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[Mr_Zombie]

What? Maybe I have a different impression, but I thought they basically screwed themselves with worse and worse releases even alongside TR1. Eidos management on the NA/US side, from my experience, was a bunch of douchey fuckstains, for sure, but Core seemed to be very lucky with TR despite the apparent meddling. And, as I recall, many of them reformed again as two or three other development studios.

Games weren't worse; TR2, 3 and 4 (especially 4) were still great games - they only missed that feeling of isolation that TR1 had. However, the franchise simply got stale: the same engine (characters in TR5 are as blocky and made out from simple geometry as they were in TR1), same gameplay with only one or two new features introduced in each entry and that's it. Each entry could be easily called a level pack with slight improvements to the engine. But how could it be otherwise when Eidos didn't really give CORE time to innovate, forcing them to release a new entry every fucking year; plus there were also expansion packs for TR1, 2 and 3 and by the time TR5 was released, CORE had apparently their hands full in Angel of Darkness already.

 

[Emperor Bohe]

Games weren't worse; TR2, 3 and 4 (especially 4) were still great games - they only missed that feeling of isolation that TR1 had. However, the franchise simply got stale: the same engine (characters in TR5 are as blocky and made out from simple geometry as they were in TR1), same gameplay with only one or two new features introduced in each entry and that's it. Each entry could be easily called a level pack with slight improvements to the engine. But how could it be otherwise when Eidos didn't really give CORE time to innovate, forcing them to release a new entry every fucking year; plus there were also expansion packs for TR1, 2 and 3 and by the time TR5 was released, CORE had apparently their hands full in Angel of Darkness already.

Makes me wonder where the franchise would be right now if CORE had the time to properly make Angel of Darkness.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

Small bump.

I've finally finished TR1 today (I had to stop playing for a week due to some duties) and can repeat what I wrote earlier - whoever says that this game is unplayable nowadays and people talk well about it only due to nostalgia is delusional. The game is fantastic but only if you spent few minutes learning controls and game's rules. I love how the game doesn't handhold you at all: it's just you and the environment, and you have to figure it out yourself where to go, what to do and how to do it. Most of the time, when you switch a switch, the game doesn't even show you what it did; however, because of the amazing level design it isn't an issue since you already probably know where blocked doors were or going back from a room with the switch can quickly notice when something changes (e.g. a conveyor belt starts moving, sand fills the room etc.).

Overall I noticed that there were two kinds of levels: completely linear (e.g. first and last level) and those with a HUB and attached rooms where you had to go back and forth collecting things, opening doors and switching switches (e.g. St. Francis Folly) and both work really well. As mentioned before, even though the game doesn't give you clear objectives, there's no hint system or "survivor instinct", you don't have you don't have a map etc. and yet there were only few moments in the game when I was stumped about what to do next (but that's because I didn't notice a platform or that you can push a certain object).

The final three two levels (ascension through the whole pyramid to reach the Scion and the escape from the pyramid) are my personal masterpieces. They are hard, requiring you to be familiar with all kinds of traps and moves Lara can do, and pretty creepy: those fleshy textures, "veiny" floor, lava everywhere and skinless enemies. Yikes. Even now, when you can see how simple it all looks, the inside of Great Pyramid feels icy to me. (I was really disappointed to see how it was handled in Anniversary: both when it comes to visuals and level design; of all the bad changes in that game, this was the worst).

On the other hand, boss fights in the game were disappointing and felt like an afterthought. The only terrifying and rather hard boss was the Torso Boss, since you fight it on a small platform floating above a pool of lava and it has pretty long arms (plus it's a bullet sponge) - so jumping around it isn't always a good idea. Human bosses, including Natla herself, were a joke though and most of the time all you had to do was standing still and fire your weapon at them (OK, Pierre was annoying when he was suddenly popping out of nowhere in the middle of a level, shooting at you). Not to mention they were pretty cheesy; while Larson, Pierre and Kold work well for a mercenaries, the Cowboy and The Kid felt really out of place. And their shouts ("You firin' at me? You firin' at me? There ain't nobody else so you must be firin' at me!", "Say cheese!")...

Doppleganger worked well, but that's because the fight was more of a puzzle than a simple boss fight. I wish more fights were handled like that. Also, protip: Doppleganger can sometimes glitch and stand still (once it even happened to me that Lara jumped successfully on a platform while Doppleganger felt from it and kept lying on a floor in a "died" pose; shooting it resulted in Lara dying, even though Doppy wasn't moving at all ).

Unfortunately the game doesn't give you final stats, so I have no idea how much in-game time it took me to finish it. I just know that there's more than enough ammo and health packs in the game. I've finished it with 20 big health packs and 9 small ones, and about 800 magnum bullets, 2500 UZI bullets and 32 shotgun shells.

Spoiler

and about 240 save files >_> seriously, anyone who finished the game on PSX should get a real-life award

And I didn't even discover all the secrets.

All in all, this is still a great game. Fuck haters. It's just a shame that nowadays no one wants to create games like that

 

[Sub_Level]

Doppelganger part was legit cool.

 

[sublimit]

Very interesting interview with one of the original games (TR1,TR2) level designer Heather Gibson:

It's a big interview so i'll just quote a few parts.Head to the site for more.

How did level design change with the expansion of having vehicles in Tomb Raider II vs. Tomb Raider?

Having the vehicles gave the second game something different and new but posed a few challenges for myself and Neal. Sometimes we didn’t have the vehicles in a final form when we began building the levels which made them a bit tricky to build. I’m not sure if we really used the vehicles to their full advantage. The game schedule was so tight that we just had to start building levels with little time to play and perfect them. We were aware that the game had to be ready within the year. We did modify levels once we had vehicles up and running but it was all very hectic. It was definitely worth doing though. Gavin Rummery the lead programmer in TRII had an input in building the ‘canal run’ for the speedboat, against the clock, in Venice. I textured this area but just didn’t have time to build it. I did however manage to pop a bridge idea I had into the scene after Gav had finished the layout. It was the area where the boat crashes through the windows above the bridge…however it never really was the ‘James Bond’ action scene I had imagined and I would have liked to have added many more areas like this.

You designed “Caves”, the first level of Tomb Raider.This is where everyone starts the game with Lara’s travel guide murdered by wolves and she is suddenly on her own to explore. This level opens up the game play, grips the gamer to keep playing, and sets the tone for the game. This is a huge responsibility because only if the gamer is happy with the first level they will continue to play the game. How did you go about designing this level? Did you have prior experience that made the team trust you with this responsibility?

I like to think that the team trusted me but always knew they were there to support me if I needed them. I approached the level design confidently. I didn’t feel any pressure about building the first level of the game as I had no idea that millions of people would eventually play it. If I had known what a success the game would become then I may have been more nervous. I enjoyed designing this level very much. The Room Editor that we used to create the environments had limitations which I used to my advantage. The cave system meant that players didn’t question the lack of sky and landscape which was difficult to produce with this engine. I would have liked to have opened up the roof of the village areas but that was not possible at the time.

In the Barkhang Monastery the monks are peaceful to you unless you shoot them.Only then do they attack you.Otherwise they only protect you and take out the baddies.How was this unique concept established?

We discussed doing something a little different with the monastery level in a team meeting, at the design stage. Players have always approached each location with the attitude that they could shoot anything. However we did believe that Lara had a conscience and probably shouldn’t go in shooting peaceful monks. We still wanted them in the level so the compromise was that they only fired back if attacked. I think this was one of the few times we drew the line at what Lara was encouraged to kill.

http://tomb-of-ash.tumblr.com/post/100836774445/interview-with-heather-gibson