Starker on 12/4/2014 at 10:52
First one. It was one of the first PS games I played, if not the first. Loved exploring the exotic locations, figuring out puzzles and finding secrets. The second one I didn't like as much, because it had more action sequences and timed sections. Pretty much gave up on the series after the third game.
Zerker on 12/4/2014 at 12:04
Guardian of Light :)
Personally, I got into the series late so I only played the Crystal Dynamics games. I enjoyed the trilogy they put out, and the 2013 reboot, but I think I had most fun playing through Guardian of Light in co-op with a friend.
zajazd on 12/4/2014 at 17:57
TR2 is fav but those tank controls haven't aged well. I don't know which is the best in the series tho, they all have problems, and Prince of Persia The Sands of Time made them all obsolete.
Malf on 12/4/2014 at 18:29
I'm going to have to go with Anniversary too.
Saying that though, I only managed to play the original game before I sold my PS1, so didn't play another Tomb Raider until Crystal Dynamics took over.
So the TR games I've played are:
Tomb Raider
Legend
Anniversary
Underworld
Guardian of Light
2013
As an aside, would I be right in saying that Anniversary started the retro remake fad?
Thirith on 12/4/2014 at 18:54
Which fad is that? I cannot remember all that many retro remakes, especially on PC. A couple a year, at best.
EvaUnit02 on 12/4/2014 at 22:12
There's no "retro remake" fad. However there has been a "upscaled ports of last gen console games incorrectly labelled as remakes by lazy gaming press" fad.
The fad was more or less kicked off by PS2 backward compatibility being removed from PS3 (which hinged upon having actual PS2 components in the PS3 consoles). Soon after a bunch of smart marketing guys recognised that nostalgia for the recent past was a viable money-making avenue. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony have mastered 100% PS2 emulation at this point. Will we see a backwards compatibility patch for either PS3 or 4? Probably not. Why would they let you play your existing copies of games when they can resell them to you over PSN?
Kolya on 13/4/2014 at 01:53
One of the problems I had with TR 2013 was that Lara was supposed to be weak but she maims enemies by the dozen and climbs icefalls in a blizzard wearing a tank top. They didn't make her any less superhuman than usual. She whines a bit in the beginning, that's all. She even drags the damn camcorder around for no other reason than to watch some videos of herself. And she tries to save a bunch of useless cardboard "friends". Also at times TR 2013 was needlessly brutal with more rotting body pieces lying around than a Bosch painting. I couldn't really recommend it to my wife who loved Anniversary.
On the plus side the game was never boring and had some fun places to explore (the beach!). It certainly was worth the 12 EUR I paid for it. I'm still disappointed they threw away the chance of a weaker Lara Croft.
Starker on 13/4/2014 at 06:43
Yeah, for a game about tomb raiding, there was entirely too much shooting dudes in the face.
Mrbtongue has an excellent video on the subject in general: (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZM2jXyvGOc) TUN: Slow Down the Violence
Malf on 13/4/2014 at 07:08
There's been plenty of re-imaginings of games, such as Shadow Warrior, Rise of the Triad, Bionic Commando, Strider and Thief to name but a few.
None of these are direct sequels. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, but all are examples of what I'm talking about.
Sometimes they stay quite close to the original they're aping, as is the case with Anniversary and Rise of the Triad, and sometimes they're completely different; see Shadow Warrior or Thief for example.
Rarely, if ever, are the original developers involved.
And contrary to what EvaUnit02 says, I've not noticed the gaming press mention it. It's just something I've picked up on over the past few years. You can't really call these games a "genre", but they all share the same idea. Take an old IP and make it new.
I am NOT talking about HD remasters.
But this is incredibly tangential and isn't really relevant to the games being talked about.
twisty on 13/4/2014 at 10:09
For me, the original had the most impact because it was the first game I ever owned on the Playstation and was actually the reason why I bought that console in the first place. I can vividly remember visiting a Virgin store in central London and being absolutely blown away by the demo. It was the first time that I had ever seen a 3d game with the ability to swim, jump and run around in almost any direction and with the multiple camera perspectives, appeared to me at that time as a quantum leap in gaming unlike any I had seen for many years. Despite marketing the game as an action-oriented title, the gameplay itself was a fairly involved experience that required a reasonable amount of dedication and patience to persevere with all the exploration and trial and error required to progress through the levels. Furthermore, while there were many memorable experiences to be had (e.g. T-Rex, Damocles etc) these were delivered sparingly throughout the game, much like the excellent music and sound effects that accentuated critical events and player accomplishments.
The sequel improved upon many aspects of the original, however was more of an evolution of the IP than the revolution that TR bought to the gaming industry. In saying that though, I probably enjoyed this game the most out of all of the first generation of TR games (i.e. 1-6).
By the time that Chronicles hit the shelves, the franchise was really beginning to show its age, and with flagging sales and a growing sense of exhaustion with the series, Eidos attempted their first refresh of the IP with the Angel of Darkness. I can't recall if I ever ended up playing that one, but by most accounts it wasn't much of a success. Legend on the other hand, the first real reboot of the series, was much more successful in bringing the franchise into modern times. It captured much of what made the first couple of TR games so captivating, despite ruining a lot of the atmosphere with annoying headset chatter and overt use of QTEs. They definitely learnt from their mistakes with Anniversary which, despite a few annoying QTEs an minor quibbles here and there, was a triumph of a remake. Disappointingly, despite having some very interesting settings and novel experiences, Underworld was an inconsistent and forgettable game. I never played Guardian.
I haven't got that far in TR (2013) to comment yet as I purchased it on the Christmas Steam sale and haven't had a chance to play more than the first few levels.
