Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Reviews
Tomb Raider as a series is a beloved franchise and one that is sad to ever give a low score to. The problems encountered in this collection were painfully debilitating and would almost be better if one went and played the original game instead. Graphics are improved, but there is so much more that should have been updated that the original Tomb Raider 1–3 games should have had a full remake rather than remaster, or at least a bit more polish and attention given to the glitches and bugs.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft is a somewhat solid remaster with some interesting improvements, but the issues mentioned earlier can still cause what should be a fun experience to come grinding to a halt. While there are some interesting improvements and new features, it feels like this remaster could’ve been handled a lot better or instead turned into a remake to really reignite an old fandom that has long since moved on.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft takes a franchise that was flawed even in the 90s and does nothing interesting to update it. The new graphics are nice when they aren’t ruining the atmosphere of certain areas, but the modern controls somehow make these games a worse experience. There are plenty of great adventures out there starring Lara Croft. Her last trilogy was excellent, and even the 360-era titles, starting with Tomb Raider Legend, largely hold up. These original releases, though, have simply been eclipsed by far too many games at this point and are only really worth returning to if your nostalgia demands one more trip into these tombs.
There are a lot of retro games that stand the test of time: Resident Evil, Super Mario Bros, Halo: Combat Evolved, and so many others are timeless classics that most people could revisit and still love for the same reasons they did in the original. I feel like Tomb Raider isn't one of these and as a new player, I can't recommend Tomb Raider I-III Remastered unless you are someone who holds this as a fond memory, but it may be one better left in the past.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is a mixed bag of a remastered bundle. While it offers players new quality-of-life updates and great new features, the experience is marred by frustrating movement and an unreliable camera.
It's difficult to give a score to Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. On the one hand, some of the improvements are quite good. The inclusion of extra levels for each game to make them more accessible is always welcome, and the improved modern controls are certainly welcome unless your muscle memory is attuned to the old tank-style controls. On the other hand, the very slight graphical improvements are overshadowed by the fact that the game design fails to keep modern controls in mind, and no other changes have been made to bring it up to modern standards. Considering the pedigree of the games, the result is a package that's fine but could've been much, much better.
Although Tomb Raider Remastered does a phenomenal job at updating the original titles' graphics, it doesn't improve their abysmal controls or dated gameplay.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft is a faithful re-release of the original games, although it lacks a lot of care and attention that is part of what made the original games so loved. While the game runs well, the controls are poorly explains, and very poorly modernized. The graphics are upgraded but there are some odd textures and a lot of clipping issues in both the new and old graphics.
Tomb Raider I - III is sure to fill veteran gamers with nostalgia, but it is not excluded, due to what we mentioned above, that the fond memories they had will be "destroyed"
Review in Greek | Read full review
Tomb Raider I - III Remastered is a faithful recreation of the original Tomb Raider trilogy, however, its attempts to innovate and modernize the control scheme has left it in a weird state where it feels broken even though it isn't. In its current state, the game definitely feels weird, and until those issues are resolved, the game will remain an uneven remaster at best.
As nostalgic as Tomb Raider I–III Remastered might be for some fans, the fact is that the outdated gameplay mechanisms have no appeal to modern-day gamers, no matter how polished and good-looking the final product is.
Review in Persian | Read full review
It’s difficult to recommend Tomb Raider I-III Remastered as a thing that people should play. The games in the collection – especially the first one – are classics, though they’re not classics for the way they pushed gameplay or storytelling forward. They’re quite deficient in these areas. Tomb Raider is a classic because it helped redefine the nature of what a digital character could be. Sure, we had Mario and the Final Fantasy characters well before Tomb Raider, but those were closer to mascots. In Lara Croft we had a kind of human-proxy superstar for the first time. To many people, the gameplay didn’t matter. Not when rumours were spreading of nude codes for this new superstar.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered offers an appealing new visual style but retains all of the frustrating mechanics of the originals. Hardcore fans will probably enjoy it, but it's not for everyone.
Lara's original trilogy has been lovingly restored with the launch of these remasters, offering a definitive collection that bundles the core games and their expansions. However, dusting off these old relics in the name of nostalgia may come with a nasty surprise. Don't worry, there are no mummy curses, snake pits, or swinging pendulum axes, though the clunky controls will definitely take some getting used to (again).
However frustrating Tomb Raider I-III Remastered may be to modern eyes, there’s no denying that these games perfectly capture the spirit of the originals. Whether any of that is enough to appeal to modern audiences remains to be seen, but if you want a game that caters to your PS1 nostalgia, this is definitely it.
If you want to play using the original graphics, with optional modernized controls, at a high resolution, and with widescreen support, this is essentially perfect. But if you're looking for a remastered experience, Tomb Raider I-III is both an artistic mess, and a remarkable misunderstanding of some of the original visual game design. So come for the genre-defining original trilogy, but I wouldn't recommend staying for their remastered incarnations.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered offers a faithful experience for fans familiar with the iconic games that started it all. While the improved visuals and a nifty toggle to switch between classic and modern graphics elevate the experience, the outdated controls leave something to be desired about the core gameplay mechanics. But if you're just looking for the classic Lara Croft adventure experience, you won't be disappointed.
Whether you are exploring these games for the very first time and just want to see what all the hype is about, or you’re a veteran player who’s ready to be hauled back to the 90’s, nostalgia goggles in hand, ready to reminisce on a time when gaming was a little simpler, anyone who’s a self-proclaimed gamer should try this series at least once, and Aspyr have made this Tomb Raider Remastered collection the definitive way to do so.
So, what do we think of Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered? It's a mixed bag. On the one hand, we can't overlook the achievement of making a long-standing series approachable. But we'd have liked to see more action. Concrete gestures that would have improved gameplay. Because nostalgia sells, let's face it. But if you want to stay with it, and even better, bring in new players, this compilation won't do it.
Review in French | Read full review