks in advance (and sorry to bump up this topic, it was kinda forgotten... :-[ ) Smiley

StrangenessDSS

2005-11-10 11:04:53 pm

Sleeping Terror

It's still in the "needs verification" list, which can be found in the General forum. That means that nobody who has been around enough for Radix to trust has played the game and offered to verify it.