The original Tomb Raider, its remake, and the loss of subtlety

[TheHeroOfTime]

Tank controls, manual grabs, meticulous jumps and boobas are back!

The remaster also includes the expansion packs of these games (Unfinished business, Golden mask and Lost artifact).

 

[Semiurge]

Seems surprisingly faithful for a modern remaster. They even kept Lara's classic look, she resembles the higher poly render from TR4's FMVs. This will be the first time The Lost Artifact is made available digitally, I'm surprised that they decided to remaster something that was essentially in a license limbo. Technically abandonware, but in practice anything but that.

 

[Biscotti]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2478970/Tomb_Raider_IIII_Remastered/

It's coming to PC. Even the GOG versions of the originals can be pretty finicky to get working well, and AFAIK only the first game has gotten a properly finished source port so far. Pretty nice for people who want something that works out of the box.

 

[Melcar]

If it's cumming on PC I'm keeping an eye on it.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I've honestly been pleasantly surprised at some of the ports/remasters that have made their way to the Switch in recent years. Terminal Velocity, Gothic 1 and now the original Tomb Raiders...

 

[JarlFrank]

Finally something good, usually I'm aversed to remasters, but this one really need one and it looks great! Plus they included the option to keep the original look. An absolute win!

The fuck you talking about, the remastered visuals are hideous, they absolutely ruin the vibe of the original. Colors are off, lighting is even more off, shit looks like one of those atrocious HD texture mods that have no eye for aesthetics. Genuinely at the same level as the horrendous Thief HD texture mod.

Luckily, they let you play with original graphics, so the shitty remastered artstyle can safely be ignored. Good.

Other than the shitty new graphics, everything about this looks great. Faithful to the original, includes all the expansions, many of which are a bitch to hunt down nowadays. That's what a remaster should do!

Just sad that it doesn't include TR4 (although I'm less sad about the omission of TR5, which is shit).

 

[Semiurge]

Even the GOG versions of the originals can be pretty finicky to get working well

That's true, they all require some fine tuning for an optimal experience. Automated Fix for TR1 & 2, dgVoodoo and Widescreen Patch for 3-5.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[Lemming42]

It's an interesting look at how you can't really "improve" the graphics of TR1 - TR3, because it has to be built on cubes to work. Original Lara looks right at home in the land of big 3D blocks, but a higher-poly model looks very odd against the rest of the environment (and the higher res textures just look odd plastered onto the blocks).

The in-engine cutscenes would be funny as fuck with the new model too if they used the original animations, just jerking its head up and down while speaking.

Not a fan of the revised graphics but this is still great, should give more people the opportuntiy to get into proper Tomb Raider.

 

[Semiurge]

Finally something good, usually I'm aversed to remasters, but this one really need one and it looks great! Plus they included the option to keep the original look. An absolute win!

The fuck you talking about, the remastered visuals are hideous, they absolutely ruin the vibe of the original. Colors are off, lighting is even more off, shit looks like one of those atrocious HD texture mods that have no eye for aesthetics. Genuinely at the same level as the horrendous Thief HD texture mod.

Luckily, they let you play with original graphics, so the shitty remastered artstyle can safely be ignored. Good.

Other than the shitty new graphics, everything about this looks great. Faithful to the original, includes all the expansions, many of which are a bitch to hunt down nowadays. That's what a remaster should do!

Just sad that it doesn't include TR4 (although I'm less sad about the omission of TR5, which is shit).

The video is ultra-low quality, Steam's screenshots do the remaster more justice. The games have an appropriately colorful look and the textures are sharp. But one thing is the same - the enemies still have fewer polygons compared to polygon queen Lara.

 

[JarlFrank]

Good to hear that they are adding the expansions as well. Too bad it's console only at this point.

It isn't console only.

 

[ds]

4K Announcement Trailer directly from Aspyr:

 

[Lemming42]

Finally something good, usually I'm aversed to remasters, but this one really need one and it looks great! Plus they included the option to keep the original look. An absolute win!

The fuck you talking about, the remastered visuals are hideous, they absolutely ruin the vibe of the original. Colors are off, lighting is even more off, shit looks like one of those atrocious HD texture mods that have no eye for aesthetics. Genuinely at the same level as the horrendous Thief HD texture mod.

Luckily, they let you play with original graphics, so the shitty remastered artstyle can safely be ignored. Good.

Other than the shitty new graphics, everything about this looks great. Faithful to the original, includes all the expansions, many of which are a bitch to hunt down nowadays. That's what a remaster should do!

Just sad that it doesn't include TR4 (although I'm less sad about the omission of TR5, which is shit).

The video is ultra-low quality, Steam's screenshots do the remaster more justice. The games have an appropriately colorful look and the textures are sharp. But one thing is the same - the enemies still have fewer polygons compared to polygon queen Lara.

