Tomb Raider 20th Anniversary!

[blivvy]

20 years ago today, the original TR came out on PS1! And man did I suck at that game back then lol. I was either constantly dying or getting completely lost. Good times tho.

As far as I can remember, TR was the second game I bought for PS1 (first was Tekken). I had never played a game like TR before and it was just a great experience. Been hooked on the series ever since.

Anyone else got any fond memories to share?

 

[Jen]

I played one of the earlier Tomb Raider games when I was little but I don't remember much.

However, when I was a little older, me and my sister got a copy of Angel of Darkness and every Saturday me, my sister and my mum would sit on my bunk and spend a good few hours on the game while my brother and dad were at the football match. It's an unpopular opinion but I loved Angel of Darkness.

We also did the same with Legend, Anniversary and Underworld. However, I don't think we actually quite finished Underworld because my sister started getting motion sickness when gaming.

After that, someone recommended Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition to me. It was such a great game and got me back into the series. Now I'm playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, it's so much fun and I don't want it to end.

 

[blivvy]

Oh yea I've never actually played AoD because I remember it got a lot of bad reviews. But I would like to try it for myself sometime.

Never played those Lara Croft spin offs either. Might check them out too.

I can't remember now if it was TR 2 or 3 but at Croft manor, you could lock the poor old butler in the freezer xD (they even added a reference to that in Rise). I think I spent more time messing around in the manor than actually playing through the story lol.

 

[bSTAR_182]

I've played a couple of the older games when I was younger- though I could never figure out what to do and died often. I remember constantly getting killed by tigers in a ditch. Then there was another time where I couldn't figure out how to escape her room (at least I think it was her room- or maybe her dad's room?).

I've been thinking about playing the newest game that has been released. Despite not really knowing much about the series, I still think Lara Croft is an iconic female character.

 

[Jen]

I've played a couple of the older games when I was younger- though I could never figure out what to do and dies often. I remember constantly getting killed by tigers in a ditch. Then there was another time where I couldn't figure out how to escape her room (at least I think it was her room- or maybe her dad's room?).

I've been thinking about playing the newest game that has been released. Despite not really knowing much about the series, I still think Laura Croft is an iconic female character.

I think you'd be able to play Rise of the Tomb Raider on it's own, there are a couple of references to the previous game in there but nothing major. However, I'd really recommend playing Tomb Raider 2013. That's a game you can play without knowing anything that's happened before, and it's extremely fun. Then if you like it, you could play Rise. This is just a bit of advice tough, I don't know if you're bothered about playing both or not.

 

[Mr.R]

The original Tomb Raider was the first game I bought for my Sega Saturn (It was my 4th game actually, the console came with Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter and Worldwide Soccer 97). It was pretty hard for me as a kid at first, but I managed to beat with my dad's help and then finally on my own. After that, I got every Tomb Raider for the PSX, the second (and best of the classics), the cool 3rd one, the confusing but good 4th one (I love the Egypt scenario) and the meh chronicles and the PS2 ones, Angel of Darkness (It's been sometime since I played. I don't remember very much, apart from playing with Kurtis and the Paris scenarios) Legend (from which Uncharted took a lot) and Anniversary, the remake of the 1st one. Although I got my PS3 kinda late (2012) I was delighted to find a copy of Tomb Raider Trilogy, a kind of rare game now here in Brazil and the opportunity to play the full Underworld game (PS2 port is very poor). And of course...there was that wonderful reboot (Which in full circle, took a lot from Uncharted!) Actually, these days I purchased the original on the PSN and it was my first game playing it in almost 10 years...and I remembered everything! I think I'll do the same with the classic ones again. Maybe do a Tomb Raider marathone when I got a break from University. It'll be a nice way to celebrate 20 years of Lara Croft!

 

[Meg]

I never touched the series until the reboot came out in 2013. I thought it was good but not necessarily "great."

Rise of the Tomb Raider though.

 

[Hel]

Lara Croft - the love of my life. The longest relationship I ever had with a fictional human.

I remember being dumbfounded the first time I even saw her. In a world full of Super Mario, Spider-Man and all those other male superheroes saving their girls from evil, I could barely grasp the concept of a woman fighting for herself. But I've been fascinated with her ever since, she has had a huge influence on my hobbies, my novels, and my life in general, even though it was quite painful to keep up with her! Because back in the day, almost every new game that came out meant that I might have to get a new computer, and our relationship had to take a forced break when we discovered that my old Windows 95 was no longer good enough for her fourth adventure. But the adventure continued eventually with only two more major conflicts, first when she entered a terrible midlife crisis (a.k.a. Angel of Darkness), and then when she cheated on me with XBox One.

