Hello Gaffers!
I just wanted to take a moment to spotlight the TOMB RAIDER series and share a video I've been working on. A video to show the evolution of TOMB RAIDER from the 1996 original, all the way to the upcoming release of 2015's RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER. I hope this sparks a little nostalgia from the veteran fans out there (such as myself) as well as highlight just how far we've come in the 19 years we've been fortunate enough to have Lara Croft in our homes.
Click for video!
I'd be absolutely thrilled if this somehow got to the eyes of someone at Square-Enix/Crystal Dynamics, and would greatly appreciate anything people could do to perhaps see this happen. During the process of putting this video together, I've come to realize just how friendly and welcoming the Tomb Raider community really is. Stella of TombRaiders.net has been a great help in making the video, and her input has been greatly appreciated!
I have many memories wrapped up in this great series. The theme alone gives me goosebumps when I hear it. I may be conflicted with the direction the series has taken in the last few years, but I can't help but always get a rush of excitement when a new game is on it's way.
Hope you all have a wonderful day, and keep on raidin'
**Note that evolution is non-directional and does not mean "getting better."**
Good video. It's much harder to show, but I think you could have included more examples of skill-based platforming and puzzle solving. Stuff like timing a jump between a swinging pendulum or a jumping sequence.
Must be a thing with Eidos games. Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Deus Ex - they've all had the same outcome, with varying results. Deus Ex probably being the best one to come out of it all.
I think it's more Square. They own Eidos and they love cinematics.
Ironically I preferred the newer tomb raider due to the fact it was so different to the previous games.
I actually thought it was one of the best games I played at the time, really enjoyable in my opinion.
Now the natural comparison tends to be to uncharted, and while tomb raider certainly isn't as good in terms of story, cinematics etc, I had more fun playing tomb raider than I did uncharted 1 and 3.
The problem with the reboot is of how little importance the player is to the experience. It's well-made, but it asks very very little of players and instead wrests control away when it's afraid the player might not see the cool explosions the developers programmed.
The old games basically put you in a level with no instruction what to do. The levels were fairly big and you had to search around to find a path and figure out what to do. You had to find switches and keys while overcoming platforming challenges to find and open the doors that would get you to the exit.
The reboot had levels that may have been bigger in terms of area but had much less to do in them. There was never more than one path that didn't lead to the same destination and the path wasn't hard to find because it was marked with glowing white paint. And it wasn't challenging since any platforming that took place in the reboot was incredibly scripted (it almost never asks you to time your jumps, jump past obstacles, and Lara would magnetically extend or reduce her jumps automatically so you didn't have to worry about aiming). They also reduced Lara's jumping ability so she only has 1 kind of jump which greatly reduces complexity of the platforming.
The old games had combat, but you fought the various enemies within levels designed around platforming and puzzle solving. They were just there. Combat-focused levels like Atlantis were an exception and even then that level is full of great platforming.
In the reboot it's the opposite. The game is heavily focused on shooting things and it gets old pretty fast with the limited number of types of things to shoot. It's the same enemies over and over and they hardly change over the course of the game. At least with the old games you could sometimes ignore the enemies and go back to platforming but here the combat is basically the game. It's the only part that really asks the player to do something.
Another problem is exploration. In the old games secrets were hard to find. They were very well hidden and took skill to find. Your rewards for finding them were very precious: medpacks, ammo, new weapons. In the old games you had to replenish your health with limited medical supplies and any weapons besides your pistols had to be found. So finding this stuff was really good.
The reboot has like 7 "hidden" tombs that are hidden by neon signs pointing to them. You get upgrade parts for your gear for completing them, which isn't a great reward considering how overpowered Lara is. You get all of the weapons as part of the story and ammo and health are near-infinite. The relics and documents are cool and deliver some nice lore, but these also aren't a challenge to find. The others are more like pixel hunts and your reward is pointless XP.
Then there's the story. While there has always been a big marketing push to prop up Lara as an icon she wasn't really the star of the games; It was the gameplay and level design. The stories of the old games were pretty bare bones. Something happens that puts Lara on an adventure and then you play the game. The games started getting worse as they started to try to make the series more character and story driven, with Last Revelation being an exception. They began focusing too much on giving Lara a reason to be doing what she's doing and having her talk constantly. Angel of Darkness was really the first misstep down this path, but after CD took over they went whole hog. Story is nice and all, but it should never replace gameplay, and that's exactly what they did as they injected more story into the game. They took away gameplay and replaced it with cinematic scripted stuff.
