It was February of 1997, my Pentium PC had a CD-ROM drive installed for over a year now and it's been itching to try out new games, CD games were expensive at the time and hard to find, we were still trading games on floppy discs but occasionally you get some friends that will lend you their CD games, so to quench my thirst; I saved up for an issue of PC Gamer magazine every couple of months or so which came with a glorious demo disc of the latest games in the market, each disc usually had around 5 or 6 games which kept me busy till I managed to save some more money to get myself another issue 2 months later.
The franchise was a phenomenal hit, yearly sequels were being put out and fans were multiplying, Lara was off to more exotic places, riding vehicles and fighting more terrifying and supernatural beings. We thought we had seen it all until the "Legend" game came out in 2006, it was the 2nd time they tried to reboot Lara (after the arguable Angel of Darkness), it wasn't a story reboot but more of a technical upgrade, a new graphical engine with smooth and easy to use controls, controlling Lara was never easier or this satisfying, it was a Lara suited for the new generation of gamers.
As much as they managed to blow my mind with Legend, I was not expecting
the best Lara entry yet, my absolute favorite til date, Tomb Raider Anniversary, they basically took the original Tomb Raider, with the same levels and everything, added a few areas in some levels (without taking anything out), restructured the Boss fights to make them more intense, and applied this whole package on the new Legend graphical engine. This was the Remake of dreams! This is how you Remake a game, if only other companies followed that example.
I was never a fan of reboots, never was then and still, wither we are talking about a movie or a game, I am old fashioned and not easily accepting of change, if I like something a certain way I like to keep it that way. This being said, this was Lara we're talking about here, I've been with this girl for over 15 years, played and completed every single title til then, how can I pass on this "new" Lara they're introducing?
It wasn't a terrible game, it wasn't the best either, they wanted to make a Lara that is more adapted to the new age, the new way of thinking, a female survivor that will fight her way out against an army of gun men. Actually all I remember was a weakling screaming and crying her way throughout the game, shooting arrows at rabbits while eating scraps off the floor. Apparently this was the Lara that SJWs and feminists wanted, as if Lara wasn't already the true symbol of feminism. Think about it, a bad ass female that: kicks everyone's ass, ventures alone, acrobatic, strong, athletic, intelligent, has charisma and good looking? So they ignored all that because they had a problem with her large cup size and short-shorts?
I sometimes wonder what these feminists are aiming to achieve, they cry about freedom and how Muslim women are oppressed yet they oppress video game female characters and demand to have them censored?
The latest entry entitled "Rise of the Tomb Raider" promised to take us straight into the action, a continuation of the previous "Origin" entry with actual tombs to raid this time around, well they weren't wrong, the game starts off with an amazing drop into a beautifully designed tomb, Lara is wearing a blue tank top, which is a homage to the classic Lara uniform, and it just felt amazingly nostalgic. The opening prologue was a work of art, this was the moment I have been waiting to see for years, Lara is back raiding tombs and kicking ass...
It was a great feeling until the short prologue ended and you were dumped in a snowy field looking for scraps and shooting arrows at rabbits...
NOT THIS S**T AGAIN GODDAMMIT!
Maybe it's about time I gave up on Lara...
It was this particular disc that attracted my attention, I have read an article on this game and have already seen a couple of screen shots, it looked fascinating and unlike anything I have seen at the time, especially that the disc cover had this bad-ass looking girl packing shotguns and Uzis, what's not to love?
The cover image and and the in-game screen shots did not do this game any justice. My mind was blown by the way this game looked and felt, how it played, the combat, the movements, the level design, and the protagonist with a name that I will always remember.. Lara Croft.
I can't remember the number of times I have played that demo over and over again, it consisted of 2 levels, and I played them enough times to memorize every nook and cranny, where every enemy was, all the hidden items and the secret room locations. What I kept wondering was; if the demo had 2 huge levels, how big is the actual game?
Once again I was not prepared for how huge this game was, the demo was nothing compared to the design and complexity of the later stages of the game (Looking at you St. Francis Folly).
