TRA - Praise and Dismay

[FinalKai]

I am a severely devoted fan of Lara Croft and to the Tomb Raider series, and as soon as I heard that a remake of the original Tomb Raider was in development I was more over-joyed and ecstatic than I had ever been in a long time. However, to my dismay, reviews of TRA were abound with complaints of the games performance; from the faulty obstructing camera to the glitchy and mindless AI of the savage critters - every complaint felt like a stab to my heart. I felt as though the reviewers were insulting Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and, most importantly, Lara herself. It truly was an unsettling feeling and raised doubts in my mind about the game. And sure enough, my worst fears came true.

As I began playing the game, everything felt great, Lara moved well - nice and fluid - and the art direction of the game felt perfect. Suddenly, however, my experience was rudely interrupted when I witnessed a wolf running in place trying to navigate through a doorway. I stood still, my guns drawn, assuming the wolf would eventually launch through whatever invisible obstruction seemed to be blocking it. But little poochy could not, for the life of it, run through a doorway that was clearly wide enough to allow two wolves to fit through. So, I surrendered to the misfortune of the glitchy AI and shot poor poochy dead - I relieved him of his programming misery as well as my own. But that was not my only encounter with the mysterious malfunctions of the AI. Later, I bumped into a pair of wolves, who seemed contented to stand still, their back turned to me, as I literally strolled up to them. Though their eyes were feral and their mouths were foaming they honestly made no attempt to lunge or even bark at me. I walked around them several times, but still no reaction. I shot them several times, but they just ran in the other direction and continued their loitering. So once again I had to succumb to the power of the Gods of glitchyness and unloaded my pistols into the pups. Immediately after that I ran into the big bad bear who, with all his immense size, ferocity, and power, was bested by a set of stairs. The steps themselves must have had at least a 4 inch rise and 1 foot tread, but poor teddy bear could not place his powerful paws on the mundane structure.

So, with this third strike of faulty programming, I suddenly got to thinking: do Eidos and Crystal Dynamics test the games for such issues? Do they spend time programming efficient and intelligent AI for Lara's enemies? Do they consider the words written in countless reviews and take them to heart? I do not, at all, mean to insult Eidos or Crystal Dynamics - I, for one, can only give them praise for even giving birth to the Tomb Raider series and to Lara Croft - but I seriously wish and want them to prevent such errors from occuring in their games, and thus cease supplying the ammunition that videogame critics use to take cheap shots at Lara's gut.

Am I the only fan that feels this way? I look around at the forum and other fansites, and all I see is songs of praise for TRA, and while the game is great and an exceptional anniversary present for Lara and for her fans, I feel like its faults should not be ignored - by anyone, not by the fans and certainly not by the developers and creators. I truly and honestly want all the best for Lara and for her creators, and, of course, for her fans, but it seriously hurts me when I witness, first hand, such bad gameplay experiences - let alone reading it in a review article.

And as far as reviews go, I seriously ditest it when I read a less than glowing review about Tomb Raider. During all my years of being a fan of Lara's I often feel like I have to defend myself for liking her. All of my closest friends, who are avid gamers as well, do not hold Lara and the Tomb Raider series in such high esteem as I do. I want everyone to like Tomb Raider, I want everyone to love Lara - simply cause she deserves it and is worthy of such praise - but I find my own admiration and praise misplaced at times when faulty programming gets in the way of my, or any gamer's, experience. There are so many things that could be done to make Lara even better than she is right now, but I'm honestly nothing short of disappointed when I see elements in the game that still need to be fixed or need improvement.

TRL was a great game. It changed the face of Lara forever, and gave her a fresh new lease on life. As soon as I heard about TRA I assumed an advent of more amazing mechanics and gameplay was yet to come, and in a lot of ways I feel great pride and satisfaction for TRA, but I can't help but feel overly disappointed in so many ways.

Maybe I'm just talking to the wall here, who knows - by the length of this thread I doubt many of you will read it. But for those of you who do, please share your thoughts. Do you feel the same as I do? Or are you willing to overlook such issues?

