Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, The Complete Return of Lara Croft?

Announced during Nintendo Direct last year, the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Compilation is finally available on PC, PlayStation (PS4 and PS5), Xbox (Series X/S, One) and Nintendo Switch. Three remasters of the three cult games were released on PlayStation and PC in 1996 (Tomb Raider), 1997 (Tomb Raider II: The Dagger of Xian) and 1998 (Tomb Raider III: The Adventures of Lara Croft) respectively.

With this remaster, Crystal Dynamics and Embracer Group are keeping players waiting until the announcement and release of the next opus in the Tomb Raider saga that will usher in a new era and a new trilogy. It was the Aspire teams who had the difficult task of looking after these ports, more than 20 years after their release. What can we say about it? Do these three remasters live up to the original games?

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered: Nostalgia is very present

If you are a fan of Lara Croft and know and have played the original games many times, it is impossible not to launch this compilation and go through the adventures of our favorite explorer without a big smile on your face. From the first minute, magic happens. The work undertaken by the Aspyr teams is simply amazing. We are not remaking, so we are keeping the same gameplay, same physics and graphics engine. On the other hand, many textures have been given a big polish with massive work on lighting and lighting tricks. And immediately, it changes a lot.

Of course, we retain the cubic aspect that will sometimes be contrasted with these texture changes, making the games quite uneven. Some levels, certain sequences and certain environments will be more beautiful than others. But overall, these new versions of Lara Croft’s adventures remain very impressive and pleasant to progress through.

The basic cutscenes haven’t changed, even visually, which we regret a bit. On the other hand, Aspire took care of the in-game cut-scenes, once again bringing a real facelift to the title. The same goes for the Lara Croft model, inspired by the “Anniversary/Legends/Underworld” trilogy, offering us a complete Lara.

Otherwise, the games remain unchanged. You get similar adventures with Sion in Tomb Raider, the famous Dagger of Xian in Tomb Raider II, and the discovery of various artifacts sculpted from meteorites by the Melanesians. This way we find a gameplay similar to the late 1990s, the game design is in the form of a grid where you have to jump with millimeter precision to avoid falling. Be prepared to face numerous enemies such as wolves, bears, lions, crocodiles, but also T-Rex, raptors and other mummies.

Having the same sound design contributes a lot to this nostalgia. The sound of Lara’s footsteps, the sound of weapons or the sound effects when our adventurer draws or removes these weapons in Tomb Raider 3 have shaken the youth of many players. It’s quite something to find these small details in 2024. We’re not even talking about the music, which is a feature of the first Tomb Raider. Nathan McCree’s creations are back and bring a real plus to the progression of our stories.

If you never discovered Lara Croft’s original adventures on PC and/or PS1 in the late 1990s, the gameplay can be quite complex to assimilate. To compensate for this, the Aspyr teams offer “modern” controls inspired by the Tomb Raider Anniversary/Legends and Underworld games. Unfortunately, these new configurations aren’t really practical and don’t particularly suit the play style of the first Tomb Raider. The best advice we can give you is to keep all the default configurations.

Three complete games in one

A strong point of this compilation is to offer you three complete games in one title for a very reasonable price. Indeed, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is offered on all media (PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch) for 29.99 euros. Alas, there is no physical version, you have to opt for the digital version.

But for this price, you will be entitled to three Lara Croft adventures, offering you more than ten hours each. When you complete your journey, it will be possible to extend the fun with the famous bonus levels “Croft Manor”, ​​but also with DLC, accessible for the first time on console. Thus it will be possible to play “Unfinished Business” on Tomb Raider, “The Golden Mask” on Tomb Raider II, and “The Last Artifact” on Tomb Raider III. These are three levels that were only offered as DLC on PC and are coming to consoles for the first time thanks to this remaster.

Nice new features

Apart from new graphics, modern controls and bonus levels, this compilation offers you a few other new features. First of all, the possibility to switch between original versions and remasters in real time, which allows you to see live the work carried out by the Aspyr teams for this compilation.

But you also have the advent of photo mode. Nothing revolutionary, we’re in rather basic photo mode, but it has merit to be present. It is possible to choose the camera angle, Lara’s pose, her facial expressions and even her outfit and weapons, allowing you to take some great photos. However, we regret the absence of options like themes, brightness, background blur etc. This remains a basic mode.

Good coordination despite a few hiccups

Overall, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is an excellent compilation with serious work undertaken and proposed by the Aspire teams. On the other hand, some drawbacks remain such as the complete absence of automatic saving (even between levels). 2024 is not a very logical choice, especially since it is not specified during the game that the latter cannot automatically save progress. A doubly surprising choice when you notice that the famous blue crystals have disappeared, allowing you to save manually at will.

Another problem is the camera. A real hell, especially on Tomb Raider III where she seems even more eccentric. This was already a drawback in the first games, we would have appreciated the right to small improvements on this point.

Finally, even if there’s not much to complain about on the technical side, we still noticed some drops in framerates (on the switch) in Tomb Raider III’s cutscenes where we’re fairly low with no jolting pain. Otherwise, over thirty hours into the game, there are no major issues or bugs to report.

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