Hello everyone. Tom here. The creator of Gaia. For this week's edition of the weekly Gaia articles I decided to do something a little different. Something more laid back and fun instead of talking about the story and characters. If you happen to follow the Facebook or Twitter pages then you know that I've been posting a lot of real life content in relation to my characters to flesh them out. And one of those things is Tori's love for the Tomb Raider franchise. So I decided to take a trip down memory lane of the very first Tomb Raider game allowing Tori to see where her favorite franchise grew its roots. So, without further ado, here's Tori!
Hi everybody, Tori here, and I have a special treat for you all today. Ya see I have a video game series that is very close to my heart. I'm of course talking about the Tomb Raider franchise. I have the whole trilogy of the reboot Tomb Raider games on my Xbox One and I love them, but something I never did was play the original Tomb Raider game. The game that started it all. So, with the help of some friends I've managed to track down the original Tomb Raider game for the Sony PlayStation and decided to play it and comment on it for you all here today. So hang onto your hats because we're looking at the first, the original, Tomb Raider!
Tomb Raider of course stars Lara Croft. A rich British archeologist who raids tombs for sport. The game begins in Mexico where a woman shrouded in ice appears and then it cuts to the present time where a man introduces himself to Lara and to his boss who convinces Lara to go to Peru for an ancient old artifact of unknown power. Lara is of course enticed and agrees to go on the expedition with nothing but her tank top, shorts, and twin pistols!
First off I have to comment on the music. It's so much better than in the new games. It grips you right from the bat and it circles around in your head for a long time after you hear it. They really outdid themselves with the soundtrack and it's something I just had to search on YouTube to hear the whole thing.
The game starts off with Lara and an associate walking up in front of a large cave with a large entrance. Lara uses some rope to climb up above the door and press a button to open the doors so the two can go inside. That's when a pack of wolves attack her associate and she comes down with her pistols killing the wolves, but she's too late to save her friend. You couldn't have thought to give him a weapon so he can defend himself?
The game then cuts to the inside of the cave where you can take control of Lara. Your guns never run out of ammo. You can just fire and fire to your heart's content. It's not realistic, but it's a lot more fun than the newer games where ammo is a thing. You're killing bats, wolves, and bears! There's a ledge you go to where if you look down you see a bear roaming around. Rational thought says to jump over and leave it alone, but you only live once! So I jumped down and fought it! It's bear season!
There are secrets to be found and puzzles to be solved, but they aren't as frequent in just the first stage, which is all I've played so far. When enemies are near the music become more intense and you know something's up. Where are they? Where are the bad guys? Then come more wolves, which I quickly dispatched. FOR UNNAMED CHARACTER 92!
There's a door you can open later in the level that automatically closes if you take too long to get to it. You have to do some platforming to get to it. That's basically jumping from one platform to the next until you reached your goal. The best way to dodge in Tomb Raider I found is to jump around while firing your pistols. That way you take less hits. You can also roll around with the circle button.
There are health packs you can find to replenish your health and other such items that I'm sure come into play in the future. You never know what you're going to find. I know for a fact that you even fight a freaking dinosaur in the third level. Now who would have guessed that was going to happen? It's a good thing your guns never run out of bullets.
There were some darts that shot out of the walls while I was running, but they barely scratched me. I got to the end of the level and I was relieved. That felt longer than it really was. I can't wait to play more and venture even farther into the world of Tomb Raider. Where Lara grew her roots. So far I love this game and can easily see why Tomb Raider became such a big deal back in the 90s and it's still going on even to this day. I love the new Lara Croft, and I also love vintage Lara Croft.
This is Tori Jacobs signing off!
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