Tomb Raider

2026-02-09

I started playing "Tomb Raider" remaster. I'm not sure it'll be something I play a lot soon, but I wanted to see it. Visually, it improved a lot, which we can check any time by switching between the original look and the remastered one, a feature that is often present in remasters. The old view is much brighter, so I'm sort of cheating with it by checking if I didn't miss any place to go to. It also allows using modern controls (the 90s called and asked for their tank controls).

The fights are tough. I still haven't figured out if the modern controls don't allow to make a back jump, or is it just me, but in any case, it makes shooting difficult because apparently, Lara cannot shoot an animal which is in her face; she needs her distance, and I understand that, but still, it's tough because I cannot make a quick escape. Might be a skill issue, though.

Another interesting thing of my first play was that, as I was switching between views, my daughter was asking about stuff that was obvious for me, but not for her. For instance, she noticed that the cut scenes are not how the game looks like; cut scenes on the game engine didn't arrive until, like, perhaps even "Quake 2" years. Another thing was, why the game geometry was so crude, with simple polygons. We came a long way since 1996.

One thing I noticed and need to remark upon, is that remastered Lara Croft has her braid in the first game, while in reality, the devs were not able to achieve that until "Tomb Raider 2," and it was kind of a big deal back then; at the same level as her larger breasts.