This is where it all began.
Tomb Raider is a magnificient game. I'm not discovering much. I will talk about the levels without spoiling more than the basic plot and areas you visit.
Lara Croft starts her debut contacted by a woman called Natla, to find a rare artifact called the scion. A very Indiana Jones premise. The first levels are set in Peru, you raid old temples and hidden valleys. It's starts with tutorialized simple levels until the 3rd one, where the first big surprise of the saga awaits.
The adventure continues in Greece, Egypt, and even Atlantis, for a grand total of 15 levels. Most of them are huge and it takes quite a good amount of time to find the required items, solve puzzles and find the exit.
There's also secrets in the form of hidden caches of weapons and ammo. Finding a couple of them per level is not that hard, but some are just way too obscure to find without any guide. There's no reward for finding all secrets though, so they only act as a fun challenge or an earlier way to get a specific weapon.
Talking of weapons, Lara has access to four, with the classic dual pistols being the only one that has unlimited bullets. Combat is generally regarded as the weakest aspect in the classic series. Lara just autoaims to the closest enemy and you only have to keep shooting while dodging. Almost every enemy has only melee attacks, with a few humans wielding actual guns in later stages.
Lara's great power though, is her versatility. You can jump in any direction, grab onto ledges to shimmy left or right, roll to face your back and swim for long periods of time. It's generally an easy game in terms of action and enemies, expect to finish the game with a ton of unused medikits. The real difficulty comes from the exploration, mazey maps and just getting lost or missing a specific key that is required to progress.
Around half of the levels are iconic, while others are not that beloved by the community. There's also no help, hints, yellow paint, nor any kind of non-diegetic clue on what to do. You find a locked door, just go and explore the whole level to find the key. There's also no fast travel of any kind. Luckily, there's a good number of save slots and you can save at anytime.
Now, with everything said, don't get this version. Just get the incredible superior remastered trilogy. It includes the first games with all their official expansions, apart from a ton of enhancements and achievements. I'm tempted to just thumbs down this game, but it's just too good.
