Tomb Raider I-III Remastered features the original Tomb Raider trilogy along with the stand-alone Gold versions of the game that were originally released on PC. The Gold versions of the games are Tomb Raider Unfinished Business, Tomb Raider II Golden Mask, and Tomb Raider III The Lost Artifact.
The first Tomb Raider doesn’t feature much of a story in fact none of them have as much of a story to them as most modern titles do. The second Tomb Raider tells the story of Laura Croft in search of the Dagger of Xian and facing a cult that is obsessed with the dagger. The third game in the Tomb Raider series tells the story of Laura Croft in search of various artifacts and running into opposition when it comes to obtaining them. Each artifact has someone after it and Laura has to stop them from obtaining it.
The original Tomb Raider trilogy focuses heavily on exploration with some light puzzle elements in the form of environmental puzzles. Each level of the game is a large environment that is sectioned off by doors that make it more manageable rather than feeling overwhelming. To open these sections and move on, you will either need to solve an environmental puzzle or defeat a number of enemies.
Enemies in the first game are mostly animals like wolves, bears, bats, and big cats. The second and third game consists of these enemy types but also add people and mythological enemies like wyverns along with dinosaurs.
Speaking of enemies, the AI isn’t all that great by today’s standards. They don’t hunt you, they don’t strategize, and will either run around making them harder to hit if they are animals or if they are other people, they will either run up and use hand-to-hand combat or stand there and shoot you with a gun until you are able to take them out.
The Gold versions included in this collection serve as stand-alone expansions that offer new locations in each game to explore with more of the same gameplay as the original games in the series. These don’t offer much in the way of story but are all fun to play and experience.
There are two quality-of-life improvements that this trilogy offers over the original that purists may not agree with, but I find to be welcome additions to this collection. The first is the option to switch between modern and original methods of controlling Laura. The original games have tank controls like those found in the first three Resident Evil games. Modern control of Laura gives you free range of movement in any direction which feels more in line with later games in the series. Tank controls can feel dated and some may find them hard to use when controlling Laura. Modern controls feel like they fit the aesthetic of the game with the modern look and feel the game offers.
I appreciate the offer of both control schemes. I originally tried playing the game from a purist standpoint but quickly went to using the modern control scheme. Though I feel that the modern controls fit the game better by today’s standards, I am glad that both methods of control are available.
The second improvement this trilogy offers over the original is the addition of health bars on bosses. It is a welcome sight to see a health bar ticking down as you’re working on taking out a large and formidable boss instead of running around in a panic and trying to just survive.
The remastered trilogy doesn’t offer state-of-the-art graphics but still manages to be impressive. The original trilogy of games came out in the 90s and can be graphically compared to the original Playstation and the Sega Saturn. This is fitting as all three were released on the original Playstation and PC; with the first game also releasing on the Sega Saturn. Low poly models and textures with fog due to the limitations of the systems of the time.
You can go from the original graphics to the remastered graphics by the push of a button. The remastered graphics are where this trilogy really shines and you can see that every aspect of the games was overhauled. Let’s look at the first stage of the original game as an example. You start out in a cave system. The walls of the cave have a realistic look to them, with them being rounded and smooth with nice looking textures as opposed to being jagged with blurry textures. But the graphical overhaul doesn’t stop there. In areas where there is snow or rain, you will have areas where you can see snow and rain falling from the sky in a very realistic way. This gives depths to these areas that were never possible in the original trilogy. Lighting also plays a huge factor in the game from a graphical standpoint.
Fog in the game is replaced by a lighting system that feels natural. You have rays of sunshine coming through treetops and other areas with real-time shadows, as well as sunlight reflecting off of metallic and other shiny surfaces. Light falls off realistically giving you areas of shadows that are in some cases pitch black but again realistically so, and not trying to mask limitations of the game.
In addition to the environmental overhaul, the in-game models also got a makeover. Laura looks more like she does in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation three titles of Underworld and Anniversary. Though she’s more like in the middle of those and the original games, to fit the aesthetic of the series’ original trilogy. Human models look similar to Laura from a base standpoint with the animals being more realistic.
For instance, bats are realistically proportioned and have a realistic look to them as opposed to being rather small and blurry pixels flying around and attacking you. Animals like wolves and bears are again proportioned accurately and look more like the animals they are modelled after.
With the original trilogy, there isn’t much in the way of sounds. You have the environmental sounds of the animals, running water, the sound of gunfire, sounds of explosives being detonated, and the occasional rock(s) falling, along with grunts and sounds coming from Laura letting you know she’s putting everything she has into the task put in front of her. But that’s pretty much it aside from the minimalistic background music. What I mean by this is that there is background music in the game but that quickly fades and you’re left in silence. It will come back when highlighting important scenes or sections of intense enemy encounters and that’s all.
In my opinion, this was done as a way to give the game a sense of realism and try to really put you there with Laura on her adventures along with it being again a limitation of the hardware of the time. The game really worked to push the limitations of PCs and the game platforms it was released for. I mean, if you were really in a cave with wolves, bears, and bats, would you really want to have your favorite tape or CD blaring in your ears? I enjoy music a lot but would much rather be able to hear the potential threat a bear or pack of wolves would pose if I were venturing into their natural habitat. On the flip side, I would have liked to have seen there be an option to have the music be present even if muffled in the game instead of completely absent.
The Tomb Raider Remastered trilogy really is the definitive way to play this series. It offers a lot of content, a complete graphical overhaul, offers some quality-of-life improvements, and works to cater to both the modern gamer and purists who want an authentic original experience. I would definitely recommend checking out this awesome remastered trilogy of games.
Jon’s thoughts:
I played the Switch version for comparison and was pleasantly surprised with how well the collection ran on the system. I have good memories of playing the originals and what I played here was a brilliant retro collection that not only gives the option of the games as they were, but also versions with a new coat of paint and changes to improve the experience. I have to admit that after playing with the new controls, I cannot go back to the older controls. This is the definitive version of the games and a must-play collection not just for longtime fans wanting to come back, but also for new players wanting to see where the series started in a way that is easily accessible.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
