Favorite Tomb Raider game?

SteveTR

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Over the course of the years, there have been many great Tomb Raider games. Which one is your favorite?

My favorite game in the TR series is Tomb Raider 3. It just captures the spirit of what the series is for me. You get to see a lot of diverse locations, including Indian temples and Pacific villages. There's a fair amount of shooting, but also a lot of tomb raidin'. Also, the series kind of started to go downhill after the third installment.
 

The Madman

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Anniversary.

I like the corny story, I like the more stylized graphics, I LOVE the level design, and it controls nicely with a 360 pad on my PC. It's a damned near perfect take on the original game with some of the best platforming puzzles and level design in all of gaming, that this was the worst selling Tomb Raider game makes me incredibly sad.

Seriously, even Angel of Darkness sold better and that game was pure shit. What the hell world?
 

FinalDream

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Apr 6, 2010
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Easily Tomb Raider 1, I think it has the most memorable level designs for me, it managed to be something new and exciting and really took my breath away back in the day. I can still remember arriving at St. Francis' Folly and looking down and just thinking, wow. Tomb Raider 2 was a close second, I really loved the ice caves and hidden monastery, and the new reboot comes third with Tomb Raider 3 closing in at fourth. I think I was never a fan of the London levels in 3, it was a change of pace but it felt a little odd to me.
 

BrotherRool

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Tomb Raider (2013), the other Tomb Raiders always felt a bit clunky to me and the gameplay felt a bit faffy. Plus the story was not super incredible amazing.

But I really do adore the new Tomb Raider in many ways it's a really fresh game and it gives me the same sort of vibe that Arkham Asylum did, that this is a game built from the ground up to give you an experience. And everything from the art direction to the gameplay enhanced that. I loved how messy and brutal and confusing it felt.

And along the way it managed to solve the cover problem in such a natural way it's hard to understand why no game before had ever done it like that.


It had problems too, it wasn't as unflawed as Arkham Asylum and the story went a bit flat after the opening third. (There were clearly some relics of former concepts too), but they also made a really good step in turning a character from what had become a pop culture joke into something really complex. Lara Croft early on wasn't completely awful, mainly just in marketing, cultural legacy and the noticeable tendency to play Cup Size when trying to up the stakes in sequels. But the new Lara is probably one of my all time favourite characters. I love the way that she genuinely adores all the archaeology and history side instead of just being a merc/adventurer in the way Nathan Drake an Indiana Jones were. She's genuinely a history geek. And I admire a character who doesn't find things easy but does it anyway
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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I'm also gonna have to go with Tomb Raider (2013), for pretty much the same reasons as BrotherRool above.

I just couldn't get into the original series, even when it was current. I found the controls and camera to be clunky and often a direct hindrance to progress. I've never been fond of games where clunky controls and camera are a greater foe than any enemy or puzzle the game can throw at me. But then, I like the pre-RE4 Resident Evil games, so maybe that makes me a hypocrite - but at least those don't have me attempting platforming puzzles.
 

Maximum Bert

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The new reboot easily takes it for me I never could stand the old Tomb Raider games I remember playing the original when it came out and trying Tomb Raider 2 soon after and I hated them they just looked atrocious to me very blocky and jaggy especially Lara I never did get peoples infatuation with her or the games. The controls just felt bad as well.

I liked Underworld what little I got to play before my 360 died anyway but the reboot was the first game in the series I actually really enjoyed its one of my favourite games I have played this year actually although multiplayer is horrible but I just ignore that irrelevant stuck on part of the game.
 

Voulan

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I've only ever played Angel of Darkness and the CD trilogy, and of that Anniversary was the one I kept coming back to. It's just an infinitely enjoyable game, and I enjoyed the good old collect-the-things-to-unlock-things system as opposed to DLC crap.

Legend and Underworld were good too, Underworld less so only because of the lack of unlockables and because I knew of all the amazing things they cut out of it in the end. And AoD is enjoyable in a slightly masochistic way. The only bad thing about those games is the story got a little too overly dramatic and cheesy to take seriously.
 

Zhukov

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Dec 29, 2009
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The 2013 reboot. Or prequel or whatever it was.

The old games had clunky controls, questionable level design and dodgy combat. The reboot fixed all that.
 

Asuka Soryu

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The reboot. I'm very biased on this, as I never played the originals. Just couldn't get behind the games, didn't appeal to me. I picked up the Reboot pretty cheap, found it to be a quite fun romp, despite the 'eh' story and how jarring it was to see Lara half-dead in the cutscene, then in gameplay, she's Wonder Woman.
 

Wraith

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I played Legends multiple times, but the reboot (2013) takes it for me. Smaller-breast-Lara feels more human to me since she doesn't fall into the super-duper bad ass stereotype her older incarnation did. Of course she can still fight and survive like a bad ass, but at least she was more emotive. That's what hooked me. And the gameplay, though repetitive, was still great.
 

Aesir23

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I'm going to go with the reboot. Don't get me wrong, I liked the previous games but the reboot just made Lara seem so much more human. She had difficulties, vulnerabilities and wasn't this perfect badass. Maybe I just missed some of the previous Lara's flaws but she didn't seem to have any at all. Also, I do vastly prefer her new look over her old one. It just seems more... practical for adventuring, especially when it comes to bust size.

