Unfinished Business or Golden Mask?

[Ebin398]

Which of the two "expansion packs" do you prefer? They're both cool I think but I found myself enjoying Golden Mask considerably more. (I've only played through the first two levels of Unfinished Business but have completed Golden Mask).

I found the first two levels in UB to be kind of tedious and really cramped, with so many mutants and drops in close proximity, and the layouts of the levels confusing. I would say the Hive was a bit better than Atlantean Stronghold. The gross pulsating flesh thing is cool but it kind of lost its novelty for me after spending so long on those levels.

I'll eventually get around to 100%ing them and then playing the Egyptian levels which I'll enjoy more hopefully.

GM's first two levels are decent, if a bit tedious to try and 100%. Kill some mercenaries in an industrial area and take pass cards off them to progress, similar to the offshore rig levels. But this time you're fighting commies in some icy mountains, and you get snowmobiles. Not bad.

Furnace of the Gods I loved. I found myself actually creeped out in the beginning of it in a way that I haven't felt from a video game in a long time. The creepy cave paintings that reminded me of aliens/greys, the giant dark blue area with the weird tunnels and faces, just great. The ravens/crows that attack you on the gold river are kind of annoying and broke the creepy ambiance for me, but it's still a cool section. Being able to flood the city with all the molten gold in it was fun, even if the catfish annoyed the ♥♥♥♥ out of me. The final room before the funnel was also cool, climbing the giant statue amidst the flowing gold. Then you get a sort of catharsis/relief by seeing the daylight at the very end after being in that huge isolated cave. Definitely my favorite level of GM.

Kingdom was a fun level. The one secret in the gold pool with some tiles being safe and others not was kind of annoying, but visually it was a really neat area. At the end, it didn't really make sense that Lara wouldn't just take the mask home but would instead use it to release some bird monster to fight, but okay. Would've made more sense if taking the mask activated the boss, like in Ice Palace.

Nightmare in Las Vegas... I actually liked this one. I felt like I was playing a level of Gex: Enter the Gecko with how whimsical the whole thing felt. But it wasn't too silly that I couldn't take anything seriously, and it was pretty fun.

What'd you think?

[Moonlight]

I loved Golden Mask as I enjoyed Furnace of the Gods on remastered graphics.

From Unfinished Business I only really liked Temple of the Cat.

Wait until you touch Lost Artifact; that expansion is in my opinion the best one of the three!

[Tilarta]

I rate Golden Mask above Unfinished Business.

But Lost Artefacts is always my favorite.

[Teratus]

I've never played Golden Mask before.

Unfinished Busness though.. i've enjoyed the Egypt levels more than the Atlantian ones if i'm being honest but overall yea.. not bad.
Just wish you didn't start out fresh though.. would have been nice to keep my items from the main game.

Not because I need them or anything.. just continuity reasons.

[Lanzagranadas]

I have not played expansions in the remaster yet, but when I played them years ago I enjoyed Golden Mask more.

[Samz]

The way I rank them: (Throwing in Lost Artefact as it's here too.)

3. Unfinished Business
Not bad by any stretch but it's clearly the one that either has the least budget, time or the expansion devs inexperience with the engine (as it wasn't made by Core Design) showing the most, as it's almost entirely made up of already present TR1 assets without even a retexture.

It's still a fun little expansion but it doesn't "add" anything like the others did outside of one cool moment with animated wall textures.

2. Lost Artefact
More of a personal preference thing, Lost Artefact benefits from TRIII's expanded line-up of vehicles, moves and weapons, it's by no means bad, I just more prefer Golden Mask's setting.

1. Golden Mask
My fav, I love the abandoned Soviet mining base aesthetic and we get to use the Machine Gun Snowmobile (A tragically underused vehicle in the original TR2) for longer in 2 levels.
It's also the only expansion to flatout add a new enemy that's not a re-skin/re-model of a prexsiting enemy, even if it's just porting over the TR1 Bear and retexturing it. (I honestly wish it showed up more as there's only 1 at the start of the game if I remember.)

They're honestly all great and I'm glad this remaster finally makes them more accessible.

[OyajiBR☕]

Return to Egypt is the best part of Unfinished Business. But I prefer Golden Mask, its spiritual atmosphere is so unique despite the short length.

[Larry Daley]

Never played Remaster only played classics, but I loved Golden Mask

[Soul Nibbler]

Golden Mask. Unfinished Business reuses to much from the original, and always seemed random. Also, Furnace of the Gods is legitimately one of the best Tomb Raider levels ever.
But if you really wanna know what's my favorite, it's Lost Artifact. It's the best TR content imho.

[der.dida83]

Golden mask is much more well thought out, UB is alright but nothing is really remorable about it imo and the ending of the Nest is pretty much nothing else than a medpack sponge.

[Saint.Million]

I hate Golden Mask, because I completed it only to find out (too late) that you need to find ALL the secrets in order to get the final level.

BS.

[DarkMoe]

unfinished business is the only expansion that was bland and boring, not bringing anything new to the table. The other 2 expansions, are awesome, specially the lost artifact. Those secrets are some of the best in the whole series