At the time of my review I have completed Tomb Raider 1 and 2 in their entirety and am about to start on III. So far I am incredibly satisfied with this collection, as it makes my favorite game series instantly playable without having to deal with the nasty ass PS1 load times or the incredible flimsiness of the PC Ports. Unfortunately, for as long as they made me wait for this thing I'm kind of stunned at how bare bones the whole thing really is.
I want to state first and foremost that the use of A.I artwork is deplorable. I understand this game was no doubt made with a woeful budget by an overworked team, so I'm going to direct my anger more towards the publisher for not giving these games the respect they deserve to have a proper art team remastering the visuals. As it stands, the remastered visuals largely clash with the original artistic intent, don't line up properly along the grids, and generally look cheaper than the original's, as the original game was textured by artists and not a piece of shit A.I.
I am also annoyed at the OG visuals having a frame cap on them, allegedly due to animations being locked to 30 for the old visuals. Even though there are PC Ports available right now that have those same visuals at 60 FPS. There is no reason these games should be stuck at 30 FPS, unless the Switch was having too much trouble running these games, which I would believe.
I also lament the loss of save crystals, which I hypothesized could have been a fun difficulty adjuster for long-time fans of the series, as the save crystals made Tomb Raider 1 and 3 very intense games when you can't save scum through them. Tomb Raider 2 is borderline impossible without save scumming so there no change there.
I think the asking price for some fantastic games is worth it, even though I resent the business practices being used within the package. I also don't anticipate all the terrible discussion we are in for about how these games aged by guys who are obsessed with fucking Pokemon or whatever. If you enjoy these types of games there is a nice handy package here to play them, which honestly, is what I've been dying for for years.
I want to state first and foremost that the use of A.I artwork is deplorable. I understand this game was no doubt made with a woeful budget by an overworked team, so I'm going to direct my anger more towards the publisher for not giving these games the respect they deserve to have a proper art team remastering the visuals. As it stands, the remastered visuals largely clash with the original artistic intent, don't line up properly along the grids, and generally look cheaper than the original's, as the original game was textured by artists and not a piece of shit A.I.
I am also annoyed at the OG visuals having a frame cap on them, allegedly due to animations being locked to 30 for the old visuals. Even though there are PC Ports available right now that have those same visuals at 60 FPS. There is no reason these games should be stuck at 30 FPS, unless the Switch was having too much trouble running these games, which I would believe.
I also lament the loss of save crystals, which I hypothesized could have been a fun difficulty adjuster for long-time fans of the series, as the save crystals made Tomb Raider 1 and 3 very intense games when you can't save scum through them. Tomb Raider 2 is borderline impossible without save scumming so there no change there.
I think the asking price for some fantastic games is worth it, even though I resent the business practices being used within the package. I also don't anticipate all the terrible discussion we are in for about how these games aged by guys who are obsessed with fucking Pokemon or whatever. If you enjoy these types of games there is a nice handy package here to play them, which honestly, is what I've been dying for for years.
19 Comments
The switch actually runs it with the new graphics at a solid 1080 60fps, surprisingly. So yeah I don't know what's up with the limit on the old graphics. The real issue there is that the fps cap is broken, and makes everything jittery. If that was fixed it wouldn't be nearly as bad.
@LarryDavis I can't believe this fucking thing was announced back in August and launched with these issues. either way, I'll probably pick it up on the Switch just so I can play them on my couch.
@gruel It's Aspyr, so I'm surprised it doesn't have more issues. the KOTOR ports are forever broken and abandoned, same with Stubbs the Zombie
I actually didn't know they used AI for this, it explains why the new textures felt so sanded down in comparison to how beautiful the original games looked. I looked at comparisons in a discord server and felt like I was almost looking at one of those awful smoothing filters in duckstation.
IMPORTANT UPDATES!!!!
There ARE Save crystals in the New Game+ mode! Which is cool that they are here, even though I think you should have the option to use them from the get-go. Either way, save crystals are here.
The modern controls are barely functioning. I have no idea if anyone has actually beaten the game with them, but it's incredibly difficult to do backflips or slide flips, it's very hard to drop down from platforms with it, I just don't think the game was designed for them.
There ARE Save crystals in the New Game+ mode! Which is cool that they are here, even though I think you should have the option to use them from the get-go. Either way, save crystals are here.
