Rafedx posted...You are totally out of the loop when it comes to Tomb Raider fans. Most are fans of the old one; The controllers while tank like still get the job done. Legend, Anniversary and Underworld failed to deliver the atmosphere of the originals, the feeling of isolation and actually getting spooked by some of the different enemies. The levels were uninspired, the characters were pretty bland and they have technical issues mainly Underworld.
The deal with older games was that you learned the basic game mechanics, and the developers designed levels that made them fun and interesting. In that respect, the levels were the stars of the early
Tomb Raider games, not Lara.
So you learned to run, jump, grab, climb, and shoot. Then the developers showed you how much depth there was to the seemingly simple gameplay. That gives the player a feeling of mastery that's almost unequalled today.
Pacing in how new techniques were introduced was important, as well as giving the player interesting architecture to look at, and fun & useful stuff to collect, like weapons, ammo, healing, save crystals, etc.
Tomb Raider 1 had that "just one more area before I save and quit" that really kept me going. Always wondering what was next, and hurrying to see.
And swimming was great, a feel of flying, with a time limit to keep the stress up under water.
Tomb Raider: Legend looked much better, and felt much more realistic. But now the star of the show is Lara, not what she can do. Less clever levels. The game is a movie starring Lara Croft. Gameplay and level design is considerably dumbed down. That being said, I like
TRL the most of all the games, because it's just a fun place to be. Looks great, too.
The topology of the levels can be interesting, too. Seeing just how twisted a path they can have Lara travel just to get through an area. That went away a bit in
TR:Anniversary, and seemed almost completely gone in
TR:Underworld.
And
TRL's got one of the best soundtracks in gaming. Many times I've lingered on the level select screen just to listen, until the idle-trailer starts up. Based on youtube comments I'm not the only one.
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Jove the Sleep Depraved
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