Finished TR1

[Scott-O]

Finally finished remastered TR1. I'm think this is the first full play through I've done of the game in probably 15 years. Here are my observations:

1. Graphics and Sound - The update was worth it - Lara, the background, etc. all looked very modern from the face lift, with a couple of exceptions - parts of the Egypt sand were really cruddy, but that's a minor complaint. The audio was fantastic. The original video bridges between acts should have been tacked on as file that could be looked at and then have a redone version in the game. Those old cut scenes look terrible.

My biggest gripe in this heading is that the graphics needed some modern lighting effects to gently highlight areas of interest. Instead, anything in a corridor or room was the same, which may be realistic, but not for a game. I hit F1 quite a bit to see the 'brighter' old graphics to be sure I wasn't missing anything.

2. Playability - Tank controls were the only way to go. If there is anything that the patch could do from my perspective, it would be to improve the modern controls (and that lighting). The needed precision for jumps, having Lara run off an edge because she didn't stop exactly when I would have liked her to, could be better. Still, this is not a big deal. And my reflexes ain't what they used to be. The game played weigh better than my first time in 1997 on a laptop with a joystick.

3, Levels & Difficulty - The levels are still amazing, by and large. The combat is fine, no where near as subtle as some more modern games, but that's ok - combat was never what this game was about for me. I needed walkthrough help just to get all the secrets. There are some really great secrets (Uzi's in the sky) that no one could ever forget after playing through once, but a handful of others were just plain miserable. Again, not a big complaint.

Overall, I enjoyed it and will hit Unfinished Business next before TR II. Hope you are enjoying it as well.

[DogMeat]

Hope you enjoy the remaster of Shadow of the Cat! Love what they did with Egypt at night.

[Geo]

I enjoyed tr1 but my one gripe was in the mines picking up the shotgun gave me only 2 shells which were not enough for the kill the bald guy with shotgun achievement, I am guessing the ammo in the shotgun is what would have been in the weapon before it was stolen ?

[DogMeat]

Originally posted by Geo:

I enjoyed tr1 but my one gripe was in the mines picking up the shotgun gave me only 2 shells which were not enough for the kill the bald guy with shotgun achievement, I am guessing the ammo in the shotgun is what would have been in the weapon before it was stolen ?

Any more shotgun shells from secrets? If not maybe you need to weaken him with other weapons and finish with a shotgun blast?

[Kenichip]

Originally posted by Geo:

I enjoyed tr1 but my one gripe was in the mines picking up the shotgun gave me only 2 shells which were not enough for the kill the bald guy with shotgun achievement, I am guessing the ammo in the shotgun is what would have been in the weapon before it was stolen ?

This means you were using Shotgun too often prior to Atlantis levels, keep at least 10 shots.

[Geo]

Originally posted by Kenichip:

Originally posted by Geo:

I enjoyed tr1 but my one gripe was in the mines picking up the shotgun gave me only 2 shells which were not enough for the kill the bald guy with shotgun achievement, I am guessing the ammo in the shotgun is what would have been in the weapon before it was stolen ?

This means you were using Shotgun too often prior to Atlantis levels, keep at least 10 shots.

yeh didn't realise this, know for next time

Originally posted by DogMeat:

Originally posted by Geo:

I enjoyed tr1 but my one gripe was in the mines picking up the shotgun gave me only 2 shells which were not enough for the kill the bald guy with shotgun achievement, I am guessing the ammo in the shotgun is what would have been in the weapon before it was stolen ?

Any more shotgun shells from secrets? If not maybe you need to weaken him with other weapons and finish with a shotgun blast?

only had a shotgun with 2 shells ops, due to doing a half glitch-run, least I know for next time :) also tried the weapon cheat giving me ammo, this didn't trigger the kill with shotgun achievement but did trigger the kill the bald man achievement .... so evil

[Draculol]

Good stuff, TR1 has great levels and the best difficulty curve. I think of it as training grounds for the sequels lol. Nothing can stop you now! Good luck, kinda curious what you feel about the other titles / addons.

