Does anyone miss the old style Tomb Raider?

So, disclosure here. I'm a HUGE Tomb Raider fan. Have been since the PS1 days. I love this series so much that there really is not an entry I don't like (yes, even Angel of Darkness). As far as the reboot is concerned, I love it too. The new darker/gorier/maturer vision of Lara's adventures is fine by me, even if it is (at least the first game) quite derivative of The Descent (a movie I really like, btw). But that does not mean I don't long for the bygone era. And by the bygone era, I mean the more aristocratic, adult Lara, and the heavily mythological, slightly whimsical, not-taking-itself-too-seriously stories that came with her. Of course, there is the gameplay aspect as well. The pre-reboot games were much more about gymnastic/acrobatic platforming and puzzle solving, as well as, and often during, the actual raiding of, uh, tombs. Apparently Rise of the Tomb Raider addresses the whole lack of tomb-raiding thing. So they say. Anyway, anybody miss the old days?

No not really.

You mean the one where the game was fighting with the controls? Um, no. No I don't.

@GoldenElementXL: Hey now. That's all part of it.

A thousand times, yes! Okay, I'm being dramatic, but platforming and puzzle solving are some of my favorite gameplay mechanics. It was a bit disappointing to see them downplayed in the reboot. Still a good game though.

While those games certainly had their "wow" moments, Lara mostly handled like a tank. So no, not really.

What about the Lara Croft series ?

@Lulu_Lulu: I dig the Lara Croft series. In fact, just like two minutes ago (seriously) I finished getting all of the challenges done (including DLC) for Temple of Osiris. I think the two games are great. They managed to retain some of the feel of the older Tomb Raider games, while introducing something new. I really hope another Lara Croft entry is in the works.

Well, they are funner to play on a computer so. Yeah. I suppose so.

Yes, the stories were more interesting for one thing.

Nope, not at all.

Could not care less.

No I don't miss the old lara croft games I prefer the new Lara.

I do for the most part, the first 2 Tomb Raiders were the best IMO.

If you mean Legend and Anniversary, sure.

@reduc_ab_: Don't forget about the awesome Co-Op !!! ;)

@reduc_ab_: The only thing I miss was her Bazooka tits.

After Reboot 2 I'd rather see a Legacy of Kain to be honest. The only one I've tried is the PS1 Soul Reaver and it hasn't aged very well. I heared good things but don't think that dated game holds up with what old fans saw. A new take on the franchise maybe a very good move.

Plus fans of the older Tomb Raiders had a trilogy collection last generation. With Xbox being backwards compatible and PlayStation Now no reason to dwell in nostalgia. Some of them look and play really good.

I've been playing Tomb Raider since the beginning, and while I do somewhat miss the older games there's little to offer other than nostalgia. The franchise evolved a great deal over the years, but the reboot is exactly what Tomb Raider needed. So to an extent... Yes I miss the older game, but no I'm perfectly happy with where Square and Crystal Dynamics have taken the franchise. I can't wait for Rise of The Tomb Raider, unfortunately I have to wait until it drops on PS4, but that's okay with me.

I always wanted to like the old PS1 Tomb Raider games, but I never managed to: I guess the shooting mechanics annoyed me, or the absolutely batshit illogical level design. I occasionally revisit them, but never get too far.

Now the early Crystal Dynamics ones are amazing to me: Legend, Anniversary, even the "not as good" Underworld, I love them. The recent reboot is fantastic as a shameless Uncharted clone, but it doesn't quite capture the Tomb Raider feel, and Lara is now a wincing, humorless baked potato, instead of the strong sarcastic character she was in previous games.

Swings and roundabouts.

I could never like them, even now. The clunky controls were a huge put off.

@sam_p:

Tomb Raider 1 - 6 were very cumbersome and a pain in the ass to deal with most times.

Tomb Raider 7 and 8 (Known as Legend and Anniversary respectively) had the most precise and responsive controls in the entire Franchise... if you haven't played those two then give it a shot.... if you have played them and they were not to your satisfaction then thats very unfortunate because Tomb Raider 9 ( Underworld ) did a 180 and was clunkier than ever. :(

And I assume you've already have a fair assesment of The Reboot.

Don't worry.... they'l get it right...... eventually.

@Lulu_Lulu: I have, well have had, all of them, but I didn't enjoy Anniversary, I was a huge fan of Underworld, despite the controls! I do hope they get Rise Of The Tomb Raider right, though.

@Lulu_Lulu: I'd play co-op if I had any friends. My girlfriend doesn't count. Video games make her nervous.

