This is just for record keeping as I beat remaster just not on Steam.
TL;DR: Mildly difficult, adventure-themed puzzle games with no mechanical progression, great as a podcast companion games. Each has one good jump scare. Graphics are limited and cultural portrayals feel inauthentic. In 3 Lara is a psychopath and some levels drag on. Play 1 for its place in video game history; 3 adds more things but it’s not a better game than 1.
Pros and cons:
1. A well executed ancient aliens plot. The presentation is impressive for the time, in cutscenes for example, Larson reflecting in red lens, Lara’s leotard is translucent when she gets on the yacht, the cuts in flashback when Lara touches artifacts is absent in the next two. The Atlantic level is wonderful. Animals won’t attack Pierre and Pierre and shoot you through geometry and it feels like cheating.
2. Lara can climb and zipline, use vehicles, with more weapons even though there’s auto aim in all these games. I like the Maria Doria levels. I’m Taiwanese and our culture is partly Chinese, everything in Xian is just so insane. Lara can lock on monks, and monks ai acts dumb.
3. Lara can climb monkey bars. Levels now have many paths to the goal and models look more realistic. Area 51 is fun. You can choose which level to tackle next and as a result the story doesn’t have any progression until the end, and basically the same beat as the first but worse, the villain wants to use alien tech to evolve humans, but the first game has a full Atlantean theme to illustrate the danger. There’s no thread line connecting the locations besides “artifact is there”. There’re many instances where you think Lara should be able to traverse but can’t. Lara killed a lot of innocence, just to obtain artifacts for some Doctor. Lara is weirdly tumbling all over the place; when she meets Tony the second time, in the delivery truck, when she enters the meteorite cavern, while riding the mine cart she’s standing and swaying when she should be sitting. I feel burned out in the end.
Tank control feels like attempting immersion, you need to hold the action button for ledges, and you can look while moving and the camera is much closer and more cinematic. Modern control is more immediate.
