I’ll be up front… I never played a Tomb Raider game up until 2006’s Tomb Raider Legend on the Gamecube, and it turned out to be quite good (though I did get stuck with a boss halfway though… gotta go back and finish that…), so when I recently came upon a copy of the original game for the Saturn for a mere two bucks at the dirt mall, I decided to check it out and see what I had missed out on.
Turns out I didn’t miss much.
Good lord, if you played this back in the day… I feel for you. After the laughably bad CGI intro (though to be fare, it was probably cutting edge back in the early 90’s…), I tried to progress through the first cave, ending at a dead end with no idea how to progress. Lara controls like a tank, and her platforming skills are, well, nonexistant. I spent probably ten minutes trying to jump onto a ledge that was a foot tall, yet Lara could only jump straight up into the air. Oh well, at least I got some laughs by repeatedly pressing the dodge button, which makes Lara roll around like an idiot.
Then I popped in Virtua Cop and played a round to clear the bad taste out of my mouth. Now THAT’S a good game.
If you couldn’t even finish the first level how can you rate a game ?. Even my brother-in-law with no previous knowledge on video-games finished the whole trip …
The game is great.
Well… you made the slight mistake of buying the Saturn version. Although it was programmed first (or at least announced as a Saturn and PC game first), the PS One version looks much better and in my experience, PLAYS better. Particularly if one uses a third-party controller where analog support OR takes time to grasp the controls as they were meant to be used.
Understanding and enjoying the movement controls in the first five or so TR games means knowing that Core designed the first few games with a “grid” based movement system. Look up one of the FAQS on GameFaqs or a dedicated TR fan site to see what I mean. For its time, the game WAS indeed revolutionary. While it might not hold up to “today’s standards” at all, once you see how well it’s designed past the parts you hated, it’s a pretty incredible experience.
That the game becomes increasingly challenging (to the point that if you use a level cheat, you’ll find your self dying FREQUENTLY because you skipped learning how to do certain moves) is another thing that works very well.
The only thing the Saturn version has over the PS one code is the cool rippling water effect you see when Lara in in the drink and you tile the camera in a certain way. Why it’s missing in the PS One version is a mystery, as the visuals are better all around in that one…
Hope that helps put a tiny bit of context into the topic.
g.
Trying and failing to pass the first room in this game does not qualify anyone to give this game a rating whatsoever. All the things that makes these games good. (the puzzles, athmosphere, level design, etc.) Have not been experienced until you have played and beaten the first level which is really nothing more then a glorified tutorial that lets you get used to the controls and moves. Seeing how you couldn’t even make lara jump forward I suspect there is something wrong with your controller. If you can’t get past the first room I suggest you head over to youtube and check out a longplay video of the game to see what you were doing wrong. Finish the game and then come back and talk to us about it.
I was going to make another post about this, but it’s really not necessary. I did manage to past the first room, after consulting the manual and finding out that I needed to push forward on the D-pad slightly AFTER pressing the jump button, which in all honesty is kind of stupid. I played for about half an hour after that, making some progress and killing various wildlife, but it really didn’t hold my interest for very long.
I’ll grant that it was an important game for its time, but the clunky control scheme did not age well at all; I’d put it just above Resident Evil’s “tank” controls.