Video games have been a part of my life
since I was spawned on this planet. Even my very own first post on this blog of
mine was a little story based around a video game, with nods and jokes that
complement the game itself, and the story too. Then my Yakuza reviews, followed
by Street Fighter, and Race Driver GRID. I will do reviews on racing games
someday because that category of games is kind of lacking on my blog. But
that’s not important right now. What matters as of now is a review about a
franchise that’s been with me since my birth.
This franchise has been my very first
introduction to video games and has shaped me into the person I am today. It’s
so important that often times when I’m about to do something or say something,
I remind myself of the rules and words of the games. How to do all sorts of
acrobatic jumps, to quickly roll out of a tricky situation, how to dual wield
items with ease and scary accuracy and how to do a handstand. The last one is
painful, just like the others because I’m not very acrobatic, but even with the
limits, I can still do them. And after a hard workout at the gym (or jumping
around like a lunatic), I always fancy myself some swi- I mean shower.
Even when I’m not writing a story, I still
cannot help myself from inserting quotes or jokes from the games I play. This
one, like the others before, doesn’t escape that fate. What game series has acrobatic
movement, dual wielding items, handstands, swan dives and locking people in a
freezer? Street Fighter? Rollercoaster Tycoon? Yakuza (possibilities are
high for this one to be honest)?
It’s Tomb Raider.
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| The main protagonist of the series and an icon in the gaming world... |
Brief history of the team behind the games:
Core Design was an English video game
developer founded in 1988 in Derby. They would create all sorts of games for
home computers at the time, such as the Amiga, Commodore, ZX, and others. Not
only that, but they also made a lot of games for one of Japan’s finest video
game companies, SEGA. The same company responsible for the Blue Hedgehog Sonic
and the “we promise the games are super serious and have thrilling stories that
explain in detail about Japan’s underground world” Yakuza series. During the
90s, SEGA made video game consoles, and were rivals to the mighty Nintendo. The
Sega Genesis (Mega Drive in Europe), Sega CD, Sega 32x, Sega Saturn, the
Dreamcast… The reason I mention SEGA is because Core Design focused their
development on this company and their consoles. They had great success here and
there with their titles for the consoles, but the biggest one would come in
October 1996, and on an ill-fading console at the time. The rest as they say,
is history.
Brief history done, now to move onto the
game itself. And since we’ve talked a bit of story, we can do the plot first.
PLOT
For the sake of convenience, I will merge
the backstory found in the manuals of the game and the opening cutscenes:
“Lara Amelia Croft, born 14.02.1968 in
Wimbledon, London, was an interesting child growing up. Coming from a very rich
and powerful family (we’re talking centuries old kind of powerful), she was the
daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft and Amelia Croft. Being an odd ball, and
coming from a powerful family, her childhood was very strict and demanding.
Tutored privately since the age of 3, the girl would just become better as age
went by. One faithful day however, at the age of 21, on her way back from a
skiing trip, her plane crashed in the Himalayas, and she was the only survivor.
Two weeks of wandering around, she was found by locals and returned home safe.
However, that experience changed her forever. Sick of the lifestyle she once
lived, being rich and living in a high-class society, she decided to rebel
against her parents and start going on adventures. Because of this decision,
her parents simply disowned her. Thankfully, her auntie was kinder than
her parents, and gave her big manor in Surrey to Lara. Having no money
or any other means of living, she writes travelling books, which fund her
travels, arsenal, and let her have money.
A big explosion in New Mexico would very
much alter her lifestyle once more.
In 1996, during a stay in Calcutta, India, probably on a
quest to find a very peculiar artefact, she is called by Jacqueline
Natla, CEO of Natla Technologies. She hires Lara to find a mysterious artefact
known as The Scion, located in Peru. With a grin on her face, Lara packs her
bags and quickly departs to Peru.”
GAMEPLAY
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game
that focuses on exploration, eliminating enemies, solving puzzles, platforming
and reaching the end of each level. The levels while linear, offer diverse
paths for Lara to explore. Her job (or in this case the player’s job) is to
make sure they observe their surroundings that will lead them to the end or a
place that would require solving, whilst also combating ferocious enemies with
vast weapons. While doing all that, movement is important. Unlike games today
where movement feels like it is being assisted by design, in Tomb Raider the
movement is very precise and requires good timing to make a good jump or grab.
