Tomb Raider. What an iconic gaming franchise, one of the very few so well-known that even non-gamers know who Lara Croft is. Even though we know a good chunk of its popularity stemmed from having one of the first female protagonists in gaming history, eye candy and good marketing alone wouldn’t be able to turn a franchise into a juggernaut. The games were, for the time, groundbreaking and innovative, with huge levels to explored in a 3D environment. They suffered from the constraints of the consoles of its era (namely the Sega Saturn, the initial benchmark for the original Tomb Raider), but limitations didn’t stop the series from selling like hot cakes back in the 90s.

Nowadays, Tomb Raider is better known for its modern, Uncharted-esque (and frankly quite overrated) rebooted trilogy. I never cared that much for it. Then again, I had never owned the originals, either. My first foray into Tomb Raider was back in the earlier days of the Xbox 360’s life cycle, with Tomb Raider: Legend and Anniversary. Granted, I had played chunks of the older titles at a friend’s house back in the day, and I did lock the butler inside the freezer, as everyone should. But playing all of them in depth? This is my first time doing so, with Aspyr’s brand new Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered collection.

What Aspyr did here is one of those gray areas where you don’t exactly know if you are playing a fully-fledged remake or a remaster. There are brand new control schemes and physics which completely ditch the original (terrible) tank controls, although you can still toggle back to this classic scheme if you so choose. The framerate has been vastly improved, with the three games running at 60fps at all times. A brand new camera system allows you to freely look around. Of course, completely revamped graphics which still retain a somewhat retro aesthetic, as if you were playing as the Lara Croft from the PS1 cover art of the time.

This graphical revamp is very welcoming, but it occasionally hampers exploration. The original games didn’t have any fancy lighting effects, so most interactive objects (a switch, a box, etc) were highlighted onscreen, making it easy for you to notice where to go and what to collect. That isn’t the case with these remade visuals, with a brand new lighting system which, whilst more realistic, makes some sections a bit more cumbersome to explore. It’s not exactly that big of a deal, though; you can actually toggle between classic and remastered visuals with the press of a button anyway. Somehow, the framerate is also altered on the fly, which was really impressive. It’s not the ideal way to play these games, but I do appreciate the inclusion of such option.

In terms of presentation, it’s not AMAZING, but Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered gets the job done. I also appreciated the fact the sound design was kept intact for the most part. The voice acting does hold up, believe it or not, even though Lara has had voice actress changes in between games. The soundtrack is sparse, but decent enough as well. I don’t think this is a particularly jaw-dropping revamp, but it wasn’t bad either. Then again, this was never my major point of concern before booting it up for the first time. What little I could remember from the older Tomb Raider games was the fact they were stiff as an old Jeep from the 1940’s. How would Aspyr deal with the gameplay?

The brand new control scheme is a blessing, sure, but that doesn’t make these older games feel a lot smoother. More bearable to play, yes, but there’s a caveat. If you decide to play Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered with brand new controls and physics, you will have to deal with some massive glitches, namely when swimming or interacting with ledges. At times, I had to revert back to tank controls just to be able to get off a body of water. It would have been a lot more unforgivable if it wasn’t for how quick it is to swap between old and new controls on the pause menu.

So the tradeoff is that, whilst having access to new controls, they feel half-baked at best, being glitchy and still quite stiff. If you revert back to tank controls, you get zero glitches or any programming issues, but you’re stuck with Jurassic controls and physics from a bygone era of gaming.

I hope that Aspyr is already aware of these issues and is readying a patch in order to fix these glitches, because there is a lot to enjoy in this collection. The fact every single original FMV is present is a neat way to preserve these titles in their entirety. I also quite enjoy the fact it’s three full games in a somewhat cheap package, with every level and extra included. I get why these games are so liked to this day: the level design is quite impressive, especially when you consider these games are more than twenty-five years old. In terms of preservation and ensuring some dated-as-hell games were more readily accessible to a wider audience, there’s a lot to love about Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered.

I had fun with this collection, but I can’t ignore its plethora of issues. Be it due to some really dated level design and controls, or a handful of glitches exclusive to this collection’s remastering efforts, those Tomb Raider games aren’t exactly the most fluid and easygoing experiences out there. With that being said, they are still incredibly charming and very ambitious for their time. If you weren’t a fan of Lara Croft’s Unchartedization in the 2010s, this serves as a great reminder as to why the franchise became the juggernaut it is to this day, in an interesting and quite affordable package. And yes, you can lock the butler into the freezer and get an achievement out of it.

 

Graphics: 7.0 Completely revamped visuals which still look retro (and by that, charming) enough. An improved framerate is also a plus. You can toggle between older and revamped visuals with the press of a button. With that said, the revamped visuals occasionally hamper exploration, due to their excessively dark color palette.	Gameplay: 5.5 Even though there is a brand-new control scheme that ditches the “classic” tank-like approach of the originals, those games are still stiff and clunky. Some control glitches were found, and need to be fixed by Aspyr.
Sound: 7.0 It’s basically the same voice acting, soundtrack and effects from these older Tomb Raider games. The voice acting does hold up better than I could have anticipated.	Fun Factor: 7.5 Even though these Tomb Raider games are dated and clunky, there’s still fun to be had with them. They retain a certain charm that very few games have managed to emulate to this day. There are also three entire games in this package, so it’s not like it’s a bad deal at the end of the day.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Xbox Series S.

A copy of Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered was provided by the publisher.