What do you think of Tomb Raider 1 (psx)

[teh_L0ki]

I'll preface this by saying there is almost never a game so terrible that I will stop playing it. Anyway I picked up tomb raider because it's a classic and it was always highly reviewed by the press at the time.

But my god, framerate problems everywhere, a fixed camera in a 3d platformer, and even if I could tolerate those things, the killer was the unresponsive controls. In a platformer mind you!

I'm just curious what this forum thinks of the first tomb raider game, nostalgia goggles off. I understand it was innovative because it had a female protagonist with big assets and was one of the early 3d platform games, but I still don't think that makes it a good game.

[cynicalhat]

I thought the game was awesome. A first in the genre to have large scale puzzles that made you satisfied when solved. Looking at it now though, uggg.... It didn't use dual analog sticks so the control was terrible. As with any 3d ps1 game, you could cut a steak with those polygons. graphics and controls aside, pretty damn innovative.

[Graham Mitchell]

I liked it alright when it was released. I remember getting frustrated with a puzzle and never finishing it. Honestly, it just wasn't all that compelling to me, but it was kind of fun.

The PS1/Saturn/N64-era 3D games did not age gracefully. (2-D games from the era, however, are gorgeous!) The industry was pushing soooo hard for something the consoles basically weren't capable of doing.

I played Ocarina of Time a few years ago after polishing off Twilight Princess and I was shocked. I didn't remember it looking so atrocious. Thankfully, the overall ambience is what that game is about, and the cruddy 3D models can't spoil it. Tomb Raider doesn't have nearly as much going for it.

Thankfully, you can always play the Anniversary Edition. It's the first game updated for newer consoles.

[Smashed Brother]

Well, back then, I remember being enamored with this game. It wasn't because of the female lead or her enormous....guns. This was the first truly 3D platformer for the PS1, as far as I can remember. I was jealous of Mario 64 and I really wanted to play something along those lines. This definitely wasn't it, but the game was large and expansive with plenty to do.

The controls were definitely atrocious. Most of the difficulty in solving the puzzles was due to wrestling with the controller and Lara's grid-based movements. You had to make sure you were lined up perfectly, otherwise you would fall to your death when you attempted to jump and grab a platform. You had to back up 3 or 4 'grids' to get a running start, otherwise you would fall to your death when you attempted to jump and grab a distant platform. You tap forward and she would move half-a-grid, you tap backwards and she would back up half-a-grid. It was annoying then and if I were to play the game now for my very first time, there's no way I would even make it through the first level.

[j_factor]

I like it, though I prefer the Saturn version because it has a better draw distance.

I don't consider it a platformer really; it's an action-adventure game. The game's greatness is in the level design and the puzzles.

I never found the controls unresponsive, though I do understand why many people don't like the "spin and move forward" aspect, as well as the tile-based movement. You could argue that this game demonstrates why purely digital controls just don't cut it. Although, Tomb Raider 3 did finally support analog, and it didn't work very well; I played the whole game with analog turned off.

[eskobar]

I'll preface this by saying there is almost never a game so terrible that I will stop playing it. Anyway I picked up tomb raider because it's a classic and it was always highly reviewed by the press at the time.

But my god, framerate problems everywhere, a fixed camera in a 3d platformer, and even if I could tolerate those things, the killer was the unresponsive controls. In a platformer mind you!

I'm just curious what this forum thinks of the first tomb raider game, nostalgia goggles off. I understand it was innovative because it had a female protagonist with big assets and was one of the early 3d platform games, but I still don't think that makes it a good game.

I remember quite well the year that TOMB RAIDER hit the shelves, I played it fist on my PC and absolutely loved the gameplay.

I have always liked adventure games and exploring is pretty much "my thing"; in real life I love to visit small towns, ruins and every place that is not populated ...

In the first minutes of playing I loved the emptiness of the place, like a real ruin is and controlling Lara was easy, I never had an issue with controls and you really need to be precise, but the timing is in your thumbs, any mistake is yours.

All the architecture was pretty impressive and had impressive detail for the time, the water played a role that few games at the time gave the importance to that factor and overall the level design was brilliant.

In fact, I purchased like 3 different video cards for my PC because they claimed the best look and performance .... I remember the Matrox Mystique because it was bundled with the game and was good, but 3Dfx was the best for TR.

