Forums > Game Forums > Tomb Raider II > What is the best Tomb Raider?
Unicorn Lynx (181775) on 9/5/2011 8:38 AM · Permalink · Report
Yup... I'm a guy who has never played a Tomb Raider game beyond one hour I spent with the original. So, which of them is the best?
I liked the screenshots from this one, but that doesn't mean anything, I just had to choose one of them to post this question.
When I say "best" I mean "most enjoyable" and "the one that you should play if it were your only TR game", not "most influential" or "most innovative".
Thanks in advance!
vedder (70856) on 9/5/2011 9:47 AM · Permalink · Report
The first one is great, the second is more of the same (with vehicle segments) but still great.
The third, fourth and fifth are just more "expansion packs" which add nothing new whatsoever. Angel of Darkness was just horrible.
The Crystal Dynamics games were supposedly good, if the reviews are to be believed. I tried one (anniversary I think) and thought it was quite poor, actually. It was a big step up from Angel of Darkness, but the platforming gameplay is lightyears behind the Prince of Persias, Assassin's Creed and Mirror's Edge. I thought it to be quite shameful actually, for the Queen of platforming games to be left behind like that by her competitors.
If you play one of the first two games, make sure you play the PC version and have a Glide emulator running to take advantage of the 3D acceleration. PC version also has manual saving instead of save points.
The biggest gripe I had with playing Tomb Raider I recently was the poor camera system. A big issue for pretty much all 3D third person games of that era. And the controls are very attuned to a grid (similar to Flashback, Abe's en the original Prince of Persia), which can feel restrictive after having been spoiled by three Assassin's Creed games.
Unicorn Lynx (181775) on 9/5/2011 11:48 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks! So if I have a choice between 1 and 2, which one do you think I should try? The vehicle thing actually sounds pretty interesting, so maybe the second?..
vedder (70856) on 9/5/2011 4:26 PM · Permalink · Report
It's been a really long time since I played Tomb Raider II. I think there was a part with a snowmobile and with a motorboat. If you like that play Tomb Raider II
If you want to kill dinosaurs play Tomb Raider I.
It's hard judge because it was so long ago, but I think Tomb Raider II had more in-game cutscenes to articulate the underlying storyline. And the story just generally made more sense. It was very "Indiana Jones"-like, while Tomb Raider I was more "Indiania Jones on crack", its story was just ridiculous.
They're both worth your while, but you'd probably wouldn't want to play them both in a row, but space them out a little. If you just plan to play one I'd go for part 2.
Slug Camargo (583) on 9/5/2011 11:54 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
If you absolutely have to choose JUST ONE, I'd go with the first one. The story shoots out into crazyland halfway through, yes; but I found it much more, I don't know, charming than the second one, somehow.
I was actually rather bored with 2, in fact: Whereas 1 was one of the first (if not the first) attempts at full-fledged cinematic storytelling in gaming, 2 was way too lonely and nothing interesting really happened, ever; and I don't even remember if there were any other characters in it at all. The entire game was pretty much about escaping one gigantic Chinese trap. It was the more "realistic" game, if you will, but then I f'ing hate "realism" in games, so there's that.
I did like the 4th one though, I think it's got the best overall story of the first era.
The new ones (Legend, Anniversary and Underworld) are fairly entertaining to play, beautiful to look at, and they do a much better job at storytelling than any of the old ones (better characterization, more believable historical name-dropping, a more solid and interesting overarching plot), but it is true that much of the challenge and in fact some of the general charm has been lost somewhere. But I still like them quite a bit. If nothing else, they make a nice attempt at joining together several legends from different cultures by pointing at actual (for the most part), authentically curious similarities, and that's the kind of thing I always find fun to read about.
Hell, if you can enjoy that random Biblical name-dropping that the Japanese are so prone to, you should enjoy this a lot more =P
Then again, I am something of a Lara Croft fanboi so you might want a second (or third) opinion.
GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) on 9/6/2011 12:31 AM · Permalink · Report
Damn! How did I miss this discussion? Well my two cents are as follows.
The first one is still the best on in my opinion. The second was good as well, though I didn't care for the driving portions, and it's a bit on the hard side. I never made it all the way through three, but it's more or less the same as the second, only a million times harder. Last Revelation is pure awesome, but there was quite a bit of backtracking. Chronicles is the shortest of the original Core games, but I never finished it either.
I still haven't played AoD, but I think I can safely say you can skip it. Legend was great, but it felt kinda linear, and a bit easy compared to earlier games. Anniversary was ok, but was rather undramatic when compared to the original. And I got the PS3 version of Underworld, and the camera is absolute crap. And the controls are really touchy. But that might just be the PS3 version though.
I've only played two of the GBC\GBA games, but they're pretty good for what they are. If you want more TR1 goodness, I suggest getting TR Gold. It has four long extra levels that are just as good and sometimes better than the original game! (Especially the Atlantis levels.)
Anyway, my two cents.
Lain Crowley (6629) on 9/10/2011 7:37 PM · Permalink · Report
The best first TR is probably either TR1, TR4, or TRA. TR1 still has more exploration than its TRA remake, but TRA kind of has a Valve game feeling because the team has the advantage of know what worked and what didn't for the first game. TR The Last Revelation is probably the best example of CORE's design philosophy. It also has almost no modern levels, which have never had a place in TR games.
If you want to pick up more TR games after that I'd suggest Chronicles (I liked most of these levels, but stop when you reach the office tower) and Legends (more boring than anniversary. too much of the game is tutorial). It's a shame that CD never integrated found weapons into their TR games because that was the best part of Soul Reaver 1. Maybe that's coming in Tomb Raider 9.
St. Martyne (3648) on 10/1/2011 7:55 PM · Permalink · Report
Definitely - the second one. Great atmospheric level design. Also be sure to try the fourth one for the story, puzzles and great cutscenes. Don't touch the third one, Chronicles and Angel of Darkness.
Legend, Anniversary and Underworld are different games entirely. Though I really think Anniversary supersedes the original in a very effective manner.