Pilgrimzero
Member
I have been going through the Tomb Raiders and have been reflecting on them and the series as a whole.
TR1: When the original first came out I picked it up and loved it. The puzzles, the atmosphere, the badd ass female character. All awesome. Years later it still holds up. Yes the graphics and controls are ancient but that adds to the charm. And as I said this game oozes atmosphere. I only play for sport set such a great tone. And a grand adventure to the halls of Atlantis! And what this game does that no other game in the series (that I have played) does is make you feel isolated. A true classic.
TR2: I will never understand why so many people consider this to the best. Looking back it was obvious that the isolation tone was a one shot deal. Lara is running around a city. Gun men everywhere. Yes it still had tombs but the more explosive action adventure-ness of it changed everything. Lara was a star and they needed to make it more exciting. Also, worst boss fight in the series IMO. The last PS1 TR game I picked up upon release
TR3: I am currently playing it for the first time. Not a fan of the jungle setting. And I have to leap through trees, open hidden doors, and fight off crazy monkeys, how did these scientists get into the heart of it? Again this seems to be trying to one up itself for the explosive action thing and moving further away from the isolation thing. I still have a lot of the game to go so maybe I am wrong.
TR4&5: Ive only played the intro stuff. Loved young Lara at the beginning of 4. Ive heard these get back to being more like TR1. I believe it as at this point that the TR series was on its decline. The movie was about to come out though and would give it a boost!
TR AoD: And then the PS2 TR got kicked out the door. The momentum of the movie wasted. Not to mention a new movie on the horizon (and was nowhere near as good as the first film). But woo PS2 TR! And Lara looked great. So I picked it up ASAP back in the day. Too bad it wasnt finished and was extremely buggy. But I finished it anyways. I dont know what really to say except it tried to be several types of games and failed. Not to mention taking Lara even further from her roots. Its no wonder this game killed of the franchise for a bit.
TR Legend: The soft reboot. Now Lara had a real background and friends she chatted with constantly. The game for what it was, was fun. New mechanics. Lara back in tomb raiding gear. A big adventure for a well known relic. And a secret society of bad guys. A search for a lost mother! New era and new Tomb Raider.
TR Anniversary: The TR1 remake. And it was really good. Gone where the tank controls and the old graphics. Unfortunately the less is more aspect wasnt learned. More backstory and personality gets shoved into the story. Laras first human kill! Oh the tears! Only later would this concept be expanded upon in the hard reboot. But really, a great remake and something the series much needed. This same year Uncharted (aka Dude Raider) is released and comes to eventually out tomb raider, Tomb Raider.
TR Underworld: The wrap up of the new series. Natla is back and brought her Lara clone with her. It all wraps up and was pretty good. EXCEPT the real (and better) ending was only on 360, and still is to this day. Not much to say about this one as its more of the playstyle and story style of the new series. Unfortunately it again ends the adventures of Lara until a few years later in the hard reboot.
TR: You will want to protect her. Tomb Raider takes its lessons from the massively popular Uncharted series (though in no way is Nathan a household name like Lara) and leans heavy into the story telling and action set pieces and shies away from actual Tomb Raiding. In the previous series we had such amazing pieces of history as Excalibur, Atlantis, and Mjolnir. In this one we have a Chinese ghost demon no ones ever heard of. Lara also has a whole cast of friends and villains to chat with as she runs around the island. And going from a girl who almost throws up when she kills a man to screaming You bastards! as she mows through them with an assault rifle 5 minutes later. And the tombs, well at most 2 rooms with a central puzzle. This would be fixed in the next game. Promise. Overall, I really liked the game for what it was. I liked the story more or less. Problem is this could have starred any generic lead character and it wouldnt have changed anything. But Its a new era. A new Lara. A new Tomb Raider for the masses.
RotTR: This one seems to split the fan base. I did not like it. The story was super generic and held no surprises. Its hard to believe this won an award for writing. This game also claimed to have real tombs again! No it didnt. And dont get me started on the collect-athon stuff. About half way through I gave up on finding all the caches and boxes. My biggest gripe though is they still dont give Lara her iconic dual pistols because Katniss Everdeen had to go make bows popular.
So thats it. Im still working on 3 but Im largely not feeling it, hopefully I get out of the jungle soon. 2 was enjoyable more or less. Im hoping 4 and 5 go better for me. Ive often railed about the latest series and how its changed Lara but looking back now I see that started way back in TR2. TR1 was before all the popularity and trying to appeal to a certain market and to make things easier and puzzles are hard so lets add more human enemies. TR1 told a story without really having to tell a story. And thats rare now-a-days. Today its all flash and no substance.
And thats fine. It sales. Today is not like yesterday. Trends change. Just gotta take Tomb Raider for what it is now. It just needs a better writer because dang did it suck in RotTR. And dual pistols.
