Before I tell you about Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the second remake of a game that has also been ported and remastered more times than I can count over the last 30 years, I want to tell you about Tomb Raider, as I played it in the late 1990s. I remember it in fractured snapshots:
- Finding that trapezoid box in my dad's sock drawer after he came home from a business trip, and somehow not exploding with excitement
- Pressing the Function key that switched from lo-res to hi-res graphics, awed by the sharper polygons
- The eerie quiet of that first cave, punctured by each intrusive shot from Lara's pistols
- Diving through glittering pools, worried about how quickly she'd run out of air, but exhilarated by the feeling of arriving at a new place no human had set foot for hundreds of years
- Learning the hard way to quick save before jumps, because not pressing a key to grab a ledge at the right moment was as likely to kill me as misjudging my spacing
- Falling off a waterfall and hitting the ground below with a sickly snap, the camera lingering on Lara's limp body
- How real Croft Manor felt as a place to explore Lara's life and practice ...
English (US)