Today I own every single numbered Tomb Raider game up to and including Angel of Darkness, the Legend trilogy, the "Lara Croft" spin offs (Osiris being the only one I still haven't finished), and of course the reboot games. Along with Resident Evil, it's the only game series that I'm following, and that I trust enough to buy every new installment without even knowing anything about its content (well, RE7 might become the first notable exception). My opinion on the life action movies is not nearly as low as in the case of RE's, but I still like the games a lot better.

I can't remember now if it was TR 2 or 3 but at Croft manor, you could lock the poor old butler in the freezer xD (they even added a reference to that in Rise). I think I spent more time messing around in the manor than actually playing through the story lol.

I love the old Croft Manor too and used to spend a lot of time there, even though there's not much to do. Her quad bike race track in the manor of the third game even inspired me to start quad-biking myself. As I said, she has always been a big influence!

Laura Croft

You just committed one of the oldest sins in the Tomb Raider universe! How shall we punish you?

 

[blivvy]

But isn't Laura Croft, Lara's older sister?

TR Anniversary was the first proper remake I played. They done a great job with it too. Updated and improved upon everything without changing too much. It'd be awesome if TR 2 & 3 also got remade on current gen.

 

[Hel]

That would be great. As much as I love TR 2 & 3, the controls are quite a pain for me nowadays. And imagine how awesome those environments (Venice, Chinese underworld, Area 51, the South Pacific, etc.) would look with today's graphics!

 

[Loki]

Tomb raider has always been one of my favourite video game franchises and always will be. It was the series that got me into gaming when I started playing them with my dad, when I took the controls I remember dying... a lot. I think the first game I fully completed by myself was angel of darkness, and I don't really get the hate for that game either.

Tomb Raider: Legend is one of my favourite games of all time and I love everything about it.
I really like the reboot too but Rise is sooo much better, especially in terms of tombs and puzzle solving. It felt so much more like tomb raider.

Speaking of Rise of the Tomb Raider, does anyone see the similarities between it and the first Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie? I'm not gonna give details as I know Jen hasn't finished the game yet

 

[blivvy]

Tomb raider has always been one of my favourite video game franchises and always will be. It was the series that got me into gaming when I started playing them with my dad, when I took the controls I remember dying... a lot. I think the first game I fully completed by myself was angel of darkness, and I don't really get the hate for that game either.

Tomb Raider: Legend is one of my favourite games of all time and I love everything about it.
I really like the reboot too but Rise is sooo much better, especially in terms of tombs and puzzle solving. It felt so much more like tomb raider.

Speaking of Rise of the Tomb Raider, does anyone see the similarities between it and the first Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie? I'm not gonna give details as I know Jen hasn't finished the game yet

Yea I definitely agree with you about Rise feeling more like the original. But I suppose with the reboot, Lara hadn't become a "Tomb Raider" yet so that was just all about her orgins and how she became the Lara we all know and love.

I hadn't noticed the similarities between the first film and Rise but now that you mention it, there are some indeed. As far as the story and locations go anyway.

 

[Jen]

I'm not gonna give details as I know Jen hasn't finished the game yet

Much obliged. :smile:

You could always use the spoiler tags if you want to discuss it, though. I wouldn't open them and I think I'm fairly close to finishing the story anyway. :smile:

 

[Meg]

UPDATE: I just got 100% complete in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Fantastic game! Very excited for the next one. I'll probably have to go back and play some of the earlier ones as I've always been curious about it.

 

[blivvy]

UPDATE: I just got 100% complete in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Fantastic game! Very excited for the next one. I'll probably have to go back and play some of the earlier ones as I've always been curious about it.

Congrats!

I'd recommend the Tomb Raider Trilogy. Three great games that will keep busy for a while.

 

[Hel]

I think the first game I fully completed by myself was angel of darkness, and I don't really get the hate for that game either.

No offence, but... how can it not be blatantly obvious? I mean, even if some people can look past AoD's game-breaking bugs, you can't deny that they're there. That's the reason for all the hate, not the story or graphics or whatever, which were in fact much better than anything Tomb Raider had had before at the time. I'm pretty sure that, if it hadn't been so rushed for the reasons we all know, AoD could have been great, maybe even game of the year, but all those “if“s don't help. After all, we can only play the game it actually is, not the game it could/should/would have been under different circumstances.

Speaking of Rise of the Tomb Raider, does anyone see the similarities between it and the first Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie?

I noticed! And there's also a similarity to Anniversary, considering

Spoiler

a certain immortality-seeking blonde bitch offering Lara a place by her side, only for Lara to apologise to her father before destroying the artefact in question...

