![]() ![]() The original Tomb Raider is in my top 10 of best games ever made, and it's the best game in the series. In fact, this is something that the LAU trilogy really hammered home for me: I haven't played the original (well, I did a little bit, the demo on PC as a wee lad - those controls broke teenage me), but those games had some outstanding design peppered between action pulp, and this contrast between "environment speaks for itself, I feel alone and lost here" and "I am shooting fifty faceless goons on a motorbike" felt really schizophrenic - until I looked deeper into it, and realized that pretty much everything I liked about LAU had been lifted from the original games, like the staircase-less room at Saint Francis Folly, the lost city of Vilcabamba, Midas' Tomb, or the Cistern.īy the way: If anyone has decent recommendations for games with such an experience (exploring lost places, and actually feeling alone and far from help), feel free to bring them on! (In fact, the one thing that even started to have me remotely interested in the upcoming Starfield is a throwaway comment about how the devs are going for that experience) But sometimes I just want to be alone with a game on its terms, without having the dev breathing down my neck to see if I'm appreciating his work enough. Pretty few designers have the guts to let their worlds speak for themselves, and fill every nook and cranny with excitement, combat, vistas and so on. I have to agree - this sense of desolate isolation is something that has mostly been sacrificed on, to say it with a bit of pathos, the altar of spectacle. You feel like you're the only one who has been in these places for centuries. I do have fond memories of it but it’s not one I’ve ever felt much need to revisit except to get a hit of nostalgia, and that’s never carried me far enough to get past the convoluted sewer levels around the middle. In of itself I had some misgivings about it even at the time: a little too slow, a little too clunky, a bit too much wandering aimlessly around convoluted maps not knowing what to do next. But I do feel like its appeal was quite heavily tied with it being a tantalising glimpse of what games could and would go on to be. It’s cool if newer generations are still finding it enjoyable, and there’s no question it was a landmark - it’s basically year zero for gritty third person action adventures. The T-Rex emerging from the fog was one of the most epic-feeling moments of its day. I think it’s a case where the low-res jank aesthetics of the time added to the atmosphere in a way, that feeling of not quite being able to see everything and your imagination filling the gaps. The old /r/patientgamers Essential Games List Please use flair to display what games you’re currently playing, not a punch line, username, tag, URL, or signature. New, mobile-friendly spoilers can be posted using the following formatting: ![]() Want to play online in a dead gaming community? We expect you to know these rules before making a post. Please click here to see our current rules. We no longer maintain our posting rules in Old Reddit. Join our Discord Join our Steam Group Follow us on Twitter Posting Rules Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases. A gaming sub free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. ![]()
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