Posted on: January 15, 2025
QUAKETALLICA
Games: 211 Reviews: 14
Highly Innovative then, But Aged Poorly
Graphics of the early polygonal era do not bother me at all. I love many games of the PS1 era. My name is literally from Quake. Tons of games from then hold up just as well as when they came out. Sadly, Tomb Raider, it must be acknowledged, is not among them. Are the games bad? By no means. And when they came out back in the 90s, they were the first to really capture the spirit of the Indiana Jones movies in a 3D action/adventure setting (the 2D point and click games were there for several years prior). 3D itself was fairly novel in 1996, so this was the cutting edge of technology at the time. Since it was so new, the controls hadn't really been worked out yet, and lots of games innovated. While Doom and Resident Evil's classic controls are fine to use today, if a little unorthodox, Tomb Raider's are just a painful chore. They are highly imprecise, and overly clunky with too many button combos to input that over-complicates what could be simple jumping and grabbing mechanics. Which is especially vexing when most of the game revolves around precise jumping and grabbing ledges. That the original was replaced by the superior "Anniversary" remake in 2006 is a testament that even the original developers conceded the first ones have not aged well. (Same story, way better controls, gameplay, and graphics) Are the original games unplayable? No. If you're willing to suffer through the tedious controls and ugly graphics, there are some neat puzzles and level designs that would've impressed in the 90s. It's a solid game. But why bother? There's like a million Indy-style games out there now, (e.g. Uncharted); even the TR series alone has two additional reboot trilogies which are both way better in every way. Just play those instead. There's really no reason to go back to the original Tomb Raider's unless you have a childhood nostalgia for them or are a hardcore fan of the newer ones and want to experience the origins. Even on sale at $1 it wasn't really worth it.
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