If you can stomach the controls, then yes, great games.
The controls aren't even that bad.
EDIT: I would recommend 1, 2 and The Last Revelation. And then 3 after playing those. Play 5 at your own risk, it feels like a shoehorned expansion compared to the first four. Definitely get The Last Revelation, my favorite, and a TRUE Tomb Raider.
The engine and controls in the original TR games are the 3D equivalent of rotoscoped 2D games like Prince of Persia and Flashback. If you're okay with that, you'll dig the games. They are methodically paced and not a part of the double-jumping-and-grabbing-coins-and-shooting-rainbows school of action. The first one has great exploration and atmosphere and some fantastically creepy and oh-shit moments. They're challenging and will make you work, and are rewarding.
TR1 actually has some gory deaths for when you mess up that are very reminiscent of the original PoP. No rape threats or getting impaled on a pole for failing a QTE, though.
Depends. If you expect instant gratification with mechanics entirely familiar in modern games then no. If you're willing to learn something a bit different and don't mind a slower-pace then yes; they offer better exploration and adventure than any recent entry in the genre as those mechanics are fully consistent in themselves and don't have artificial limits (like invisible walls and randomly extending/shortening jumps for "cinematic" effect), which means the only limit is your skill level with them, and despite the visual and system limitations the level concepts are far more ambitious on average than in modern Action/Adventures.
Either way though I'd recommend the PC versions over the PS1 ones, especially for 3, which has a completely ill-fitting save system on PS1 (TR1 PS1 also has a much more unforgiving save system, but it at least fits the comparatively more forgiving design of the game). If you're on PAL that's a problem in console TR1's case too (the sequels were fixed in that regard).
I remember playing the original TR like 5 or 6 years after it came out and the controls had already aged terribly, I can't imagine how much worse it is now.
The controls aren't bad. They work perfectly. It's just that some of the animations are very slow, especially climbing and crawling.
TR1-4 are great. TR3 has some pretty great levels (India, South Pacific Islands, Antarctice, some of the Nevada and London levels) but also some terrible levels (the rest of Nevada and London).
Definitely give the games a try. They are a great challenge.
I remember playing the original TR like 5 or 6 years after it came out and the controls had already aged terribly, I can't imagine how much worse it is now.
The first 4 PS1 Tomb Raiders are on sale this week on PSN for $2.49 ($2.24 for PS Plus). I'm wondering if they're worth getting. I always like to play every game in a series (an annoying habit). I won't pick up the latter two Core Design games but will pick up the PS3 HD trilogy of the Crystal Dynamic games.
I plan to play these on Vita which I will get either this holiday or January. I like 3D platformers and puzzles.
I played it on the Saturn and I got to tell you even if the game aged and not so well in some parts it's an amazing game makes you think and. Reaching some hard places is well it's hard the trex
I would tell you get it it's a good fun game puzzles and so on worth it still own the Saturn version
The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Tomb Raider 1 is an incredibly special and important game with some of the best level design ever in video games and an astoundingly ahead-of-its-time appreciation for 3D space, scale, and movement. It is required reading.
The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Tomb Raider 1 is an incredibly special and important game with some of the best level design ever in video games and an astoundingly ahead-of-its-time appreciation for 3D space, scale, and movement. It is required reading.
Exactly this. If you've ever played Prince of Persia, you'll understand this immediately.
By the end of the tutorial, you'll understand just how much space you'll need to make jumps, and how far each jump will take you.
As a side note, the Dualshock was still quite new at the time TR came out, so it was likely made with a d-pad in mind.
- 1 and 2 are good
- 3 blows, too many confusing level designs and unfair deaths
But yes, you have to be willing to deal with the "tank on a grid" controls, so your desire for nostalgia needs to outweigh the annoyance you will experience with this.
The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Part of it can be if they worked well for that period but are hard to get into way later, though TR1's a bit iffy because it's more a very deliberate style and less that it's less like, say, DQ1 requiring you to go through a menu to do everything when there was a better, streamlined alternative used by other RPGs later and even DQ itself from V onwards. I guess it's similar to Castlevania in that it works fine for what it is because it's slower and more methodical and once you're used to that it's fine, whereas if it were too hectic and action packed it'd be a huge issue... which does sound like an issue with TR3 and later actually!
