Reaching the end of a trilogy is always exciting to me. Ideally, it's the conclusion of all the previous lessons learned and the moment everything gets tied together into one satisfying bundle. The PS1 is probably the console I think of the most when it comes to looking back at trilogies by single developers, simply because it had so many different ones during its life-span. Crash, Spyro, Resident Evil and even to some extent Final Fantasy. I think there is something special about seeing a game series in different stages of refinement, clearly being able to observe how a developer's ideas evolve over time. And yes, of course Tomb Raider went through that aswell. With the continued smash hit of TR2, Lara Croft was now without question video game royalty and Core Design was yet again given no breaks in pumping out another sequel for publisher Eidos Interactive. Setting aside the undoubtedly horrid working conditions at Core Design during the development process, I find it once again incredible how TR3 released only a year after its predecessor. And after my new-found love for this franchise was only reinforced by how much I enjoyed TR2, I was excited to jump into Lara's third adventure.
Sadly, as you can already guess from the rating, this turned out to be a massive disappointment. As the hours passed and the downward spiral of bad level design began, I became more and more miserable having to put up with everything Tomb Raider 3 was throwing at me. I was worn down and finally broken when I reached the end. I don't want this to be a rant about how much I hate this game. I still do, but there are so many fantastic qualities here that I can not even stoop so low as to call this a lazy sequel. Core Design really cared. It's just that all the visible care and love gets utterly crushed under the weight of unfair difficulty and a lack of polish, most likely due to razor tight deadlines along with an overworked staff. So let me go through the positives first before I start falling down the rabbit hole that has become my absolute hatred for this game.
Tomb Raider 3 has the best locations in the series so far. There is an incredible leap in art design at display here. Be it the opening trek through the jungles of India, the massive canyons in Nevada or looking out over the rooftops of Nighttime London. Levels feel lived in, in a way Tomb Raider 2 was still struggling with. The updated engine makes everything look so much less blocky, which the designers take full advantage off. I love the lighting, the colors and the great texture work. The atmosphere is so good, and I wish more games would take what Core Design accomplished here as an example. Really, in terms of atmosphere, TR3 doesn't miss even once. I love just standing in these maps and soaking it all in, ready to be pulled along into more adventures. It helps of course that the soundtrack is amazing aswell. There is a tone of ambiance to each location, of course classic series leitmotifs return and new tracks have been added that round everything out. It doesn't matter if it's discovering ancient ruins or if you find yourself face to face with horrifying creatures. It always fits, and I'm in love with the overall sound of TR3.
When it comes to the story, we find our favorite adventurer once again on the trail of a mysterious artifact. While on a treasure hunt deep in the jungles of India, she encounters a scientist named Dr Willard. He is looking for the missing pieces of a meteor that crashed down on earth millions of years ago, is responsible for having whipped out the Dinosaurs and starting the chain reaction of modern evolution. Supposedly these pieces also contain mysterious powers, once even being worshiped by Polynesian trips for their god like properties. And that's all we need to trot across the Globe. It's a dumb story even for the schlocky standards of classic Tomb Raider, but I still very much enjoyed it. The increased focus on cutscenes and Lara having more fun interactions with different characters helps the story flow much better than it did previously. This finally feels like a continues narrative and not just a semi connected sequence of video game stages. There is of course the obvious issue in how Lara has now been fully reduced to nothing more then what can only be described as a full on sociopath. More than ever before, she is an absolute bitch that cares about no one but herself and is willing to kill anybody that just so much as glances at her wrong. I'm still somewhat fine with her because the point was always to have an uncompromising action heroine, but previous games at least gave her some shred of humanity. The absolute girl boss attitude I fell in love is still present, but there is certainly a discussion to be had about crossing the line from girl boss to unlikeable cunt. This crosses that line way to often. TR2 is also guilty of this to a lesser extent, but toed the line in keeping her likeable much better in my opinion.
When it comes to combat, I'm happy to say that Core massively overhauled their approach to how you fight enemies. The fundamental controls are the same, but enemie encounters are spread out way smarter. Gone are the days of spawning goons right on top of the player. There are often spots you can jump to that give Lara a clear advantage, and even late game foes can be taken down with just a bit of effort and only the standard handguns. And that's basically all I wanted to see, and I'm glad they at least took the time to improve an aspect of the series that desperately needed a revision. Croft Manor now has been expanded with a shooting range as well. This version of Croft Manor is for sure the best one. Many secrets to find and all the tutorials you could ever need. Lara's home is practically its own giant level now. Once again I fully recommend you play around in the tutorial not only because it's a lot of fun but because it will also helps in familiarizing you with the expanded move set. Lara can now crawl, grab on to certain ceilings in order to use them as monkey bars, and is able to use a short dash that can be ended on a quick roll forward. These added options are mostly used to great effect, but I will admit that the dash stays fairly underutilized. There are only very few spots where it's actually needed, and even then I find those challenges more annoying than anything else.
