In recent decades, Aspyr has become known for remastering and porting classic games to make them available to a broader audience, and that’s the task the studio took on withTomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft.Until now, fans of theoriginal threeTomb Raidergames had to patch themto run on modern hardware, sometimes still at low resolutions, and their corresponding expansions were hard to find.Tomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredmay appeal to people who never tried the old-school games, but it also provides an opportunity for those who played the originals to easily relive those experiences almost exactly as they remember.
Some players will be disappointed that theseTomb Raiderremasters didn’t give the games a top-to-bottom facelift like theResident Evilremakes. However, this choice was made intentionally. Aspyr’s goal was to bring the first threeTomb Raidergames to today’s platforms while maintaining their distinctive aesthetic and gameplay. The updated versions, to a lesser extent, do what theCrash BandicootandSpyroremasters did: bring the games’ visuals in line with people’s memories.
TheTomb Raiderremasters, using the same source code and engine as the originals and bringing no significant changes to gameplay, cater to nostalgia rather than modern advances in tech.Director Chris Bashaar of Aspyr statedthat “every jump, secret, enemy, and puzzle [is] exactly as the original development team designed and intended.” However, along with the graphical enhancements, Aspyr added a few minor quality-of-life elements to make playing the games a little more comfortable.
Nicer Graphics and Quality-of Life Improvements
First, there’s the addition of “modern” controls for those who have difficulty wrapping their brains around tank controls. Major enemies now have a health bar, and interactive elements display an exclamation mark when Lara gets close enough. There is also a photo mode inTomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredand over 200 trophies/achievementsto further incentivize exploring every nook and cranny of the labyrinthine tombs.
The games’ graphics are the only area that received any significant overhaul, adding real-time lighting, more realistic shadows, updated textures and water graphics, and slightly tweaked visual effects. There are now shafts of light shining through cracks in the ceiling and snowflakes falling in the mountains of Peru. The formerly flat 2D sprites that always eerily faced the player and were sometimes difficult to even identify have been replaced with fully 3D models. And, of course,Lara herself has a new look— complete with adjustments to her animations — that’s still fully faithful to the original.
Overall, the visual changes inTomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredsuccessfully maintain the retro vibe of the first three games while offering a sharper image with more saturated colors. It’s almost like the games have been brought into focus and run through a brightening filter. These remasters are still not beautiful or impressive by modern standards, but they definitely look better than before and will make the games more palatable to today’s players, serving as a sort of intermediate graphical step toTomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary,andUnderworld.
One thing players, old and new, might struggle with is the fact that theOGTomb Raidergames are more frustrating and difficultthan many people remember. In an era when being skilled atDark SoulsorSekirois a badge of honor, it’s easy to forget that a lot of games used to be similarly challenging, though not necessarily intentionally. There was little handholding, controls were clunky, cameras were uncooperative, AI was nonsensical, and level design and player behaviors hadn’t yet been analyzed down to a science.
For better or worse, those hiccups stubbornly persist in theseTomb Raiderremasters. Shootouts with human enemies still entail simply standing there plugging away, healing instantly when necessary, until enough bullets have been fired. Pierre DuPont remains inexplicably invincible while running aimlessly in circles, Lara’s guns stay locked onto dead foes as she gets attacked by something else, and enemies still mysteriously spawn in empty rooms when some unrelated action is performed.
If somebody already didn’t like the games for their gameplay or combat, a few might be won over, but most people probably still won’t enjoy them. There hasn’t been much adjusting, and if anything, the flaws stand out even more in comparison to modern games. There will still be raging, swearing, and controllers being tossed down in exasperation.
The Camera Is Not Your Friend
Another frustration that many console players will quickly encounter is the save system. InTomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, gamers must save manually by selecting Lara’s passport in the menu, but this is never pointed out. The original games on PC had this feature, and so it might seem obvious to people enjoying the remasters on that platform. But OG console players relied on save crystals, which are now missing, and so a lot of people may assume this means the games autosave, only to realize their mistake the hard way after the first death and lost progress.
A frequent issue in the remasters is the camera, which is just as unruly as ever. It repositions itself at inopportune moments, zooms in or out seemingly at random, and is regularly just a potentially deadly nuisance. These camera issues carry over to the new modern controls and, in some ways, just make things worse. With modern controls, Lara’s movements are tied to the camera, which constantly gets caught on things or flips at unexpected times. And if the camera’s not directly behind Lara when she jumps, she will launch herself diagonally… often to her death. Especially in the beginning, the misbehaving camera will regularly result in missed jumps, falls, and getting mauled by a lion. Even more than the infamous T-Rex, the camera in the remasters will be one of players’ biggest enemies, second only to the controls.
Modern Controls Won’t Solve Everything
Aspyr made some odd choices for themodern controls inTomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, such as splitting the action button in two. Instead of just being on Triangle, vaulting and grabbing ledges have been tied to R2, the shoot button. So even though Lara says to use the “action” button in the tutorial, sometimes she actually means the “shoot” button, and of course, this is left to players to figure out. And gamers will still have to become accustomed to pushing the jump button first and then quickly hitting a direction to make Lara jump forward. That is definitely not modern.
The biggest oversight with the modern controls is that there is no tap backward, except when Lara has her guns drawn. Instead, tapping down will just cause Lara to turn and face in that direction. This is a major hindrance when trying to do a running jump — which is needed extremely often inTomb Raider— and will cause players to waste a lot of time trying to position Lara at the back of a ledge to prep for a big jump. Gamers who prefer the modern controls will instead have to do a ledge drop and then climb back up to get Lara into the right location — an unnecessarily tedious process. In many ways, rather than grapple with the modern controls, it might just be easier to try to master tank controls.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredis for a niche audience that includes fans of the original releases and people who understand that this will still be a janky, sometimes frustrating experience. The firstTomb Raidergames are notoriously unforgiving, slow paced and, in many ways, have a face only a mother could love. Even with a little spit and polish, these are still fundamentally the same old games and might be a challenge for newcomers to accept. Gamers who tend to get fed up with unreasonable deaths or failing multiple times due to controls, camera, or outright nonsense might be better served checking outTomb Raider: Anniversaryand the other games in theLegendtrilogy.
This release really needs two separate review scores: one for people who’ve never played the originals and one for players who will frolic through the levels with experience and rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. Fans of theoriginalTomb Raidergames will probably be thrilled with these remasters. For non-veterans, though, it will be an arduous journey, and the new textures, lighting, and “modern” controls won’t make much difference. It will be hard to judge these titles through the lens of ’90s tech and game design rather than 2024’s, and new players might have a tougher time overlooking issues that veteran players embrace as quirks or don’t see at all. However, it seems safe to assume that most people picking upTomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredalready appreciate the originals, and so this score is aimed more at them. Newcomers, approach with caution.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft
WHERE TO PLAY
Discover Lara Croft’s Original Adventures, Lovingly RestoredPlay the Original Three Tomb Raider Adventures: For the first time ever, play the complete experience with all expansions and secret levels on modern platforms in this definitive collection.Included Game TitlesTomb Raider I + Unfinished BusinessTomb Raider II + Golden MaskTomb Raider III + The Lost ArtifactSolve Ancient Mysteries: Uncover treasures of the ancient world by solving puzzles and unraveling mysteries lost to the ravages of time.Globe-trotting Adventure: Follow Lara Croft around the world and face off against deadly foes and dangerous myths.Lovingly Restored: Experience the classics boasting upgraded graphics, with the option to switch to the original polygon look at any time.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remasteredis available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for this review.
