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Old 07-06-11, 09:53   #31
Charlie91
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I don't have any least favourite location / set of levels in Tomb Raider 1. It's great game with all levels perfect. On the other hand, when I draw a comparison between Tomb Raider 1 and Anniversary, I must say I hate Egypt levels in TRA. It looks nice, but Egypt in TRA is boring and irritating and it is the reason why I didn't finnished TRA.
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Old 08-06-11, 13:41   #32
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I don't have any least favourite location / set of levels in Tomb Raider 1. It's great game with all levels perfect. On the other hand, when I draw a comparison between Tomb Raider 1 and Anniversary, I must say I hate Egypt levels in TRA. It looks nice, but Egypt in TRA is boring and irritating and it is the reason why I didn't finnished TRA.
Could not agree more, TRA Egypt levels look great but are a major pain to playthrough, more stress than pleasure unlike the originals well crafted, brilliantly designed and just on the right side of difficult.
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Old 08-06-11, 14:16   #33
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Hmm... in the case of TR1 vs. TRA, let's have a look:

TR1 Peru = TRA Peru
TR1 Greece < TRA Grece
TR1 Egypt > TRA Egypt
TR1 Atlantis > TRA Atlantis

TR1 and TRA's Peru are both... pretty good. I was never a huge fan of TR1's Peru, other than The Lost Valley, of course - which is the only level in Anniversary's Peru that was worse than the original. Not bad, mind you - it's just that the Lost Valley in TRA was let down by the huge stretch of caves between the waterfall room and the valley. The t-rex battle was also a disappointment. Tomb of Qualopec... to be honest, I don't care a whole lot for it in either game. Mountain Caves and City of Vilcabamba were, IMO, improved in Anniversary.

While I loved TR1's Greece, I just have to say that aside from The Coliseum, I thought TRA's Greece was phenomenal. St. Francis Folly is arguably one of the best levels of the series (I'm talking about Anniversary's version ) - they took the original level and magnified the atmosphere by 10 times. Climbing about that chamber is such a unique experience... I just get chills every time, even bigger chills than the TR1 Folly did. Midas' Palace is a little worse than TR1's Palace Midas, but I can accept it for what it is. As for Tomb of Tihocan, I'm probably the only one that thinks this, but I'm actually glad that they cut out the side rooms of Cistern, and the first half of Tihocan. It allowed for a phenomenal main puzzle in the cistern, and a SUPERB battle with the centaurs.

TRA's Egypt is overdone. The traps in Obelisk of Khamoon are - although, we did complain about Legend being too easy, so atleast they ramped the difficulty here a bit. However, both Obelisk of Khamoon and Sanctuary of the Scion are worse than the original. The Obelisk is too linear in TRA, where as it was more "open feel" in the original, and TRA's Sanctuary is let down by the two side rooms with the shining light puzzles. Although, to be honest, I was never a huge fan of TR1's Sanctuary. Temple of Khamoon, however, improves greatly upon TR1's City of Khamoon.

Natla's Mines was a complete letdown in TRA. Such a great concept that went to waste... all of the missing areas are just really kinda disappointing. The boulder tracks, the golden maze, and the skate park - all missing. Yes, the skate park was probably cheesy - but it's a very memorable part of the level, atleast I think. The Great Pyramid was probably the biggest letdown of the game; while I love the ascent up the great shaft, I HATE that all of the siderooms were ditched. The Final Conflict... is a little better than the original, with both of its awesome boss battles. Unfortunately, the trap gauntlets are missing (they seemed to have been replaced by long hallways with lava on the floor ), but otherwise, it's pretty good.
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Old 08-06-11, 14:27   #34
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Natla's Mines was a complete letdown in TRA. Such a great concept that went to waste... all of the missing areas are just really kinda disappointing. The boulder tracks, the golden maze, and the skate park - all missing. Yes, the skate park was probably cheesy - but it's a very memorable part of the level, atleast I think.
I gave up on TRA halfway through Natla's Mines- I just found it more irritating to play at that point as opposed to fun. Of course, as you know I have issues with the ORIGINAL Natla's Mines, so that might have something to do with it.
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Old 08-06-11, 14:34   #35
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I gave up on TRA halfway through Natla's Mines- I just found it more irritating to play at that point as opposed to fun. Of course, as you know I have issues with the ORIGINAL Natla's Mines, so that might have something to do with it.
I actually liked TR1's Natla's Mines - quite a lot - and seeing the way it was butchered was just... awfullly downgrading. I didn't have that problem with Cistern/Tomb of Tihocan, since I found both of those levels quite boring in the original (except for the second half of Tihocan), but the entire Atlantis section was just so cut up.
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Old 08-06-11, 16:21   #36
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I think my mind will change after I will try to play TR1 but now with all the achievements lol
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Old 09-06-11, 14:28   #37
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I actually liked TR1's Natla's Mines - quite a lot - and seeing the way it was butchered was just... awfullly downgrading.
Agreed, the way it was hacked up in TRA was criminal, there i was expecting a huge challenge and was provided with left overs, don't get me wrong, there are parts to the level which provide a decent challange, but on the whole it just didn't deliver, although the scene with Larson is great, if a little on the dark side.
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Old 11-06-11, 15:08   #38
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My favourite set has to be either Greece or Atlantis. Greece is a solid set with St. Francis Folly and the Cistern as highlights and only Tomb of Tihocan as a filler level. Atlantis features the worst level of the game, Natla’s Mines, but the two last ones are great. All in all, I suppose it’s Greece.

