Tomb Raider Question

[OldKingClancy]

This is more looking for a recommendation than an actual answer but I figured I'd throw it out there to see what people say.

Now I've never played any of the Tomb Raider games, not even the new edition although I will be picking that up for PS4.

Currently PSN have a deal going on where I can get the first four Tomb Raider games for the PS1 for just under £6. What I'd like to know is three things.

1: Do the games still hold up?

2: Are they fun to play?

3: Is that a good price?


They're all sort of related, I know £6 for four games is good but if the games don't hold up then it's not really a good investment.

Any and all help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well I have only played the first two games (on psx) and didnt finish either but I can give my opinion I suppose which is:-

1. sorta they looked and felt horrible back when they first came out and they still do but everything feels and plays exactly how I remembered at least the last time I tried messing around with Tomb Raider 2 a few months ago (wanted to see if it was as bad as I remembered...it was).

2. You probably have guessed from my last response but no they are not at least not to me. The only two Tomb Raider games I have enjoyed playing are Underworld (ok) and the reboot (pretty good).

3. Dosent sound to bad to be fair but like you said yourself its only a good price if you get some enjoyment out of the games.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

1. They didn't seem to hold up that much to begin with. I haven't played any in ages so I wouldn't know by nowaday standards. I didn't exactly grow up playing them, they were mostly a sideline thing for me.

2. They can be if you like platforming with occasional combat/sneaking and the premise of an Indiana Jones gender bender appeals to you.

3. It's a pretty good price for 4 games. It's a good investment. You should check out some raw gameplay clips first though to see if you'll get any kicks out of it.

 

[FinalDream]

Good price, you'd get a lot of hours out of them. They still hold up in my opinion, the controls where always wonky so they never had anything to loose!

 

[Jusey1]

I, for one, LOVE the Tomb Raider series. The first Tomb Raider was one of the very first games I've ever played.

The first four in general are great games and for only 6, that's a good deal. I've never played the 5th one though... I've played the others though (Legends, Anniversary, etc) and love them.

NEVER get Angel of Darkness though. That Tomb Raider is just bad. (It was the first PS2 one and they tried to do things totally different. Wasn't successful). And I hate the Tomb Raider-2013 too... That was just an awful reboot of the series cause it doesn't feel or play like a Tomb Raider game at all... (Tomb Raider 2013 is the newest one and I think that is one which you are getting for PS4, yes?).

Anyways... Basically... In the series. I love the following:
TR1
TR2
TR3
TR4
(TR5 is a maybe)
Legends
Anniversary
Underworld.

I hate:
Angel of Darkness
TR-2013


Did I miss any?

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Thanks to nostalgia (I even had a Lara Croft poster back in the day!), I'll always like them, but I tried to play the original Tomb Raider last year and I quit pretty early in the game. It's just... I don't want to say bad, but it's nothing special anymore, it's old and it shows.

So to be honest, if you never played Tomb Raider before, I have to say you're not missing out on anything at this point. I thought the games were amazing back then, but games have evolved quite a bit in the last 20 years, and unlike old 2D games, I just can't enjoy early 3D games.

If you must, I'd recommend Anniversary (remake of the 1996 Tomb Raider), the 2013 reboot and parts of Legend and Underworld. If you like them (Anniversary in particular), then give the old games a try. At least you get to experience how things have changed.

Here, this should give you a good idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCO8R_qZ-cA

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Thanks to nostalgia (I even had a Lara Croft poster back in the day!), I'll always like them, but I tried to play the original Tomb Raider last year and I quit pretty early in the game. It's just... I don't want to say bad, but it's nothing special anymore, it's old and it shows.

So to be honest, if you never played Tomb Raider before, I have to say you're not missing out on anything at this point. I thought the games were amazing back then, but games have evolved quite a bit in the last 20 years, and unlike old 2D games, I just can't enjoy early 3D games.

If you must, I'd recommend Anniversary (remake of the 1996 Tomb Raider), the 2013 reboot and parts of Legend and Underworld. If you like them (Anniversary in particular), then give the old games a try. At least you get to experience how things have changed.

Here, this should give you a good idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCO8R_qZ-cA

I second this, I don't really see much advantage delving really far back into Tomb Raider's past - it really will show its age and they really aren't classics or gems of the past that need playing, in my opinion.

Also, if your intention is to 'get into' Tomb Raider games before purchasing the latest rebirth on PS4, I'd question whether getting the old editions will really help you do this.

Tomb Raider has really transformed over the years and you would struggle to see similarities with the new model, compared with the very original and the story is basically just starting over again, so there is no lore background you need to look up on.

I don't think the new imagining is all that great, but it's a decent game and I can't speak for how it will look on the new generation.

So, overall I'd suggest not investing in this - but hey, at the end of the day.. it's only £6.. I've spent that on a drink in a pub before.

 

[OldKingClancy]

Thanks for the input everyone, I've decided not to buy the games, it's a good price but from what I'm hearing they're pretty dated.

I have found the updated trilogy (Legends, Anniversary and Underworld) for £10 so I'm going to get that first, if I like that then I'll look into the older games.

 

[Savagezion]

Thanks for the input everyone, I've decided not to buy the games, it's a good price but from what I'm hearing they're pretty dated.

I have found the updated trilogy (Legends, Anniversary and Underworld) for £10 so I'm going to get that first, if I like that then I'll look into the older games.

