Tomb Raider I (1996)

This is where it all began. Tomb Raider is a magnificient game. I'm not discovering much. I will talk about the levels without spoiling more than the basic plot and areas you visit. Lara Croft starts her debut contacted by a woman called Natla, to find a rare artifact called the scion. A very Indiana Jones premise. The first levels are set in Peru, you raid old temples and hidden valleys. It's starts with tutorialized simple levels until the 3rd one, where the first big surprise of the saga awaits. The adventure continues in Greece, Egypt, and even Atlantis, for a grand total of 15 levels. Most of them are huge and it takes quite a good amount of time to find the required items, solve puzzles and find the exit. There's also secrets in the form of hidden caches of weapons and ammo. Finding a couple of them per level is not that hard, but some are just way too obscure to find without any guide. There's no reward for finding all secrets though, so they only act as a fun challenge or an earlier way to get a specific weapon. Talking of weapons, Lara has access to four, with the classic dual pistols being the only one that has unlimited bullets. Combat is generally regarded as the weakest aspect in the classic series. Lara just autoaims to the closest enemy and you only have to keep shooting while dodging. Almost every enemy has only melee attacks, with a few humans wielding actual guns in later stages. Lara's great power though, is her versatility. You can jump in any direction, grab onto ledges to shimmy left or right, roll to face your back and swim for long periods of time. It's generally an easy game in terms of action and enemies, expect to finish the game with a ton of unused medikits. The real difficulty comes from the exploration, mazey maps and just getting lost or missing a specific key that is required to progress. Around half of the levels are iconic, while others are not that beloved by the community. There's also no help, hints, yellow paint, nor any kind of non-diegetic clue on what to do. You find a locked door, just go and explore the whole level to find the key. There's also no fast travel of any kind. Luckily, there's a good number of save slots and you can save at anytime. Now, with everything said, don't get this version. Just get the incredible superior remastered trilogy. It includes the first games with all their official expansions, apart from a ton of enhancements and achievements. I'm tempted to just thumbs down this game, but it's just too good.

nah. too old.. graphics are really bad.. and the controls are horrid. cant even use the mouse!!

Incredibly unforgiving action game where you dodge traps and fight off creatures. It's good. A classic in the genre.

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There will never be anything like this game. Tomb Raider is an all time classic that will never get old so long as there are people out there who still enjoy art and exploration. This game was a masterclass of 3D exploration combined with Nathan McCree, one of the greatest composers in the industry. Tomb Raider starts with our adventurer-explorer Lara Croft, who gets approached by a mercenary known as Larson to find the Scion artefact buried in the tomb of Qualopec. The one who actually hires Lara for this job is the businesswoman Jacqueline Natla. Lara will travel through Vilcabamba, Greece and Egypt to find all three pieces of the Scion while fighting against Larson and Pierre DuPont. Near the very end, when we find ourselves in Egypt, Lara is ambushed by Natla and her henchmen. We find out that Natla is actually the traitor from the long lost Atlantis, her objective is to create a breed of monsters to push human evolution, as she believes both Atlantis and humans to be "too soft" to handle what's coming. Lara ends up destroying the Scion, causing the pyramid to crumble apart, and successfully kills Natla. Forgive me if I don't remember a lot of the details, it's been a very long time. What separates Tomb Raider from other IPs is the pixel perfect jumps, you are essentially playing chess with the level design that perfectly compliments this kind of gameplay. That's the secret of true mastery behind the OG Tomb Raider games, something the new ones will never be able to replicate.

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很古早的游戏，古墓丽影系列的开山之作。这款游戏的设计和理念在当时是史无前例的，能够算是开创了一种新的游戏种类。游戏以革命般的理念打破了当时游戏主角大多为男性的隔阂，一位女性角色闯入了男性玩家的世界，劳拉在“古墓丽影”的道路上一路畅通，成为了世界首屈一指的女性角色。 可惜游戏的操控现在来看已经落伍了很多，手感很差，画面也有些难以接受。但游戏内容还是很耐玩，支线也有很多，谜题设计都很出色。 情怀分真的很高。

Tomb Raider impressiona muito pela forma como transforma exploração em parte central da experiência. Mesmo com as limitações gráficas da época, o jogo consegue passar muito bem a sensação de estar atravessando lugares desconhecidos, antigos e perigosos. O level design é criativo, e as armadilhas ajudam bastante a dar tensão ao avanço, fazendo com que cada corredor exija cuidado. O ritmo do jogo também funciona muito bem. Ele equilibra combate, exploração e puzzles de forma consistente, sem deixar nenhuma dessas partes tomar conta demais da experiência. O aspecto mais solitário da aventura ajuda na imersão, e o combate, apesar de não ser o foco, funciona bem dentro desse conjunto. As acrobacias da Lara também ajudam muito no charme do jogo, porque passam uma sensação quase cinematográfica para a época. Os controles claramente envelheceram mal, e hoje não é tão fácil se adaptar a eles. Ainda assim, dá para entender por que funcionavam bem naquele contexto, principalmente quando o jogo exige precisão nos pulos e nas escaladas, que são muito bem construídas. Os puzzles também se destacam por estarem bem ligados à exploração e por respeitarem a inteligência do jogador, sem parecerem artificiais ou deslocados do resto da experiência. O que mais chama atenção é como a variedade de cenários, perigos e situações sustenta a campanha do começo ao fim. Isso reforça o quanto o jogo estava à frente do seu tempo e como ainda existe muito valor no seu design. Talvez não seja um título tão fácil de recomendar para qualquer pessoa hoje, justamente por causa dos controles, mas ele continua sendo muito impressionante para a sua época. [b]Nota: 8/10[/b]

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