Tomb Raider

This game has you do it all. You go through all kinds of different obstacles while fighting a different array of enemies. The story is not the greatest, but hey, what can you expect for the first game in the series. Tomb Raider also threw in a little something different with Lara Croft breaking normal hero boundaries. Almost all video game (and real) action heroes were men until she came along. Don't get me wrong, there were quite a few women trying to be everybody's saviour, but Lara is much better. Gameplay is great, looks good for its time, and is fun to play. My rating 10/10

Tomb Raider was a sort of a technological revolution in 1996 because it used a fully 3D environment and polygons when compared to most other games which used sprites. It also made many advances when it came to interactivity because a large portion of the environment was actually fully navigable. If one does not expect the blasting, weapons and gore from the traditional 3D-shooters of that time, Tomb raider would have delivered a very unique and enjoyable gaming experience. The environments were not really varied until the sequel to this title but it was still fun. Its also quite fun to play this game on your Nokia while your old computer at the time, had a hard time coping up with the polygons.

There are many gaming franchises out there that have affected people's lives and One of my favorite game series of all time is none other then Tomb raider. I remember back in the day my father had purchased the game and had loved it. He came home from work and would play it to death. As a kid I didn't see the appeal and I wasn't a fan of it's controls etc. But later in my life around my teen years I decided to give the game another shot. My father had bought me a walkthrough guide for TRs 1-5. I had played laras home which is a fun training level just to get used to the controls. I then played through the entire game and I was hooked. Fun puzzles, platforming, action and exploration. The games music is beautiful, the atsompshre is great, the graphics were great, sound effects solid and it had a solid storyline. The levels themselves are big, the games content is great for it's time. I simply love this game and After finishing it I wanted to play every tomb raider afterwards. I have finished all of the games and this is in my top 5 TR's for sure. The only flaws are due to the games age which are the controls and visuals. But other then that It's a masterpiece in my eyes.

It is probably because you only do what the title of the game suggests, tomb raiding that still makes this game of the series one of the best. Later you would do missions not involving tombs...where you would raid military bases and buildings. However, Laura Croft always seems most at home in an underground temple searching for treasure and clues to disable deadly traps and unlock doors. Which is basically all you do here. Laura is hired to find pieces of a device by a mysterious woman and she goes to different tombs in order to find them. There are usually some animals to kill and even a T-rex to fight. For the most part you are not killing people in this particular adventure. Though there are a couple of people in this one to fight. The ending is a bit over the top, however, this does not detract from the overall fun to be had in this game. The physics and controls are rather easy to get used to, and no need to worry about ammo as your default weapons never run out. You can also pick up a different weapon here and there including a sweet pair of uzi's. So if going into mysterious tombs is your thing, this tomb raider adventure is still tops.

The first game in the Tomb Raider series is undoubtedly the best. Although designed to run under DOS and SVGA graphics the design of the levels retains a beauty and originality rare among games. (True devotees using a PC can download a progam called GLIDOS, which allows high resolution graphics in the game, and patches to allow the game to run under XP) The soundtrack, including the trademark theme, is also wonderfully atmospheric. Lara Croft was the first third person perspective videogame character to make a mark in the gaming world. Control of the character is relatively straight forward, and the game itself quite exploration rather than action orientated. In hindsight, the puzzle standards of pulling levers or pushing moveable blocks, have become a bit tired to today's players but there's still plenty here to challenge the intellect, and more than enough action at times to quicken the pulse. Lara's first adventure sees her explore the Andes, the Classical World, Egypt and finally Atlantis. Perhaps the plot is a bit derivative from Indiana Jones (after all Indy did Atlantis in videogames three years before Lara)but hey I'd rather Lara than some old smart alec with a whip anyday...