Tomb Raider 1 - Remastered 28 Years Later. A Classic Revisited
There are a few gaming memories that I have interconnected with Tomb Raider despite only playing the game now 28 years after its debut. I can recall while on a family holiday seeing a lady with circular orange-tinted shades and what looked like sporty hiking gear in Majorca Spain which felt completely out of place. Without any knowledge of who Lara was, I just chalked it up to be a unique fashion sense but my dad let out a belly chuckle before rummaging for his yellow disposable tourist camera which felt so light and cheap you wondered how the finished product was going to turn out good at all but it wasn't an everyday occurrence and he knew that this opportunity would never happen again. It was the Lady cosplaying as Lara who saw me and decided to ask if I wanted a picture not knowing who she was was shy and apprehensive as most children and before I could say "NO" much like Lara does when she doesn't know what to do a flash went off and that was it. I'm sure somewhere in a dusty box there are photos of this capturing the awkwardness on my face for all eternity. Nowadays cameras are no longer a novelty, it's become less about rare moments in brief slips of time that are captured and more about vanity exposed for monetary gain through content creation and influencer influenza. There was a certain charm to having photos taken on excursions out and from the Lara cosplayer's perspective there was no incentive to dress up as the heroine except pure admiration of the character, no other angles however how pointy they appeared on a CRT monitor back then. This phenomenon wasn't exclusive to me as years would go by before stumbling upon a video featuring a completely embarrassing exchange between a young boy and Lara on our national broadcast. The Late Late Toy Show is a ritual Irish families indulge in with the lead-up to Christmas that would showcase kids and what they were hoping their parents would buy them or Santa would bring them if they were
good that year. The event was more for the adults laughing at the personalities of these young bucks with an audience of middle-aged to old-age invite-only members who would frequently receive free gifts just for attending. You couldn't be more transparently supercilious to bask in praise from an audience that was being spoonfed gifts periodically throughout and soaking in false praise. The show's facade comes crumbling down with how undeservedly praise is given to the host, it should be judged on its own without self-aggrandizing but alas has been a staple of Irish Television.
It goes against the reserved nature of us Irish people, as many Irish don't like to receive gifts or compliments, we're a candid sort who detest being told nice things.
The falsehood of it shines bright now as an adult but as a child, you couldn't see through that mirage and why would you? With that backstory in place what occurred on one night in particular was nothing short of cringe-worthy.
https://youtu.be/NtHlr9QAzYY
A Paid Lara Croft impersonator poses with fake guns while the plank of wood Pat Kenny does little to break the air in what is an uncomfortable scene for all in attendance and those watching at home. The entire facade shatters, there is no more fake joy and laughs from the audience, just complete embarrassment on display. The Actress isn't to blame but it reflects a deeper and more sinister side to people, how false pretenses can crumble and reveal to all what is truly going on could only happen on Irish TV. The Act fell apart and the result is nothing more spectacular than uncomfortable silence throughout the ordeal. This sticks out in my mind as a defining moment that highlights how the public perceives Lara and the separation between her character to weirdos like Pat Kenny and children who were just playing the game at the time.
Tomb Raider at one point was a pop cultural phenomenon that propelled games from enthusiasts' bedrooms to Hollywood. You couldn't walk through life without hearing her name, seeing her, or even meeting her. This was due in part to the extensive marketing campaigns done that made her the face of the film, perfumes, clothing, and the face of Lucozade.
All the gaming magazines were talking about Lara but there was another side to it all. A B side if you will. There was no question that she was seen as a sex Icon despite the creator's vision of her being an Indiana Jones type in her own regard but it can be impossible to fight back against cultural stereotypes so for the most part they swallowed their pride and let marketing run rampant. What worsened this was the fact magazines pushed a narrative that there was a nude cheat that was hidden and featured screenshots from a fan-made mod that just redrew her textures and skin tone. Not exactly the most riveting piece of pornography, just some pointy polygons but that didn't matter in the late 90s. With the vision of how they intended Lara to be received by people being undermined by the marketing department and burnout from many late nights of overworked conditions many at Core Studios left after the development of the first title.
The money only began to funnel in soon after the passionate folk left which is a shame and the direction of Lara's future would be decided by the remaining team and the prying eyes of Hollywood executive types.
Gameplay:
At its Core Tomb Raider is a strict platformer that requires precision timing, jumps, and most importantly patience. The guns that you have are equipped with unlimited ammunition but that doesn't mean they're the best.
