Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft

[h3]TLDR[/h3] A great remaster of a great trilogy of games (TR3 is among my top 3 games ever), which is slightly marred by the buggy challenge mode that got patched onto it long after release. I recommend rolling back to the last patch before that mode as soon as you're done with the challenge mode achievements, most of which can thankfully be obtained in 15 minutes. [h3]The Good[/h3] TR 1, 2 and 3 have always been great adventure platforming games with subtle horror elements, minimal UI and a real knack for bringing out the explorer in players. I'm sure many players first came to this franchise because of Lara's... assets... only to fall in love with the gameplay and level design. It holds up even 30 years later and it is amazing what Core Design got done with so little time and manpower (the games were infamously developed under some serious crunch conditions and a one-game-per-year schedule). Until the challenge mode update, this remaster polished and redressed the original games so beautifully and faithfully that when I first launched the game, saw the iconic main screen of TR1 in remastered glory and heard the first 6 notes of the main theme, I cried like a baby, as all the beautiful childhood memories of my time with this game came back to me. It is hard to describe just how much the original trilogy means to me, how much it shaped my tastes in gaming, and, as a female player, how much having a female main character in a game like this actually did for keeping me interested in games and invested in the medium. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that without Tomb Raider, I likely would not have become a gamer, and I likely would never have worked in this industry. This remaster provides all three games with beautifully upgraded graphics (if these are not your cup of tea, you can always press F1 at any time to switch back to old graphics), achievements that are not too easy but also not too hard and often reference long-running in-jokes from the community, a wonderfully whacky photo mode, NG+, modernized controls for those who want them (I learned the tank controls on keyboard as a kid in the 90s and to this day they are my preferred way to play the game), and some very welcome quality of life improvements (e.g. Lara being able to perform mid jump rolls even in TR 1, when originally that didn't become a thing until TR 2). The remaster also includes all the DLCs, some of which I had never played before. [h3]The Bad[/h3] In certain places, the graphical upgrades have ruined the atmosphere of the level. For example, one of my favorite levels in TR 2 is 40 Fathoms. Many players hate this level, especially the start, but I love it! Starting the level in the pitch black dark with no idea of where you were and where to go, your oxygen meter slowly depleting while sharks circled you, was such a great, intense moment in the original! In the remastered graphics, you can see 50 feet around you and everything looks less saturated. Secondly, the challenge mode. It feels vibe coded and does not fit with the game at all. Look, if you want some randomization/additional playtime in your TR 1-3, just download lahm86's excellent TR 1-3 Rando (randomizer mod) from GitHub--it will keep you busy for hundreds of hours, without causing a whole host of new glitches in your game. [h3]The Ugly[/h3] Nothing, if you're playing pre challenge mode. At launch, some achievements were outright broken, but I believe these are all fixed now. I did not encounter any other major glitches/crashes during my time with the game (before the challenge update anyways).