Review: Tomb Raider I Remastered

After about 60 hours of gameplay spread across nearly two months, I've finished the first of the three games included in Tomb Raider Remastered. I wanted to take my time and savor the experience, exploring each level thoroughly before moving on. It was an absolutely delightful nostalgia trip. The new graphics look great, while being respectful to the original look of the game, and the camera mode was a joy to play with. (See the attached screenshots - warning: there be spoilers!). This is the most satisfyingly faithful remaster of a video game I can ever remember playing.

My only complaint with the new graphics - and it's a minor one - is how consistently dim they were (I had to brighten every one of my screenshots). I appreciate what they were trying to do, evening out the light levels - the old graphics have a lot of contrast between dark and bright areas. But I think I prefer the ambience of the original, in spite of its rougher edges. It sounds silly, but it was to a point where I got into the habit of using the button to toggle graphics (love this feature, by the way) as a makeshift flashlight! Also to help spot pickups, which tend to "glow in the dark" more with the old school graphics.

My opinion, biased though I may be as an almost exclusively retro gamer, is that this game still holds up some thirty years later. The most frequent complaints I'd heard - about the camera movement and the controls - didn't faze me. Controlling the camera is part of Lara's skill set that you have to learn, and eventually becomes second nature. And if we didn't have any problems using tank controls back in the day, then you can get used to them now. Keep in mind that this is a game from the mid to late '90s (one of the greatest from its era). It's not supposed to play like a modern game.

There are so many iconic locations in this game - The Lost Valley, Palace Midas, Sanctuary of the Scion, and Atlantis (not what we were expecting, but remarkable in its own way) are among the first levels that come to mind, but there is literally not a single one that isn't memorable. If ever there were a game that demanded a level editor, this is it. I would love to explore what talented world builders could come up with, taking the basic themes of these levels and expanding on them, creating more challenging puzzles for experienced tomb raiders like myself. Very much like the included expansion levels. I'd actually never played them before. They were fantastic!

I'm proud to say that I was able to find ALL the secrets in this first game on my own. A few of them were very well-hidden. The only thing that surprised me was that there was more combat than I'd remembered. One of the legitimate criticisms of these early games - aside from the racial stereotypes - is how much time you spend essentially hunting down endangered species. And it only becomes more complicated in the later games when there are more human enemies. I'd leave them alone, but they're quite aggressive. Why doesn't Lara pack a tranquilizer gun?

But it's the adventure and exploration that I come for. The new achievement badges offered through Steam are a welcome addition, and add some fun, a little bit of humor, and a good deal of replayability to the game. I managed to avoid using any health packs at all on my first playthrough! I think I'm gonna try to earn a few more (e.g., speedrun, limited saves, all kills, all pickups) while the game is still really fresh in my memory. But after that, I'm looking forward to moving on to Tomb Raider II!