I think a lot of people have a bad impression of 3. It's not a bad game, it's just a bitch. You could pick it up after 2. The PS1 version has an incredibly unfair save system, though. You must collect save crystals and they are used like an inventory item. You will want to save lightly, in a game where saving frequently is recommended.
first of all, the controls are fine. I just booted it up to confirm I wasn't crazy after reading posts in this thread. I'll go one step further and say they are incredibly accurate and serve the level design perfectly which brings me to my next point. You will not find an exploration based game with better level design then the original tomb raider. This is a fact. completely worth checking out, even just for curiosities sake, and you may find yourself enjoying it immensely.
If you're willing to get used to the quirks of the movement I'd say playing at least the first is worth your time.
While the movement might not feel natural compared to recent 3D games there's an amazing sense of weight behind motions, It's extremely satisfying to narrowly sprint through traps and jump a gap just to barely grab hold of a ledge. The scale of the environments also makes it feel like you're truly exploring uncharted areas rather than being pushed along like it's a theme park ride. There's something about the level of raw input given, the movement and scale of environments that makes the original series still stand out to me today.
Rough around the edges by todays standards but there's certainly something worth revisiting.
- 1 and 2 are good
- 3 blows, too many confusing level designs and unfair deaths
But yes, you have to be willing to deal with the "tank on a grid" controls, so your desire for nostalgia needs to outweigh the annoyance you will experience with this.
As people have already pointed out, the controls are perfect for the games. They are extremely precise and always work exactly as they should. If you fail it will always be your fault. It's nice to get through a level because of your skills and not because the game made sure your character couldn't miss the jump. The real standout is the level design which is well above today's standards.
The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Tomb Raider 1 is an incredibly special and important game with some of the best level design ever in video games and an astoundingly ahead-of-its-time appreciation for 3D space, scale, and movement. It is required reading.
Playing through TR2 on Vita.
I skipped it when it first came out but I'm enjoying playing it now.
TR1 was an amazing game for me. I was disappointed at TR2 being not as Tomb-ey back then
But I played these and knew what to expect with the controls and the timing. I imagine for younger players it would be challenging because it's so different from what they are used to
I strongly disagree. All I play on Vita now is PS1 games. They hold up but I understand some don't like the lowpoly and texture jittering. They have no DLC, trophies, season passes, or IAP's.
Pretty awesome in my book.
I recommend 1, 2 and The Last Revelation. Those will give you the full old-school flavor. Part 3 is extremely frustrating, and I'd avoid it unless you have a lot of patience.
Honestly, if you can get accustomed to the controls, it is worth checking out. The first game is still pretty pretty great, if not a little antiquated due to the controls and camera. The game came out before the Playstation Dualshock analogue, so you will be playing with a d-pad. I replayed this one using DosBox on PC not long ago, and I found myself getting really immersed into it, there's something about the atmosphere in the original that give it this haunting vibe at times.
Also the Tomb Raider Anniversary remake is worth checking out too. that one came out in 2007, I believe?
Honestly, if you can get accustomed to the controls, it is worth checking out. The first game is still pretty pretty great, if not a little antiquated due to the controls and camera. The game came out before the Playstation Dualshock analogue, so you will be playing with a d-pad. I replayed this one using DosBox on PC not long ago, and I found myself getting really immersed into it.
Also the Tomb Raider Anniversary remake is worth checking out too. that one came out in 2997, I believe?
The PC version is the best of the ordinal Tomb Raider's as it does have less jitttering and texture warping than the Playstation version, even under software rendering, and of course higher resolution and a better framerate. It was also one of the earlier PC games to have full 3D hardware acceleration, though getting 3DFX Glide to work is a a pain on modern PC's. The PowerVR version of the original Tomb Raider actually the best way to play it with hardware acceleration, though I don't know if there is a way to emulate the PowerVR mode on a modern PC.
The Playstation version is still a good way to play the game though. The Saturn port actually isn't that bad either.
I recently finished Tomb Raider this past month, after playing both the Saturn and PC versions on-and-off again since the mid 2000s (2005, I think?). In short: yeah, I'd probably recommend them, but, I'd go with the PC versions over all others, as there you can save as much as you damn well want, not being limited to checkpoints. Some will frown on save scumming, but screw them; since you will screw up and you will screw up a lot, having that safety net is utterly invaluable to the game's playability.