Lara deserves your time and attention, and if you are a true fan, you'll certainly give her that much...and more.

[CharlieTrace]

I only really encountered one instance of bizarro enemy AI, where a wolf kept running into a wall and allowed me to shoot it. Other than that, everything was fine, and it didn't bother me much.

Now, when I was playing Angel of Darkness, I once opened a door to find nothing but white oblivion on the other side, from which there was no escape. Thankfully there's none of that here, although you CAN cause the camera to go through walls in some of the tighter sections. Particularly Egypt.

[FinalKai]

Actually, I encountered another glitch while playing. It was a level in Egypt right after I gathered the 4 Keys to put into the obelisk. After retrieving the final key, the underwater gate opened for me to swim through, so I proceeded to do so. However when I reached the other end and swam up the vertical shaft, I ended up swimming into oblivion as you put it. I had reached the water's surface but I could not see the water, and there were no walls or any discenrable trace of the tunnel I just swam through. I could however see the layout of the rest of the stage and saw into multiple rooms. The space I was in was a muddled green and seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions, however I was still confined to a restricted space which I assumed to be the room I was in. I had to restart my PS2 to escape the programming prison.

[Kali84]

I didnt encounter a glitch in enemy AI until the egypt levels when a pair of panthers just stood watching me as i unloaded my pistols into them.

Personally I dont think the glitchy AI was the worst part of this game, as it only shows up every so often.

One 'glitch' I hated (it was more of a design flaw IMO) was during an egypt level when you had to climb a long ladder and surfaced to the giant bug on the wall that acted as a switch. At the top of that ladded a cat mummy awaits Lara. The first time I climbed this ladder the mummy lunged at Lara immediately upon her reaching the surface and I was knocked down the ladder to my death. Didnt even have time to draw my guns. The second time I climbed up I was again attacked before Lara could draw her weapons, but thankfully the controls-for-dumbies took over and prevented Lara from going over the edge.

[Bampire]

(To previous post)

That happens a lot in the original tomb raider, where you're in "City of Khamoon" (Now called "Oblesk of Khamoon") and when jumping onto the platform you get kicked off.. But playing TR:A that didn't happen to me..

Yes, there's a lot of glitches in many games.. And it all depends on the cd, I take it.. Because, when I was skimming through youtube this person posts a part where it glitches on them.. The glitch is in the middle of a cutscene.. And guess where? - Natlas office, they ended up on top where lara makes her entry to find out more on what she's looking for.

I've only hit minor glitches in my copy, like sliding down a certain area and suddenly she's stuck. But that's about it.

Yes, the enemies need more of an animal-like attack, when playing..

If that made sense at all..

Yes, I agree with the topic.

[FinalKai]

I'm curious...Kali and Charlie, do you guys own the PC or PS2 version? I'm curious as to whether or not the platform which the game is on affects the quality of the programming. The game definitely looks drastically more gorgeous and sleek on the PC, I wonder if it performs better as well.

[Kali84]

I am playing on PC. I dont even own a PS2. I wish I had one, I do prefer to play Tomb Raider with a joypad...

[FinalKai]

Hmmm...figures...

I'm planning on getting the PC version as soon as I get a better comp to play it with. I settled for the PS2 version - cause I really could not wait and just had to play the game - despite the less than glamorous reviews it got in comparison to the PC version.

It boggles my mind to be honest...The PS2 has great performance power, and is still in the market despite the advent of the next generation consoles. One would think that there would not be such a distinguishable discrepancy between the two versions.

[Kali84]

one suggestion i have for the pc is dont play on a resolution smaller than 1600x1200. the graphics didnt really impress me too too much on 1280x1024. One night I decided to put my system to the test and max out my monitor's resolution... WOW wat a difference! the game really does look amazing at 1600x1200.. and only average (by today's standards) on 1280x1024

[FinalKai]

What kind of computer do you have?

I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of the PC version so I'm wondering what the system requirements/specifications are for the game.