The least favourite, well, it wouldn’t be fair to say Peru alone since they are the introductory levels, so I’ll leave it in a tie with Peru and Egypt.

Since we are comparing to TRA…

The Caves and Vilcabamba are introductory levels with nothing worth noting. They do the job in TR1 and TRA.

The Lost Valley is cool with the waterfall and the dinos. TRA has an edge over TR1 because the valley actually looks as such instead of a cave, and it has a boss fight with the T-Rex and some mobile platforming with the gears, but that has more to do with technical and gameplay advancements than level design.

Tomb of Qualopec was a very generic level that improved greatly in TRA. This is very related to the new gameplay possibilities as well, but it is enough of a change to concede the Peru set to TRA.

Moving on to Greece, St. Francis Folly is a memorable level because of its verticality and separate challenges. It’s the kind of level built around an idea, something lacking in TR sequels. TRA respects it and is as good as the original in design, and it adds the usual gameplay fixes.

The Coliseum was a good level overall. I’m not sure if the simplification in TRA was good; the original might be a bit tedious, having to “circle” (or “square”) it back and forth.

The Midas Palace was cool because of the multiple paths, although it might be tedious to find dead ends and return to the start if you didn’t know the correct order of actions. The challenge of the fire pillars was a bad joke built around Lara’s inability to measure her moves and shouldn’t have been in the game in my opinion. TRA goes directly into the action, and while the fire room is a huge improvement I think it cut too many areas, losing the exploration part completely.

The Cistern was a brilliant level. One thing I hate is mazes, and what separates the Cistern from one is the fact that it is a giant puzzle contained in a single room where everything is in your vicinity, and that deserves all my respect even though I more of an action guy. I think the TRA simplification detracted from the quality of the level in this case too.

Tomb of Tihocan was a filler level in my opinion. The water level puzzles had already been done better in the Cistern, the room with the movable block that opens the doors played too slow, you could ignore the centaurs and you had fought Pierre and Larson before. TRA did well shortening the level, and it was also good to force a boss battle against the centaurs. The Greece set, however, goes to TR1.

The Temple of Khamoon features something I hate: crawlspaces where Lara would fit without problems but she’s not allowed to enter because the move does not exist. That kind of stuff should have been avoided. I can’t say much about the level; those crawlspaces are such an obvious flaw that I can’t really enjoy the level while seeing them. I can say that it feels like a succession of rooms with not much cohesion except the fact that a couple of them are right on top of others. I think the TRA redesign was an improvement.

The Obelisk of Khamoon is another level that I don’t really feel. I find the stairy slopes gimmicky, and other parts of the level are just filler although it's good that you have the chance do get to the obelisk from different routes. It improved with the addition of traps in TRA.

The Sanctuary of the Scion, on the other hand, is cool, with the sphinx, the climbing on the rocks and the underwater statues. It’s a bit dumb that Lara would be able to grab the “key” through the fence and go directly to the scion room at the start of the level, but I can live with that. TRA maintained the quality in this level, and the Egypt set goes to TRA.

Natla’s Mines was easily the worst level of the game. It was a bad joke of a level, with levers in random places opening random doors several rooms away (that Lara would be able to climb or just kick down given their look) or activating stupid effects (like a thread to pick the fuse that was logically reachable, or the one lever that frigging moves the boat), that on top of that causes an annoying amount of backtracking, especially if you do your actions in the prospected order (i.e. using the boat). Things get better when you reach the lava part, but even then we get random stuff like the exploding block, or the skateboarding park. With this in mind, TRA’s rendition of this level is hands down much better even though it’s nothing special.

Atlantis was epic. You get to the shaft lava room at the bottom and can’t see the top. You do some challenges and you appear higher on the room. You do some more challenges and get even higher. At some point you manage to see the top and you continue climbing and returning to the room. The feel of epic and accomplishment was the defining trait of this level. Then there were some nice stuff like bacon Lara, the final bridge, the outro of the level facing the giant egg, or the general tense feel of the level, but the ascension of the lava room is the highlight for me. That was brilliant. In this case, TRA completely ruins the level. Ascending the shaft in one time breaks the feel of returning to the room and finding yourself higher. To make things worse, this is the only time in the game where the control system fails completely. Since you are on the platform with your back to the wall, you rarely get to simultaneously see Lara, the platform she stands on and the enemy, meaning that you either fail to dodge the attacks or you just fall down; the enemy is also able to throw you off the platform in a single combo… unless you do a quick stand that may send you down anyways since you cannot direct the roll; and let’s not forget that Lara stupidly prefers to auto-aim to the mechanisms in the walls rather than kill her enemies. Total mess. One of my favourite levels in the original becomes the worst level in the remake.

The Great Pyramid was indeed great in the original. You have to get the **** out of there while the whole thing goes down causing lava pits and broken stuff everywhere. The level is a giant gauntlet of traps to make the game go with a boom. The fight with Natla is forgettable, but the fight with the torso was awesome and a great way to start the level. Like the ascension of the lava room, TRA misses the point, and while the Natla fight is more developed the overall level is much worse. Also, the torso fails to be as cool as we imagined it through the low-res, low-poly, low-texture, poor-mapping original, not to mention the lack of smashing Lara to the floor, and how bad the swallow move looks. The last levels of TRA are a letdown, and the Atlantis set goes to TR1.

Last edited by mikros; 11-06-11 at 15:17.
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Old 10-01-15, 18:25   #39
burial
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Peru > Atlantis > Greece > Egypt

The problem with Egypt is that the first level is great and the other two are very disappointing in comparison.
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