Below are the controls for the game:
|
ACTION |
CONTROLS (PC/PS) |
|
Movement |
Arrow Keys / D-Pad |
|
Walk |
Shift / R1 |
|
Jump |
Alt / Square |
|
Sidestep Left or Right |
Delete & Page Down / L2 & R2 |
|
Roll |
End or Up + Down / Circle |
|
Draw or Holster Weapon |
Space Bar / Triangle |
|
Action |
Ctrl / X |
|
Look |
Numpad 0 + Arrow Keys / L1 + D-Pad |
Despite the game coming out first on the Sega Saturn, it didn’t really hit it big until the Playstation version released a month later. In YELLOW are the controls for the PC version, and in GREEN for the Playstation version. And speaking of controls, here’s a video demonstration on how the game plays and the graphics.
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| And how do you learn the controls? By going to her manor, of course... |
A lot of people make jokes about the
triangular objects of the game (including Lara’s two BFPs. BFP stands for Big
Fucking Pyramids), but believe it or not, the graphics for the time were
fantastic. Still are even today, despite the game looking blocky and 90s as all
hell.
COMPASS – Shows East, West, North & South. Originally it was meant to show the stats of the level the player is exploring, but due to a bug it shows nothing. Thanks to fan made patches, the stat screen is shown nowadays…
SHOTGUN – Deals a lot of damage, at the cost of a slow firing rate. Ammo is rare. Timing is key with this one…
SMALL MEDIPACK – Restores a small amount of health. Fairly common...
LARGE MEDIPACK – Restores a huge amount of health. Somewhat common…
SAVE CRYSTAL – Found only in the Playstation version of the game. At certain parts of a level, touching the crystal will allow the player to save their progress. However this one in the picture looks like it can be consumed. Hmmm…
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| I don't have the PS version, so the save crystals are missing. You can save anywhere on PC. Bellow are game options, and if you have level items, they are above the Inventory tab. But that ring menu is amazing. It is as iconic as the games themselves... |
LEVELS
The game is divided into 4 chapters: Peru, Greece,
Egypt and Atlantis, with Greece having the most (5) and Egypt and Atlantis
having the least (both have 3 levels). Each level gets progressively tougher
and more challenging as the game advances. Without spoiling too much of the
story and levels, we’ll read a brief description of each location whilst
showing some snaps of said places.
PERU
This lovely South American country is
covered in snow all the way from bottom to top, at least during our expedition
there. Underneath all that snow and dangerous wildlife lies the lost city of Vilcabamba,
an ancient Incan city that has been long abandoned. While the snow slowly
starts to fade away the deeper we advance in the caves, we start seeing bushes,
leaves, and a rather “lively” valley. In the heart of this place lies the
Scion, guarded by the ruler of the ancient Incas. However, it seems that this
place is hiding more than just the ruins of an ancient city and the supposed
Scion of Atlantis…
GREECE
I love Greece. Beautiful country full of
history and responsible for the birth of the modern western world. It is also
responsible for guarding its past as well, because the monastery of St.
Francis, the patron saint of animals, hides something interesting from the
outside world. Discovering the monastery’s secret will be quite the challenge,
as it welcomed us with confusing layouts and lots of traps. Once we advanced
further, we went even further back in time, where the Colosseum was alive and
kicking, and where another batch of wildlife was ready to tear us to shreds.
But that was nothing compared to what was found in the core beneath this
monastery…
EGYPT
The beautiful sands of Egypt are rather flamboyant and willing to show to the visitor a lot more compared to Peru and Greece. It’s not trying to hide the fact it holds a vital piece of the puzzle we are trying to solve. Panthers, crocodiles, and abominations from another world lurk the alleyways of the City of Khamoon and the Obelisk. Don’t get me started what we found in the sewers of this ancient city. One way or another, Khamoon is a very exotic place that isn’t ashamed of admitting its secrets and will allow you to obtain them, but only if you have what it takes to endure its challenges and become victorious in the end…
ATLANTIS
The crew was tired when we noticed the
strange island in front of us. Not sure where we were, but we all knew that we
had to follow the boat that was headed there. For a deserted island, it’s rich
with mines and… Lava? And what’s with all these pulsating veins on the floor?
And why are the walls made up of muscles and eggs ready to be hatched? Just
what is this place? Whoever is the owner or ruler of this place, they’re
definitely not on the side of the good guys. Also there was a countdown of
sorts for something weird…
SOUNDTRACK
If there’s one thing that can trigger happy
memories is music. Tomb Raider’s music is ICONIC! In the opening part of the
review, I posted the main menu theme of the game, which in itself is THE theme for
the game. Anyone who has played this game will be sent back to simpler times,
back in ’96, ’97, or just back in the past.