Also, throughout all of the years I have played Tomb Raider, the reboot was the only instalment where I didn't feel like I was battling the camera.
 

teqrevisited

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I'd probably have to say TR2. It's just more memorable for me. Between my dad and I we can both say a single line from any of the cutscenes and follow on from it, terrible Italian and Asian accents included.

I play 1 - 5 at least once every year and take TR1 as the refresher. It's simple after finishing it so many times but it has to be done.

2 ramps it up a bit, especially in Barkhang Monastery and the Ice Palace. Venice Violins, the speedboat mine sequence, the snowmobiles and a good old-fashioned dragon. Complete with Mafioso and potentially murderous monks.

3 is, I'd have to agree, the best for environment variety and it has some great accompanying music & ambient soundtracks. It also added some nice new mechanics and more vehicles.

4 went a bit too far with backtracking I feel though. The levels are nice and the rope swinging mechanic, but I feel like I'm dipping deeper into insanity for every time I have to go back through The Great Hypostyle hall and The Nile. And those flame-ghosts can go fuck themselves.

5 is a sadistic son of a *****. Outright the toughest, most dickish entry of the lot. Where to begin and where to end? Those demon babies that throw rocks at you... The guys towards the end that only take hits through that hole in their helmets... Lasers and gas everywhere. This is what the first 4 sets you up for and it cares not for your spare time.

I played a bit of whatever the 6th was but after Chronicles it just seemed like the difficulty dropped off of a cliff, so I ended up sticking to the first 5. I did pick up the pack when it went on sale recently, reboot included, but I've yet to give the newest entry a go. If there's as little actual tomb raiding in it as I'm led to believe, though, I'll be disappointed but not surprised.
 

BathorysGraveland2

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Tomb Raider 4, I believe. It has been sometime since I've played any of the Tomb Raider games, but I remember loving the setting and story of the fourth one. Exploring ancient Egyptian ruins (actual Tombs in a Tomb Raider game!!) in the desert, fighting those guys in the Arabian garb, running from scarab swarms and shooting jackals and shit. I dunno, it was just awesome. It felt a lot more polished than the first three games as well. More fluid, so the gameplay was better too. I never finished it though, unfortunately.
 

white_wolf

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Aug 23, 2013
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Mine was TR the original I hated the updated version because they added scenes and removed some and while she's finally looking normal in the bust department they're taking away the fun and difficulty of exploring. The reboot urked me the tombs where nothing and even the maps weren't much to be impressed by sure it changed ground elevations sometimes, at points they would allow me to grapple to an alternative nook, and had some great effects and set pieces but it lost alot of the realism that being literately lost in my surrounding offered really if my map isn't so straight forward thats a bonus because I've got to try to find my route and that's part of the fun feeling like I'm plotting an uncharted zone.
 

Bruce

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Reboot for me. It could have been better - for example the QTEs nearly ruined it, the hair physics only served to cut the game's potential market, and it needed to be a lot more difficult in just about every way, but it still had an excellent camera, satisfying controls and a decent plot.
 

Casual Shinji

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Jul 18, 2009
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The 2013 Reboot.

Sure, it went all Uncharted with excessive gunplay that went counter to Lara's character development, and the focus on a very crappy story with bad characterisations.

But the gameplay was a dream. The action and gunplay, while totally out of character, was very good. It had the soft cover mechanic which worked great, and the environments which were surprisingly open at times, really urging you on to explore. Even the little ping when opening a chest was charming.
 

Tallim

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Last Revelation was the last great one in my opinion. After that the games started losing a lot of the elements that made the series what it was. Some changes were better but most just made the puzzles feel really vapid and dull as they began making it suer obvious what to do and where to go.
 

MrBaskerville

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I prefer the first one, it has the best level and he most mmorable moments. I like the atmosphere and the slower pace. The reboot was also decent, but i misse all the things that made Tomb Raider Tomb Raider.
 

Kaymish

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Sep 10, 2008
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i didn't like Tomb raider 2013 very much for me it was a slap in the face to what tomb raider is its all about combat and the platforming and puzzles sort of take a back seat which i didn't like it should have been in its own franchise not piggy backing off tomb raider like the bureau did

but to get on topic i really liked Tomb Raider: Underworld it had everything i like about the franchise and hand me enraptured from start to finish
anniversary came a close second because that was also a good one
 

Flatfrog

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Dec 29, 2010
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The Madman said:
Anniversary.

I like the corny story, I like the more stylized graphics, I LOVE the level design, and it controls nicely with a 360 pad on my PC. It's a damned near perfect take on the original game with some of the best platforming puzzles and level design in all of gaming, that this was the worst selling Tomb Raider game makes me incredibly sad.

Seriously, even Angel of Darkness sold better and that game was pure shit. What the hell world?
Yes, I agree with this. It was the original game but with better graphics and more gameplay options and puzzles.

The only problem with it was the replay options - having speed-run achievements in Tomb Raider is just a pain in the arse because the levels are simply too big: one slip-up and you aren't sure if you'll make it or not.

Oh, and I didn't like the kill-shot system. Just couldn't do it at all - had to get my 10-year-old son in for all the boss battles.