[aussie500]

Well its strange, l played through TRA on my PC twice and never encountered any enemies getting stuck. l went over to a friends place with my game and let him play it and encountered it for the first time, in fact about 6 times and he is not even half way yet. Maybe it has something to do with the computer you are playing on, or perhaps l was just lucky the first few times. l have encountered no other real bugs in the game.

[Rusty_DK]

Originally Posted by Kali84

I didnt encounter a glitch in enemy AI until the egypt levels when a pair of panthers just stood watching me as i unloaded my pistols into them.

Personally I dont think the glitchy AI was the worst part of this game, as it only shows up every so often.

One 'glitch' I hated (it was more of a design flaw IMO) was during an egypt level when you had to climb a long ladder and surfaced to the giant bug on the wall that acted as a switch. At the top of that ladded a cat mummy awaits Lara. The first time I climbed this ladder the mummy lunged at Lara immediately upon her reaching the surface and I was knocked down the ladder to my death. Didnt even have time to draw my guns. The second time I climbed up I was again attacked before Lara could draw her weapons, but thankfully the controls-for-dumbies took over and prevented Lara from going over the edge.

yeah i had the exact thing happen to me with that cat mummy...nothing a restart didnt fix though...

I dont really TR1 was designed for fighting, more puzzles etc...so i wasnt suprised if the AI wasnt top notch

[Kali84]

Originally Posted by FinalKai

What kind of computer do you have?

I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of the PC version so I'm wondering what the system requirements/specifications are for the game.

I have an older system I built on the cheap in 2003 for college. My only upgrade since then has been the gfx card and an extra hard drive.
My current specs are as follows:

Pentium 4 3.4Ghz w/ HT cpu
Asus P4P800-Deluxe motherboard
1GB (2x512) Geil Golden Dragon Ram (PC3200)
BFG 7800GS OC gfx card
Seagate 120GB + 200GB S-ATA hard drives
Audigy 2 soundcard
420W Antec power supply

At 1600x1200 the game is very playable as far as overall smoothness and all that goes. No major lagging or choppiness or anything like that. 1280x1024 plays flawlessly.

Eidos must have done some work to the Legend engine in this respect, as I played Legend on the PC as well and it was somewhat choppy at 1280x1024, but when I turned on next-gen it was nearly unplayable. I never tried Legend on 1600x1200.

I think the recommended system specs are only slightly lower than my specs, so for once I think a game actually provides realistic system recommendations.

[trlarafan]

i think the gameplay is a nice upgrade of the first TR. I do think that, as persistent as the enemies are, should be able to react/perform as if they were really "alive" and angry. bears i think can jump/bite/swing/grab, even if the AI bears do not utilize all those options, and i think the T-Rex can tenderize its enemies by stomping/tail-whipping them.

i have a huge problem with the timed puzzles. though very challenging, it seems very linear: there's only one precise path to follow.... the perfect "racers' line" so to speak. with my camera angles constantly moving to hurry myself through, sometimes she gets fixated on something of interest, and when i go to climb/jump, she goes a different direction or misses the intended grab/ledge, thus not getting close enough to completing the puzzle in the allotted 5-10 (speculated, not actual time i am sure) seconds. having no room for error is a nice touch, but if a platform is moving back into the wall, I'd like to know that maybe climbing a bit faster would benefit.

i can't also seem to shake this feeling i have had: In the Tomb of Qualopec (i think), when you get through the pit of spear walls and ledges to open one of the gates, how does a raptor that comes round the corner when you leave get across that, alive? surprised the heck out of me, and after thinking about it, that is very strange. sorry if it is vague, but i am quite tired after trying those dang timed puzzles.

great game. nice sounds and graphics. can't get the timed puzzles, and the lacking AI. I'm only halfway through the game at this point, but the wolves seem to be the best challenge, besides the atlantean centaurs. those are downright scary.

[doctor willard]

in my opinion, everything is fine with TRA. appart from the glitches. ive witnessed the same wolf problems as you lot have. plus i found the t-rex far to easy to beat. far to easy. but, according to new research, the t-rex was a slow mover, not a fast one. so that makes the slow-ish t rex in the game suit its real life self.