time trials! who likes them who doesn't and who wants another way of unlocking cheats

[Lord Forbes]

Originally Posted by Tomb-Dude

Sorry mate but i have to dissagree with you, i think they are pointless and frustrating.
I never enjoy being timed in games, i like to take my time. Search around things like that. I actually throw the control with time trial they get on my nerves that much, the make me angry i managed to get to egypt on anniverary and after that i cant be assed. lol

So another way of getting the cheats, but not like the old ones where you jst had to find it in a mag or the net. I want to be able to unlock them

I agree. Time Trials make you play completely counter intuitively to how you would naturally complete missions like these. I realize TR is not an exploration simulator but the Time Trials really take you out of the experience. After all, who would actually run through any situation with traps and live enemies? I play on the 360 and try to complete all the achievements but the Time Trials dampens my enthusiasm before I even begin the game because I know I will not pursue them. I did them in TR Legend and that was enough. Time Trials transition the game from a fun experience to a frustrating chore. With all the great games available on the 360 now the developers should not expect us to slog through countless retries. Frankly, the pay off is simply not worth it. Just my $.02.

[Xaander Le]

In Tomb Raider: Anniversary, you will get a 100% without completing all the Time Trials, but you won't get all the cheats unless you complete them all.

I view them as an additional challenge, so I do like them being in Tomb Raider, but do not agree with the idea that they have to be the only way to unlock bonus options. There should be more than one way of unlocking these options.

[JordG]

I Do Find The Time Trails Very Annoying I Do End Up Throwing The Controller And Getting In A Huff Lol.... But I Know There Challenging And It Makes The Game More Exciting Etc But What I Loved About All Thr TR's Up To 5 There Would Be Cheats You Could Just Put In I Know It Spoils The Game Etc But What I Found Your On Minimum Health Trying Your Hardest To Get To The Last Checkpoint So You Can Save It And Someone Decideds To Piss You Off N LEt You Miss The Jump And Die So You Gota Go All The Way Bck Where You Left Off N I Think Would Be A Lot Easier To Of Had Some Cheats So I Didn't Have To waste Time And Build Up MY Adrenaline Again.... What I Think They Should Do In Underworld Is That There Is Cheats Already There For You If You Want Them I Know It's Tempting And Ruins The Game But If You Want Them There There For You Or Even Complete The Game To Let You Use The Cheats But What I Defo Dunt Want Is Unlocking The Cheats Through Time Trials It F's Me Off Big Time I Mean I Only Just Managed To Do Time Trails In The Nick Of Time I Think They Should Give You A Reasonable Amount Of Time And Not Cut The Time Short For Instance Say The Level Is Completed Mainly In Half Hour And The Time Trail Is 20 Mins I Hate That So It Makes Me Rush And Die Faster So Time Is Wasted And I Get In A Huff.. All I Say Is That I Don't Want To Unlock Certain Parts Of The Cheats By Doing Time Trails Sometimes It's Impossible! Or Even Unlock The Cheats By Collecting Artifacts And Etc

[4croftsake]

They are very annoying, i'd rather another method, maybe similar to Uncharted, their method is far more time consuming and a great vary to just simple time trials, depending what you need to unlock you need to complete certain tasks, so i'd rather these than just running through a level as fast as you can. Yyyyaaaaaaaaawwwn! very bo..r...zzzz!

[rg_001100]

Time trials are great... It takes the guilt out of unlimited health, golden shotgun, etc.
although i play on a PC, and the mouse makes it easier, so do other cheats
(earned cheats on time trials is okay, right??)

St. Francis Folly was hard, but damocles room was funny just jumping into spikes with a certain cheat....

Cheats that you don't have to earn would be too tempting.

[jayjay119]

I absolutely HATE the time trials, this was one of my big concerns with TR Legend, the levels were short enough without being able to plough through them in 15mins to half and hour. My heart actually sank when i heard they would be re-appearing in TR:A. But initially some levels like the folly made it easier to accept.

But the purpose of TR is not an action game that you rush through on a time frame. It's about exploration, getting lost and puzzle solving to get where you need to go and you cannot do this effectively in a time trial as a good puzzle can't be done quickly. And getting lost would just make the time trials pointless.

Effectively the time trials are what constricts CD to making linear levels that us the hardcore raiders hate...the solution therefore is simple...

[quick-cookie]

Yeaaaahhh... well i did not have much of a probb with time trials, or maybe i just dont get frustrated easy... anyway... no i did not find them very fun... how bout.. other modes instead of time trial.

How bout a "battle mode"?? where u stand in for example in TRA the colleseum(however-u-spell-it), u have to b able to defeat a certain amount of waves of diff enemies to unlock certain things i'd like that alot just jump around and shoot for awhile.

Or how bout a mode where u can not stand still Lara is in perpetual run mode and u have to complete a level without stoppin'
u will run round like a crazy lunatic

Or How how bout a slowmo mode or lightning mode everything moves rlly slow or rlly fast, that would b awsome.

Anything to up the replay value.

[Arctic]

The only way I was able to do the Anniversary Time Trails was by using shortcuts! And yes: St. Francis Folly is very difficult!

But I think the Time Trails in Legend were ok. NOT that I like them, but they weren't as difficult as in Anniversary. Probably because the levels in Legend was shorter and easier

I wouldn't mind if they didn't put Time Trails in Underworld.
And it would be nice with another way of unlocking cheats!

