Although these are relegated to cut scenes, the professionalism of them does wonders to give the characters life and move the story along. And finally, my favorite part of Tomb Raider Gold is the depiction of Atlantis. The lost city is not depicted as an underwater ruin, but more like a living organism. The blood-red walls pulsate as you move through them. A heart beats relentlessly from some unknown source.
Spherical pods explode to release the lost city's defenders.
So Tomb Raider Gold may be lacking in human interaction, but it more than makes up for it in animal, alien, and even dinosaur interaction. Yeah, I'll admit it. I was fearing that Tomb Raider Gold was just a rest stop between II and III, but I was wrong. Tomb Raider has become a franchise, and these games are fun no matter in which order you play them. I just wish that instead of zoo animals, at least one level in Tomb Raider Gold had been populated by all these former Mickey Mouse Club members who are now infesting the music charts with their moldy cheese.