Nostalgia Sunday: Tomb Raider

Yep, I still have the original CD!

Tomb Raider

When my father returned from a business trip to the Netherlands, he had a surprise for us. This game. It was a great surprise, because who would have known, we would have played this game for so long. Unfortunatly, my brother did overwrite a savegame at a point, where Lara is falling down and then dying, giving us no chance to continue. That pretty much killed it, though I think we saw the ending by using cheats.
The Story:

 

The story of the game is really complex, so I'll try to tell it as easy as possible.

After an eartquake and an explosion in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, an ancient device gets exposed, which, after being unlocked, reveals a person in suspended animation. This was the past and Lara, now in the present, gets the mission, to travel into the mountains of Peru to Qualopec, to find a mysterious artifact called Scion. After getting it she gets attacked by a man named Larson, which, after he's been beaten by Lara, tells her, that the artifact she has, is only one part of three. Lara now sets out into different areas in the world, to find the two other parts of the Scion and trys to stop the bad guys from getting it first. Sounds a little short and dumbed down, I know. Look the story up on Wikipedia, if you want a more detailed one. Check out the intro of the game below, if you like.

 

The Game:

The first time I shit my pants in a video game

Tomb Raider was one of the first 3D platformers, meaning you would have to overcome obstacles, by jumping from ledge to ledge and climbing along walls. While exploring different caves and areas, there are also enemies, which must be killed through the use of weapons, though that isn't the main focus of the game. You rather have to, like said above, get onto platforms and reach a certain object, being mostly an artifact. To get to them, you also have to solve puzzles, which makes those two the main parts of the game.

Prequels and Sequels:

Well, who do I have to tell, that there were many, many sequels to the original Tomb Raider. Guess what? I never played any of those, except a demo for Tomb Raider 2, if I remember correctly. From what I hear, the games got worse over time. In 2007, Eidos released a remake of the first Tomb Raider game, for the 10th anniversary of Lara Croft called "Tomb Raider Anniversary". I haven't got around to buying and playing it, mostly because I'm not really interested in those kind of games anymore. But what I'm looking forward to is the new Tomb Raider game, which should be a reboot to the series. We don't know much yet, but it takes a different approach, than the earlier games, making Lara younger and more vulnerable. It will be released 2012, if nothing goes wrong.

I haven't played this game for a good 10 years. Might aswell try it out again and see, if it holds up to today. It's an interesting and fun game after all.