And that's about all the positives I can think of. For all the love I can express for TR3, it just wouldn't be honest if I omitted all my frustrations and all the reasons why I ultimately came away with the conclusion that this is simply a very bad video game.
Starting off with the basic structure: You're now allowed to pick between locations in between the opening chapter and the finale. What sounds cool on paper, turns out to be a nightmare in reality. The three places you can pick from: Nevada, the South Pacific Islands and London vary so wildly in complexity and challenge that you're most likely going to fuck yourself over if you happen to choose wrong. Pro-tip: Always start with Nevada. I didn't, and it screwed me over hard by the final stretch. Nevada contains the easiest and most enjoyable set of levels, and most importantly: There is a similar bit to TR1 and 2 where all your items will be taken away from you, as Lara is once again captured by armed guards. Unlike previous games there is a high chance you will not get most of your inventory back, meaning that if you happen to pick Nevada last, you might lose hours of collected guns, ammo and med packs. At that point, you are just stuck desperately searching for scraps during the final 4 segments of Antarctica. It's a horrible design decision that I despise with a passion, and they should have either ditched the level select entirely or put actual effort in balancing each locations difficulty. And while the South Pacific Islands are a mostly tolerable set of levels, London is where the game fully backflips into of pit of rusty spicks.
London is a confusing labyrinth of dark hallways that loop around in the most unintuitive ways. I got lost so many times just backtracking, not knowing what my goal even was, and finding crucial progression items in spots that made me scream in agony. Of course, one of the keys needed to progress in on top of a mining drill you just escaped from in order to not get crushed to death. It's not like every sane human being would see the section now occupied by the giant death drill as blocked off for good. Add to that weird angled jumps that shouldn't work, but sometimes just do, and hard to make out wall texture that are supposse to signal climbable surfaces. Trust me, you will run past those surfaces for a couple of hours before looking up a guide and then promptly feeling the primal urge to buy a gun along with a time machine in order to pay Core Designs studio a friendly visit back in the late 90s. All that misery and I haven't even mentioned the vehicle sections yet. Oh, the fucking vehicles. TR2 had the exact same issue, but the meaningful difference is again that this was limited to only 2 sections. We had a boat, that controlled fine, and a snowmobile that controlled like shit. TR3 on the other hand has at least one vehicle for each location. There is an ATV, a kayak, a weird underwater robot, a Donkey Kong style minecart ride and another boat. I don't know which one is the worst for me, but it has to be a tie between the kayak and the minecart. Paddling the kayak through the rapids of the south pacific rain forest is pure luck, as you can't really control it and are at the mercy of the game's geometry in order for Lara to not straight up smash into a pile of rocks and drown. The minecart on the other hand will make you randomly fly off the tracks if you happen to pull the break at the wrong time, that is if you even know where to fucking go in the nightmare labyrinth known as the RX Tech Mines. Either way, the conclusion is always: try to get somewhere, die, reload, repeat that step about 50 times per stage until you get that one lucky try that lets you progress.
I hate Tomb Raider 3. I can't recommend it to anyone ever. The final boss was a giant spider mutant that makes you run around in a circle for 40 minutes so you can pick up some shinny rocks. Watch the game end with Lara shooting a totally innocent Helicopter pilot in the face and a shot of her ass while the credits play. Fuck this game, I need to game something good next.
Sadly, as you can already guess from the rating, this turned out to be a massive disappointment. As the hours passed and the downward spiral of bad level design began, I became more and more miserable having to put up with everything Tomb Raider 3 was throwing at me. I was worn down and finally broken when I reached the end. I don't want this to be a rant about how much I hate this game. I still do, but there are so many fantastic qualities here that I can not even stoop so low as to call this a lazy sequel. Core Design really cared. It's just that all the visible care and love gets utterly crushed under the weight of unfair difficulty and a lack of polish, most likely due to razor tight deadlines along with an overworked staff. So let me go through the positives first before I start falling down the rabbit hole that has become my absolute hatred for this game.
