Tomb Raider I: 25 Years Later

The Tomb Raider franchise celebrated its 25th birthday this year and, as I've taken a liking to older games, I thought I'd take a shot at the classic Tomb Raider games. This idea of playing the original games has given me an interesting idea - one which has been done many times before by others on the internet - a review series on the Tomb Raider games.

With that said, let's go back to the beginning of the series - the 1996 game: Tomb Raider.

The Birth of a Legend

Development on Tomb Raider I started in 1993/1994, with a small company called Core Design. The game drew on popular adventure movies (i.e. Indiana Jones) for much of its plot beats. The influence of Indiana Jones, in particular, was very strong with the original idea for the game featuring a male protagonist who used a whip as a tool and weapon.

This was later changed - for obvious reasons - and the team switched the male protagonist with a female protagonist; giving us Lara Croft.

The idea was to have a fully 3D-rendered environment in which players could explore; a cool idea but it was the 90s and gaming hardware wasn't as powerful as it is now. To get around the hardware limitations, the team at Core Design used a grid system to create the game's environments and used a black fog to hide certain elements.

Tomb Raider I was published by Eidos Interactive for PC in 1996, with PlayStation and Sega Saturn being released the following year.

The Plot

The plot is your standard (sort of) adventure movie deal. Lara Croft is approached by businesswoman Jacqueline Natla to retrieve a powerful mystical artefact - the scion of Atlantis.

Thus the adventure begins, Lara makes her way through Peru, to the tomb of Qualopec to find this thing and discovers that it's only one piece of the artefact. The rest of the journey through Greece and Egypt is fraught with traps and animals, not to mention the ridiculously high places off of which you can fall.

Eventually, Lara ends up in Atlantis itself avoiding traps and battling with monsters (yes, really) to prevent the use of the scion to conquer the world.

What's Good About Tomb Raider I?

So, what's good about Tomb Raider I? Where does this game shine?

The level design is fantastic. Each level forms one gigantic puzzle and getting around can often take quite a while giving players a real sense of scope and isolation.

The sound design and music are pretty good too. While the music (on the PC version) doesn't play outside of cut-scenes, it's great to hear when it does play. The rest of the time you're left listening to Lara's footsteps and the ambient noise of the environment - which is surprisingly spooky at times.

As far as the puzzles go, it was kind of hit or miss. Some of them were really challenging and others were ridiculously frustrating...until you figured them out. The combat mechanics were pretty streamlined making it pretty straightforward to deal with enemies.

My favorite thing about Tomb Raider I is the optional tutorial level. It's marked as 'Lara's Home' on the main menu and I wish I'd played it sooner. Lara takes you on a tour of her home and teaches you the controls. This is great because it allows you to safely learn how to work the controls without the aggravation of dodging a wild animal that's trying to eat you.

What are some of the Problems with Tomb Raider I?

Okay, so truth be told, I didn't have that many problems with the game. The controls and inventory are a bit awkward initially but it's not going to take too long to figure out.

The amount of backtracking can be a little frustrating during your first run because you don't really expect to be going back to previous sections to get the bits and pieces you need. There's also a huge amount of trial and error in this game. You have to be in just the right spot to land a jump safely.

Now, these issues can be frustrating but they won't necessarily ruin the experience. One thing that might put off potential newbies is the fixed camera. The camera isn't adjustable the way it is in many modern games. Instead, the camera is in a fixed position which is adjusted or changed relative to Lara's position in the environment. This takes some serious getting used to but it doesn't take too long to get the hang of it.

Final Thoughts

The first entry in the Tomb Raider series is by no means perfect. The controls are initially very awkward and the story isn't great but these are minor things. Visually, the game hasn't aged well which may put off some people, but if you can get past that then this is a solid experience.

I loved going back to the first entry in the series and giving it a go, it was one of the more challenging games I've played in recent years and while it may have shifted more towards cinematic Hollywood-like gameplay, I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the series.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you for the next one!