TheEagleXIII wrote:snakeboy wrote:TheEagleXIII wrote:I can see why it was always regarded as the best of the original PS1 series, although at times I felt like it held your hand a little too much.
You call this holding your hand too much??? LOL
I don't know, maybe I've become soft by playing games that auto-save your progress every 30 seconds.
To be fair, I grew up playing 3,4 and 5 which were a lot less linear in their level design. I probably spent more time lost, stuck and wandering around than actually playing the game! So going back to the original where it was a bit more straightforward, and it feeling like the save crystals were 'lighting the way', may have made it feel like it held my hand more.
Maybe that was the wrong expression to use. I usually refer to it fondly as more of a 'My First Tomb Raider Adventure' in comparison to the others
Damn right, 3 & 4 are a lot less linear, 3 in particular is hellishly hard even on PC with unlimited saves, it's borderline unfair in a lot of the adventure, and 4's multilevel... level design is a lot more complex than 1 for sure.
5 though I don't get it, because that one is extremely linear and environments are way more compact than any other TR game. At no point does the level design really branch out that much, except maybe in the submarine levels, but you're still running through corridors.
The only moment where it gets more complex level design is in the VCI Building (last zone of the game), and the last level is so glitched and so poorly designed on PC that you can get softlocked just by the act of saving your game in the wrong place. Heck, it's the only part of any classic Tomb Raider game where you can run out of ammo and being locked into an unwinnable situation.
Augh, sorry. I just finished TR 5 like a month and a half ago, and stuff like this sticks with you. Despite how lazily/poorly designed a lot of the game is, I still think it's the easiest out of the entire classic series, but that last level is a huge headache and trial & error fest.
If I had to rank all classic TR games for personal enjoyment: 2 > 4 > 1 >> 3 >> Angel of Darkness >>>> 5