Unlike first 3 Tomb Raider games...

[Homelander]

This game is pure ****.

I'm planning to beat all Tomb Raider games from 1 to Shadow to see what they got, which one is the best... And i'm taking note in every game. Then i'll write a review to all games in Steam. But this game made me reeeeeeeeeal mad to make an early unrecommended review...

TR 1-2-3 was awesome. I never had this much fun in any retro game. But Tomb Raider 4 has killed that retro theme, and didn't innovate anything but few tricks. TR3 released 2 days after Half-Life... That shows how Tomb Raider's mechanics was old even in their time. But i'm not mad to TR 1-2-3 for that, i can understand this, that game is not focusing on gameplay. It's more about puzzles, tombs and map-design. I just gave an example. Unlike this game, TR 1-2-3 was awesome.

TR4 is boring compared to first 3 game. Lara is more ugly and more "object" with her body. And to be fair i don't like his face. They could use the same face with 2 and 3. And they changed Lara's voice, that's a minus point to TR4 too.

Gameplay is faster and map-design is not as good as TR3. And in some maps, looped songs can ♥♥♥♥ your brain and force you to mute musics. I gone crazy at one level and almost deleting the game. Unlike first 3, this game is more "beatable" without 100% walktrough book or youtube guide.

More cinematics made the game better to realize what you're supposed to do. But, man... This game is not good at the end. It's boring for some reason.

I just want to see what you're thinking about this game COMPARED TO first 3. Can be good by itself, (for me, still not playable by itself actually) but not good compared to first 3. If there is anything i missed, that makes this game better than older ones, just write down. I wanna talk about this.

[Flying Ace]

Honestly? TR4 is much, much better than TR1.

TR1 was not that good. I'm not saying it was bad, but it's very repetitive. Most of the levels are basically: pull a lever that opens a door, get a key that unlocks a door, pull another lever that unlocks another door, get another key that unlocks another door and you're done with the level. Throw in a few enemies, secrets and climbing.

Tomb Raider 2. This game is definitely the best out of all Core Design series. It has great level design, it's challenging and the atmosphere is something else. There's no way anyone could say TR4 is better than TR2.

Next, Tomb Raider 3. This is not as good as TR2. The fact you can choose where to go after you finish each location can make things very unbalanced.
If you go to Pacific first, good luck with the raptors.
If you go to London first, have fun picking up all of the harpoons.
If you go to Nevada last, good luck in Antarctica.

Furthermore, the maps are larger than they needed to be. A great example is the Aldwych. And another thing, you get too much ammo. You could just not use the pistols and you wouldn't have any major problems with ammo, unless you'd go Pacific > London > Nevada. I can't really recall other bad things about TR3 right now, other than the fact it was rushed/unfinished (especially near the end), so the ending is pretty anti-climactic and certain areas are pretty empty.

Lastly, Tomb Raider 4. I honestly don't see what's your problem with the map design. I think the maps are made very well and there are more types of puzzles now.

What's also great is that now, the game at some point stops being divided into levels, but rather it's divided into sections that you can go back to. After you finish the Desert Railroad, you can go all the way from Pharos, Temple of Isis, to Alexandria. It's great when entire sections are all part of one big puzzle, like the Karnak, Cairo and Giza levels. Also, while The Lost Library was just one section, I would count that as well.

Next, at first I didn't like the fact there were more types of ammunition. I still don't like the wideshot shotgun ammo, because it's just a worse version of normal shot. The flash grenades, while useful in some cases, just feel gimmicky and not worth it. Same for the poisoned crossbow bolts. However, it was a great idea that wasn't utilized as much as it should have been. Some TRLEs make more use of it and it's great.

What I do like is the use of explosive crossbow bolts and the normal bolts with the laser sight. If you actually explored and found secrets, you got the privilege of using the explosive bolts in combat, while the lazy types had to either use the grenade launcher (if they even found it and had ammo for it), or they had to find another way of dealing with certain enemies like skeletons. I like the fact you can shoot out different types of the skeletons with normal bolts. If you shoot the head, then they just start running around until they fall to their deaths.

