Tomb Raider (1996) for PlayStation 1- The Clunky Adventures of Lara Croft

The Uncharted movie (2022) starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg is out soon and what better way to mark the archaeological action adventure than rewind back to the series that inspired it, Tomb Raider. (1996)

The game's boxart

Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game about Lara Croft, a highly skilled and intelligent explorer/archaeologist from England. You play as her as you navigate ancient caves, lost cities, temples and yes, raid tombs. What starts out as a simple expedition job becomes a race and battle against conspirators, trying to find 'The Scion' an artefact with strange properties and powers.

It's a simple plot that does the job, and allows the story to visit some interesting locations, as The Scion is broken into more than one piece, so Lara has to travel from place to place to find and restore it on her mission. It's very 'Indiana Jones' and feels like a fun, globetrotting adventure as you'd expect, and it's not afraid to push the boundaries in terms of imagination, especially the last stages of the game and where they're set and what you find there.

Lara obtaining a piece of Scion

So, the story is fine, as I said it does the job, but the main point of the game is the exploration, you are an archaeologist at the end of the day. Levels comprise of a mixture between platforming, puzzles, and combat.

Platforming is part of the game I hated initially, as there's a pretty sharp learning curve. Jumps come in a variety of forms from vertical jumps for reaching high spaces, dives for crossing large distances, backflips and side flips, mainly used for evasion and that's about it. Mastering these jumps will determine how far you progress through the game, and I feel it's both a strength and a weakness to the game feel and design. The PlayStation 1 controller didn't initially have two control sticks which means a lot of PS1 games used the four direction buttons for controls. Tomb Raider is guilty of this as Lara has tank controls, which means you can move forwards and backwards, and the left and right direction buttons rotate her to face the right way. This makes platforming extremely precise, sometimes to its detriment, missing a jump from a great height either means instant death or having to get back to where you were. However, having to plan out your jumps, get the right position, make the leap and only just make it to the other side adds to the immersion of being a tomb raider, so it's really a matter of perspective. I will say though that casual players will likely struggle to get to grips with the controls but if you persevere, mastering them feels very rewarding.

Example of a platforming segment

Puzzles are pretty straightforward, but a core part of the game. Most of them revolve around opening doorways to the rest of the level or secret areas. Finding keys for a door, jumping across platforms under a time limit, shifting blocks and pulling levers are about as far as the game goes with the idea. I don't think this is a bad thing though, some of the puzzles do give you a good challenge and they're themed around the game pretty well. If you're a fan of the 'Indiana Jones' movies you'll get a kick out of some of the traps you'll have to avoid.

Moving blocks to uncover passages are an example of some of the puzzles

Combat can be pretty fun, Lara has two pistols to start off with but they're are more weapons to find hidden in some of the levels. She'll automatically lock on to enemies for you if you're facing them so the challenge is unloading bullets while avoiding whatever is after you. Enemies are surprisingly varied as well. Most of the ones you'll find are animals like wolves in the first level but there's a few surprises that you might not expect to see. The difficulty of the enemies themselves mainly boil down to some taking more shots than others or being faster, hitting harder etc, overall though they're not difficult if you play smart and avoid corners.

Example of what combat usually looks like

These three gameplay elements blend really well together, and running around the levels and progressing while also searching for 'secrets' is a lot of fun and something players can take at their own pace. Personally I didn't go out of my way to find all the secrets in each level, I just sort of stumbled across them thinking I was going the right way, but finding them typically rewards you with goodies like health packs or a weapon or something, so they're worth taking a look at.

Overall, the original Tomb Raider is good, it hasn't aged the best like most old 3D titles, and the cumbersome controls and lack of control stick support can lead to some challenging and frustrating scenarios, but ultimately it's worth revisiting or trying. If you're thinking of giving it a go, I'd recommend the Tomb Raider: Anniversary version of the game available for PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii and the PSP.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary Boxart

It features updated graphics as well as more modern feeling controls, or if you're a purist, playing it on the original PS1 is what you'd want if you have one lying around (or PS2 if you have the right controller and memory card)

I enjoyed my time with Tomb Raider, and the best part is there's plenty of sequels which I'll probably get round to eventually, in the meantime though, I'm off to see the Uncharted movie!