Few characters have had as big an impact on gaming as Lara Croft. Mario and Sonic may have been the tip of the spear for years, but Croft saw the industry come of age. The defacer of time was a bona fide cultural icon, who sold Lucozade, Séat cars and Timex watches. Croft was a film star, albeit in some of the worst films ever made. And so, it comes as a bit of as surprise that it’s taken so long for the original trilogy to be given the treatment in the form of Tomb Raider I–III Remastered.
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The Tomb Raider games follow the adventures of archaeologist-adventurer-kleptomaniac Lara Croft. Croft travels the world, searching ancient ruins and tombs in pursuit of artefacts. Think Indiana Jones, but English and in shorts, and you’ll get the idea.
Port Where Possible
Tomb Raider I–III Remastered does exactly what it says on the tin. This collection gives 1996’s Tomb Raider, 1997’s Tomb Raider II, and 1998’s Tomb Raider III a substantial overhaul.
The visuals get a huge lick of paint while two decades of quality of life tweaks have been squeezed in. The result is something the devs hope will allow the green thumbs of 2024 to enjoy, as well as touching the warming nostalgia zone of middle-aged gamers worldwide.
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At the helm are Texas-based developer Aspyr, a studio with a bit of a talent for remasters. Aspyr have worked on a number of such titles in the past, and are behind the rather topical Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection.
Graphics Mod
The changes of Tomb Raider I–III Remastered are mostly skin deep. A lot of work has gone into the visuals, but not the gameplay. In fairness, Aspyr stated that they want to keep the games as original possible.
To that end, visually the games do look very impressive. The new lighting, textures and character models on all keep the core look and style of the games intact. You can switch between the new graphics and old in real-time at the touch of a button.
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This shows off what a great job the studio did at building this new style on and around the old. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary does the same with its engine, and it’s mighty impressive to behold here.
Control Scheming
The decision to stick with the original in terms of movement and controls was not as commendable. Tomb Raider is of a certain period in gaming, where tank controls were all the rage and jumping into the remasters for some will be a shock to them because of this.
It’s stiff, unwieldy and an utter pig to control. But, if you head into the menu, you can switch to a new modern control scheme which does take the edge off things a little, but it’s still a bit wild.
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The camera has a mind of its own and this makes the game incredibly difficult to control, even if you do absolutely nail the controls one day.
Additionally, some of Lara’s more acrobatic skills and jumps seem harder to pull off using the modern control scheme. And on top of all of this, I found some control lag which sometimes resulted in Lara refusing to respond to inputs.
Armed Lara
The game does the aiming for you but I found it extremely hit and miss, pardon the pun. Sometimes it feels like you are missing bats or wolves right in front of you until you stop firing to reset.
Tomb Raider I–III Remastered throws you in the deep end and does very little to tell you how its brand of jumping around works, which is a bit of an issue in the second and third games, as they add new elements to the movement pool.
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Rather, the game expects you to take to its mansion areas to train. These are amazing pieces of off-content to have in, but don’t serve as a great tutorial for those coming to the game for the first time.
As an aging gamer, going back to once again lock Winston in his icy resting spot in order to keep the world safe (as specified in the Necronomicon) is wonderful. But newcomers will struggle to even navigate to the gym to take the tutorial.
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And if they do, the instructions are said exactly once and they don’t name the buttons. You can’t reset yourself at the start of the tutorial. It’s keep up, or ship out.
The tutorial for II and III feature advanced obstacle courses where experienced players can hone they their skill. Newcomers will simply be cast adrift in these tutorial areas, there is no way they’ll keep up with the vocal prompts.
A Museum
The lack of real work to the structure of the packages does give us a perfect view of how things changed title after title. For example, you can spot that the ideas were running light in the third game. It’s also interesting to see how that evolution was affected by being released on an annual schedule.
Oddly, Tomb Raider I–III Remastered is missing features you may expect from a remaster in 2024. The biggest omission is a quick-save option, or an autosave system, which would have eased much of the games’ aches and pains. The lack of a rewind feature seems like a missed opportunity.
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There is an odd menu quirk, where opening the save screen actually brings up the load screen first. If you’re trying to save as quick as humanly possible, this placement may, and will, lead to you loading your last save file instead of saving your game. I lost 40 minutes to it on one occasion.
Preservation Reservations
Tomb Raider I–III Remastered is a wild beast of a collection that sticks way too close to the original. There are areas, however, where it’s easy to admire their dedication to the source, warts and all. The visual upgrade is excellent, for example.
However, the controls are a nightmare, be it in modern or classic mode. The camera is a nightmare. And some of the quality of life upgrades you would expect to ease this nightmare are not here.
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If you have a soft spot for Croft’s early adventures, have missed their unique brand of action, then this will put a huge smile on your face. The trilogy are just how you remember them. Aspyr’s tireless work in keep so much of the Core experience intact will tickle you no end.
This is not Tomb Raider: Anniversary. This is the first three games, remastered with an eye on preservation over lubrication. No more. No less.
However, this choice of purity will likely put off modern fans. The millions brought into Lara’s orbit long after her explosive debut on Saturn and PS1 will find this trilogy to be something that belongs in museum.