[Topazlink]

The thing about the lighting is important. In classic graphics, the original devs could get away with artistic lighting at times that may not make sense, but properly highlighted where you can go. A dark area with light at the end of a passage or vice versa adds good contrast and draws the eye. With higher fidelity graphics this is harder to get away with, you'd be wondering "where the heck is this light coming from?"

[Lilalinski]

Originally posted by DogMeat:

If not maybe you need to weaken him with other weapons and finish with a shotgun blast?

Yes, i can confirm this works for the bald guy or natla achievement.

[aeglosistarion]

Originally posted by Topazlink:

The thing about the lighting is important. In classic graphics, the original devs could get away with artistic lighting at times that may not make sense, but properly highlighted where you can go. A dark area with light at the end of a passage or vice versa adds good contrast and draws the eye. With higher fidelity graphics this is harder to get away with, you'd be wondering "where the heck is this light coming from?"

I don't think the lighting in the remaster is any more realistic than in the originals - if you switch back and forth between graphics modes you quickly realize that 95% of the time, they just inverted the original lighting. Dark places become well-lit, bright spots become pitch black - with just as much, or indeed as little, rhyme or reason than before. You can play through pretty much the entire collection without using a flare that way. Its bonkers.

I think the lighting changes are mostly there to make things look "different", and thus justify these remasters. I suspect the same is true for the decision to make the games significantly darker in general - to disguise the fact that most areas got a simple, AI generated texture swap and no further improvements or embellishments.

Maybe the plan was to get more nuanced with it, like they did in the more polished sections that they kept showing off leading up to release, and they ran out of time - or maybe quick and dirty was always what they had in mind, seeing how doing things cheaply was the only way to make the business side of this project make any sense given its lack of sales potential.

Either way, I think outside of a few select spots, the lighting changes of the remasters simply make the games worse. At least with the originals, the lighting choices were deliberately made by the level designers. This just seems like a brute force hack job to me.

If they did run out of time - you always do in game development - I hope some of that missing polish can be added in a future patch.

[Topazlink]

Come to think of it, I did notice the lighting being inverted at times. The spot I really saw it was the colosseum, in classic graphics that reveal with the wide open area with light perfectly on the opposite side is really cool. But in remastered the other side has no light on it and it looks rather dull, the light instead is shining on the direction you come from. It does seem odd.

[aeglosistarion]

Originally posted by Topazlink:

Come to think of it, I did notice the lighting being inverted at times. The spot I really saw it was the colosseum, in classic graphics that reveal with the wide open area with light perfectly on the opposite side is really cool. But in remastered the other side has no light on it and it looks rather dull, the light instead is shining on the direction you come from. It does seem odd.

The thing of it is, if it was just about aesthetics I wouldn't mind so much - but it keeps impacting gameplay/readability, and that is the part that actually lowers the quality of the game itself. It makes it so that the remasters cannot truly stand on their own, because you're always switching back and forth to make sure you're not missing anything, and that is just a bummer.

[Mac]

Originally posted by Scott-O:

My biggest gripe in this heading is that the graphics needed some modern lighting effects to gently highlight areas of interest. Instead, anything in a corridor or room was the same, which may be realistic, but not for a game. I hit F1 quite a bit to see the 'brighter' old graphics to be sure I wasn't missing anything.

It seems the next patch will improve a lot of this and add much more. So if you feel the desire to play again (to find all secrets or for achievements) wait for after the patch comes out.

[Dude Guyman]

Old graphics / F1 = Survival Instincts now. Hahahaha.

[aeglosistarion]

Originally posted by Dude Guyman:

Old graphics / F1 = Survival Instincts now. Hahahaha.

It really is. I thought it was cute at first, but the more I play (currently halfway through TR3) the less I find the humor in it.

[GOTOPOST]

Finished TR2 here the other day, now im in the middle of beating TR1, actually had alot of fun so far.