The modern controls are barely functioning. I have no idea if anyone has actually beaten the game with them, but it's incredibly difficult to do backflips or slide flips, it's very hard to drop down from platforms with it, I just don't think the game was designed for them.
I find the worst the AI upscaling gets is with the FMV stuff. You don't even need a comparison shot for this, as swapping between old and new graphics shows a grainy but readable text for the former and smeared-ass writing for the latter, like someone accidentally got it wet with somethin and spread it all over. I think this was more so on Crystal Dynamics' hands than either Aspyr or the core team of diehard fans like XProger, but even then other FMV upscales from fans a few years before don't look nearly as bad so... I have no clue what happened here.
As for the rest of the remaster's presentation, I need to keep playing more of it but just from the samples, it's a weird mixed bag. I find some of the new art is actually made with the level theming in mind with subtle adjustments to make them seamless and less jarring (which is how upscaling tech should be treated and used to begin with), but then you get cases like Golden Mask's first level where it just completely ruins the intent with not only the brighter flooring, but the whole thing just not being nearly as dark anymore. Also, seeing actual-ass paintings and portraits used in Croft Manor was a weird fuckin feeling, not sure why that had to be done!
As for the rest of the remaster's presentation, I need to keep playing more of it but just from the samples, it's a weird mixed bag. I find some of the new art is actually made with the level theming in mind with subtle adjustments to make them seamless and less jarring (which is how upscaling tech should be treated and used to begin with), but then you get cases like Golden Mask's first level where it just completely ruins the intent with not only the brighter flooring, but the whole thing just not being nearly as dark anymore. Also, seeing actual-ass paintings and portraits used in Croft Manor was a weird fuckin feeling, not sure why that had to be done!
@BlazingWaters I find Tomb Raider 1's simple presentation isn't too harmed by it, but TR3 is massacred by the remaster. The lighting in the classic visuals is so dark with NO GAMMA SLIDER, while the remastered visuals really fuck with the intended look.
For TR1 I believe they had to reconfigure the lighting for the remaster since it was baked in originally, so that makes sense. DEFINITELY agree w/ the TR3 take though, I did Croft Manor for a test run and it's so bizarre that there is no brightness or contrast setting whatsoever for a game that utilizes it to such a degree it becomes a vital part of the experience. I had to swap between the two modes constantly just to reach the hidden relic room, I don't want to imagine having to do that for an entire game + expansion. I have to use this as my way to experience 3 regardless, because the tomb3 decomp does not play nicely on 1440p and I don't want to downsample it to 1080 cause I am a stubborn SOB.
These grievances aside, I am still glad it exists. As far as out-the-box play goes, this does a swell job especially for console users, and like you mentioned I'm just glad I don't have to fiddle with PC stuff anymore to make it a "proper" release, as much as I've gotten used to that over the years. I'm hoping everyone involved will keep at it with updates and patches, cause it'd royally suck for this to not get any despite all that's been reported thus far.
These grievances aside, I am still glad it exists. As far as out-the-box play goes, this does a swell job especially for console users, and like you mentioned I'm just glad I don't have to fiddle with PC stuff anymore to make it a "proper" release, as much as I've gotten used to that over the years. I'm hoping everyone involved will keep at it with updates and patches, cause it'd royally suck for this to not get any despite all that's been reported thus far.
@BlazingWater I gotta say though, I fucking love getting achievements in Tomb Raider. My poisoned gamer brain can only play these versions now so I can unlock those achievements for doing stupid shit like swimming with orcas.
"loss of save crystals"
i'm disappointed but not surprised
i'm disappointed but not surprised
something i love about the save crystals is that they force you to get your shit together fast. no save-scumming means that intimate familiarity with the movement is mandatory
wonder how many dummies will beat this and complain about the controls cause they were enabled to fumble their way through
wonder how many dummies will beat this and complain about the controls cause they were enabled to fumble their way through
oh hell yeah - the tomb raider combat. definitely not there to be an exercise in doing flips while mashing the X button
that's pitiful tbh
that's pitiful tbh
Another update: after seeing the Star Wars Battlefront remasters I am going to have to call the Tomb Raider collection a modern miracle that it functions as well as it does.
Cyborc
2 months ago