| Tomb Raider | Core Design / Eidos | 1996 | |
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You play as Lara Croft, perhaps the most famous
game character ever. Agile, tough and good-looking - she made gaming
history. Lara is fed up with her life and looks for adventure which
she'll get as she's approached to retrieve 3 old artifacts. In typical
Indiana Jones fashion you'll visit Mayan temples, Egypt, Greece and
even Atlantis. Lots of puzzles and traps break up the shooting. Since
the action takes place in long lost cities and ruins, you'll never meet
a lot of people, so the enemies consist of wolves, bears, raptors and
some more mystical animals. The camera follows Lara as she climbs, jumps,
and swims through detailed environs overcoming environmental obstacles
and deadly fauna. Moving through levels often involves finding spots
where Lara can climb, looking for spots where Lara can use her acrobatic
ability, and sliding blocks and pushing levers to solve puzzles and open
passageways. Lara is armed with, now trademark, twin pistols with infinite
ammunition, but she can pick up higher caliber weapons to take on deadlier
human opponents. Lara also comes across restorative health packs and has a
compass with which she can orient herself. The graphics were really good
for this time and got even better when there was a 3dfx patch released.
It was one of the first games to receive a hardware acceleration patch
developed by 3dfx Interactive for use with its Voodoo cards. Many jaws
dropped to the floor when game players saw the new, enhanced version of
Tomb Raider - a version that showcased much cleaner textures and smoother
edges. Indeed, Tomb Raider helped fuel the fire of an industry that would
grow at an alarming rate. It was an instant hit with many sequels and even
spawned 2 movies starring Angelina Jolie, the first of which is the
highest-grossing movie ever based on a videogame. It effectively
translated Prince of Persia-style platformer gameplay to 3D. Lara Croft
was the first game mascot to break the cutesy cartoon mold yet achieve
mainstream recognition, and inspired a glut of "sexy" heroines and pandering
advertisements. Soon after the release, someone found out how to replace
the clothing textures and released a custom "nude patch" (DOS version only
of course). It revealed everything and it became a big hype on the net.
Despite the unsavory marketing and imagery that surrounded Lara, she was
as popular among female gamers as male, and many women credited her with
piquing their interest in gaming altogether.
See also: #Tomb Raider Gold, #Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft |
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