The original Tomb Raider game has a special place in my heart, and I am sure it is the case for a lot of players that grew up in the 90's, it was an adventure like no other, starring one of the first digital crushes any boy would have at the time. We weren't really used to play as female characters, that generation was mainly about choosing the biggest, baddest, meanest looking dude as your main video game starring role, not some skinny girl in shorts and a pony tail. Beat em' ups and fighting games were on the rise and they all had the option to play as female characters, not that anybody chose to play as them, but they were there regardless.
There was something definitely different about Lara, she was a unique character, strong, bad ass, sexy, nothing can get in her way, she will elegantly somersault in the air while putting a bullet in between a grizzly bear's eyes, and will make that moment beautiful.
Once again I was not prepared for how huge this game was, the demo was nothing compared to the design and complexity of the later stages of the game (Looking at you St. Francis Folly).
The original Tomb Raider game has a special place in my heart, and I am sure it is the case for a lot of players that grew up in the 90's, it was an adventure like no other, starring one of the first digital crushes any boy would have at the time. We weren't really used to play as female characters, that generation was mainly about choosing the biggest, baddest, meanest looking dude as your main video game starring role, not some skinny girl in shorts and a pony tail. Beat em' ups and fighting games were on the rise and they all had the option to play as female characters, not that anybody chose to play as them, but they were there regardless.
There was something definitely different about Lara, she was a unique character, strong, bad ass, sexy, nothing can get in her way, she will elegantly somersault in the air while putting a bullet in between a grizzly bear's eyes, and will make that moment beautiful.
The franchise was a phenomenal hit, yearly sequels were being put out and fans were multiplying, Lara was off to more exotic places, riding vehicles and fighting more terrifying and supernatural beings. We thought we had seen it all until the "Legend" game came out in 2006, it was the 2nd time they tried to reboot Lara (after the arguable Angel of Darkness), it wasn't a story reboot but more of a technical upgrade, a new graphical engine with smooth and easy to use controls, controlling Lara was never easier or this satisfying, it was a Lara suited for the new generation of gamers.
As much as they managed to blow my mind with Legend, I was not expecting
I was never a fan of reboots, never was then and still, wither we are talking about a movie or a game, I am old fashioned and not easily accepting of change, if I like something a certain way I like to keep it that way. This being said, this was Lara we're talking about here, I've been with this girl for over 15 years, played and completed every single title til then, how can I pass on this "new" Lara they're introducing?
It wasn't a terrible game, it wasn't the best either, they wanted to make a Lara that is more adapted to the new age, the new way of thinking, a female survivor that will fight her way out against an army of gun men. Actually all I remember was a weakling screaming and crying her way throughout the game, shooting arrows at rabbits while eating scraps off the floor. Apparently this was the Lara that SJWs and feminists wanted, as if Lara wasn't already the true symbol of feminism. Think about it, a bad ass female that: kicks everyone's ass, ventures alone, acrobatic, strong, athletic, intelligent, has charisma and good looking? So they ignored all that because they had a problem with her large cup size and short-shorts?
I sometimes wonder what these feminists are aiming to achieve, they cry about freedom and how Muslim women are oppressed yet they oppress video game female characters and demand to have them censored?
The latest entry entitled "Rise of the Tomb Raider" promised to take us straight into the action, a continuation of the previous "Origin" entry with actual tombs to raid this time around, well they weren't wrong, the game starts off with an amazing drop into a beautifully designed tomb, Lara is wearing a blue tank top, which is a homage to the classic Lara uniform, and it just felt amazingly nostalgic. The opening prologue was a work of art, this was the moment I have been waiting to see for years, Lara is back raiding tombs and kicking ass...
It was a great feeling until the short prologue ended and you were dumped in a snowy field looking for scraps and shooting arrows at rabbits...
NOT THIS S**T AGAIN GODDAMMIT!
Maybe it's about time I gave up on Lara...
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