Old school Tomb Raiders
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The first game is great, very simple graphically compared to later, and Lara doesn't have as many moves, but everything is there that she needs to be able to navigate the stages, and the stages are standard tomb or ruins type settings, also not too many guys firing at you, which tended to take over much of the games later. The game has a more relaxed feel, the occasional animal attacking, nothing too difficult, focusing more on exploring and solving puzzles. But the game had some great memorable action moments, such as the first time encountering the T-Rex, very exciting, as well as the alien mummies later in the game, which always kept me on my toes, offering some good scares those first time encountering them.
Tomb Raider 2 is probably my least favorite of the first trilogy if putting them in order by favorites, it took more getting used to, so much gunfighting involved, but I took to it eventually, also you can save anytime and as often as you want to, a plus because the game is so difficult, the hardest in this trio of games. Stages weren't as interesting visually, a lot of darkness and drabness to much of it, from Venice which while bright was all walls and water, to inside the Opera House which started the trend of dark settings, then an Offshore Oil Rig which already says cold medal everywhere, and lot of swimming, a sunken ship, the Wreck of the Maria Doria, again, lots of the same scenery and challenges as the Oil Rig, then things started to move back to what makes up the first Tomb Raider, when Lara reaches Tibet, things get more interesting, the views look nicer too. My favorite stage in this game is the one with the yetis in it, forget which stage exactly that was, but finally something different, scared the hell out of me the first time I got jumped by one of them too, didn't expect it.
TR3 is my personal favorite, having a balance between how you can save, having to collect save crystals like the first game, but can use them anywhere, but unlike the second game, you can't save as often as you like, and I loved the stages in this game, more interesting than those in the second game, and lara had a bunch of new moves making her extremely versatile. The stages offered the most variety, being it has the jungles of India (though with the Piranhas, you'd think it were the Amazon), a prehistoric island in the South Pacific (I love the second Jurassic Park movie, and there are certain parts of this stage that feel like that movie to me), the typical temple ruins in both those first places, Nevada desert / Area 51, London at night, and Antarctica, the game has everything (a little bit part 1 and 2 and then some), plenty of variety with the traps too, its never boring.
I've beaten all 4 of them that I own, the first Tomb Raider at least a half dozen times, Tomb Raider 2 once, Tomb Raider 3 twice, and just resently TR: The Last Revelation for the first time. Unlike the previous 3 games, the TR: The Last Revelation is more nonlinear, which allowed you to go back to previously visited stages, being some stages are immediately connected, but this caused me lots of confusion. The game was too vast, too much backtracking, after a while tending to forget what I'd done, or seen and needed for one stage, then getting something later in another stage and wonder where the hell I'm supposed to go and use it, and because of this the game dragged on for me for a couple years, while the previous 3 titles only took me a few days after starting them anytime I've played them. And the stages were unbalanced, some areas were vast, other were very short, same thing with the challenge. The graphics were nicer in TR: The Last Revelation, but the environments, while starting out interesting quickly became rather dull and boring, not enough variety, Egypt is nice and all, but I only like to see a few stages of it, like with the first Tomb Raider, not a whole game. I did like some of the puzzles later, yet those were ripped straight from a couple movies, respectively from The Fifth Element, and Die Hard with a Vengeance, but they worked for this game. Also many bosses couldn't be killed directly, or at all, having to use your environment to trap them. Probably my favorite new element was when you get poisoned, stung by a scorpion or something, the screen gets all weird, stretching and contorting, makes you feel like you're seeing things through Lara's eyes, reminds me of the stage "Touch Fuzzy, get Dizzy" in Yoshi's Island for the SNES.
Overall ratings:
Tomb Raider (10/10)
Tomb Raider 2 (10/10)
Tomb Raider 3 (10/10)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (7.5/10)
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