Key Takeaways
The late ’90s were a fascinating time for gaming as the industry shifted from 2D into 3D and had what can easily be described now as an awkward phase. In hindsight, it was one of the most memorable periods in history because developers were willing to take a lot of chances and in that time, having a 3D action-adventure game in the vein of an Indiana Jones movie was bold. While the hype for Lara was massive, it wouldn’t have sustained without the games themselves being quite good and the first three entries were largely seen as the best ones on the PlayStation – with other games coming later and not shining as brightly. It was very much like the situation with NES-era Mega Man games where players wanted games that took advantage of newer tech earlier than they got them and the latter-day games on older hardware suffered a bit.
Tomb Raider I-III Remasteredfinds itself in an interesting position because it’s been so long since we’ve seen a traditional Tomb Raider game after over a decade of the reboot trilogy and the original getting a remake of sorts in the form ofAnniversary Edition. That aimed to be largely a visual and gameplay remake with the same core story, but trim fat from everything and make for a smoother gameplay experience than the original game had ever seen. The remastered trilogy includes the core games alongside all expansions that were released later on – offering the only way to play these complete editions on modern-day hardware.
Threading the Needle Between Old and New
The original games were founded upon tank controls where you moved the character in relation to where they were in the game world, not really where they were on the screen – resulting in a mixed reception at the time and especially in hindsight. So an upward press of an analog stick moves them forward, while left and right rotate and then upward or downward movements created free movement around the environment. It was the most popular way to have 3D movement in games pre-Mario 64 and something that I was never a huge fan of as no game even used the method as well as Jumping Flash – which was a PS1 launch title and still had more precise control in a first-person platformer than many 3D-based combat games.
Tank controls are retained in this collection and upon starting the first game up, it was quite a trip through time to have them on a modern controller because the player has to change their mindset to how they approach platforms and especially combat sections using them. Retraining the brain was fun to do for a change of pace, but the collection was a lot more fun to play upon switching things over to more modern controls. These feel far more organic and natural to use in the modern day game with the key caveat being that all animation and overall movement feels like it’s from the late-’90s and that’s both a good and bad thing.
Classic Collections Redefined
Even with a nicer-looking visual wrapper around it, TR 1-III Remastered goes for a different approach than something like theHalo Anniversary Collectionwhere you could switch between the old and new graphics and see the visual differences while playing a game that felt more modern in its design even rooted in the past. Character movement across the three games feels clunky no matter what control scheme you use – making it feel both more accurate to the original games while also still leaving me wanting a definitive revamp of the adventures because at their core, the different stage themes and overall design are good.
The the minute-to-minute gameplay never feels as natural as it should, however, given that it’s a game crafted on modern hardware and presented as being the best way to experience the games. In a way, that still holds true because these do look and play better than they did on the PS1 even with the PS1-style graphical switch you can accomplish with the Start button equivalent, but movement never feels as natural as it should no matter what control scheme is used. Comparing it to even TR Anniversary, which is now a 17-year old game compared to these being 25 years old, the movement there feels better across the board.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
This puts the collection in an interesting position because Aspyr was put into an unwinnable situation, creating both a remaster and a version that has to look in-line with the PS1 games because of the different expectations for each. If they stuck with purely modern-feeling controls, the experiences would feel different and given how radically different tank controls are, you can’t just jerry rig them in – the game has to be designed with them in mind. The momentum for jumps feels natural for tank controls as there is a more deliberate movement for each animation with them, but it feels odd when using the modern controls because all of the physics are designed around tank controls.
In a regular 3D adventure using modern controls, your momentum would carry with you when you’re running. Here, you usually have to come to a complete stop before doing a jump or you’ll just jump upwards and either move an inch forward or just jump up with no forward movement. This can get tricky for platforming sequences, although combat usually fares better since you have more room to move around – usually. In close quarters, the awkward movement does get in the way of nailing something like a perfect roll to avoid an attack and then go right into gunfire to take someone down.
Crafting a New Croft
Visually, the remastered graphics are good in the sense that they’re consistent and fit in line with the retro theme as well. Lara has been given more logical proportions across the board and that allows a switch from modern to classic to not be as jarring as it would be had no changes been made in that regard. The PS1-style visuals are solid and have the same framerate as the modern graphics – making for a smoother experience than one would have had on original hardware. The animation is also about the same as it was before – so anyone expecting it to be revamped will be disappointed, but it does fit in perfectly with the PS1-style graphics and having it be too smooth would actually look odd to the eye.
On the audio side of things, comparing the games here to what’s been featured on the PS1 before, the sound effects do appear cleaner and the voice work is easier to hear as well. The soundtracks seem to be about the same and the blend of allowing silence to terrify the player remains in both the throwback and modern-day versions – indicating that the switch between is just visual as all of the mechanics seem the same. Having the lack of music in action scenes stands out more now since sound design is more involved in the present-day than it was in the ’90s and it’s clear that the developers took a lot of cues for thriller movies alongside regular adventures to get the audio right for the games.
Closing Comments:
Tomb Raider I-III Remasteredfinds itself in a tough spot because what it aims to do is replicate the original trilogy with all of its content on modern hardware and it does it well. The biggest problem it faces is that the new coat of paint is largely just that – the core gameplay is still rooted in early 3D jankiness and feels awkward to play now – and in some ways, it’s harder to wrap your mind around it now since no control scheme offered up feelings as natural as anything featured in a Tomb Raider game since the PS2 days onward. The new visuals look good in theory, but have odd clipping problems in motion and the animations being rooted in the PS1 games hurts the modern-day wrapper as well. It very much feels like a lot of effort went into making this feel authentic to the originals – but to a fault.
