 "Tomb Raider III" | 2009-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2DT0VJLOQUWL7 |
| I like the game, but the graphics are horrible. The controller issues are not the best because of it being a playstation game, and not a PS2. The game is in excellent condition though. I would recommend that you play it though. It is a little more difficult due to the controller issues. |
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 "A very painful review to write..." | 2009-02-12 |
| - Reviewed By ocean-ms |
My credibility as a die-hard TR fan may be shot with this one review; but I'll take some thumbs down for being honest. TR3 is not the best of the bunch as the company asserts - rather it's the worst game in the entire series. I base this on the fact that I've played every TR game thus far and it's the one I like the least. What makes me so upset is the fact that this game could have been great. After the first two installments, I was excited and bought the third one - as I'd played the series from the start. I was convinced it would be just as great as the other two. Was I ever wrong.
Let's talk about the good before the bad, as there's not much positive to say. First, the mansion is much improved. We have a quad bike track, a longer obstacle course, and new moves (climbing, sprinting) to deal with. Plus, there are some little puzzles, such as gaining the key to the track, that add a nice touch. The animation has improved once again and seems more fluid. And the controls for Lara are smooth. They work well.
That's about where the good ends. *sighs* Now onto the negatives:
1) Story: the story itself is really just a mis-mash of TR1 and TR2 put together. It's highly predictable due to this. Basically, Lara has to find 4 artifacts for a researcher, that make up a meteorite. This gives the possession vast power. Eventually the researcher turns test subjects into mutants and wants the power for himself. Lara has to stop him of course. It sounds like the developers just put together a loose story from the previous games because they didn't care enough to think up something new. Plus many of the villains Lara encounters throughout the game aren't interesting in the slightest. They have a pasted on quality about them that doesn't seem real. Maybe this is because of the non-linear aspect of the countries you can visit; but they should have at least tried to make them somewhat dimensional, even if a little.
2) Level Design - There are major problems I have with the level design. The first is that it is way too dark. Even when I turned my TV up, I had to use a ton of flares just to find my way around many of the levels. The problem with this is that the flares burn out very quickly. You have to constantly be using many flares while exploring, making searching tedious and irritating - as eventually you will run out. Exploring is also made annoying by the fact that you can wander around a level for a while, and find nothing of importance. Exploring used to be fun, as you'd find little trinkets throughout the level. Or you'd want to try new things, such as climbing to a new area off the main route to see what you could do or where you could go. In TR3, you aren't rewarded for exploring areas. Instead you're given the frustration of knowing you wasted your time looking for nothing, as you can spend hours wandering around. That, or a quick death from a mis-step will occur. (I'll get to that point later.)
Graphics in the levels are another matter entirely. While the animations are more fluid, the graphics aren't. The Jungles of India and the South Pacific's Mudubu Gorge look exactly alike, adding to the irritation. Nevada looks slightly different; but still resembles London in terms of design. Antartica is a welcome change; but it comes too late in the game to be of interest. It honestly gives me a headache seeing the same graphics everywhere for most of the game. Plus any graphics that resemble rocks (Nevada, South Pacific Islands, etc.) tend to blend together. Often, you have trouble spotting what is or isn't a ledge to jump to. The bottom line is: the developers should have done a better job. Unfortunately, it's clear that they didn't care while making this game. It's just a money-grab for them from the fanbase. And that's something I don't appreciate.
3) The Puzzles: Here's a major problem. The puzzles are absolutely impossible in this game. Some of them are extremely hard. Now, I don't mind a challenge with tough puzzles (think previous TRs or a Myst game for reference). But, the developers have managed to turn a fun challenge into the opposite - something that continually irritates you. Gone are the days of the previous TRs where you enjoyed the puzzles. This time the puzzles are frustrating and you wonder whether you should even bother continuing. Solutions will either be way out of left-field or something that you would never guess. Combine this with samey graphics and annoying level design and you have a recipe for disaster.
