Tomb Raider -- It Strikes Your Sense of Wonder

Let me start off by acknowledging what are, as of today, considered to be some of the flaws of Tomb Raider: It is buggy and its graphics are dated. Let me also say that the bugs of the game are also its virtues. Yes, the game's bugs are both pros and cons. Some bugs, like the ones which make walls transparent from certain angles, are cons. Others -- like the jump trick, the corner trick, the ledge trick, etc -- are great assets to the skilled player. In fact, I would say that these bugs were purposely included! The jump trick allows you to get to the top of a building by jumping at one of it's corners. This allows you to get to places that the creators of Tomb Raider never wanted you to get to! Doesn't that make you feel special? Now, about the graphics -- true, this game is old and the graphics are dated, but at the time of this game's release, the graphics were top-notch. All games' graphics will eventually be considered inferior. That doesn't mean their graphics are any the less enjoyable, nor that the graphics did not serve their purpose and make the game rich. The graphics in Tomb Raider I certainly contribute to the environment and make it a very rich game.

Tomb Raider is that game that you curious folks always wished you had. Even now -- that TR2, 3, and 4 are out -- the original Tomb Raider still has its appeal. That is one of the truest tests of a game, that it is still played after the graphically superior sequels are released, that it endures the times. That attests to superior game-play and concept. Tomb Raider certainly has excellent game play. You feel like you are actually in some ancient tomb, lost, and trying to find your way. You get into the game. With each bizarre and interesting room you enter, there is that sense of awe and wonder. Tomb Raider is not a game -- it is a time machine! You feel like you are transported back some distant past time, some time that you know nothing of, and are trying to explore. Tomb Raider really creates an excellent environment around the player...there are as many little nicks and secrets and mystery spots in each level as there are grains of sand on the beaches. Tomb Raider is, indeed, a work of art. When the player has finished all of the level's objectives, he doesn't want to go on to the next level, but wants to look around, and try to find a way to go backwards through the level; wants to explore all that he feels he has missed.

Perhaps the excellent level structure, architecture, and artworks -- yes, artwork! -- in each of the Tomb Raider levels is due to the fact that they actually examined REAL archeological digs and modelled the level structure and design after them. That shows you that Eidos was really serious about Tomb Raider -- they put in the time, and did the research, to make a great product: similar to how Micheal Crichton does reserach on each of the themes of his books.

Let me close by saying that when you sit in front of your computer to play Tomb Raider, you are not sitting down for some mindless smashing amusement. You are walking into a delicately designed world -- Tomb Raider is to gaming what Mercedes' is to cars. It is not just a game. It is a world. It is class and elegance. It is a game that you will never want to trade in, and that you will take out to play over and over again.

P.S.: I am planning on purchasing a 1+ GHz computer system. Do you know what the first thing I'm going to do is? The first thing I am going to do is to take my Tomb Raider CD out of my mint-kept Tomb Raider box, pop it into my CD-ROM, and install Tomb Raider on my 1000MHz machine; then, of course, I'm going to install Tomb Raider 2, then I'm going to buy Tomb Raider 3 and 4 for my system.