You can obtain weapons such as the shotgun, magnums, and an Uzi earlier by discovering them hidden in levels but you'll probably end up conserving these weapons for such a long time that eventually when the game strips you of them and you have to kill bosses that drop them naturally, the game is almost over. The Uzi floating also looks so out of place in the remaster that it looks less like a secret and more like a bug in the game. The smaller crt and resolution probably masked this but it's not the case here.
Speaking of the remaster differences you can enable modern controls or tank controls and for my playthrough, I had been playing on tank controls and had forgotten there was an option for modern. When I tried the modern controls I wanted to get sick because the game is not designed around them and having full directional control more than often will make you fall and have to repeat jumps so much that it becomes more cumbersome than modern. The updated look of the game is decent but it can't be changed how the level layouts are block based so you'll have modern textures plastered on them that make it look like a Modded Minecraft affair rather than a remaster.
The plus side is Lara looks less like a Neanderthal and more like how she appeared in renders of the time.
Combat wasn't the team's forté and you can tell as the aiming is done automatically by sticking to a nearby enemy which can cause a plethora of issues when dealing with groups of enemies clustered together. One aspect that took me a while to come to grasp was using the R1 button to slowly move Lara back enough from the edge of a block to have enough distance to not fall off without being able to jump.
As for the story, it's barebones and serviceable for a title released in 96 and the remaster keeps the acting and fmvs the exact same so you'll still have that amateur performance with rigid animation. The FMVs have been run through an upscaler and to be honest, do little to nothing except smudge what was already there.
Another slight problem is lighting, the remaster can look dark in several spots that you'll end up swapping to the classic look just to see where you are and what traps are hidden from your view (I've heard this is the case for the later tomb raider games in this collection also).
The game is quite enjoyable at times despite the hard to master controls but once you put time into it you won't have any issue with any of the platforms in the game. Lara's Mansion really should be the first thing you do before even starting the game as it allows a playground for you to master the controls. Modern games don't need to do this because they've homogenised control schemes and player feel for years since the inception of this game that they don't require a tutorial area to familarise oneself with the game feel. The remaster makes a lot of areas pop and the original intent can be seen now unlike the low quality textures that can be hard to makeout what they are supposed to represent at times.
The Worst Levels:
While I enjoyed several levels there are a few that stick out far more than others as a pain in the ass. The 5th level St Francis folly has these giant collums and on the remastered version appears taller ever so slightly than the original graphics (which you can swap to with select) however you will run around attempting to climb without success before leaving the room and going in circles. On a first playthrough, I'd imagine many looked up where to go when stuck as it's not apparent where the correct way to go is at all. The Cistern level can be a loopy situation where you go somewhere too early and then have to repeat the same route that takes over 5 mins to get back to and if you didn't save scum you'd be wasting more time if you fell or died. There's a part in the cistern where you must drain the water in order to be able to stand and pull a switch but it's so remote and disconnected to the adjacent room that it makes no sense to backtrack so far in order to do it that the solution escapes your mind.
Overall Tomb Raider 1 has aged considerably but it's still an important piece of history that will now allow people to delve into it with relative ease with the quality of life features added. The game still requires oodles of patience and if you can make it to the end you'll have a newfound appreciation for taking your time with a game than rushing through it without a second thought. I imagine this was a real test for those who rented it from video stores back in the day to see if they could beat the game before having to re-rent it again. Also having to be wary of the residue that might have been left by the previous player who got stuck on an early level before using the game guide to finish themselves before the game... At the time the likes of crash bandicoot, metal gear solid, Final Fantasy VII, silent hill and other genre defining games were available and as Tomb Raider recieved critical acclaim and sales leading to sequel upon sequel it fell to the wayside forgotten due to advancements in tech and the burn out of the developers who wished to kill the character and series for good after the long run without breaks she had.
While not a sprawling epic like Final Fantasy VII or a tightly knit platformer like Crash, Tomb Raider holds it's own legacy that is a great look back at the time period it was made.
It had it's awkward beginnings before being rebooted in 2013 but hopefully there'll be a redemption coming for the series that shows what the devs originally envisioned for the series and character without the manipulation and distortions caused by those looking to deepen their pockets.
I'll have to give the other ones a go at some point but until then I'm burnt out too and if that's just from playing it, imagine how the devs felt those sleepless nights working on it.
