Tomb Raider 2 Recreation Expands Plans Beyond Demo Levels

Editor’s note: The developer, RetroRaiderJohn, provided clarifications on the scope of his expanded plans after the original version of this story was published. The story has been edited to reflect those clarifications.

The latest video showing off progress on a homebrew recreation of a Tomb Raider 2 demo on Saturn comes with plans to expand the scope closer to the final game.

In the description of the video uploaded today, fan developer RetroRaiderJohn said he’s ditching his original idea to recreate the PC demo of Tomb Raider 2 that was playable on the show floor at E3 1997, something he recreated on PlayStation nearly three years ago.

Instead of that three-level demo, he said he intends to make something closer to the full final game on Saturn. “The E3 levels understandably have no finished gameplay objective and I think Saturn players deserve a more gratifying experience after all these years,” he said.

Rather than making the game from scratch, John is inserting levels, models and gameplay elements from Tomb Raider 2 into the officially released Tomb Raider 1’s code. He did something similar to recreate the 1998 PC expansion to Tomb Raider, Unfinished Business, last year.

Compared to the last progress video in August, today’s video shows off a new glass-breaking feature as well as three more levels for a total of six, which John said are either near completion or mostly done gameplay-wise, aside from wading and climbing mechanics that are planned for later:

• Catacombs of the Talion
• The Great Wall
• Bartoli’s Hideout
• 40 Fathoms
• Living Quarters
• The Deck

“A few more levels have potential, but I first need to polish the current levels and implement the aforementioned wading and climbing mechanics (the latter which is probably going to be the biggest feature yet),” John said. “Sound effects are also currently not yet properly implemented, simply because I couldn’t find the time yet.”

In the description under the video four months ago, John said his approach would never allow for a complete recreation of Tomb Raider 2. When asked about that in the video’s comments, he replied that roadblocks included the difficulty in adding new Tomb Raider 2 features like dynamic lighting, Lara’s back-mounted weapons and the levels’ size and complexity.

In a comment under today’s video, John said those roadblocks remain but he saw a way to recreate more of the final game despite them.

“Certain elements are still extremely unlikely to be ported over. It’s just that a bunch of levels don’t necessarily ‘need’ them. A few other levels that do need them might be ported eventually, but perhaps with some compromises. There’s also memory limits that are currently in their way. This is why their fate is still unknown for now. I do have to say, I may have underestimated what my approach does allow for. So who knows what the future may hold, I guess…”

— RetroRaiderJohn

John said polishing the six levels he’s focusing on is going to take quite a while, but he’d like to release a two-level demo perhaps as early as mid-2025.