#laura croft

     Having enjoyed the recent reboot of the Tomb Raider Franchise and eagerly awaiting the PS4 release of Rise of the Tomb Raider, I decided to play through the original games. Thankfully Steam happens to put them all on sale fairly frequently. Although I grew up familiar with the franchise, the Tomb Raider games were never something I got to play during their original run. Perhaps I was a bit too young to handle the tricky platforming and puzzles, and by the time I was old enough and the PS2 came around, the series began to go down the toilet and I avoided it. Now that I’ve dived into the series I am starting to appreciate it. I’m surprised by how immersive and addicting the games can be, with a challenge that rivals other notoriously hard games.

     Initially I picked up Tomb Raider on Steam, although I ran into some control issues fairly quickly. I couldn’t get my controller to work, and even with third party software, it barely functioned. I played what I could, but technical issues ended my playthrough pretty quickly. Thankfully, my local vintage game store had a copy of the PS1 version for a decent price. I fired it up but was unaware what awaited me. Although I could now play the game with no control issues or crashing, the convenient feature of saving the game anywhere was gone. Instead saving is restricted to single use save crystals. What is already a difficult game now skyrocketed in challenge. Save crystals are spaced pretty far away, and in a game where a single misstep can result in the loss of health or instant death, I found myself replaying sections of the game over and over again. Still, I pushed through the frustration and made it to Greece, the second area of the game. This is where I met my match. I reached a level that required jumping and climbing up and down a bunch of perilous platforms, hitting switches to open doors, and then navigating a themed puzzle behind each door. No matter how hard I tried, I could not beat this area. The constant backtracking and limited saves made it impossible for me. After a few hours of trying I gave up. I hate to admit it, but I did. Tomb Raider on the PS1 beat me.

     Still my time with the game gave me a decent enough impression. The graphics are basic and have a lot of clipping, but there’s a charm in the classic style of it. The environments are diverse in their appearance and immersive, despite the dated graphics. The controls are clunky and even on the PS1 they were sluggish. However, as a longtime fan of the Resident Evil franchise, I have a soft spot for tank controls. Overall, I enjoyed the game well enough until it crushed me. It is a nice glimpse into gaming history, but not for the faint of heart. If I could have the PC version’s saving system in the PS1 version, I probably would have been able to complete it. Thankfully, I was able to overcome my technical issues with later installments.

6/10

A classic game, but cumbersome save system and dated controls make it too difficult for me to enjoy. PC port would not work on my computer.