There are a few gaming memories that I have interconnected with Tomb Raider despite only playing the game now 28 years after its debut. I can recall while on a family holiday seeing a lady with circular orange-tinted shades and what looked like sporty hiking gear in Majorca Spain which felt completely out of place. Without any knowledge of who Lara was, I just chalked it up to be a unique fashion sense but my dad let out a belly chuckle before rummaging for his yellow disposable tourist camera which felt so light and cheap you wondered how the finished product was going to turn out good at all but it wasn't an everyday occurrence and he knew that this opportunity would never happen again. It was the Lady cosplaying as Lara who saw me and decided to ask if I wanted a picture not knowing who she was was shy and apprehensive as most children and before I could say "NO" much like Lara does when she doesn't know what to do a flash went off and that was it. I'm sure somewhere in a dusty box there are photos of this capturing the awkwardness on my face for all eternity. Nowadays cameras are no longer a novelty, it's become less about rare moments in brief slips of time that are captured and more about vanity exposed for monetary gain through content creation and influencer influenza. There was a certain charm to having photos taken on excursions out and from the Lara cosplayer's perspective there was no incentive to dress up as the heroine except pure admiration of the character, no other angles however how pointy they appeared on a CRT monitor back then. This phenomenon wasn't exclusive to me as years would go by before stumbling upon a video featuring a completely embarrassing exchange between a young boy and Lara on our national broadcast. The Late Late Toy Show is a ritual Irish families indulge in with the lead-up to Christmas that would showcase kids and what they were hoping their parents would buy them or Santa would bring them if they were
good that year. The event was more for the adults laughing at the personalities of these young bucks with an audience of middle-aged to old-age invite-only members who would frequently receive free gifts just for attending. You couldn't be more transparently supercilious to bask in praise from an audience that was being spoonfed gifts periodically throughout and soaking in false praise. The show's facade comes crumbling down with how undeservedly praise is given to the host, it should be judged on its own without self-aggrandizing but alas has been a staple of Irish Television.
It goes against the reserved nature of us Irish people, as many Irish don't like to receive gifts or compliments, we're a candid sort who detest being told nice things.
The falsehood of it shines bright now as an adult but as a child, you couldn't see through that mirage and why would you? With that backstory in place what occurred on one night in particular was nothing short of cringe-worthy.
https://youtu.be/NtHlr9QAzYY
A Paid Lara Croft impersonator poses with fake guns while the plank of wood Pat Kenny does little to break the air in what is an uncomfortable scene for all in attendance and those watching at home. The entire facade shatters, there is no more fake joy and laughs from the audience, just complete embarrassment on display. The Actress isn't to blame but it reflects a deeper and more sinister side to people, how false pretenses can crumble and reveal to all what is truly going on could only happen on Irish TV. The Act fell apart and the result is nothing more spectacular than uncomfortable silence throughout the ordeal. This sticks out in my mind as a defining moment that highlights how the public perceives Lara and the separation between her character to weirdos like Pat Kenny and children who were just playing the game at the time.
Tomb Raider at one point was a pop cultural phenomenon that propelled games from enthusiasts' bedrooms to Hollywood. You couldn't walk through life without hearing her name, seeing her, or even meeting her. This was due in part to the extensive marketing campaigns done that made her the face of the film, perfumes, clothing, and the face of Lucozade.
All the gaming magazines were talking about Lara but there was another side to it all. A B side if you will. There was no question that she was seen as a sex Icon despite the creator's vision of her being an Indiana Jones type in her own regard but it can be impossible to fight back against cultural stereotypes so for the most part they swallowed their pride and let marketing run rampant. What worsened this was the fact magazines pushed a narrative that there was a nude cheat that was hidden and featured screenshots from a fan-made mod that just redrew her textures and skin tone. Not exactly the most riveting piece of pornography, just some pointy polygons but that didn't matter in the late 90s. With the vision of how they intended Lara to be received by people being undermined by the marketing department and burnout from many late nights of overworked conditions many at Core Studios left after the development of the first title.
The money only began to funnel in soon after the passionate folk left which is a shame and the direction of Lara's future would be decided by the remaining team and the prying eyes of Hollywood executive types.
Gameplay:
At its Core Tomb Raider is a strict platformer that requires precision timing, jumps, and most importantly patience. The guns that you have are equipped with unlimited ammunition but that doesn't mean they're the best.