Well, got here too late but that is a smart move. I would try Anniversary first, Legends second and Underworld 3rd. Those titles hold up better. They are more environment puzzle games than platformers. I wouldn't recommend them on stealth or combat though really. And you got a good price for those 3.

 

[josemlopes]

The updated trilogy is very different from the older games, the older games are a mix of tank controls and jumping puzzles.

The jumping is very mechanical so the puzzles are about where can you jump and go from there. The character has a very fixed jump distance that you will use to know where to jump to, the levels are very grid based so you will easily understand what you can and cant do.

So basicly the tank controls never really get in the way that much as it isnt a very fast paced game. Its more of a game where you get into a new area, look at your surroundings and slowly go from one place to another (sometimes there are time based puzzles but by then you probably already got the hang of the controls).

The places you visit do envoke a sense of adventure but are really dated by now and a village may not look like a village at all.

1:11, straight from the devs (the video is from an Anniversary texture mod to make it look more like the first game)

 

[Project_Xii]

As someone who has played every single Tomb Raider game to date, this would be my input on which ones would be worth playing in this day-and-age:
#1 - No. It's DOS-day graphics, and while it's nice to see where the origins start, "Anniversary" is a decent remake, so better to just play that.
#2 - No. The game is so poorly designed most of the people I know who played it couldn't even get out of the pit at the start. Most of the game is an exercise in frustration and extreme user-unfriendliness.
#3 - No. Carried over a lot of the annoying level designs of #2, with even more illogical puzzles to solve. Trying to find the one single block to push in the wall somewhere, when almost all the textures look the same is just nightmarish.
#4: Last Revelations - Yes. It's old, but levels were designed much better, and they actually gave Lara some back story and character (now all defunct obviously). Perhaps for sheer curiosities sake?
5ish: Chronicles - Yes. Like Revelations, Chronicles was fairly well designed, and just followed a series of adventures from Lara's life that could still be regarded as somewhat cannon maybe. Had some interesting supernatural elements.
6: Angel of Death - No. Nooooooooo. No. No. This game nearly killed the series, and was so poorly made and incomplete they couldn't even fix the brokenness. If got stuck in an area and were unable to progress due to bugs, the developers put up level saved-games on their website to get you past it. That's how bad this game and it's support was.

The newer stuff was actually all great. If you can happen across "The Tomb Raider Trilogy Pack" some time, it's worth it.
Legends - Short, but very well designed and fantastic amounts of fun.
Anniversary - A very decent remake of the original, enhanced but still tries to remain true to the level designs in many cases.
Underworld - Not quite as well made as the previous 2, but finishes the story off nicely. Only worth playing if you want to see that.

Of course, the new Tomb Raider blows all others out of the water, so most of the time I just tell people to play that. Purists or massive fan-boys will argue that the new one is too Uncharted-esque, or Lara is too different to her past incarnations. There are differences, but nothing I have any real allegiance too. I'm happy to forget that any of the previous ones existed, now that I've seen the new direction the series wants to head, and am more then satisfied with that.

 

[lacktheknack]

1: Do the games still hold up?

No. Their "Everything Is Constructed of Cubes" approach is incredibly dated, and makes them incredibly clunky as far as platformers go.

However...

2: Are they fun to play?

Do you enjoy thoughtful brain-teasing platforming with emphasis on navigation over combat? Do you enjoy charmingly cuboid setpieces that still manage to feel epic? Do you want to explore rather than just look at the passing scenery?

If so, the original Tomb Raiders are for you.

3: Is that a good price?

I'd pay that price just for Tomb Raider III. The other three are a great bonus.

EDIT: After reading other comments, I'd like to disrespectfully disagree on the controls being terrible. Lara moves like a tank, yes, but if you don't try to do six or seven things at once, she's a perfectly easy tank to control.

 

[Jusey1]

EDIT: After reading other comments, I'd like to disrespectfully disagree on the controls being terrible. Lara moves like a tank, yes, but if you don't try to do six or seven things at once, she's a perfectly easy tank to control.

I agree with this. I never had a problem with the controls of the original PS1. They were easy and pretty good for me...

As for the world being "cubes", It isn't cubes... Yes, it is grid-like but there are rounded objects so it isn't fully cube like.

-snip-

1-3: I would prefer to put these three together. And I honestly don't see much of a problem with the original three... Though they aren't the series' best but they are still pretty alright. I really do love some aspects on TR3 a lot though. Heck, sometimes in TR3 I will mess around with the raptor AI in the dino-level cause I figured out when you have 4 or more raptors together, they will literally attack one another XD.

4: This one was prolly the best out of the PS1 era.

5: Never played.

6-Angel of Darkness* (Not Angel of Death btw): Definably the worst. I agree with you.

7-Legends: Agree. Worth playing.

8-Anniversary: Agree, worth playing. May not be the best Anniversary remake of a game though. (Halo Anniversary is the best remake I have ever seen honestly) but still an awesome remake.

9-Underworld: Agree. I do love it and do love how it all ends and even how they brought back the original villain from the original Tomb Raider, which did surprise me honestly.

As for the reboot... I HATE IT TO DEATH. If Tomb Raider is like that now on, I'm done with the series. They killed everything that I loved about Tomb Raider in that new reboot... (Though at least isn't as glitchy and bad as Angel of Darkness) but still... I hate it.