Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft review by Tyson
Overall
Rent
Tomb Raider 1 and 2 have been a hot property on the PlayStation so its a no brainder to have a third game. While I really enjoyed the previous games I am not finding myself having as much fun with Tomb Raider 3. While I did enjoy exploring the world I also kept finding myself having issues with various gameplay decisions.
Gameplay
Lara Croft is back to explore the world and collect various artifacts. The story in Tomb Raider 3 centers around a meteorite that crashed into the earth millions of years ago. At one point the meteorite was found and several pieces were sent around the world. These pieces have been said to grant untold power to the people that have them. Lara Croft is one such person looking for these pieces but as in the other Tomb Raider games other people are after these artifacts as well. I found the story to work well and I liked how at certian points in the game you could choose what levels you wanted to play.
The exploration gameplay structure hasn’t changed from the previous two games. Lara is still out to explore and collect treasure. As you explore the world you will need to solve puzzles by doing things like moving objects, using items at various objects, or the classic switch pulling mechanic. Lara thankfully does get a few new moves in this adventure which is tied into the design of the levels. Lara can now sprint, crawl, and monkey swing on certian ceiling surfaces. These new abilites are fun to use but the monkey swing can be a bit of a pain to use since the graphics don’t always make things stand out as they should. The one aspect that I really did like about the level design is that a few of the games levels have branching paths that you can take. I wished that this was used more often though. The vehicle system from Tomb Raider 2 also makes a return and overall it isn’t to bad in this game. Some levels will have you using vehicles like a four wheeler, a rubber raft, or riding in mine carts.
What really hurt the level design for me was the games save system. Tomb Raider 3 has rebuilt the save system yet again and I just hated it. While you can save anywhere you must now use a limited save crystal to do so. I found save crystals to not be well distributed throughout the levels. Some levels seemed to have lots of save crystals while others only had a few. I noticed that many of the save crystals were hidden in the secret areas. So if you dont fully explore an area then you are screwed. At one point in the game I had run out a save crystals which made playing through the game a real pain. Saving too much causes you run out of save crystals which screws you over but if you save less often then you will have to redo 20+ minutes of gameplay over and over again due to how easy Lara can die.
I found the combat in the game to be a bit disappointing as well. While I enjoyed that the combat was toned down compared to Tomb Raider 2 but I was disappointed with the new poison system. Some enemies can poison Lara which will kill her if you don’t use a health pack. I did not like this since it can be hard to see some of these enemies like snakes hidden in the grass and forcing me to use a health pack is just stupid. Thankfully I found the weapons to be a lot of fun to use. Taking down enemies with a desert eagle or a rocket launcher was a lot of fun. Still after 3 games I just want combat to be more then just shoot at an enemy while jumping around like a sugar infused child.
Control
At this point in the Tomb Raider games you are either going to like or hate the control setup. I am still enjoying how the game controls though. You can even use the analog sticks to move Lara around but I still prefer to use the D-Pad. Lara still moves in a grid like setup and I found this helpful in learning the games limitations.
Graphics
Tomb Raider 3 is another graphical evolution in the series anda great game to show off the PlayStations graphical capabilites. The enivornments look great and have lots of little detail to them. I liked how Lara looks fantastic and animates well. I even liked how other human enemies looked. The only real complaint I have is that some areas of the game are way to dark and force you to use a limited flare item.
Sound
The audio aspects of the game are still as good the previous ones. Lara’s voice actress does a great job and I liked how music would kick in at different moments thoughout the game. I also liked how the guns have new sound effects and they sounded much more powerful then before.