Those two screenshots show the problems, IMO. It looks like what it is - a game from 1996 that's had a new model very awkwardly inserted into it, and higher res textures that look strange plastered onto the old level geometry. Plus those lighting effects which again just look peculiar.

The blockiness of the original actually looks very good in the context of the original graphics, but when new upscaled textures and entirely different models are inserted, it starts to look surreal in a bad way.

It's a matter of taste, of course, some people will prefer the new one. To me it just looks jarring though. It's like when they used to go back and colourise old black and white movies - it looks weird, it feels like you're kind of watching a fake version, and in the end you just watch the black and white version because it actually looks better.

 

[Semiurge]

Finally something good, usually I'm aversed to remasters, but this one really need one and it looks great! Plus they included the option to keep the original look. An absolute win!

The fuck you talking about, the remastered visuals are hideous, they absolutely ruin the vibe of the original. Colors are off, lighting is even more off, shit looks like one of those atrocious HD texture mods that have no eye for aesthetics. Genuinely at the same level as the horrendous Thief HD texture mod.

Luckily, they let you play with original graphics, so the shitty remastered artstyle can safely be ignored. Good.

Other than the shitty new graphics, everything about this looks great. Faithful to the original, includes all the expansions, many of which are a bitch to hunt down nowadays. That's what a remaster should do!

Just sad that it doesn't include TR4 (although I'm less sad about the omission of TR5, which is shit).

The video is ultra-low quality, Steam's screenshots do the remaster more justice. The games have an appropriately colorful look and the textures are sharp. But one thing is the same - the enemies still have fewer polygons compared to polygon queen Lara.

Those two screenshots show the problems, IMO. It looks like what it is - a game from 1996 that's had a new model very awkwardly inserted into it, and higher res textures that look strange plastered onto the old level geometry. Plus those lighting effects which again just look peculiar.

The blockiness of the original actually looks very good in the context of the original graphics, but when new upscaled textures and entirely different models are inserted, it starts to look surreal in a bad way.

It's a matter of taste, of course, some people will prefer the new one. To me it just looks jarring though. It's like when they used to go back and colourise old black and white movies - it looks weird, it feels like you're kind of watching a fake version, and in the end you just watch the black and white version because it actually looks better.

Still it fulfills one's fantasy of playing the classic games with the FMV version of Lara, so that there's no more disjoint between the videos and the game.

 

[lightbane]

Finally something good, usually I'm aversed to remasters, but this one really need one and it looks great! Plus they included the option to keep the original look. An absolute win!

The fuck you talking about, the remastered visuals are hideous, they absolutely ruin the vibe of the original. Colors are off, lighting is even more off, shit looks like one of those atrocious HD texture mods that have no eye for aesthetics. Genuinely at the same level as the horrendous Thief HD texture mod.

Luckily, they let you play with original graphics, so the shitty remastered artstyle can safely be ignored. Good.

Other than the shitty new graphics, everything about this looks great. Faithful to the original, includes all the expansions, many of which are a bitch to hunt down nowadays. That's what a remaster should do!

Just sad that it doesn't include TR4 (although I'm less sad about the omission of TR5, which is shit).

The video is ultra-low quality, Steam's screenshots do the remaster more justice. The games have an appropriately colorful look and the textures are sharp. But one thing is the same - the enemies still have fewer polygons compared to polygon queen Lara.

Yep, the models look odd, especially the enemies. Look how stiff that wolf is.
Nintendo is making remasters of everything.

 

[JarlFrank]

Nintendo is making remasters of everything.

This isn't Nintendo, it's made by Aspyr who are mostly known for porting games to Macintosh. They previously made remasters for Stubbs the Zombie and Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy, both of which were pretty faithful remasters of the original games.

Explains why this remaster has such good attention to detail (despite the shitty "HD mod" look of the new textures). It's made by a company that specializes on ports and remasters, seems like they actually care about the games they're handed.
Unlike Crystal Dynamics (fuck these guys).

 

[negator2vc]

And of course you have to buy the remasters if you just want the originals
right GOG?
Give the originals as a "gift" only when you buy the remasters, Baldur's Gate style

 

[garren]

As long as they let you keep the original graphics 100% (seems to be the case?) and don't alter the levels or gameplay in any way then looks good. Just works out of the box with modern hardware too.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I'm more curious about how they will update the control scheme, and if they will give the option of original controls with fixed camera behind lara (no ouse look).

Tomb 4-5-6 should be remastered in the same way. Just for completeness.

But it should be free or discounted for everybody who already own the originals. Like the quake remasters.

 

[Bad Sector]

It's an interesting look at how you can't really "improve" the graphics of TR1 - TR3, because it has to be built on cubes to work.

You can but it needs a lot more work than making higher resolution textures and replacing some low poly models with higher poly versions.