I swear people don't understand how the early TR's worked. It was a grid system with each square equivalent to 3 steps. The first step is always, ALWAYS, a right step and Lara, being right-side dominant, only jumps off her right foot, meaning that she is always ready to jump at the edge of a grid square. A backstep is equivalent to 3 steps, so if you're really having a hard time figuring out which foot is Lara's right foot, walk up to the edge, back step and hold down the jump button after Lara's first step (because she won't jump off her left foot). It was so precise that the camera could go completely wonky and I'd never miss a jump. Was it robotic and unrealistic, absolutely, but it was very precise. Want lack of precision, play Angel of Darkness with its ridiculous analog sensitivity on jumps. That Hades section was a nightmare.

Also, I love the Reboot, but that's because I love Uncharted and the reboot is basically Uncharted. I do miss the emphasis on platforming and puzzle-solving, though.

Do i miss leap of faith raider ?

No

I like raiding tombs and not being force to endure an overly dramatic,"cinematic", emotional, non-emotional, falling many times, moaning too often Tomb Raider game.

@reduc_ab_:

LoL.... me too. Its so hard to find a dedidicated sidekick.

@Ish_basic:

That type of attention of detail may make a nice Novel Experience but it was at the expense of gameplay..... atleast as far as TR 4 & 5 are concerned since thats as far back as history with the game goes.

Ultimately I don't care which foot she jumps with.... I just want her to jump when I tell her to.... Her Dominant Side be damned.

Although to be fair I only have a poor oppinion of the controls because I played those game way past their prime. They didn't age well.

Not really, because the controls didn't age very well.

@PsychoLemons: As some others have mentioned, I think for the most part the old controls were good, but they did require you to step appropriately. It was definitely a grid system. If you did not line up her jumps correctly with her "good" foot.....death usually ensued. A lot of people didn't like that, because maybe it felt restricted to them. I didn't ever have much of a problem with it, though it could at times create frustration if I lost my patience and just wanted to blow through an area. At least the controls weren't floaty, like, in my opinion, many modern third-person adventure games (TR reboot included, though not as bad as Uncharted in this respect IMO).

That's because the new games are about Laura's rise to fame, she's still considered an amateur and is still learning. Plus... You go thru half the shit she has and see if you aren't a wincing, humorless baked potato.

Sure, you can reason on the rationale behind the change, and that is a perfectly valid point, but the result is that the character is now fairly bland when held against what came before. We'll see what the new game does about that: now that Lara's traumatic formative experience is out of the way, will we get a return to form as far as her personality goes? Time will tell, but I have the nagging feeling we won't: Rhianna Pratchett (writer for both games) is very talented, but she doesn't seem to be interested in writing the kind of sarcasm and black humor seen in previous Tomb Raider entries.

Yep, globe trotting adventure with Bond//Indy babe.

Now it's torture porn, basically.

I don't "miss" the old games with the logic that I can replay them at any time. I think the reboot was very necessary and worked for me for the most part.

I don't see why so many are put off by the controls in the older games, unless of course you are just now playing them for the first time. But at the time plenty of games had stiff, tanky controls. Maybe people were unaware of some of the fail-safe mechanics. Like, not falling off cliffs when holding the walk button or being able to back-step after lining up the perfect leap.

Relative to the reboot? Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnope! Not one bit. "New" Lara is the only Lara, as far as I am concerned.

I wish the industry would get the message and do more meaningful, awesome female heroes and even villains. Honestly the only significant ones that come to mind are [new] Lara Craft, Cate Archer (from No One Lives Forever), and Alyx from Halflife 2.

Obviously there are plenty of supporting women and girls, but few main protagonists or villains.

@reduc_ab_:What do you mean by the "old days"? do you mean the sh!tty PS1 games where controls&camera was dogsh!t or the awesome PS2 games which had fluid controls&camera? I miss the PS2 Tomb Raider not Ps1 era.

@torenojohn7: Of course I mean the PS1 era (as well as PS2)! Those games are classic.

@reduc_ab_: I like all of Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games except for the crappy reboot.... it is nothing but a cinematic dogsh!t Uncharted wannabe also i HATE the Lara Croft in the reboot.

How could I miss them when they are all on my shelf at home ready to be played ;)?

Tbh though, the controls were clunky even for their time so they never appealed to the wider range of audience back then. Therefore it's even worse by now.
If you ever get to play both the original Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider Anniversary you will see what a huge impact better controls has for that game.

