12-03-21, 07:19 | #11 | |
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12-03-21, 08:38 | #12 | |
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15-03-21, 10:44 | #13 |
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While I am probably the main hater here when it comes to TR3, I think when it comes to the worst title in the franchise, it's Tomb Raider Underworld that takes the cake.
Tomb Raider Underworld has probably the most chaotic camera and controls in the entire franchise. TRAOD is slow and clunky, yes, but TRU Lara can clip through the interactive objects and fall off them, the camera might suddenly change position while climbing/jumping so you end you going/jumping in the wrong direction. Lara can teleport herself back to floor from the ledge you grab (especially noticeable on PS2). The camera can lock itself while climbing or it can move erratically while shooting so you don't know what you're aiming at. There's a lot of stuff going on and it's all hard to predict. It has terrible ports. Wii and PS2 version are washed out, PS2 version has about 10/15 fps in most locations, with best performance being available only in cube rooms with no detail whatsoever. Even the loading corridors have low performance. It is cut in pieces on all platforms inconsistently. Main platforms have shortest levels that are practically corridor like. PS2 (and probably Wii) on the other hand have terribly simplified main puzzles to the point of some of them being as simple as pushing a lever. Also TRU narrative is an incoherent mess. You start with a follow up from Legend, which promised you Avalon and some sort of collab with Peter Eddington, but instead you have to deal with Norse mythology and Natla shoehorned into it even though there was no indication of her being in any way involved in this in neither Legend nor Anniversary. Moreover while Legend tried to show that each religion was inspired by something far older (which makes sense), Underworld just snapped norse mythology into it, making it look like these idk, iron age beliefs are actually the oldest known to humanity??? Meanwhile they could have easily connected it to something far older than that, especially since we already have so many interesting monuments dating as far as to neolithic period (while religious ideas date back even to paleolithic times). Level design/art direction is questionable. Sure it has some really interesting places and visuals, but in the end the locations are even more monochrome and flat than TRL and TRA combined. Next gen consoles have only one color for each location, meanwhile PS2/Wii version is grey on grey most of the time, with only few additional rooms having more interesting color approach. More than that, half of TRU is just same "proto-norse" architecture with little innovation. And don't let me started on the whole "Amanda's ship twin" stuff, which was clearly added to artificially extend gameplay. And in the end TRU just all felt like a safe and least ambitious project that backfired anyway. They had all the tech done already in Legend and Anniversary, yet somehow managed to break the game anyway. Sure, they rewrote the engine, but then again they already had the basics. It wasn't like AoD which tried to reinvent the wheel and started everything from scratch (and put way more content). Compared to that TR3 is... Okay. It doesn't try to do anything new, its level design is chaotic and sometimes downright terrible. It has a lot of bad design choices, some good levels, some absolutely terrible, most just okay. And that's it. It's okay. Sure it feels like a debut TRLE level, but otherwise it's fine. Last edited by Caesum; 15-03-21 at 11:18. |
15-03-21, 13:28 | #14 |
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NO.
Angel Of Darkness, LAU,Chronicles,2013 and Rise and Shadow are inferior than this game. The only "disappointing games" that TR has ever had were AOD and Anniversary imo.(2013 and Rise are like action focused spin off to TR games which imo are good at that) Last edited by dg1995; 15-03-21 at 13:29. |
15-03-21, 16:11 | #15 |
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I don't think Anniversary was particularly disappointing, there were some levels far better than the original. I thought the opening Egyptian level outdoor areas in particular were cleverly and beautifully re-imagined, much of St.Francis' Folly likewise.
Where they stuck to the original template it was general good; it was where they added stuff or abbreviated levels that it disappointed most. I still think that its Sanctuary of the Scion is one of the best new additions to the game. It was obvious somebody had been watching the three earlier Prince Of Persia games, SOT, Warrior Within and The Two Thrones but it was worthy of praise nonetheless. A sort of backhanded compliment or at least a nod to it as it has always been said TR owes a lot of its gameplay ideas to the original Prince Of Persia. Last edited by fallenangle; 15-03-21 at 16:25. |
15-03-21, 20:32 | #16 |
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I don't like a great deal of it, but it has some good bits. India, South Pacific!
Chronicles, AOD, Legend (barf), Underworld, 2013 & Rise are worse. Anniversary is not so bad when they 'stuck to the original' (fallenangle). Last edited by paulcoz; 16-03-21 at 12:40. |
16-03-21, 00:53 | #17 |
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TR3 is the most difficult, unforgiving, frustrating, unfair, death-trap laden, point-of-no-return kick-in-the-teeth gameplay of any Tomb Raider game but worst game? That award goes to Underworld.
Tomb Raider 3 is a fine slice of masochistic glory |
16-03-21, 12:29 | #18 |
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Right... seems like people want their Tomb Raider game to be *checks notes* easy
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16-03-21, 13:55 | #19 |
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I thought Underworld was better than Legend, which I did not warm too at all. The underwater statues area patrolled by sharks actually gave me hope CD had begun to understand what TR was all about. Underworld was also a notably attractive game at times.
AOD has to be the most disappointing simply because it didn't deliver anything that was promised and what it did was glitched and often just plain dull. I do not even want to mention the KT mistake - worst TR decision ever to include a secondary playable character. But having said that AOD had one good idea and that is its failed attempt to integrate a branching storyline into the game and with it a genuine effect on the gameplay. Last edited by fallenangle; 23-03-21 at 13:17. |
23-03-21, 01:56 | #20 |
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Not when we have LAU and the re-reboot games.
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