The controls are great when you're just platforming. Everything is lined up in a square grid (probably because the first game was designed with the Saturn, a quad-based games console, as the lead development version), so you just need to learn how to line up jumps along that grid and get really good at pulling them off. It is most definitely a game for the patient player - you'll want to walk a lot of the time, since walking prevents Lara from casually flinging herself off 50-foot drops without a care in the world, killing her the instant she sets foot on solid ground (liquid ground is another matter). Helps you set up jumps a damn lot, too, which is something you absolutely have to do - just tapping the jump button while running is very frequently not the best way to handle any given jump, and is prone to getting yourself killed.
The sense of isolation is stellar, too. You're not out in the open (the game renderer literally couldn't handle it until Tomb Raider 2), you're down in dark, musty caves and tombs, with a very thick black fog permeating everything whether you want it to or not (no option to turn it off that I've found). You're on your own here, with no safety net to catch you or allies to come to your aid. What's more, literally everything that lives down here wants you dead, be that the local wildlife, living mummies, rival tomb raiders, or even the tomb itself (wouldn't be a Raiders knock-off without a few booby traps, right?). The atmosphere is something else - especially the final levels of the first game, which were so off-putting it was kind of difficult for me to play (I mean, I find
relatively-realistic depictions of lava (barring how it's clearly nothing more than a solid floor that Lara catches fire when she steps on)
to be unsettling enough, but
a stage made out of bloody flesh and muscle, with the soundtrack being a thumping heart, and hideous, skinless, half-formed beings that do shitloads of damage and can pop out of giant, ominous eggs without warning if you so much as step in the wrong place or flip the wrong switch
was enough to make me dread making any progress in the stage at all).
My only real complaint is that combat is utter pants. Far too often, I'm being hounded by enemies that can run circles around me while doing damage, while Lara's turning speed is so slow that trying to turn to face them results in my back always facing them, and doing the 180° turn-roll doesn't help a whole lot either. On the bright side, if you hold down the action button while the guns are out, Lara will automatically start/stop shooting whenever she can land a shot on any enemy, so you can snipe enemies from a distance without too much hassle. Also, she has complete auto-aim as well, so you can focus on jumping around like an idiot to dodge enemy fire while she pistols bats, wolves, bears or worse to death with cold, inhuman, robotic precision. Just watch out for enemies that bumrush you, since once they're in your grill it's a royal pain in the ass to keep yourself vaguely looking in their direction to allow that autoaim to work.
So yeah, I'd recommend it, with the caveat that it'll take a lot of patience to learn the controls (and a load of saving for when you inevitably screw up). Personally, I'm casually moving on to TR2 (debated retrying this PC copy of Anniversary I've had since 2007 or so, but eh, later). Climbing walls is kinda clunky (that is the slowest "I'm starting to climb this wall" animation ever, holy crap), but I like some of the additions otherwise. Plus, unlike the first game, it has
not one, like its predecessor, but two T-Rexes waiting to bum rush you in a secret in the first level
. How can you say no?
Personally, I'd like to see more games with such a large focus on a variety of different jumps. You could probably mesh Tomb Raider's jumping mechanics into the standard third-person game fairly well, actually (complete with the separate platforming and shooting modes that you switch to with the press of a button); it'd still technically be tank controls, but since the camera's tied to your character's back and you'd be changing angle with the mouse/right analog stick, nobody'd bat an eye.
As people have already pointed out, the controls are perfect for the games. They are extremely precise and always work exactly as they should. If you fail it will always be your fault. It's nice to get through a level because of your skills and not because the game made sure your character couldn't miss the jump. The real standout is the level design which is well above today's standards.
Tomb Raider always just screamed "PS1" to me for some reason. Especially the demo for the second game. Takes me back to a really really innocent time; waking up the morning before school and seeing how far I could get in it before heading off. Something about that puked up mess of pixels just brings the kid out in me.
People complain about the controls, but there is nothing in any other platforming game as satisfying as the old Tomb Raiders once you get the hang of it. Nothing. The sense of weight in all of your actions and animations as you throw yourself across gaps, the complete lack of artificial restrictions on what you can grab in the environment and the sheer scale and uncompromising complexity of the levels make it incomparable to anything else out there.
The only thing the game asks of you is to take a bit of time to understand that everything works on a very simple grid-based system and how all of Lara's animations and abilities are tied to that system. If that sounds like something you can handle than you should definitely try them.
Playing the PS1 version of TR1 is a fine option, because it has the original musical score and much better sound quality than the PC port. For TR2,3 and Last Revelation, the PC versions are superior in every way and are definitely the ones to get.
If you have a PC, play it on that instead. I picked up every tomb raider up to anniversary through steam last year for something like $0.80 a piece. If you hate it then you're out less than a buck.