I was actually never able to get into the old Tomb Raider games. I tried the newest one because a friend recommended it and I had GameFly so I didn't have anything to lose. Fell in love with it. Played it on Xbox 360 and again for Xbox One when they put out the definitive edition. I'm really, really looking forward to Rise of the Tomb Raider.

I miss it but those kind of games are not feasible for the current market anymore. I mean, the only way for Tomb Raider to remain relevant was to become another dumb 3rd person cover shooter with an ultra generic every day lady as Lara. In fact, the reboot has more in common with Uncharted than with its own roots. I really dislike what they did to this series.

Not at all but I will agree with @Pedro, this last LC had too much overly dramatic cinematics, her constant moaning (giggity), and getting frequently captured.

I agree. My first thought while playing the new one was "Uncharted Raider" but with a far less interesting story. The new game has way too much emphasis on shooting people. I don't mind if a game has narrative focus, but the story in the last Tomb Raider was not very well written or executed. I couldn't even tell you who most of the characters were as they were mostly just background noise and cannon fodder. The whole point of the game was supposed to be an origin story and a return to Lara's roots, but instead of a nuanced story it opens with a Roland Emmerich-style ship disaster action scene. Uncharted 2 did the same thing, but it did it far better.

-Byshop

@reduc_ab_: I'm a bit dissapointed at how many people do not miss the old Tomb Raiders. In my opinion the first 3 were the best ever made. TRIII is one of my favorite games of all time (I see you have a still from the cinematic that follows Crash Site, probably the scariest level in gaming history!!) For the last 15 months I've been trying to find all the secrets in the game (without any cheats) on the PS1 version. I'm currently in the middle of Lud's Gate (terribly difficult level if you can remember).

I was so pissed when they decided to call the reboot "Tomb Raider" as well. Now if you google Tomb Raider all you get is results of the new games that, in my opinion, have ruined the legacy of the 90s classics.

I'm happy to see that there are still people that miss the old games. I'm sure many who loved them in the 90s have long moved away from gaming. Could we blame them?

Say what!? then perhaps the gaming industry needs to crash ASAP because clearly the current market is going to the dogs!

I assume we are also including the Trilogy in under the topic heading? They had a lot of what made the older Tomb Raider's work, but without the control and (a lot less) camera issues. And Keeley Hawes was an incredible Lara Croft. Truth is I never liked the first set of Tomb Raider games until Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series with Legend. But that Trilogy stands as one of my best gaming experiences.

But do I miss it? Well... not just yet. It's not been long enough since it wrapped up for me to miss it. But I'd imagine I will. Whereas no one is going to be starved for the modern AAA blockbuster experience that the new Tomb Raider is trying to achieve for a long time (or conceivably ever).

It's a shame really as despite what people say Tomb Raider wasn't "oudated" (again,using the Trilogy as a point of reference), rather it was simply going out of vogue. Funny as now the solitary experience of exploring has been revisted succesfully in various games since then showing that slower, less-narratively driven games can and do have audiences.

IMO TR was headed in a good direction before the reboot, what with it branching out into massive open levels and giving Lara ever-increasingly complex movements. The shooting/enemy AI could have used some tweaking to make it play more modern, but the rest of it only needed small touching up (like a more sophisticated camera system).

@Articuno76:

I tend to agree. Though I don't wish to take anything away from the reboot games. I really enjoyed the first one; though the difference between it and anything before it in the series is definitely like night and day.

Oh, and yes, I was also talking about the later trilogy in my original post (Legend, Anniversary, Underworld). Great games, in my opinion.

falling off things and cheap deaths? crappy gun play? Linear progression? Getting stuck in an area and having to look up on the internet how to get through it? nope not missing the old terrible tomb raider of the past.

Tombraider 2013 saved the series and made it so much more fun. Solid jumping and not overly complicated to get through tombs. Great combat and forgiving checkpoint system and ability to upgrade your weapons. And semi non-linear.

I've played all the tombraiders and i could never make it through tombraider 2 or 3 without looking at a crap guide. The two tombraiders that were released on xbox 360/ps3/pc (Tombraider Legend & Underground) were fairly decent improvements though and really paved the way for the great tombraider that came out in 2013.

I love the old Tomb Raider games 1 through 5. I like legend although have found the controls challenging, the side and front movement, finally learning the swimming moves. I miss the color in the old games-magnificent. The Legend muted golden brown is a bit annoying but I am getting used to it. I do not plan to buy the newer games at this time, as everything created new has to satisfy the bloodthirsty public., but I am going to keep playing for the long haul.

I just missed the butler and her triangle bust. Aside from those... I prefer the newer style. The reboot was something the series needed.