And yes, I used a strategy guide for this game. Guess what? The guide didn't help much either. When an official guide can't help you through the game, you know it's bad news. Of course, I eventually beat TR3; but the only way to stay sane was to tag-team through the levels. I would play a certain number of them until I reached my breaking point. When I could take no more of the game, my dad took over until he too became frustrated with it. (He also is a big fan of TR1 and TR2) At which point I would play another few levels until the cycle of boredom repeated again. Suffice to say, it's not just me who has these issues with TR3. He was complaining about the same things I was.
4) Deaths - Lara will die so many times in this game that it will irritate you. Even if you're a veteran player, you'll find yourself dying like every few minutes in the game. Okay, that may be an exaggeration; but there are some areas where if you make a slight mis-step, Lara will fall to her screaming death. There are also areas where you have to jump on a specific angle or you'll die. In many of these cases, the jumps occur on a jutting out, triangle portion of land. The problem with this is, if you make Lara walk to closer to the edge, you will move with the curve and end up on an angle away from where you want to jump to. So, you re-adjust Lara right? Well, if you run and jump too late, Lara may curve away from the ledge you want to get to. Even simple jumps have their problems - sometimes I found myself dying a few seconds away from where I had last saved. Many of these deaths were not related to my TR skills either. I began to wonder if the game was designed to kill Lara on a constant basis. At least when I died in TR2, I understood why. In TR3, you die for the silliest reasons.
5) Saving: Save Crystals are back and you have to collect them in order to save. Problem? When you're dying left, right, and center at every turn, you're not going to have enough save crystals to get through a level. Plus you don't want to waste them on just trying to make that jump from ledge X to ledge Y. Honestly, even though I hate saying this, I'd suggest using a cheat code for extra save crystals. It's better than having to suffer from a lack of saves because you used most of them in order to make several small jumps from one area to another without dying.
6) Other issues: You cannot see items that you pick up. This may be trivial; but you have to keep navigating to your inventory to see whether the item is important or not, which isn't fun. Also, Lara can get poisoned by animals. While this is an interesting addition, there is one major problem with it. That is: if Lara gets poisoned by a snake, then kills it, you have to use a medipack. But, there seems to be some sort of glitch (at least in my game) where one medipack doesn't work. Lara's health will go back to normal; but will still flash yellow. So I have to use a second medipack unnecessarily. It just adds to the already long list of bad things about this game.
I could go on and on; but you get the point. Unless you are a die-hard TR fan that wants to complete his/her collection, please avoid this installment. It will save you a lot of time and anxiety if you do. |
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| "spend your money elsewhere" | 2006-08-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2582KMXLK2P06 |
Lara Croft games have NEVER been any good. I remember when the very first one came out 10 years ago. Teens were practically DROOLING on their controller every time they saw Lara's pretty face. Tomb Raider must have been advertised like it was the most groundbreaking video game to ever hit the freakin' market. The thing is, the games are boring and Lara Croft isn't very pretty.
If polygon-breasted girls are your thing, go for it. But they aren't MY thing, and I know I'm not the only one to think so. Lara Croft isn't good-looking to the millions of internet gamers who understand that a blocky-looking computer babe isn't going to automatically make a game any fun to play. I'll give Lara Croft SOME credit. She was one of the originators of the "running around half-naked female shooter/adventure" type of video games. In fact, you might even say she was a MAJOR influence because soon after her very first adventure, more and more game companies were making the main characters in their games half-naked chicks. Lara brought something new to the world of video games and I will give her credit for that.
Sometimes influence doesn't matter when a game is really bad. This is one of those cases. The Tomb Raider series on the original Playstation is a joke. I absolutely *groan* when I think about playing a Tomb Raider game because I remember how ugly and dark the environments are, the glitchy problems that dominate all three Tomb Raider games, the annoying and difficult jumping style of Lara Croft (which makes it nearly impossible to progress to the end of the game. Good luck- she NEVER jumps where you want her to) and of course, mentioned above, Lara's supposed beautiful face (she's NOT pretty, remember?)
