Many platforming games tend to feel dated as they age. What was once smooth-as-butter movement can suddenly feel like a janky mess when newer games come out with arguably better controls.

Tomb Raider is not smooth. It doesn't even try to be smooth. You walk with tank controls. Every level is designed on a grid. Every move you make is a baked animation that moves you a set distance based on that grid. It's rigid, but also intuitive & predictable.

When everything is set in stone, things become much easier to parse. You know exactly how tall of a ledge you can grab, exactly how big of a pit you can jump, and there's so many ways you can jump or climb. There are tight corner jumps with barely enough space to land. You can bounce off sloped surfaces too steep to climb normally. You can climb on certain walls & ceilings, or shimmy along cracks in a cliffside. Tomb Raider demands intimate knowledge of your movement capabilities, and that knowledge makes success & failure feel fair & justified.

At least, until you start getting into combat encounters. But everything else about the game makes up for it.