When you hear of badass female video game characters, there's usually one that sticks out from the others. There's Alyx Vance, Samus Aran, Bayonetta, Meryl Silverburgh... But then there was this one character who started the 'women can kick butt too' like Samus did, but also revolutionised the entire action-adventure genre. This woman's name was Lara Croft. Gamers and critics were blown away by the open environments, and naturally Lara herself. Having recently acquired the Tomb Raider trilogy on the Playstation, here are my thoughts about the first Tomb Raider game, and how well it holds up.

How pretty is it?
Ooooh, this will take some getting used to. The environments might be varied, but they're anything but clean and crisp. There are often bugs to be found, such as some objects being visible through walls, some corners cutting straight out of their bounds, etc. I'm usually the person who sees past this kind of stuff willing to take it for what it is, I mean this was 1996, games were primitive back then, but the further you go, the more obvious and jarring these graphical issues seem to become. Sometimes, entire walls just disappear leaving with a view of the outside grid. If you're the kind of person who's easily put off by this stuff, this will bother you a lot. You can argue that Lara's body looks ugly because of the low polygon count, but that's easily excusable as it never becomes a problem. They had to work with what they had, plus it fits the environment well. I really like the way Lara moves around. The way she lands from a high jump, takes a swan dive into deep water, and the way she leans into each turn when she's running looks very realistic and lifelike. Kudos to the person who did the physics, it's one of the technical standouts of the game. Add Lara's animation to some cool details such as air bubbles escaping from Lara and actually abiding to the laws of physics when she's underwater and the varied environment to begin with, and the graphics more than makes up for the messy bugs.

Does the sound sound good?
Let's not beat around the bush here - Tomb Raider's sound design is incredible. One of my favourite of the Playstation era, in fact. Most of this game is completely silent. The only thing you hear is Lara's footsteps, and the occasional grunt of animals in her vicinity. This creates a feeling of eeriness, because it really gives you a feeling that you're all alone in unknown territory, and who knows what you might run into. Sometimes, this quietness goes on for like half an hour. But then you reach an important part of the level where you're treated by the game's amazing soundtrack. Really, it has to be heard to be believed. Look up some of it on YouTube, I'll wait... You did? Alright, now imagine hearing that, and walking up to a gigantic Sphinx surrounded by all kinds of climbable indents that leads to who know what you'll find! The feeling of eeriness changes into a sense of wonder and really gives you the urge to explore. It's amazing what good effective sound design can add to a game.

Is it addictive?
The short answer: Yes. The long answer: Take everything I said about the sound design, how much the music enhances the feeling that the game is going for, and how much fun it is to traverse the big, open levels with the way Lara controls and frankly, the challenging and fair puzzles you have to solve makes you keep coming back for more. I'm not very fast at completing a game, certainly not one with levels as big and long as this one, but I beat this in about a week. Which is a pretty big deal for me, a testament to how much fun this game is. It's challenging, but forgiving at the same time, so you never feel as if you NEED to stop playing.

What about the story?
Lara Croft is the daughter to a noble and wealthy family. Her plane crashed in the Himalayas leaving her as the only survivor which changed her life forever. This turned her into the adventurer we know and love. She eventually visits a group who would hire her to obtain a part of a certain treasure, which apparently gives its possessor vast power... Being the first entry in the now well-established Tomb Raider franchise, the plot is quite simplistic, but honestly that's exactly what makes it solid. Looking at this game so late in the franchise really makes you appreciate how simple it is.

How deep is the game? Is there much to it?
Tomb Raider is one of the smartest adventure games I've played in a while. It takes a theme that everyone is into: adventuring. The gameplay is, to this day, really fun. Again, Lara controls like a charm. The levels are huge, and their design take you through the entirety of them in really interesting ways. And for the real adventures out there, there are secrets to find (most of them are actually REALLY hard to find mind you). And it's actually worth it to find these secrets since finding all of them rewards you with a full health refill between levels. The game really makes use of everything the maps have, which is why I love it so much. Enemy variety is good, ranging from packs of wolves to freaky creatures fitting of a survival horror game. Also what I really like is that throughout the game, all the weapons remain usable. Lara's standard pistols are weak but have unlimited ammo, the shotgun is the most powerful weapon in the game but ammo is scarce, the magnums are more powerful than the pistols but depletes ammo and uzis are about as weaker than magnums but fire much faster. Everything as its pros and drawbacks.

Should this game be this hard?
So Tomb Raider has a lot of levels that are big and has environmental puzzles that are complicated to solve. And because the controls are so good (the training level has Lara herself neatly explain them to you) traveling through the levels never really becomes boring or frustrating. So the puzzles are a big factor on why this game is difficult, but it's not only about puzzling. There are times when you have to fight off enemies, and that's where the gameplay suffers a bit. The camera does a decent job of following Lara's movements, but at times where animals run behind you, you need to quickly turn around which becomes really hectic, especially when there's more than one animal ganging up on you. Thankfully the game mainly focuses on exploration and puzzle solving, so the combat doesn't get much more than stressful, which is how it should be.

That is, until the final levels. This is where exploration takes a backseat to action and fighting off (really fast!) monsters, and this is where the game shows that the controls aren't made for this. There will be fighting in every new room, and sometimes there will me several monsters attacking you. They shoot at you, jump at you, swipe at you, and the only thing you can do is shoot back and jump around while adjusting the camera so that you can take aim at them and shoot again. What's annoying is that while the gameplay changes drastically, the environments do not, so instead of moving carefully like the environments demand you to, it often has you jumping around like a maniac, often hoping that you don't accidentally jumping into a spike pit or lava pool. Prepare to be frustrated. However, these are the two final levels and they don't put a dent on the amazing time I had playing this last week.

So... All in all?
Oh my god, do I love this game, and that's while taking the unfair final levels into account. The controls are tight, the sound is amazing, and exploring the levels is really fun. And of course, Lara Croft is such a cool character. It's easy to see why this game received critical and commercial acclaim back in 1996. It's just that good, and definitely survived the test of time. This is a must-have for any adventure game fan.

This review is amazing! Specifically, my favorite part of the review is how you categorized it. I've never seen anyone categorize the sections like this before, so it was a plesant surprise to see a change like this. You can be sure I'll look forward to future reviews by you.