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In the 90s, Lara Croft reigned supreme as the muse of games, a very curious term for the time, which exacerbated sensuality as a way of selling games to an audience that was mostly male. However, Lara Croft broke through this bubble and became a pop culture icon, with movies starring Angelina Jolie and more games, but the quality of the franchise fell in the same way as the original company. Core Design went through several difficulties until the Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness fiasco led Eidos to change the studio responsible for developing the game to Crystal Dynamics.
During the second half of the 2000s until the first half of the 2010s, average games were released, including a remake of the first game that was somewhat controversial for purists. Then in 2013 Crystal Dynamics managed to put the franchise back on the media's radar with a reboot in 2013. Another trilogy has been completed and once again we are in that moment where we don't know exactly what the future of Lara Croft will be.
The Remasters
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered é o resultado dessa incerteza, voltar as origens e brincar com a nostalgia é normalmente uma jogada que se bem feito pode trazer bons resultados, remasters do Crash Bandicoot e Tony Hawk’s por exemplo fizeram bastante sucesso, são exatamente os mesmos jogos da época apenas com gráficos atualizados porém com quase o mesmo gameplay e ver pessoas que nunca tiveram contato com essas franquias na época tendo sua primeira experiência talvez seja a melhor parte.
Os primeiros Tomb Raider’s são jogos bem desafiadores, muito diferente do a franquia se tornou com o reboot que segue uma linha mais cinematográfica, os primeiros jogos são literalmente sobre exploração de tumbas, ou melhor labirintos. A geometria dos mapas não era pensada no realismo visto que na época ainda era um pouco incerto como trabalhar com jogos 3D e a forma como Tomb Raider trouxe foi algo revolucionário, tanto é que tivemos muitos outros jogos que pegaram conceitos da franquia e se tornaram jogos “tipo Tomb Raider” como Duke Nukem: Time to Kill e até mesmo Indiana Jones. Muitas vezes você vai se deparar áreas confusas e puzzles que não são muito óbvios, fazendo com que você fique um bom tempo procurando uma solução.
Despite some quality of life improvements, such as some interaction indicators that appear when Lara approaches an interactive object, the game keeps the gameplay structure intact, there are no hints, no maps, nothing. It's challenging, but I believe it's also very rewarding.
The origin
In my opinion, Tomb Raider 1 is a very experimental game, both in terms of controls and game design and stages. Lara goes through scenarios such as Egypt, Peru and Greece with different climates and enemies, and I emphasize this difference in the enemies because they are some of the most insane possible: wolves, dinosaurs, gorillas to name but a few. As the enemies mostly attack only when they come into contact with the character, combat is very much focused on jumping and shooting, something that in the other games was a little more complicated as in Tomb Raider 2 for example there are many enemies with guns which makes it very difficult to dodge shots.
Starring Lara Croft
Tomb Raider 2 expanded on the formula of the original with improved graphics, more weapons, and a wider variety of locations, including the Great Wall of China, Venice and Tibet. The inclusion of vehicles, such as a boat in Venice, added a new dimension to the gameplay. The game also brought a greater focus on combat, which was both praised for adding action and criticized for moving away from the exploration and puzzles that defined the first game. Despite this, Tomb Raider II was a commercial success and is often remembered for introducing new elements to the series.
The Adventures of Lara Croft
Tomb Raider 3 continued to evolve the series with even more graphical improvements and a renewed emphasis on exploration and puzzles. This game took Lara to even more exotic locations, such as the jungles of India, the islands of the South Pacific and Antarctica, each with their own unique challenges and enemies. The addition of new moves, such as crawling and sprinting, along with the ability to select the order in which certain areas of the game were explored, offered unprecedented freedom to players. However, the increased difficulty and steep learning curve were points of contention.
Remastered
As far as graphics are concerned, there's little noticeable improvement if all the games in this collection are played with just the new graphics (which are excellent) since the game is very standardized using the same quality in all three games, but something very cool is the possibility of switching between the classic graphics and the remastered graphics with just one button, something that many developers have done as in Diablo 2 Resurrected. This way, for the more curious, it's interesting to see how the graphical evolution has improved up until the third game, which introduced very advanced lighting concepts for the time, for example.
Um pequeno detalhe que notei é que ao jogar com os gráficos no modo clássico, a desenvolvedora optou por deixar um visual mais parecido com as versões do Playstation, mesmo que as versões de PC fossem superiores dando a possibilidade de suavizar texturas portanto ao ver os gráficos no modo clássico temos uma versão “pior” do que as versões de PC do jogo, mas acredito que tenha sido uma escolha proposital pelo fato das versões de Playstation serem mais conhecidas.
The youtube channel Digital Foundry did a great comparison that shows exactly what I mean
Controls
Tank controls, as we call them today, were very popular at the time, and Tomb Raider originally used this pattern. When I went to play these versions, my mechanical memory kicked in, so I had no trouble replaying the game with this pattern, but I recognize that for those who aren't used to it, it can seem very strange. Aspyr added an option for modern controls to the game, which I tried out, but I just can't get used to, I found them much more difficult than the originals.
Community recognition
I would like to highlight that Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is the result of the recognition of the work of developer Timur Gagiev who has been working for years on an open source engine for the classic Tomb Raider called OpenLara, through his work it was possible to run the games with updated graphics and improved frame rate. Aspyr, developer of the remastered project, contacted Timur so that he could lead the game's development. It would be very interesting if more developers adopted this stance with the community instead of requesting that fan projects be interrupted.
The Nostalgia factor
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered é uma ótima coleção de jogos que atualiza de forma fiel os clássicos da franquia e principalmente ajuda a preservar a memória destes jogos tão importantes na indústria, agora vamos aguardar para que a Aspyr continue o excelente trabalho e também lance os Tomb Raider’s restantes o Last Revelation e o Chronicles, talvez até quem sabe uma versão melhorada do Angel of Darkness.
This review was made thanks to our partnership with Nuuvem who provided us with the game key! Buy Tomb Raider I-III Remastered right now from Nuuvem in this link,.