I like this post but also play Legend and Underworld. I think Underworld is pretty underrated. Legend is the weakest out of all recent TR's. I played through all of them a few months ago.
I like this post but also play Legend and Underworld. I think Underworld is pretty underrated. Legend is the weakest out of all recent TR's. I played through all of them a few months ago.
As somebody who was around during the "glory days" and actually played them, yes, very much worth checking out. 1,2,3 and anniversary. Revelation was decent enough, chronicles, not so much. Though on PC, I believe chronicles had the level editor which was essentially the same one used by devs. TR2 has some of the best level design you'll find. It's a classic that any current or prospecting environment / level designer should study. TR3 was hard as fuck; puzzles and platforming were mind blowing at times.
People bitch about tank controls, but there needs to be an understanding of why they're implemented that way. The controls were developed in context with how the level editor handled geometry and elevation. The level design tools were based on a grid system of quads, or four triangles that could be raised vertically at either corner by increments of about 1/3 of a meter. Just think of a square piece of paper, which represents one unit of "world space," with height adjustments being determined by how far up you pull on the outer corners. Each of these squares was a about a meter in surface area, which was used as a base for animations. A step back was one meter / square, and a full sprint-jump was possible within one meter as well. Jumps were 2, running jumps 3, hanging jumps 4, etc.
The point is that movement / animation was designed in compliance with how the world was built. Which, while somewhat archaic and "clunky," is actually very, very functional and really helps to communicate the environment to the player during platforming - once the player understands the system.
Anyway, I digress. OG TR is hardcore by today's standards. When you fail, you fail and no one holds your hand, there's no flashing icons to tell you that you'er standing on top of a med pack, ammo, etc. It's wonderful level design, with a story and character connection told through actual gameplay - the way it should be. If you're afraid to get OG TR, then just get anniversary. Great movement that stays true to the functionality, great puzzles, better graphics, etc. Anniversary is kind of a lost gem, IMO.
Don't listen to the detractors. I have them on Vita and the D-pad is true godsend (2nd only to the experience of TR1 for the Saturn). And even if you don't like the D-pad, you can use the emulated analog support, but I highly recommend you use without it.
The games were designed meticulously around it's controls; it has a slower, methodical pacing and the game is heavily reliant on investigation rather than combat. It is an excellent foray into the franchises both in game design academia and experience. People write it off because they're using ill-informed biases by unfairly comparing it to "modern" design and control schemes. While there are some merits to that argument, it is not the defining aspect of what made those games unique and special. Games of that caliber are rare, especially one with a female as a lead character. Believe it or not, you have more control on Lara than any of the latter generation series, which is quite mind-boggling when you think about it.
If you want to understand why so many people are passionate about this game, then by all means get them. They're cheap, so you've got nothing to really lose. You're playing genre defining classics at a historical game period. It is worth putting the effort on if by all means getting a better understanding where the roots are for establishing the iconic heroine you see today.
Edit: Looks like the poster above me share sentiments.
I just bought all of them (1 all the way through Underworld) on PC for a $1.24 each via Greenmangaming. I've only ever played two Tomb Raiders, Legend and 2013. I actually liked what I played of Legend, but I only ever got half way through it. I enjoyed 2013 too, but I know it is a completely different style. I plan to go through them all and probably stream it. I tested TR1, took me forever to get it looking good as it's DOS (found a plugin that lets me kick it up to 1080p!) and the controls are definitely troubling... especially as it (and I think all of them before Legend) was before WASD for movement, Space for jump, etc was the standard, so it's really awkward control scheme mixed with the archiac movement.
Absolutely. At the very least it can give you perspective on how games used to not hold your hand and require some effort on the player's behalf to learn and master the mechanics, rather than just hold up and hit A occasionally. The controls are perfectly tuned for it's grid based movement and 'gymnastics-simulator' style of gameplay. The person who equated it to the old 2d Prince of Persia games but in 3d was spot on, this is a game that wants you to carefully analyze your surroundings and plan your jumps before executing them perfectly. Don't think of it like a generic analog stick platformer from the PS2 era to today, it is entirely different. Think of it like you would think of how Rainbow Six is different from the modern Call of Duty, but on platformer terms.
i finished the entire classic series recently myself and i couldnt have enjoyed myself more.
GREAT games, all of them. 3 seems to be unpopular around here, but that one's actually my favorite.
