Despite how fresh Legend was at that time, it was a downfall after the classic series.
Let's start with stories and dialogues in Tomb Raider games. They were always bad and cring. But the good thing about classic games is that there was almost little story, they were mostly about the gameplay and levels. Legend, like any other modern game, tries to show as much movie as possible. So it is not just bad sometimes anymore, it is bad almost all the time!
Of course, the gameplay was also simplified for a new generation. It fixed many issues of the original game but also lost the core: now it is just a linear action game with some one-room puzzles instead of adventure where every level is one giant puzzle you have to investigate and solve.
For sure, many people will like dumb action more but as the successor of previous games it was a large step backward.

I remember how magazines were writing at that time: well, people were starting to get tired of Tomb Raider games since they were not changed, and Eidos sold us the same game again and again.
Just remind you that professional reviewers never play games and tell random words about everything.
While Tomb Raider 1 was a perfect game, and Tomb Raider 2 was action-based DLC with fresh ideas in levels, Tomb Raider 3 is sadistic torture for a healthy mind.
I had a good first impression, and I remember from being a kid how different stories, levels, and costumes in this one. So I thought: ok, probably at the end of the day I will give it good review with a mark "can't recommend but I loved it".
I still can't recommend it and I don't love it. I dropped it right before last chapter, or I should say I rage-quitted it and going to never touch this piece again.
People often remember how brutal traps are in here, there are many places where the game doesn't give a chance to the player and one-shot him just because it is funny I believe. It is not a big problem since we can save game any time.
But endless backtracking and total lack of sense or logic, these things killed me before I completed it.
And this makes me mad. On paper, Tomb Raider 3 is great, it has enough good ideas and features, and it felt different from previous entries. But it is insanely painful to play, to rinse and repeat many areas, to wander around without any clue about what the last button opened.

Despite the game being awful in many areas I would like to mention what I found here is well made even compared to the following iterations (Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro).
- Levels and bosses are more puzzles than fighting challenges. I feel every next game focuses more on fights and action challenges since this is what the audience wants. Demon Souls is more about finding required items and using them. The worst thing about it is some items are almost impossible to find without guides so the game feels unfair and annoying sometimes.
- Art design is great, and I found it much more appealing than in the following games.
- The story and events happen in a much smaller scope, and I like that story is simple and understandable. Still some characters look completely underdeveloped.

I like to think that a "niche game" means the following: the game is shit overall but there are a few things that people like in it.
Dark Souls is a pretty shit game. After I spent so many hours on it, I still can't agree with praising it. It is not the best game of all time, and not fair at all. While beating DLC (the knight boss to be more correct) I was thinking a lot about how many games I played that were influenced by DS or how much they brought from it, and they felt much and much better.
There are many videos on YouTube about how the game saved people's lives and saved them from depression. My life became worse: I was exhausted after playing this, and I didn't have enough energy to work or do art. I started to play into mindless ARPG again just to stop feeling the anger inside me.
I really liked the exploring: sometimes it feels like a really good dungeon crawler that plays more modern than regular blobbers.
It should be a hidden gem or something (like games for perverts where you can have relationships with pigeons or cockroaches, whatever). Sadly, the game has really toxic fanbase that spams "git gud" messages or other equivalents of calling you weak and whiny.
So don't be me, don't try to prove anyone anything, don't spend your time to beat games you don't like.

My 3rd attempt at this game took a year from me. I can't believe I beat it. My 1st try was around 10 years ago. So it feels like a really massive rock in my life.
I always liked the game. The style and music are top-notch. The story twist about Tokyo is insane.
At the same time I never was completely hooked. Even now it was ok for me to just suddenly stop playing for months.
I think I always praised only specific parts of the game. It doesn't feel focused. For example, during my first hour in the game I am always walking on the streets of Mikado and speaking with every NPC. From techincal side, the whole location is just bunch of jpeg images with tons of text. Every other location in the game is made in 3D with real people walking around but not the starting town!
My other complains are not unique. Just read what other people says: the map, quests, difficulty - these parts are made in such a weird way. You can say: yeah, the game is just not for everyone. I would say: the game is not baked properly. All problems of the game are not felt as part of experience (think about Dark Souls), they feel wanky.
There are enough dungeons I was hating, especially these ones that are about "finding the correct sequence of doors or start from the beginning". They are really cheap time consuming garbage.
Also, my feel of the game was completely broken every time when exploring the location is interrupted by the same group of monsters again and again. The most of the game is just routine.
At the same time, the world and the story are living deeply in me. I wish this will be a novel.

I changed my fate and decided to revisit the series starting with 2nd installment. The changes in the atmosphere compared to Sands of Time are always on people's tongues. And I can understand, I really liked Sands of Time at that time and Warrior Within never hooked me enough to beat it.
...Till now.
And now I really praise the style, prison-looking environment with sounds from horror movies. I quickly checked videos about Sands of Time, and after Warrior Within it is really hard to go back there into the cartoonish world of fairies.
I had a strong taste of metal in my mouth during the walkthrough and I like the trap design and battle system. The acrobatic part of the game is insane even by today. I remember now how I was disappointed by games after Uncharted-era when every developer started to use yellow color to mark the path you have to follow. Prince of Persia never did that, you always have to find the way by yourself, and this exploration feeling is absolutely forgotten in modern games.
For some time I was pretty sure the game is solid 4 out 5, it is not a masterpiece but a game I will not forget.
Then backtracking happened. Sometimes the game doesn't give the player clear directions so it is easy to go back too much and lost 30 or 50 minutes of your valuable lifetime. But then by the story game returns the player to the same location 2nd time, then 3rd time, 4th, and then again. And nothing changes. You have to go through the same traps in the same order, and beat the same monsters. The castle burned into my brain, I hate the place and never want to return there.
I rated the game as 2.5/5 but to be honest I am so angry, I want to put it even lower.

Diablo 1 always gives me the experience of expeditions into the unknown. You slowly move through each floor of the ancient dungeon. You can open the door and there will be a sad skeleton king, or there will be a real treasure, nice piece of equipment. I feel that everything works correctly in Diablo 1.
Diablo 2 throw a village of goblins into your face. All of them are just meat, no potion is need to kill them. The player is a machine. Inventory gets full immediately so you have to jump into town every minute or just ignore all of this loot. And if you will jump into town to sell the loot, you can make 100k at the beginning of the game.
There is no danger, there is no fear. Just numbers.