The game becomes a bit anti-climactic at the end, I agree. But that was also the case for TR3 and the reason for it was the same as TR3. Now that I think about it, The Dragon's Lair in TR2 was pretty meh too.
The music in Temple of Horus is actually bugged on the PC versions though. The dramatic music that's supposed to be playing during the boss fight is actually played before the boss fight, and the ambient music that's supposed to be playing before the boss fight is played during the boss fight.

Lara's voice and body don't really bother me. It's subjective and not something that should really decide whether you buy the game or not.
Hey. In the end, the game is about exploring and solving puzzles, not the characters or the story, and I'd say all 4 of those games do that well. Some better than others. If I would have to rate them from best to worst, then
Best to worst: 2, 4, 3, 1

[Homelander]

Honestly i aggree with everything you say but level designs in TR4. It's much darker and depressing for older games, not as Tomb Raider 1, but i can't get mad to that game because it's too old. Looking to Tomb Raider 2, it's like 4-5 years between those games.

Tomb Raider 1's level designs were the best for me actually. Cistern and St. Francis' Folley were my favourites. For Tomb Raider 2, Venice and Temple of Xian had great atmospheres. And The River Ganges, Lud's Gate, Thames Wharf, RX-Tech Mines were my favourites at TR3.

For Tomb Raider 2, yeah it's my second favourite game and really good, agreed. But 3 is something different for me. You talked about selecting the places by yourself wasn't really good idea and you're having big problems if you don't pick correct but i actually loved it. I excited at few songs and level designs. Thames wharf, Antarctica, City (but probably you have the same thinking, whatever we say about songs in TR games, the best one is "Venice Violins" so far.)... And Tomb Raider 3's "And So On" was the best song.

My main problem with TR4 is they didn't touch main mechanics but they fasten the game really much. Same engine but felt like it's completely different. The difference is clear when you jumped from 70+ hours with first 3 to 4. And some little tricks but nothing much. At this point they could change it completely or leave it for one more year. Because that's the endgame of 1-4 Tomb Raider. And starting to sound like a broken record, levels are so dark.

I'm still playing. 5 or 6 chapters (i guess) left in Tomb Raider IV. And will continue to my adventure with Chronicles->Angel of Darkness->... But for now, my Best2Worst is 3-2-1-4.

Thank you for leaving time

[Flying Ace]

To be quite honest with you, Venice really isn't a favourite song of mine. It's good, but my favourite ones are:

From TR3:
- No Waiting Around Part I and II
- The Puzzle Element
- Georgie Bob (although I prefer The Cavern Sewers, which is the one with The Grotto ambience)
- Stone The Crows IX
- and Around The Corner I, II, III and IV.

From TRAOD, I would pick The Accused, Parisian Ghetto, The Strahov Fortress and The Protto Nephilim.

TR2 has a good track called The Temple of Xian and I also love The Skidoo and Vertigo.

From TR4 I'd pick Boss 1 (which is presumably the one you were annoyed by).

Also, I absolutely love the ambience music from TR1, 2 and 3. I especially liked the Temple of Xian, Offshore Rig, Cistern and High Security Compound.


Moving on from music, I agree completely that the TR1 Greece levels you mentioned are great. Both St. Francis Folly and Cistern + I would also add Tomb of Tihocan are great. They're still just like the other levels - lever, key, lever, key, ..., the end, but they're very well designed and look fantastic.

Also, yes, Temple of Xian had an amazing ambience. I also would add Offshore Rig and the Barkhang Monastery. Also Madubu Gorge for TR3. That level is beautiful and the gameplay is kind of relaxing to me (well, except the kayaking).

Now, don't get me wrong, I like the fact you can pick where you go in TR3, but it's not good for newer players. I knew which locations to pick first, because ever since I was like 3, I was watching my father play TR3 and TR4, and a year later, I actually got to play those games, but people who know nothing may choose the wrong route and make the game unintentionally challenging for themselves.

And yeah, I get what you mean when you say that TR4 feels very different, even though the engine is the same. I've been playing these games for a long time so I do notice such things. I'd say it's mostly because the UI is different, the soundtrack is now done by Peter Connelly, not Nathan McCree, which results in much different level ambience, and the graphics were redone more dramatically than before.

Anyway, good luck on Chronicles and Angel of Darkness. You'll need it xd. Some parts in those two games are really frustrating.