Tomb Raider 3 has the best locations in the series so far. There is an incredible leap in art design at display here. Be it the opening trek through the jungles of India, the massive canyons in Nevada or looking out over the rooftops of Nighttime London. Levels feel lived in, in a way Tomb Raider 2 was still struggling with. The updated engine makes everything look so much less blocky, which the designers take full advantage off. I love the lighting, the colors and the great texture work. The atmosphere is so good, and I wish more games would take what Core Design accomplished here as an example. Really, in terms of atmosphere, TR3 doesn't miss even once. I love just standing in these maps and soaking it all in, ready to be pulled along into more adventures. It helps of course that the soundtrack is amazing aswell. There is a tone of ambiance to each location, of course classic series leitmotifs return and new tracks have been added that round everything out. It doesn't matter if it's discovering ancient ruins or if you find yourself face to face with horrifying creatures. It always fits, and I'm in love with the overall sound of TR3.
When it comes to the story, we find our favorite adventurer once again on the trail of a mysterious artifact. While on a treasure hunt deep in the jungles of India, she encounters a scientist named Dr Willard. He is looking for the missing pieces of a meteor that crashed down on earth millions of years ago, is responsible for having whipped out the Dinosaurs and starting the chain reaction of modern evolution. Supposedly these pieces also contain mysterious powers, once even being worshiped by Polynesian trips for their god like properties. And that's all we need to trot across the Globe. It's a dumb story even for the schlocky standards of classic Tomb Raider, but I still very much enjoyed it. The increased focus on cutscenes and Lara having more fun interactions with different characters helps the story flow much better than it did previously. This finally feels like a continues narrative and not just a semi connected sequence of video game stages. There is of course the obvious issue in how Lara has now been fully reduced to nothing more then what can only be described as a full on sociopath. More than ever before, she is an absolute bitch that cares about no one but herself and is willing to kill anybody that just so much as glances at her wrong. I'm still somewhat fine with her because the point was always to have an uncompromising action heroine, but previous games at least gave her some shred of humanity. The absolute girl boss attitude I fell in love is still present, but there is certainly a discussion to be had about crossing the line from girl boss to unlikeable cunt. This crosses that line way to often. TR2 is also guilty of this to a lesser extent, but toed the line in keeping her likeable much better in my opinion.
When it comes to combat, I'm happy to say that Core massively overhauled their approach to how you fight enemies. The fundamental controls are the same, but enemie encounters are spread out way smarter. Gone are the days of spawning goons right on top of the player. There are often spots you can jump to that give Lara a clear advantage, and even late game foes can be taken down with just a bit of effort and only the standard handguns. And that's basically all I wanted to see, and I'm glad they at least took the time to improve an aspect of the series that desperately needed a revision. Croft Manor now has been expanded with a shooting range as well. This version of Croft Manor is for sure the best one. Many secrets to find and all the tutorials you could ever need. Lara's home is practically its own giant level now. Once again I fully recommend you play around in the tutorial not only because it's a lot of fun but because it will also helps in familiarizing you with the expanded move set. Lara can now crawl, grab on to certain ceilings in order to use them as monkey bars, and is able to use a short dash that can be ended on a quick roll forward. These added options are mostly used to great effect, but I will admit that the dash stays fairly underutilized. There are only very few spots where it's actually needed, and even then I find those challenges more annoying than anything else.
And that's about all the positives I can think of. For all the love I can express for TR3, it just wouldn't be honest if I omitted all my frustrations and all the reasons why I ultimately came away with the conclusion that this is simply a very bad video game.
Starting off with the basic structure: You're now allowed to pick between locations in between the opening chapter and the finale. What sounds cool on paper, turns out to be a nightmare in reality. The three places you can pick from: Nevada, the South Pacific Islands and London vary so wildly in complexity and challenge that you're most likely going to fuck yourself over if you happen to choose wrong. Pro-tip: Always start with Nevada. I didn't, and it screwed me over hard by the final stretch. Nevada contains the easiest and most enjoyable set of levels, and most importantly: There is a similar bit to TR1 and 2 where all your items will be taken away from you, as Lara is once again captured by armed guards. Unlike previous games there is a high chance you will not get most of your inventory back, meaning that if you happen to pick Nevada last, you might lose hours of collected guns, ammo and med packs. At that point, you are just stuck desperately searching for scraps during the final 4 segments of Antarctica. It's a horrible design decision that I despise with a passion, and they should have either ditched the level select entirely or put actual effort in balancing each locations difficulty. And while the South Pacific Islands are a mostly tolerable set of levels, London is where the game fully backflips into of pit of rusty spicks.
