An upgrade from the Lacuna investigation gameplay. But i'm not conviced by the 2.5D, i think pure 2D have a lot more charm.
I was worried by the not so good reception of this game when it was released but in fact it is my favorite in the serie. The open world is pretty and well designed like a metroidvania, combats are fun. Since it's made with unreal engine its not too hard to mod and don't forget to check for some if you want to turn the game in a more casual adventure (and it is very enjoyable this way).
First : to avoid crashes you need to limit your fps to 100 in your graphic cards utility then in the the game graphic options DO NOT max out the shadow quality. Beside that the game is good and pretty. The combats system is inferior to the one in the first episode but the encounters design is better. Puzzles and plateforming are fair. There is not much more to say, it's good but nothing exceptional.
The first half of the game is great, but then you'll have 3 badly designed and too lengthy boss encounters that will ruin your mood (sandworms and a big spider). After that the adventure will continue in an uninspired level full of good puzzles... what a waste. They did not make any effort to adapt the contols to Keyboard + mouse. Out of the box there are very bad, so you'll have to spend some time to remap the keys to your need.
(REVIEWED AT PATCH4) The visual ugprade is good. The new lighting is doing a great job but in some parts it makes it difficult to find some switches. Most of the new textures are good, but last levels from TR1 are damn ugly thanks to some poor art direction (there is a mod that can fix this a bit) The new control system is half-baked, it makes exploration and platforming a lot more enjoyable but combats are still bad and it can also cause problems when the camera position is scripted. When is say that combat are still bad, I mean Classic Tomb Raider combats are all about jumping around bullet sponges. It was bad game design 30 years ago and it is still. They really should add an option to halve the enemies hit points (as far as i remember, japanese version of the original game already had such nerf for enemies). Today this first pack of remastered games is enjoyable for old-timers but it still needs some little improvements to make it great for new players.
The main game is a great FPS with an emphasis on gigantic architecture. Great ambiance. The levels are huge and maze-like but they are fair. Gun fights are fun but on the other hand The lightsaber fights did not age well. Saddly the expension is not very good, most of the levels are unbalanced, unfair and poorly readable. The big problem is that the game do not really works out of the box anymore. You'll need some unofficial patches. This game is a great candidate for the GOG Preservation Program or a remaster
Textures, resolution and controls are upgraded, and that's all. They did not even corrected a very old bug with the last switch on level 12. Don't pay more than 15 bucks for that, he original price is outrageous.
A very well designed pinball exploration. The game is never boring nor frustrating. Save points are exactly where they need to be and Puzzles are interesting. The only downpoint is that the game game is short but since it's a pinball i'm sure you'll replay it! Anyway, I already want the sequel!
