Tomb Raider (1996, DOS) Review

(3 / 4)

Also on: Windows, N-Gage, Playstation, Playstation 3, PSP, PS Vita, Sega Saturn, Windows Mobile

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YE OLDE ACTION MOVIE ANTICS

I approached the prospect of playing the original Tomb Raider as if I was digging up some old fossil of a game. I expected hard work and slow progress, a one-level-a-day kind of game excavation, as I did my part in preserving gaming history. I wasn't completely wrong, but it came as a surprise how much fun hard work can be. I stuck to one level a day, never craving any more that. But I left each session with a good feeling - a sense of accomplishment that made me look forward to the next one.

The game's creators (Core Design) pretty much squeezed all they possibly could out of their new concept, and managed to create a legacy that stands as strong as ever today. Tomb Raider allegedly sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, and as a series has sold a stellar 58 million copies (not counting the recently released Shadow of the Tomb Raider). It might never have been a favorite of mine, but I can well understand why it's considered a fully fledged classic.

Back then, I never played it past the free demo level. But like everyone else I was amazed by the visual presentation. Viewing a character through a stalking, third person camera in a full 3D environment was brand new, and has since become my preferred gaming perspective. However, I thought Lara controlled sluggishly and combat was weak, so I soon decided Tomb Raider was not for me. I thought of Lara Croft as a fad, and couldn't get behind the hype. She was pretty much like any boring male counterpart plus two big, super sharp, polygonal boobs. In other words, ahead of this playthrough, I didn't have the nostalgic yearnings that I thought necessary to enjoy Tomb Raider.

Turns out, behind my shallow preconceptions lay a pretty solid game that has aged surprisingly well. Core Design knew very well how sluggishly Lara controlled, and designed the game around it. Today, it reminds me a little of Dark Souls. Timing Lara's movement is based on the character's animations. When you make a decision to move, you have commit to it. For instance, jumping won't occur until her foot stomps the ground in her running animation. Playing on the PC, you have to get used to the idea of keyboard tank controls. In other words, I think the worst obstacle is in your head. I strongly advice you to begin with the classic "Lara's Home" tutorial level to learn the controls.

To be fair the enemy has just as hard a time running around as Lara. Thus, the game rarely feels unfair in the situations that matter. Rather than reflexes and timing, combat often comes down to reaching higher ground so the enemy can't reach you. And if you can't, you had better switch to a stronger firearm.

TOUNGE-IN-CHEEK WRITING

The plot is so weak (and deliberately so) that after finishing it, I had to check it up on Wikipedia to remind myself what I'd actually done. In the opening cutscene, Lara is hired by Jacqueline Natla, owner of Natla Technologies, to travel to the mountains of Peru and find the Scion, an ancient artifact of "mystical powers". The rest is... well, tounge-in-cheek fun. Back then, story was usually entirely separated from gameplay through pre-rendered cutscenes or written text - sometimes entirely in the manual. There was a reason for that. In Tomb Raider, close to the end we actually get a couple in-engine cutscenes. The less said about that, the better.

The first four levels of the game take place in the icy, desolate Peruvian mountains, where Lara arrives horribly underdressed in her blue tank top, brown shorts and combat boots. The game eases you into its challenges - platforming, lever puzzles, box puzzles, exploration, item collecting and combat. Said mechanics are the heart and soul of the game, while the plot simply provides you with a MacGuffin to get you around the world, and switch the locations out once in a while.

Apart from the viscous controls, Tomb Raider shares another trait with Dark Souls. Starting the game proper, I immediately got struck by a sense of abandonment. The short drawing distance is hidden behind a wall of pitch black. And instead of music, there's a constant ambience. Each location has its own, like an audio thumbprint, providing the surroundings with an almost otherworldly presence as you descend deeper into each tomb. Strange, distant echoes are all around, even as no one or nothing is apparently near. This was a bold choice, one that pays off today as it gives the game the timeless qualities that the graphics don't.

DIFFERENT LEVELS OF HELL

All in all, there are four disparate locations - no point in spoiling them - containing three to five levels each. The Peruvian ones tricked me into thinking this would be a smooth surf to the end, whereas the later ones had me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Not only did it get awfully difficult, the game started showing signs of glitching out. On the penultimate level, one glitch involving a creature that mirrored my movements was so severe it would have broken the game, had I not been lucky enough to make a back-up save just ahead of it. It was nothing but dumb luck that I did.

Here's another strange glitch I encountered after finishing the game and trying to record some footage. Do you think some of the textures might be messed up?

The levels vary wildly in scope. Some of them consist of huge hub areas that branch out into several shorter paths. As soon as I entered such an area, I cried out in despair. I knew I was in for a long one, with diabolical lever puzzles to open new gateways into nooks I never knew how to find. A few levels are like gauntlets, meaning I'd have to be on the lookout for traps and beasts. Most of them contain bits of both. You don't have a lot of freedom of approach, meaning there is but one correct solution to every bind. You just need to figure it out.

Getting hopelessly stuck for 20-30 minutes or even longer is a possibility. It stems from level size and not exploring enough, so that you don't fully get what each level needs you to do. The game communicates it, in a sense, but it's up to the player to learn that language. If you look around a room you just entered, you'll learn to expect how it'll change before you're done with it. A lot of the satisfaction of playing Tomb Raider is getting those expectations right. Still, when you don't succeed, and the game loses its forward momentum, is also when it's at its lowest emotional ebb. Some levels are just too big, and the backtracking can totally pave the way for irritation.

BARE BONES ACTION ADVENTURE

And that is basically it. The game presents its core mechanics in the first few stages and holds tightly to them for the long haul. The way Core Design managed to keep it together and ramp the difficulty up just right for 17-18 straight hours of gameplay is quite a feat. When I look back upon those hours I can remember pretty much all that happened. The locations, although crude-looking today, each have their own distinct theme and layout to make them into the tombs we love to explore.

If you're interested in tracing the origins of such landmark titles as Uncharted, Horizon Zero Dawn, Resident Evil 4 - hell, any game with a stalking camera - here you have it. Tomb Raider plays like a bare bones version of any of those games. And it is not a lowest common denominator, it's rather an action adventure scaled down to its essentials to make it fun enough.

Lara Croft anno 1996 is undeveloped as a human character, sure, but the game is called "Tomb Raider" and not "Lara Croft". It's all about the tombs, man. Lara is defined by her actions in relation to the tombs, so it all comes down to the way you steer her through them. That's right. It's up to you now. Will you carry the torch down that tomb and explore the past? I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it as much as I did, but it might give you a bunch of gaming credibility.

The sequel, titled Tomb Raider II, was released just one year after, in 1997. Will I eventually review it? You can count on it.