London is a confusing labyrinth of dark hallways that loop around in the most unintuitive ways. I got lost so many times just backtracking, not knowing what my goal even was, and finding crucial progression items in spots that made me scream in agony. Of course, one of the keys needed to progress in on top of a mining drill you just escaped from in order to not get crushed to death. It's not like every sane human being would see the section now occupied by the giant death drill as blocked off for good. Add to that weird angled jumps that shouldn't work, but sometimes just do, and hard to make out wall texture that are supposse to signal climbable surfaces. Trust me, you will run past those surfaces for a couple of hours before looking up a guide and then promptly feeling the primal urge to buy a gun along with a time machine in order to pay Core Designs studio a friendly visit back in the late 90s. All that misery and I haven't even mentioned the vehicle sections yet. Oh, the fucking vehicles. TR2 had the exact same issue, but the meaningful difference is again that this was limited to only 2 sections. We had a boat, that controlled fine, and a snowmobile that controlled like shit. TR3 on the other hand has at least one vehicle for each location. There is an ATV, a kayak, a weird underwater robot, a Donkey Kong style minecart ride and another boat. I don't know which one is the worst for me, but it has to be a tie between the kayak and the minecart. Paddling the kayak through the rapids of the south pacific rain forest is pure luck, as you can't really control it and are at the mercy of the game's geometry in order for Lara to not straight up smash into a pile of rocks and drown. The minecart on the other hand will make you randomly fly off the tracks if you happen to pull the break at the wrong time, that is if you even know where to fucking go in the nightmare labyrinth known as the RX Tech Mines. Either way, the conclusion is always: try to get somewhere, die, reload, repeat that step about 50 times per stage until you get that one lucky try that lets you progress.
I hate Tomb Raider 3. I can't recommend it to anyone ever. The final boss was a giant spider mutant that makes you run around in a circle for 40 minutes so you can pick up some shinny rocks. Watch the game end with Lara shooting a totally innocent Helicopter pilot in the face and a shot of her ass while the credits play. Fuck this game, I need to game something good next.
18 Comments
Daaaaaaaaaaaaang man, that last paragraph was brutal! Great review and definitely makes me less eager to try this one out.
I had a question - I bought these games on Steam, but didn't realize that mouse support wasn't even an option. Is there any mod out there that you know of that allows you to play the OG games with mouse?
I had a question - I bought these games on Steam, but didn't realize that mouse support wasn't even an option. Is there any mod out there that you know of that allows you to play the OG games with mouse?
Glad to see your thoughts on this title. Seems like we need the fastest vehicle known to man to send you to the good games institute. ASAP.
Real talk. 'Lara has now been fully reduced to nothing more then what can only be described as a full on sociopath.' this sounds like full on character assassination by the writers. What the heck.
Real talk. 'Lara has now been fully reduced to nothing more then what can only be described as a full on sociopath.' this sounds like full on character assassination by the writers. What the heck.
ALSO what's with the subtitle? "Adventures of Lara Croft", that's what all tomb raider games are lol
Spyro, Crash and now this... i'm starting to believe PS1 trilogies always end with an entry that has unpopular vehicles gameplay.
And I'm guessing from the tone that you picked London last. It's okay Nova, you're safe now.
And I'm guessing from the tone that you picked London last. It's okay Nova, you're safe now.
@Wollom Well thats why it took me so damn long to put my review out. Completing the game and not just droping it at multiple points was draining enough. And then actually writting a proper review and not having it turn into a full on shizo rant was another challenge entirely.
Its possible that the remaster fixes the texture problem. From what I know they replaced some of textures completly instead of just upscaling them. Although I cant 100% confirm that, I have yet to pick up the remaster collection somewhere down the line.
And yeah, the weird subtitle thing is explained away easily enough. Simply put: Lara Croft had become one of the most recognizable names in pop culture period. You just got to look back and see for how many non-video game products she became the main marketing figure for. It's insane. The name Lara Croft was way better known to general normies than the title Tomb Raider. TR2 actually started this by having the subtitle "starring Lara Croft" and Eidos just kept leaning heavier into the marketing angle of treating Lara like a real life celebrity. Interestingly enough thats one of the main reasons Lara's original creator, Toby Gard, left Core in the middle of TR2s Development.
Its possible that the remaster fixes the texture problem. From what I know they replaced some of textures completly instead of just upscaling them. Although I cant 100% confirm that, I have yet to pick up the remaster collection somewhere down the line.
And yeah, the weird subtitle thing is explained away easily enough. Simply put: Lara Croft had become one of the most recognizable names in pop culture period. You just got to look back and see for how many non-video game products she became the main marketing figure for. It's insane. The name Lara Croft was way better known to general normies than the title Tomb Raider. TR2 actually started this by having the subtitle "starring Lara Croft" and Eidos just kept leaning heavier into the marketing angle of treating Lara like a real life celebrity. Interestingly enough thats one of the main reasons Lara's original creator, Toby Gard, left Core in the middle of TR2s Development.