You can obtain weapons such as the shotgun, magnums, and an Uzi earlier by discovering them hidden in levels but you'll probably end up conserving these weapons for such a long time that eventually when the game strips you of them and you have to kill bosses that drop them naturally, the game is almost over. The Uzi floating also looks so out of place in the remaster that it looks less like a secret and more like a bug in the game. The smaller crt and resolution probably masked this but it's not the case here.
Speaking of the remaster differences you can enable modern controls or tank controls and for my playthrough, I had been playing on tank controls and had forgotten there was an option for modern. When I tried the modern controls I wanted to get sick because the game is not designed around them and having full directional control more than often will make you fall and have to repeat jumps so much that it becomes more cumbersome than modern. The updated look of the game is decent but it can't be changed how the level layouts are block based so you'll have modern textures plastered on them that make it look like a Modded Minecraft affair rather than a remaster.
The plus side is Lara looks less like a Neanderthal and more like how she appeared in renders of the time.
Combat wasn't the team's forté and you can tell as the aiming is done automatically by sticking to a nearby enemy which can cause a plethora of issues when dealing with groups of enemies clustered together. One aspect that took me a while to come to grasp was using the R1 button to slowly move Lara back enough from the edge of a block to have enough distance to not fall off without being able to jump.
As for the story, it's barebones and serviceable for a title released in 96 and the remaster keeps the acting and fmvs the exact same so you'll still have that amateur performance with rigid animation. The FMVs have been run through an upscaler and to be honest, do little to nothing except smudge what was already there.
Another slight problem is lighting, the remaster can look dark in several spots that you'll end up swapping to the classic look just to see where you are and what traps are hidden from your view (I've heard this is the case for the later tomb raider games in this collection also).
The game is quite enjoyable at times despite the hard to master controls but once you put time into it you won't have any issue with any of the platforms in the game. Lara's Mansion really should be the first thing you do before even starting the game as it allows a playground for you to master the controls. Modern games don't need to do this because they've homogenised control schemes and player feel for years since the inception of this game that they don't require a tutorial area to familarise oneself with the game feel. The remaster makes a lot of areas pop and the original intent can be seen now unlike the low quality textures that can be hard to makeout what they are supposed to represent at times.
The Worst Levels:
While I enjoyed several levels there are a few that stick out far more than others as a pain in the ass. The 5th level St Francis folly has these giant collums and on the remastered version appears taller ever so slightly than the original graphics (which you can swap to with select) however you will run around attempting to climb without success before leaving the room and going in circles. On a first playthrough, I'd imagine many looked up where to go when stuck as it's not apparent where the correct way to go is at all. The Cistern level can be a loopy situation where you go somewhere too early and then have to repeat the same route that takes over 5 mins to get back to and if you didn't save scum you'd be wasting more time if you fell or died. There's a part in the cistern where you must drain the water in order to be able to stand and pull a switch but it's so remote and disconnected to the adjacent room that it makes no sense to backtrack so far in order to do it that the solution escapes your mind.
Overall Tomb Raider 1 has aged considerably but it's still an important piece of history that will now allow people to delve into it with relative ease with the quality of life features added. The game still requires oodles of patience and if you can make it to the end you'll have a newfound appreciation for taking your time with a game than rushing through it without a second thought. I imagine this was a real test for those who rented it from video stores back in the day to see if they could beat the game before having to re-rent it again. Also having to be wary of the residue that might have been left by the previous player who got stuck on an early level before using the game guide to finish themselves before the game... At the time the likes of crash bandicoot, metal gear solid, Final Fantasy VII, silent hill and other genre defining games were available and as Tomb Raider recieved critical acclaim and sales leading to sequel upon sequel it fell to the wayside forgotten due to advancements in tech and the burn out of the developers who wished to kill the character and series for good after the long run without breaks she had.
While not a sprawling epic like Final Fantasy VII or a tightly knit platformer like Crash, Tomb Raider holds it's own legacy that is a great look back at the time period it was made.
It had it's awkward beginnings before being rebooted in 2013 but hopefully there'll be a redemption coming for the series that shows what the devs originally envisioned for the series and character without the manipulation and distortions caused by those looking to deepen their pockets.
I'll have to give the other ones a go at some point but until then I'm burnt out too and if that's just from playing it, imagine how the devs felt those sleepless nights working on it.