Tomb Raider

Description

Tomb Raider is a three-dimensional action-adventure that follows British adventurer Lara Croft after businesswoman Jacqueline Natla hires her to recover an ancient artefact called the Scion from a tomb in Peru. Lara’s expedition develops into a journey across Peru, Greece, Egypt, and the lost civilisation of Atlantis as she investigates Natla’s intentions and assembles the Scion’s separated pieces. The campaign combines isolated tombs with ruined cities, monasteries, cisterns, pyramids, mines, and increasingly unnatural Atlantean structures, using sparse narrative sequences to connect its major locations.

Gameplay is built around a diverse set of movements. Lara can run, walk, jump in several directions, grab ledges, pull herself onto platforms, swim, operate switches, push movable blocks, and draw paired pistols or other weapons. This produces a form of environmental puzzle-solving in which distance, height, timing, and positioning are considered before committing to a movement. The stages are substantial three-dimensional spaces built around exploration rather than continuous combat. Progress comes from locating keys, opening routes, manipulating switches, moving blocks, navigating underwater passages, and identifying architectural relationships between rooms.

The game was developed for Saturn, PlayStation, and MS-DOS broadly in parallel. The PAL Saturn version arrived several weeks earlier, making it the console debut of both Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series, despite the franchise subsequently becoming closely associated with PlayStation. The Saturn version is generally darker, providing a more enclosed and atmospheric feel but occasionally leaving environmental details difficult to distinguish. It also features a distinctive water treatment with visible surface movement and distortion. Performance varies considerably between areas with large spaces, multiple enemies, and complex effects all impacting the frame rate. The PAL edition also contains minor behavioural and content differences from its earlier completion, resulting in a slightly less polished presentation. The original Saturn digital controller pad suits the grid-oriented movement very well, making no version a clear winner. Retrospectively the PC version of the original is the best and most accessible, but the Saturn version’s unique feel may be worth checking out.