You'd basically need to use the grid levels as the collision/guide and "paint over" with more detailed geometry (that wouldn't affect the gameplay) that still follows the grid but has more geometric detail. You should also be able to ignore the grid in the parts of the map that are mainly decorative or do not make much of a difference gameplay-wise (e.g. large areas). You'd also need to make sure that where platforming is important the grid cells are somehow visible, but unlike the original TR games where the grid was visible because the textures didn't tile, you'd need to figure out a way to make them both tile but also show the grid (this is where artists will need to get creative).

This wont give you realistic graphics but going with a more stylized approach like the one the new models have in this remaster would work just fine.

 

[Lemming42]

Maybe, but I'm having trouble visualising it. In the industrial areas like the Maria Doria from TR2, I can see it working since the metal and wood used to build the ship would have natural sharp edges. But something the Peruvian caves in TR1 would need to have very clear, unambiguous ledges for the player to climb on, which no real cave system has. You can make the edges a bit jagged and wonky, but then that introduces ambiguity as to whether or not the player will be able to grab onto it, especially with some of the pixel-perfect jumps that the games demand.

I'd love someone to do an N Sane Trilogy/Reignited Trilogy style treatment of TR1 - 3 but it's hard to see how it could work, graphically.

 

[Ash]

increased draw distance
graphics whores cannot help themselves.

I've said it before/we already discussed, but:

1. Adds a horror element. You never know what is gonna come at you in the darkness beyond. When that T-rex comes stomping into view, pants be pooped, and leaves you without a great deal of reaction time. It's very oppressive, and it is always there, no ifs or buts. It cannot be replicated with lighting changes.
2. level design, enemy placement etc is designed around limited draw distance. For example, it's not often you see ceilings because of this, so devs never had to bother detailing them. Removing it will highlight this.
3. Adds to illusion of scale. Maps feel bigger than they really are.
4. Atmosphere++

Stop fucking desecrating my cherished classics you soulless, talentless cunts! What's left at this point besides remastertarding lesser-known games now?

Increasing draw makes sense in games with skill-based (manual targeting) ranged combat, or hell, in games with highly detailed beautiful environments, neither of which is TR. I didn't mind (as much) when nightdive increased the distance in the Turok remasters, there's actually a benefit and a point to it (though I had to mod enemy AI and placements to account for that - they did not), but Tomb Raider this can only lead to decline.

Draw distance aside, visually this looks like shit and worse than the original. Look at that T-rex lol.

Reminds me of:

Spoiler

I wonder about the gameplay. I am all for gameplay changes but most of these soulless decline remasters do it completely wrong, usually just add casual options and call it a day. Severe decline and desecration of gaming history and art. I can't be too triggered when Anniversary already butchered the classic though.

It's a matter of taste, of course, some people will prefer the new one. To me it just looks jarring though. It's like when they used to go back and colourise old black and white movies - it looks weird, it feels like you're kind of watching a fake version, and in the end you just watch the black and white version because it actually looks better.

Nah, it's a matter of people not knowing what's good for them, and being unable to parse decline from incline due to a lack of experience and understanding.

 

[deuxhero]

Honestly, one of the most promising things about this is the system requirements, which are so random they're probably just the worst potato and worst DX11 capable GPU they had to chuck it on and say "Yep, it works". That indicates at least relative competence in coding it. No idea how it only needs 2GB of storage though, since each of the three games on Steam lists a requirement of 2GB

Wonder how they'll handle the shotgun (which is too low detail to determine a model so they'll have to pick one or make one up) and uzis (which are actually modeled as MACs). Most guns in the trilogy are super low poly, but at least they're clearly supposed to be a particular gun. Those two are a bit weird.

 

[Ash]

It's made by a company that specializes on ports and remasters

Ah, so they're soulless cogs with zero creative talent by definition then.

This looks like shit, and the usual remaster retardation. Didn't expect you to defend it.

It's an interesting look at how you can't really "improve" the graphics of TR1 - TR3, because it has to be built on cubes to work. Original Lara looks right at home in the land of big 3D blocks, but a higher-poly model looks very odd against the rest of the environment (and the higher res textures just look odd plastered onto the blocks).

The in-engine cutscenes would be funny as fuck with the new model too if they used the original animations, just jerking its head up and down while speaking.

Not a fan of the revised graphics but this is still great, should give more people the opportuntiy to get into proper Tomb Raider.

The opportunity has always been there ten times over - classic TR is on a multitude of consoles and digital stores, on steam it is always super cheap, it was even on the N-Gage, and there is also emulation for the best version (PS1). We should be celebrating, respecting and honoring old classics to draw new gamers to them, not making them shit in remaster form. The real ideal would be to actually improve them but that is beyond modern devs' capability of course. The industry doesn't honor, celebrate and respect the classics because it will result in players gaining standards and also drawing attention away from their latest AAA shite.

Sad. When new people experience this, 98% of these newcomers will do so with the new shit graphics, ext. draw distance etc, and wont get the real deal. What a shame.

 

[Jürgen]

I was never able to get into the original Tomb Raider games due to my smaller brain in the nineties. Is there anything in the games that may be censored for modern sensibilities?