Tomb Raider 3
PlayStation
When I was a teen in the late 90's, Tomb Raider was a big thing for me. While a lot of the media focus tended to be on Lara Croft's physical appearance, I couldn't have cared less about that. I was all about the 3D environments (which were relatively rare in this age of gaming), action, exploration, and thought provoking puzzle solving that came with the series.
The original Tomb Raider was great. The second game was even better in my mind. I expected the series to grow and continue to get better with Tomb Raider 3. However, I find that it took a slight step back.
The first thing to note is that the controls are exactly the same as the previous titles in the series. Running, walking, swimming, side stepping, jumping, hanging onto ledges, and the lock on style gunplay are all identical to everything we've already seen from Tomb Raider in the past. There are a few additions to what Lara can do in this game, but nothing game changing. For example, you can hold down the right shoulder button while running for a brief burst of speed. Woot.
Lara also can pilot new vehicles. There's a paddleboat, an ATV, a handheld submersible thingamajig. While nothing too spectacular, these do offer a slight diversion from your normal running around style of gameplay.
What this all really amounts to is that as far as controlling Lara, nothing much has changed. This is basically the same game as Tomb Raiders past, only with new environments.
These new environments are pretty cool though. You start in the jungles of India. You've got greenery everywhere, quicksand, ancient temples, rivers full of deadly piranha, and - of course - bad guys out to claim the treasure before you can. Some of the atmospheric effects in this level are cool. I like the occasional rainfall. The coloring in the sky on on the ruins is beautiful. It just all feels really authentic. Pixelated, yes, but fun.
When you finish with India, you can actually select which level you want to play next. Each one is broken into three or four stages. First you've got the South Pacific, which is a cool level. It is the most India-like level in the game, however. Again, lots of clear water and green jungle ruins. This is different from India in the fact that it is more of a primeval setting. Angry villagers, hungry dinosaurs (!). There's even some white water rafting. And the sunset-y colors are pleasing to the eye. I like this level.
You've got London. You travel across rooftops, you explore the city's underground and subway tunnels. You poke through buildings and a museum owned by one of the major villains in the game. I'll admit to not liking London much. It is home to some of the hardest levels in the game, and a lot of your tasks seem to be particularly obscure. Where do I go? What do I do next? asasasasjlaslrtrgfddfg!!!!
And then there is Nevada, which is probably my favorite level in the game. First you explore a desert area, looking to find your way into Area 51. When you do get into Area 51, you lose your weapons and have to sneak around the facility, using the other prisoners to beat up the guards and do your dirty work for you. Eventually you get your guns back, and explore the rest of the facility. If you guessed that an alien spacecraft would pop up in Area 51, you guessed right.
All three of these levels can be played in any order. When you finish them, you are shipped off to the fifth and final level of the game: Antarctica. Expect snow, expect underground caverns. Expect minecarts. Asshole minecarts. Seriously, fuck these things. The whole area has kind of a "the Thing" feel to it, which is cool. Beat this level and all its stages, you beat the game.
I love the classic Tomb Raider gameplay. I love the levels. They are all fun to look at and very cleverly designed. Where the game goes off course for me is in its difficulty level.
The first two Tomb Raider games had some difficult moments, but nothing too overly challenging. Some of the puzzles took a while to solve, but after a little poking and prodding things would become pretty self evident. This game, however, not so much.
First of all, we'll start with the difficulty. Beware of cheap deaths, because they are going to happen. A lot. Running along, not a care in the world: bam. The ceiling collapses on you. The ground drops out from below you. A previously dormant grate blasts fire at you and burns you to a crisp. Fine. This is Tomb Raider. If you've played the other games at all, you should be used to stuff like this happening.
But they seem to happen a lot more than usual here. Throw in the fact that this game has a save system that limits the number of times you can save, and this makes things even more frustrating. Imagine you've been playing a half hour or so since your last save, trying to hold off and not waste a save crystal when - oh crap - something cheap and unexpected happens and kills you. Now you've got to go back and play the whole last half hour of the game over again. And this happens quite a bit in this game. My stats at the end of my playthrough said I had been playing for about 15 or 16 hours. I seriously doubt this. Throw in the number of times and I had to reload from my last checkpoint, and I bet it took me 30 to 40 hours to beat the game. Not that I mind a game that takes a little longer to beat, because I don't. But not when the only reason it takes so long to beat is because the game is screwing me over and over and over again and I keep having to backtrack over old ground. It is ridiculous, and at points I had to simply turn off the game and stop playing I was fuming so badly.
If I had to offer a bit of advice for future players, it would be to not worry about running out of save crystals. I tried to hoard mine and then when the last level came around I had about 15 of them saved. It would have made the game that much easier and enjoyable for me if I had just used them more liberally earlier in the game. Don't worry about running out. Because I was - and then I ended up not having to worry at all.
My other complaint is that the levels - while they may look nice and are otherwise brilliantly designed - often have a lack of direction to them. I usually don't like having to use walkthroughs to help me through a game, but I feel as if it was unavoidable here with Tomb Raider 3. Soooo often would I get stuck with absolutely no freaking idea of what I was going to do next. The levels are so big. Switches and items on the ground are so easy to overlook. I don't have any idea how in the world I managed to beat this game back in '98 or '99 without the help of the internet. I was completely lost at many points in this game, even with internet guides holding my hand every step of the way.
Couple that with the difficulty, the limited saves you get, and all the cheap deaths, and it really really detracts from the fun factor of this game. There are a ton of fun stages, but there are also a ton of stages that are a complete pain in the ass. Like, for example, all of London.
That being said, I do like the game. It holds a sentimental place in my heart, as do the first two titles in the Tomb Raider series. It is the last old school Tomb Raider game I owned. My brother played it, and actually did pretty well in it, which surprised me because he had never shown an interest in the first two games. I also used to bring the instruction booklet of this game to high school and read it at my desk so that other kids would see it and start talking to me about it (yeah I was a pathetic nerd, tell me something I don't know). Somewhere along the line I ended up losing the manual, so you can look directly through the case of my copy of the game and see the disc. I never did find out what happend to it.
It's not my favorite game in the series. In fact, I would rate it below Tomb Raider, TR 2, the 2013 reboot, and the Prince of Persia-esque PS2 versions of the game... well some of them anyway. But even with all its flaws, I still hold a soft spot in my heart for the game. Sure its frustrating. Sure it can be downright rage inducing at points. But it is a really good entry in an iconic series. I can't say it is a classic. I can't say its great. But I can say it is really good.
Overall:
B
No comments:
Post a Comment