The game’s soundtrack doesn’t focus too
much on music, but rather on ambience. Only during specific moments would music
play in the background to indicate the player about something important. The
composer of the game, Nathan McCree, was inspired to write the music by English
Classical music. He was also very ambitious, as he wanted the soundtrack to
feature a choir, but due to not having the budget for such a thing, he took it
upon himself to make all of the choir by recording his breathings at the right
time to make it sound like it’s an actual choir.
Also the music was written on the go. There
were no time for rewritings, so everything you hear in the game was made in one
go. My words can’t do the music justice, so have a go and listen to the ENTIRE
soundtrack right now:
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| The man responsible behind the legendary soundtrack... |
EXPANSION PACK
Before DLCs, there were expansion packs.
Unlike DLCs, these ones were functional and had proper content that was there
for those that wanted more of the same, but with new levels and puzzles to
solve.
In 1998, Tomb Raider would get repackaged
and sold as Tomb Raider Gold. The repackaging would feature the
entirety of the first game, alongside some other goodies such as the manual and
artwork (I think), and a brand new game called Tomb Raider: Unfinished
Business.
This new mini adventure follows Lara on 2
separate chapters:
- First one is set in Egypt, and it’s about
trying to enter a hidden temple near the City of Khamoon, whose location was
revealed thanks to a recent flooding in the area.
- The second chapter continues the Atlantis
chapter. Not telling you what happened with those levels, you are going to have
to find that one out for yourself.
GALLERY
FINAL THOUGHTS
One simple 3D game that changed the world.
Revolutionary in many ways, Tomb Raider is still a blast to play even today.
With its tight and (sort of) responsive controls, beautiful locations, holy
music, a simple yet effective story, and plenty of history, the game rightfully
deserves to be placed in the Hall of Video Game Fame. The character of Lara was
a game changer, as she is the first ever female protagonist in a video game.
She got it all: good looks, the right amount of sassiness, whilst also being
polite and respectful towards those that help her, or anyone that wishes no
harm. But her being an adrenaline junkie that just hops around the tombs
dodging traps and killing enemies is what people remember the most. Also her
triangular boobs. People love to make jokes about them.
The game was launched on the wrong console
in my opinion, but it was a good move, because the Sega Saturn port is not that
good, especially compared to the later releases on the PS1 and MS-DOS/PC.
Overall, I’d say go grab it. It is one of
those video games that has to be played before you get game ended, or get
locked up in the freezer and can’t get out, leading to your untimely death.
However, that statement can be applied about any of the games that follow this
one. Did I mention that the success of this game spawned sequels? See you next
time in my Tomb Raider II review, where we will take a look on Lara’s quest to
find a dagger and stop an Italian cult led by a man who looks like broccoli and
is definitely not macho.
LINKS
TRIVIA
- In promotional material and cutscenes,
Lara has her hair tied up in a braid, but in game she doesn’t have it. The
developers ran into a bug that couldn’t be fixed in the final version of the
game, so in game she doesn’t have her braid, but she does in the FMV cutscenes.
- She was going to originally be named Laura
Cruz, but to make it easy for Americans, they changed it to Lara. Ironic that
Americans cannot say Lara. They always go for Laura. Her last name Croft was
chosen at random via phonebook.
- 3 of the 4 chapters have outdoor areas,
but no visible skies. Mixed reports suggest that either they forgot include them
or they ran out of time. Unfinished Business has outdoor areas with proper,
albeit fascinating looking backgrounds.
- 95% of the enemies are animals and unholy
creatures, with humans serving as sub-bosses or final bosses.
- In her home, the Ark of the Covenant can
be found.
- The voice actor for Lara, Shelly Blond,
did all of her lines in just 5 hours. Grunts and moans don’t count.
- A very specific update for the game that
was aimed towards ATI Radeon cards now serves as the basis for running the game
outside of MS-DOS. Previously you had to run it on a computer that had that or
use Dosbox, an emulator that emulates MS-DOS.
SPECIAL THANKS
- Images belong to the original developers
of the game, and tombraiderchronicles.com are the ones preserving them
- Tomb Raider Collector for the Tomb Raider
Main Theme video
- Perhaps the biggest special thanks of the
all: Tomb1Main. Otherwise known as Tomb Raider I: Community Edition, Tomb1Main
is an open source implementation project that aims to keep the game’s original
source code, while it also fixes bugs and glitches found in the original. It
also implements controller support and cheats. Click on the Tomb1Main to be
directed to their GitHub page and download the “upgrade”. It comes with a
detailed instruction, so no need to panic or worry about anything. Gets updated
semi regularly, so be sure to check their page once in a while to update your
game and continue your tomb raiding ventures.
Ѓорѓи “GioGio” Илиев
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