It also doesn't help that the puzzles you have to solve are ALWAYS really awful (and appear frequently) and, because of the jumping problem, very frustrating to complete. Trying to aim your gun at an emeny isn't exactly a walk in the park, either. The whole series has been an overrated disaster up to this point.
By the time Tomb Raider 3 was released people were REALLY getting fed up with the series. Now, these same people will tell you this was because they kept releasing more and more Tomb Raider games, but I actually think people got sick of Tomb Raider because games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill came along with a similar style and improved on it *drastically*, making Tomb Raider look awfully dated by comparison.
At least the third Tomb Raider game has SOME decent-looking background levels. I guess the company who created Lara Croft finally understood that Lara's pretty face ALONE isn't going to get the job done anymore. I mean, at least in some places the backgrounds LOOK good . Not exactly the prettiest environments available on the Playstation of course, and most of the time all you see is darkness or candlelight. But what's THERE is okay to look at, at least.
Tomb Raider 3 features a challenge that is mostly only challenging because of the above-mentioned jumping problem. She simply doesn't jump the way you want her to. You'd THINK the game company would've dealt with this problem with all the new moves for Lara they added to the game, but no, none of these new moves make the game any easier. The artifact-finding storyline had potential but unfortunately the frustrating challenge ruined it.
BOY am I glad I never bought any of these games (all these years I've been watching OTHER people play them). Reading reviews for the more recent Tomb Raider games on the Playstation 2, I see NO improvements have been made. Let the series END already. |
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 "A goodin!" | 2006-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By wvbullrider |
| Ok, alot of people hate this game - but i cant complain with it.Although some of the levels are annoying (i hate the 2nd level of india with a passion) at least it held mostly to the name of Tomb raider (the 2nd, and 4th onwards) should be named "City Raider" the graphics are kinda yellowish. the lighting can be harsh. but its a lengthy game - took me almost 6months to beat (partially cause i jumped triliogy installments)but its an ok game. its better than the 2nd, and way better than all the others afterwards - but doesnt messure up to the original. |
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| "Tom Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft (1998)" | 2006-01-22 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
In 1996, the brilliant TOMB RAIDER was released. Although the graphics weren't great, the gameplay was. The puzzles were difficult but intriguing and fun, the pace was fast, the amount of action kept things going and there wasn't one bad level.
The next year, TOMB RAIDER II was introduced to the world, and God, it was good! It improved upon the original, with each level longer and more action-packed. Even the first level was a treat!
Then in 1998, there was TOMB RAIDER III, and it really fails to reach the height of the first two games. Although everybody likes a challenge, this game is just far too difficult. I've only got as far as Level 2, so I had to use cheats, and I couldn't complete any of the other levels. It's still a good, fun little game, but it's very disappointing.
This time, Lara Croft must find different artifacts dotted around the globes. All of the artifacts are connected to a meteorite that struck the Earth long ago.
Once again, the graphics aren't perfect, although not entirely bad, but it doesn't matter anyway.
To conclude, the first two games were fantastic - so enjoyable - but TOMB RAIDER III can be very boring in parts, and it's just too difficult for alot of people. It's not really the best way to start the series if your new to TOMB RAIDER.
Gameplay: 3/5
Graphics: 3/5
Overrall: 3/5
A review by Dale White. |
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 "Not the best to begin the series with." | 2006-01-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2TSB1M7Q434BY |
This is my fav Tomb Raider game (the 1st is a close 2nd), but.... It's way too hard for people just starting with the series. You really have to check out all of your options, because secrets are often irretrievable once you passed a certain point (The level River Ganges even has 2 alternative routes, one of which makes you miss out on a secret!) and in other points you really start to think the makers of this game are a sadistic bunch hellbent on annoying the hell out of you.
Some, in retrospect fairly easy, moves kept me occupied for hours. But, all in all, a game isn't a game if it isn't challenging. And this game is challenging to the max!
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