 

[Loki]

No offence, but... how can it not be blatantly obvious? I mean, even if some people can look past AoD's game-breaking bugs, you can't deny that they're there. That's the reason for all the hate, not the story or graphics or whatever, which were in fact much better than anything Tomb Raider had had before at the time. I'm pretty sure that, if it hadn't been so rushed for the reasons we all know, AoD could have been great, maybe even game of the year, but all those “if“s don't help. After all, we can only play the game it actually is, not the game it could/should/would have been under different circumstances.



I noticed! And there's also a similarity to Anniversary, considering

Spoiler

a certain immortality-seeking blonde bitch offering Lara a place by her side, only for Lara to apologise to her father before destroying the artefact in question...

I never experienced any type of bugs in AoD, I never bothered looking them up either so I can and will look past them

I didn't notice that similarity when I was playing the game but now you mention it, yeah :biggrin:

Similarities to the film:

Spoiler

Lara goes in search of an artifact which her father had previously attempted to find leading her to a giant orrery in Siberia. The big bad (trinity/illuminati) tries to use lara to help find the object and when she does is told that they killed her father using the exact words 'your father begged for his life', Lara then kills the anagonist. Instead of using the device she came looking for for personal gain, she destroys it to save the world!!!

I'm sure I thought of even more when I was playing it

 

[Some Nights]

A bit late but let me drop a post in here.

Tomb Raider is probs my favorite game series, second only to Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I definitely prefer the original series (except for Chronicles which is pretty trash) before either reboot (Legend/Anniversary/Underworld were okay but the second reboot was a bit of a disaster imo) but I'll always be there for the series. I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment what can I say.

My personal favorite Tomb Raider game is probably The Lost Artifact if it counts. It's just generally the most solid set of levels in any of the games and doesn't have any sections that I dislike, which all of the others seem to. If expansions aren't fair game, my favorite is probably a joint tie between the original and III. The original is a given as of course it's the first and it has a great atmosphere which hasn't been seen again/matched in any of the following sequels and for III, I'm a huge fan of the globe trotting and overall increased challenge (as long as I'm playing on PC without the save crystals that is).

I've also always been partial to Angel of Darkness even though it's obviously really flawed and unfinished. Sometimes I wonder what it could've been if either it was given more time in the oven or if the planned trilogy was allowed to be finished. Sadly it wasn't meant to be and we'll never really know. Speaking of unfinished things, another thing with this series that I wish we actually got was Core's attempt at the Anniversary game. I'm mostly fine with Crystal's Anniversary (it's probs my favorite effort from them with Underworld) but the trailer and information that has been floating around online over the years of the other version really make me wish there was a way we could've had both.

I have my PS4 copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider waiting to be played even though I really didn't like the 2013 game as a Tomb Raider title, but I'm holding out as I might get a PS4 Pro for the holidays. It would just be a bit foolish to play the game now when I can experience it with better visuals or more stable framerate if I wait just a bit longer. I've already had to wait for it to come to PS4 with the XB1 year exclusivity so what's another month or so? I look forward to playing around with the different outfits and such when I get around to it.

I'm going to cut myself off so I don't ramble more. Tomb Raider is just one of my faves and I have a lot of feelings, okay?

For good measure, here have my ranking of the series:

Spoiler

The Lost Artifact (expansion for III) > Tomb Raider (96) = Tomb Raider III > Angel of Darkness > TRII Gold > TR II > The Last Revelation > Anniversary > Underworld > TR Gold >>>> Chronicles > Legend > 2013

 

[N7Valentine]

Why haven't I found this thread earlier

Tomb Raider is the love of my life and Lara Croft was my first video game crush ever

I mean....

She's the girl of my dreams

I've been playing the TR series for 20 years and it was among my first video games along with RE that I ever played on PSX. I own every TR game that's been out, so I'm a hardcore TR fan.:biggrin:

Lara Croft had a major impact on my life. She's the sole reason why the strong, independent woman is my female archetype in video games (Sorry, Jill as much as I love you but Lara was the first). She's the reason why I am interested in ancient history and learning about different cultures. And did I already mention that she was my first video game crush ever? So far the TR series has never disappointed me, even the hated Angel of Darkness didn't, unlike RE which started to disappoint me with 6....

My favorite TR was probably 3. I loved the levels where you could drive a quad bike (It was Ganges River and then in Nevada). I remember those creepy a$$ levels "Floating Islands" (TR2) with its creepy soundtrack:surprised:

And the Sanatorium where you played with Kurtis.

Oh man I have so many fond memories of TR... It will always be the best series ever for me.

PS: As much as I love Nathan Drake from Uncharted, he will never beat my girl Lara Croft!

 

[blivvy]

Just noticed blue text on a grey background hurts my eyes

Nice to see so much <3 for TR & Lara.