If modern games are sports cars – flashy, fast, expensive and noisy – the original Tomb Raider is a shopping trolley: clunky, slow and not much to look at. Cumbersome to operate, especially if you’re used to automatic gears and sat nav. Quiet, apart from the odd squeaky wheel. Absolutely brilliant at doing what it was designed to do. And yours for a quid.
Well, £24.99, which is the asking price for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. This offering includes Lara Croft’s first three adventures from 1996-98, plus the expansion packs. Each game has had a graphical overhaul, amounting to a fresh coat of paint rather than a full replastering. Lara’s world still has a flat, polygonal look, full of sharp edges, origami enemies and Toblerone boobs.
But the lighting is more naturalistic, the water effects have been vastly improved, and the new high-resolution textures add an impressive amount of detail. The vegetation looks more real, and the surfaces are much smoother. You can see the cracks in the grain of the Venetian palazzo’s marble walls, so it no longer looks like it was built out of Ceefax. These visuals would have been mindblowing when Tomb Raider was first released, in 1996, but they don’t match the standards of contemporary games. The remasters fall into an uncanny valley between the two; I’d locate it somewhere around 2005. But these graphics are a good fit for the dated gameplay, and a definite improvement on the originals, which are so blocky and ugly they would shatter the lenses of any rose-tinted glasses.
However, some of the series’ more memorable moments have been diluted. The iconic T-rex reveal in the first game was so terrifying because the dinosaur loomed suddenly into view out of the endless pitch black night. This was due to technical limitations, rather than artistic choice – it wasn’t possible to draw in the sky and background detail. Now the confrontation takes place on a rainy afternoon, and the edges of the battlefield are visible. As a result, the scene is still tense, but it’s not as frightening. Just like with Jaws, it’s scarier when you can’t see the monster.
The good news for purists is that you can switch between the original and upgraded graphics at any time, with the press of a button. You can also choose to play the entire game using the original tank controls, or use the new system that lets Lara run about like a modern action hero. This makes for more fluidity in her movements, and fewer frustrating moments where the camera fails to keep up. But it’s at the cost of precision when navigating the grid-based environments – essential for completing the trickier platforming sections. The solution is to keep switching between the two control systems, via the pause menu, which is clunky. It’s a shame this can’t also be toggled with a single button press.
There is no option to switch off the problematic content that features in some of the original games, such as the racist depictions of South American natives as dancing cannibals. Instead, the remaster carries a warning about these “deeply harmful, inexcusable” stereotypes. The content remains unaltered, “in the hopes that we may acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it”. This seems like a reasonable argument. The more recent Tomb Raider games have tried to move away from racial stereotyping, and addressed issues around colonialism and the stealing of cultural artefacts. The problematic scenes in the remaster are a reminder of why this is important.
There’s no doubt that the games in this collection feel dated. They don’t live up to the Uncharteds and Assassin’s Creeds of today when it comes to glossy graphics, intuitive controls and fast-paced action. But they do possess something that so many modern games lack – confidence.
The original Tomb Raiders do not hold your hand. The environments are not graffitied with great daubs of Tipp-Ex, highlighting where you need to go next. They are not stuffed with random items to collect, or boring letters to read. You do not need to craft your own weapons, or upgrade your armour, or choose which amulet to install on your magic necklace to slightly enhance the impact of mid-air kicks during melee combat.
You cannot climb everything you see. You cannot traverse entire cliff faces just by holding the thumb stick up and pressing the X button. Navigation requires precision, and this means you will die – a lot. There is no banging soundtrack; in fact, there’s barely a soundtrack at all. No annoying sidekicks chirping in your ear, no map, no hints. You are on your own.
This is what makes Tomb Raider great. It’s a game that trusts the player. It knows you will keep going, even through the frustrating, tricky sections, because the satisfaction of accomplishment is enough. There is no need for constant gratification, no promise of a big prize at the end, such as a big shiny sword or a lengthy cutscene. A sweeping new vista and a few bars of sublimely beautiful strings are enough. This is a game for grown-ups.
So Tomb Raider Remastered isn’t really a shopping trolley. It’s a classic car, one that’s been well looked after and polished to a decent shine. Yes, the handbrake is sticky, the CD player is broken and there are cracks in the butterscotch leather seats. But taking it for a spin is still a joy. They don’t make them like this any more.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is out now