TR1: When the original first came out I picked it up and loved it. The puzzles, the atmosphere, the badd ass female character. All awesome. Years later it still holds up. Yes the graphics and controls are ancient but that adds to the charm. And as I said this game oozes atmosphere. I only play for sport set such a great tone. And a grand adventure to the halls of Atlantis! And what this game does that no other game in the series (that I have played) does is make you feel isolated. A true classic.
TR2: I will never understand why so many people consider this to the best. Looking back it was obvious that the isolation tone was a one shot deal. Lara is running around a city. Gun men everywhere. Yes it still had tombs but the more explosive action adventure-ness of it changed everything. Lara was a star and they needed to make it more exciting. Also, worst boss fight in the series IMO. The last PS1 TR game I picked up upon release
TR3: I am currently playing it for the first time. Not a fan of the jungle setting. And I have to leap through trees, open hidden doors, and fight off crazy monkeys, how did these scientists get into the heart of it? Again this seems to be trying to one up itself for the explosive action thing and moving further away from the isolation thing. I still have a lot of the game to go so maybe I am wrong.
TR4&5: Ive only played the intro stuff. Loved young Lara at the beginning of 4. Ive heard these get back to being more like TR1. I believe it as at this point that the TR series was on its decline. The movie was about to come out though and would give it a boost!
TR AoD: And then the PS2 TR got kicked out the door. The momentum of the movie wasted. Not to mention a new movie on the horizon (and was nowhere near as good as the first film). But woo PS2 TR! And Lara looked great. So I picked it up ASAP back in the day. Too bad it wasnt finished and was extremely buggy. But I finished it anyways. I dont know what really to say except it tried to be several types of games and failed. Not to mention taking Lara even further from her roots. Its no wonder this game killed of the franchise for a bit.
TR Legend: The soft reboot. Now Lara had a real background and friends she chatted with constantly. The game for what it was, was fun. New mechanics. Lara back in tomb raiding gear. A big adventure for a well known relic. And a secret society of bad guys. A search for a lost mother! New era and new Tomb Raider.
TR Anniversary: The TR1 remake. And it was really good. Gone where the tank controls and the old graphics. Unfortunately the less is more aspect wasnt learned. More backstory and personality gets shoved into the story. Laras first human kill! Oh the tears! Only later would this concept be expanded upon in the hard reboot. But really, a great remake and something the series much needed. This same year Uncharted (aka Dude Raider) is released and comes to eventually out tomb raider, Tomb Raider.
TR Underworld: The wrap up of the new series. Natla is back and brought her Lara clone with her. It all wraps up and was pretty good. EXCEPT the real (and better) ending was only on 360, and still is to this day. Not much to say about this one as its more of the playstyle and story style of the new series. Unfortunately it again ends the adventures of Lara until a few years later in the hard reboot.
TR: You will want to protect her. Tomb Raider takes its lessons from the massively popular Uncharted series (though in no way is Nathan a household name like Lara) and leans heavy into the story telling and action set pieces and shies away from actual Tomb Raiding. In the previous series we had such amazing pieces of history as Excalibur, Atlantis, and Mjolnir. In this one we have a Chinese ghost demon no ones ever heard of. Lara also has a whole cast of friends and villains to chat with as she runs around the island. And going from a girl who almost throws up when she kills a man to screaming You bastards! as she mows through them with an assault rifle 5 minutes later. And the tombs, well at most 2 rooms with a central puzzle. This would be fixed in the next game. Promise. Overall, I really liked the game for what it was. I liked the story more or less. Problem is this could have starred any generic lead character and it wouldnt have changed anything. But Its a new era. A new Lara. A new Tomb Raider for the masses.
RotTR: This one seems to split the fan base. I did not like it. The story was super generic and held no surprises. Its hard to believe this won an award for writing. This game also claimed to have real tombs again! No it didnt. And dont get me started on the collect-athon stuff. About half way through I gave up on finding all the caches and boxes. My biggest gripe though is they still dont give Lara her iconic dual pistols because Katniss Everdeen had to go make bows popular.
So thats it. Im still working on 3 but Im largely not feeling it, hopefully I get out of the jungle soon. 2 was enjoyable more or less. Im hoping 4 and 5 go better for me. Ive often railed about the latest series and how its changed Lara but looking back now I see that started way back in TR2. TR1 was before all the popularity and trying to appeal to a certain market and to make things easier and puzzles are hard so lets add more human enemies. TR1 told a story without really having to tell a story. And thats rare now-a-days. Today its all flash and no substance.
And thats fine. It sales. Today is not like yesterday. Trends change. Just gotta take Tomb Raider for what it is now. It just needs a better writer because dang did it suck in RotTR. And dual pistols.