As a remaster it does the job okay. I’ve mixed feeling on the new graphics textures, as for the most part I think they look quite nice, but sometimes there’s weird choices they make with the lighting engine where certain scenes aren’t lit to draw your eyes in certain directions the way they were before. I also had an example where a key was incredibly difficult to see, and I spent some time lost, although I believe that’s now been patched.

It’s not much of an issue as you can switch to old graphics at the tap of a button, which I found myself doing sometimes. There are some areas that are lighter in the new engine and some that are darker, so it’s a little strange that sometimes I found myself using this as a navigation tool. So, it means neither is really ideal.

On that note, another thing is that the camera mode is something you can use to cheat a bit, because it’s completely untethered. I like this as a camera mode option, because there’s some games where you’re completely bound to the player character and can’t take the photos you want. But here while you can’t move through walls or anything, you can use it fly through whole levels and look for things you wouldn’t normally be able to reach. I find it interesting they didn’t think to restrict you in any way doing this.

Meanwhile – and I know this is the most minor thing that I don’t really care about – they lock alternative costumes behind a completion. Normal thing for games to do sure, but in a remaster of a 30-year-old game, really? Like I’m not actually desperate to make Lara run around in her nightgown for the entirety of the normal game. Although it would look funny. But it just means it’s a feature most people aren’t going to use because I’m not going to be doing a repeat playthrough anytime soon. So, I don’t really see the need to restrict that. And as I say, in the context of having a camera mode you can cheat with, it’s odd because surely that’s a bigger immersion breaker than different costumes?

There’s also a new control option, which aren’t for me, maybe someone new will find they prefer but I do think they’ll likely run into issues at some sections, because the games were very much designed around the limitations of the original controls.

There is though one adjustment with the old controls though which I think is good and people might not even notice which is that the camera can be moved with the right stick. You don’t generally need it in this game but it sometimes nice to have and it’s something you forget you wouldn’t have had originally.

Now then as for the games, themselves I think I’m unusual in that 2 is my favourite. It’s the one I played first and have the most nostalgic feelings for. The common opinion is that the games are best when you’re sticking to exploring… you know Tombs. But I think Tomb Raider 2 bringing in some urban environments while keeping the Tomb Raider logic to them is very interesting. You do get the questions of “why on earth would they design a security system like this.” Sort of like you would in Resident Evil 2’s police station, but I kind of love that. I think they get more creative, weird and interesting with the level design while also feeling more refined. The only thing that spoils it is the number of enemies does get to be a bit drag and really just spoils the atmosphere. Though I do think “Mafia cult.” Makes for a more interesting threat than the very daft collection of characters from the first game.

Now in 3 they absolutely lose me with the levels just getting wildly sprawling and confusing. The design philosophy seemed to be “Make it bigger and more difficult.” With little though to whether that would actually be fun. But the package is worth it for the first two games.

A falta de terminar las expansiones de TR2 y TR3, dejo aquí mi viaje al pasado con la colección.
La saga sentó un precedente en esta época y luego fue transformándose hasta ser casi irreconocible con la nueva trilogía de Legend y en otro género totalmente distinto otra vez en Survivor trilogy.
La clave de estos tres juegos era su capacidad e sumergirte en su atmósfera. No es del todo el concepto de los proto-survival que ya existían entonces (como un Resident Evil, donde cada bala cuenta) pero sí que tenían esa tensión. ¿Qué salto será el que te lleve al final del nivel? ¿Cómo puedes resolver este puzzle antes de que caiga el techo lleno de pinchos? ¿Se puede llegar a esa plataforma con un medikit sin morir en el intento? Todas esas cuestiones te obligan a pararte, observar tus alrededores y volver a intentarlo una vez más, porque probablemente a la primera no lo hayas conseguido.

El diseño de niveles es intrincado y tiene sus valles tremendamente profundos en todos los juegos. El que diga que 3 es el peor, entiendo que lo dice por Londres y gran parte del trecho final, pero en realidad es el más variado, el que mejor logra ambientar cada zona.

Viéndolos en su conjunto, el Tomb Raider clásico perfecto estaría en un punto intermedio entre la elegancia del diseño de niveles de la gran mayoría de zonas de Tomb Raider I, la interconexión y la diversidad de localizaciones del 2 y 3, y la dificultad de la exploración del 2 pero sin la cantidad de enemigos que tiene este, algo más parecido a los que tiene el 3. Eso sería el Tomb Raider clásico perfecto.

Es una lástima que eso no vaya a ocurrir nunca. Pero tampoco es algo que debamos lamentar. Al menos esta colección está aquí para ser disfrutada por las nuevas generaciones y por las no tan nuevas con una buena capa de pintura nueva que revela que son joyas eternas del panteón de los videojuegos. Paradójicamente, muy de su época, pero joyas después de todo.

So, look: any remaster that enables you to play the original versions of the games it's remastering in the most optimized manner possible, on current hardware and without any alterations, is a good remaster. Tomb Raider Remastered accomplishes this, so I was happy to buy it.

However! Tomb Raider Remastered is also a 'new' Tomb Raider game, in that it offers new controls and remastered art for Tomb Raider 1-3. The new controls are whatever - just being honest, I'm not going to mess with modernized controls in a Tomb Raider game. That would be crazy. What I am interested in is the new art, which features some of the most garish visual redesigns I have ever seen. It's bad, dude. We're talking nightmare stuff, abysmal stuff.

The new graphics rely on natural lighting, so every scene has been arbitrarily re-lit, brightening sequences designed to occur in the dark and darkening sequences designed to be easily visible. Dreamworks-itized remade characters demonically jiggle their heads while they speak because they still use the old PS1 animations, designed for character models incapable of facial animation. There is a heavy, heavy, heavy reliance on AI upscaling, altering human-made textures into blurry, nondescript, and sometimes visually incomprehensible slush, rendering even the simplest structures like cliff-faces or mountain sides into abstract, goopy slop.

Smaller features one might hope for in a collection like this are also absent - it boggles my mind that the remaster adds well over a hundred achievements to pursue without also adding a level select menu.

In other words, I left this collection kinda torn. I'm psyched to see these games get remastered at all, but virtually everything this remaster does outside of making these games accessible is antithetical to what I think a remaster should be.