@Detectivefail Thank you. Lol your kinda right honestly, this game took a lot from me, but im still glad I pulled through to the end.
And its not so much a character assassination as much as its leaning way too heavy into one specific character trait and making it almost Laras entire personality. That mean girl streak was always there, even back in Tomb Raider 1. 3 just amps it up way too much imo and she really comes across as just a straight up bad person.
And its not so much a character assassination as much as its leaning way too heavy into one specific character trait and making it almost Laras entire personality. That mean girl streak was always there, even back in Tomb Raider 1. 3 just amps it up way too much imo and she really comes across as just a straight up bad person.
@RedBackLoggd Thank you so much. Honestly I dont even know if the classic games ever even had proper mouse inputs. I played the GOG version and just modded the game with the Tomb Raider updater mod. Allowed me to play with my PS5 controller and almost no bugs, wich is good because the TR3 Vanilla PC version is very flawed. But there are defintily other mods if you look around the games steam forums, like Tomb Raider Mouse Helper for example. Just requires a bit of tinkering and research, as almost all old PC games do.
@PitSolitayrh Yeah its super weird how the PS1 gen and even later PS2 had a lot of series go down the forced Vehicle section route. And almost always with horrible results.
And damn straight. My order was South Pacific Islands, Nevada and then London. That was certainly a giant mistake.
And damn straight. My order was South Pacific Islands, Nevada and then London. That was certainly a giant mistake.
Thanks Nova, if a game controller is possible I'll definitely opt for that, but figured mouse support would be easiest to find.
First of all how dare you.
How dare you write such a good review without pinging me about it.
We sound like tein brothers talking about this game lol. I loved reading this. That last paragraph was a combo takedown to end all combo takedowns.
How dare you write such a good review without pinging me about it.
We sound like tein brothers talking about this game lol. I loved reading this. That last paragraph was a combo takedown to end all combo takedowns.
@Spinnerweb First of all: Thank you so much!
And im sorry , I didnt think it was even that good so i didnt ping anyone 😅 I just wanted to be done with it and quietly just post my review. Guess I was wrong, ill ping you up when I post my TR4 review then.
How could we not sound like brothers having to play through this game. Its hatred and pain that bonds us all together. and yeah that last wambo combo Paragraph was just me full mask off venting about how much this sucked the life out of me.
And im sorry , I didnt think it was even that good so i didnt ping anyone 😅 I just wanted to be done with it and quietly just post my review. Guess I was wrong, ill ping you up when I post my TR4 review then.
How could we not sound like brothers having to play through this game. Its hatred and pain that bonds us all together. and yeah that last wambo combo Paragraph was just me full mask off venting about how much this sucked the life out of me.
The box for this game should have said 'DO NEVADA FIRST.' I was lucky that someone told me this. Imagine how people who did Nevada last must have suffered.
@Spinnerweb I know, I havent checked the manual yet since its the only TR game I own physically but there should have atleast been some in game warning. I had to suffer more for no good reason.
This is simply an old example of how too many choices are NOT a good thing..............................................................
also did you know the final boss only takes 2 minutes if you have 50 desert eagle bullets
and more than that, guess what? this game is so broken in its end sections that you can skip the final boss altogether fucking lmao. if you climb the ladder and go up without killing him or getting the meteor shards you'll still get to see Lara's fat ass
also did you know the final boss only takes 2 minutes if you have 50 desert eagle bullets
and more than that, guess what? this game is so broken in its end sections that you can skip the final boss altogether fucking lmao. if you climb the ladder and go up without killing him or getting the meteor shards you'll still get to see Lara's fat ass
@Spinnerweb Fun Fact: I knew that. I had no Desert Eagle ammo left because you know, fkn Nevada. And everytime i tried to climb the ladder the mf would just instant kill blast me with his magic homming missile. Fun.
Jeez. I enjoyed TR2 after playing it in the remastered collection, but I've been taking a break before playing TR3. Sounds like I should think about making that break indefinite. Great writeup; that London section sounds miserable, no matter the order it's played in.
@Watermalloc Thank you so much. If you already have the Remaster collection it doesnt hurt to just play a bit into TR3, to see if you like it or not. Like I said in my review: There are really good qualities to the game, but overall its just not worth the stress of pushing through to the end imo, especially with how long it is. Im glad im done with it and im hoping when I soon start with TR4, that I find that game to be much better than 3.
Wollom
27 days ago
I wonder if the remasters changed the problems with unintuitive wall textures.