After the PC I played all over again in the PS1 and again, the conversion was impressive and I loved the orchestral tracks that added in moments of tension.


I got nothing but great memories with this game. the same for TR2, the others were pretty weak ...

[understatement]

Well looks like I’m going to be in the minority with the OP, I disliked Tomb Rader for most of the same reasons another games with the same feel as TR that I didn’t like was Syphon Filter.

I really tried to get into these games back when they came out because of all the praise they received but I never could bring myself to go much farther than the first stage in both.

[megasdkirby]

Ironically, I was playing Tomb Raider a few weeks back, but for the Sega Saturn.

Graphically, I was shocked at how poorly it looked, and the movement...or frame rate, was "extreme choppy".

However, I still managed to get over the graphical portion of the game and to concentrate solely on the gameplay. The game still delivers ,which is a definitely good. It hasn't aged well, but at least it's still fun to play.

[iDub]

I still finish 1,2 and 3 every year after that everything was bad.. Except for the most recent releases those have really improved the series.

[gameofyou]

I have it for Saturn, and played through it again, just a couple years ago. I still think its an enjoyable game even today.

[sheath]

Tomb Raider is Prince of Persia, or really more like Flashback, in 3D. It achieved everything I imagined a third person 3D game could be for that generation (with the original controllers). I liked the block based 3D movement because it made the jumps predictable, something most other 3D games suffered from badly. 2D platformers with unpredictable jump physics were generally bad in my opinion. I liked the shooting scenes, even though they were essentially on rails if you flipped around and held the fire button.

I also liked the theme and the exploration/puzzle aspects way better than Mario 64 or Zelda 64.

[Necron99]

I have to agree with most of the posters here. Tomb Raider 1was pretty bad. especially on the psx, When I got the game, I thought it would be really good, but I was wrong. laggy and poor controls, poor framerate, jagged edges everywhere. I tried to like this game but after a few hours of playing it I couldn't stand it anymore.

[Berserker]

I played the game on a friend's Playstation in 1996, and my first impressions were pretty negative. The graphics were fugly. The 3D was bad (I was playing Quake on PC at this time, so I think that raised my expectations for other games probably way past where they should have been). The camera was godawful. The controls felt like I was walking in molasses. And the draw distance seemed almost non-existent so I didn't really feel much of the whole "ruin" ambiance.

A year or two later I played a demo of the PC version that took advantage of the 3dfx card I had at the time, and I remember having a much better impression of it then. Never bought the game though for whatever reason. I think I'd probably be more tolerant of its quirks today.

[shinobimusashi]

Tomb Raider is Prince of Persia, or really more like Flashback, in 3D. It achieved everything I imagined a third person 3D game could be for that generation (with the original controllers).

Well put. I have never been a big fan of Tomb Raiders gameplay, but I do respect it for the well programmed game that it is.

I tried Flashback for Sega CD recently and was turned off by its "Tomb Raider" style of controlls.

[exit]

I remember playing both PC demos back in the day and absolutely loved it. I played the hell out of it when the game was finally released and I've always considered it a classic since. The series started to go down hill after that and now it's a complete mess.

[teh_L0ki]

I remember playing both PC demos back in the day and absolutely loved it. I played the hell out of it when the game was finally released and I've always considered it a classic since. The series started to go down hill after that and now it's a complete mess.

It seems that most of the positive experiences people are having in this thread are with the pc version. I wonder if I would think different of it?

[exit]

It seems that most of the positive experiences people are having in this thread are with the pc version. I wonder if I would think different of it?

Well in the PC version you can save at any time, which is something you couldn't do in the PSX version from what I understand. Also if you had a good enough computer at the time, there was an enhanced graphics mode that made everything look a lot cleaner. My computer at the time was able to run it decent enough, but I usually ended up turning it off when things got a little hectic.

Of course now there's fan made texture packs out there that make the game look all the more better, so that may be worth looking into if you plan on playing it on the PC and want a bit of a graphical upgrade.

[Zama]

It was alright for its time

[Parodius Duh!]

Have always hated it since the playstation underground demo disc......Tomb Raider is crap, go play resident evil.

[kupomogli]

The first one was decent, but like others have already stated it has some framerate issues. Tomb Raider 2 has no frame rate issues and a much better game, though.