![]() In general you can expect things like pixelated walls where it’s difficult to discern what you can interact with and what you can’t keys and collectable objects that blend in to the surfaces they’re placed on and foilage that is some of the earliest 3D gaming has to offer. I was impressed with things like her gun aim following enemies around the screen and stopping aiming with one arm if foes are too far over – clearly effort has been put in to make sure she felt as realistic as possible.Įnvironments are an equally mixed bag. Lara has a wide variety of moves, from vaulting over a block to elegantly diving into a pool, giving the movement of the character a certain flow (although they do become repetitive after the umpteenth time grabbing onto a ledge). With that said, animations are still fairly decent. Lara’s infamous ‘pointy boobs’ are here lions and tigers are clearly reskins of each other and other human characters receive less attention to detail than the main. Models in the game are fairly poor by modern standards – although it’s easy to figure out what each is supposed to be, they’re blocky and fairly ugly to view these days. ![]() All the elements here are basic 3D – from the character models to the FMV cutscenes and things like textures are almost confusing at times as they’re pixelated and it’s difficult to figure out what they represent. Graphically, the game is very much a product of its time. If there’s one thing the game nails, it’s making you feel like a true adventurer. The feeling is amplified by isolation – most of the time Lara is the only living creature around as she unlocks doors and solves puzzles and this emptiness helps define the title’s tone. Lara’s adventures mostly take place in increasingly elaborate ancient ruins that – despite the technical limitations of the time – really convey the feeling of unexplored labyrinths full of treasures. World-building mostly takes place through exploration of the zones you come across and Tomb Raider shines in this regard. I can understand why she became the phenomenon she did in the 90’s. Although she’s definitely presented as a power fantasy superwoman, able to fell scores of wildlife and propel herself up the side of building using elevator cables, her quick-witted quips and cool demeanour make her an inherently likeable character. As an outsider to the franchise it was easy to see her popularity as a result of being the first majorly pushed female lead in gaming and her perceived sex appeal (which was increasingly played up as the games progressed), but there’s actually a lot more to her than that. While Lara is well-placed in pop culture history at this point, it’s incredibly intetesting to see her origins here. What’s most fascinating about the storytelling, however, is the central character. Of course, it is still a sparse story woven between many gameplay segments and by modern standards barely holds up, but it was still better than I expected. There’s a real effort to tell a decent adventure tale with memorable characters and considering the release was relatively early in PS1’s life, it stood out from its contemporaries in this regard. While story is mostly in the background, I have to admit I was fairly impressed with what was on display here.
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