[ziad]

ok i hate the time trials. they are just a ploy to get the game to feel a little longer. how about old school cheats or erm... no cheats at all.. i hate all the commercial crap like the unlockable outfits and time trials to unlock cheats.. its stripping away what tomb raider was and making it into a standard game.

and plus the time trails defeat the point of playing a game with puzzles and traps... once you know how to solve the problem, there is no problem, thus whats the point of replaying it and just rushing through not enjoying anything at all.

[jayjay119]

Originally Posted by Arctic

The only way I was able to do the Anniversary Time Trails was by using shortcuts! And yes: St. Francis Folly is very difficult!

But I think the Time Trails in Legend were ok. NOT that I like them, but they weren't as difficult as in Anniversary. Probably because the levels in Legend was shorter and easier

I wouldn't mind if they didn't put Time Trails in Underworld.
And it would be nice with another way of unlocking cheats!

See that's the thing, I completed them quite easily, 'St Francis folly' being the hardest one as there is sooooo many paths to choose form, but in the end to do the time trial there was still a linear-generic path you had to follow through the level in to complete it in the allotted 30 mins! From the order in which you opened the doors to the order you did the rooms in!

[diTaykan]

Personally, I love the time trials.

A lot of people seem to be saying that it's a mockery of the nature of Tomb Raider, but I don't think so. There's a lot of ways to beat a time trial, not just one, and part of beating it is going through the level two or four or howevermany times to find the best way, the fastest way, the way that lets you skip an enemy or a puzzle or find a shortcut that lets you shave a few precious seconds-- or minutes-- off your time.

They energize me. They get my blood pumping. I want to find that best way. It seems impossible? Fine, I'll play until it isn't. The gods know that there have been places where I thought a puzzle was impossible before.

A 'battle mode' is what sounds like a mockery of the nature of Tomb Raider to me. Fighting waves of enemies to unlock things? When has that EVER happened in Tomb Raider? It's not something people come to Tomb Raider expecting, and it's definitely not something that I enjoy in the slightest.

My first reaction to the idea is 'go play Heavenly Sword'.

[LisaB]

The time trials don't "bother me" really. I have no interest in them so I don't do them. But some of the things they unlock could add replay value, so in a sense I do feel shorted in that to play the game again as something fresh, I'm forced to do something that feels "anti-tomb raider" to me.

I feel the same way about battle mode UNLESS it were specific goals. Wave after wave of enemies. . .*yawn* "Defeat five enemies using AD" "Kill three enemies using the environment" . . ."Find three artifacts" . . .Maybe.

[_Tomb_Raider_]

Well it is hard in some level but stil they are good beacose after you finis the game you can play Time Trail!

[LaraCroftRox]

I don't understand time trials at all. I think it should be like like if you find all the artifacts and/or relics you win something.

[Imaginary Whisk]

I really think they should go back to, "Find a wall facing north, then use button-enter cheats."

But I also think they should go back to the old pause and inventory screend, which I'm assuming makes my opinion void...

>_>;
<_<
>_>
>_<

[trebze]

Time Trials are in contradiction with the game.
If you are really going i a real pre-incan temple, you
are not going to rush to finish the tour in 15 minutes.
But they are still good to have merit when you accomplish
them succesfully.

[Imaginary Whisk]

The problem with TimeTrials is that it promotes linear gameplay, which isn't usually welcome in a exploration/puzzle game. D:

[Phlip]

The old way for using cheats would be nicely welcomed. The TR1 cheat system was the best, IMO.

What's the point of having cheats if you have to unlock them later? If you get stuck and no walkthroughs provide help then you're pretty-much stuffed, aren't you?

[RinoTheBouncer]

Time Trials of Legend were much easier than Anniversary cuz Legend levels are short n they don't need to keep going back to the beginings of the level to solve puzzles like anniversary while in anniversary all levels are so long espesially Egypt which are not suitable for Time Trials

[mimi90]

Originally Posted by _Tomb_Raider_

Well it is hard in some level but stil they are good beacose after you finis the game you can play Time Trail!

I agree... I'd hate not to be able to go back and replay levels without a reason... TRL was great, the time trails were challenging... I havn't had a chance to play the time trials on TRA, are they just as good??

[Anarae]

When I play Tomb Raider, I like to explore every nook and cranny of a level. No matter how many times I play a level, I'm always monkeying around trying to find new places to go and different ways to accomplish the level.

Time Trials annoy me because it means I have to execute the shortest path to the end of the level. If I happen to find something new, I a) explore and mess up my time trial or b) miss it and I hope I can find it again later. I leave some great ideas in the dust to complete the time limit. It's great to replay a level and find you haven't tried a ridiculously impossible jump that may or may not lead to absolutely nowhere! It sucks not being able to experiment much in a time trial.

It's impressive to beat a level at a specific speed until a time limit, but that's all it is: bragging rights.

[KasigiYabuSama]

I had a nasty flash the other day, back to the Great Pyramid level in Anniversary where Lara's on those retracting ledges and the hatching Vultures From Hell are coming at her from blobs on the walls... I was hating that in a major way by about the 431st try. That thing in Midas' Palace where she has to swim across that pool with the burning pillars was not quite as bad but trying hard to catch up.

Generally I have mixed feelings - some of the timed things in the early games were a good balance between challenging and "do-able," but lately they've gotten so hard (like the above examples,) that they're more work than fun. You end up splitting the level between three or four days, then when you sit back down to the game it's like: "Oh yeah - I've gotta screw around with that stuff again."

Also, after CD's engine-upgrade that unlockable, unpredictable and uncontrollable camera makes a whole lot of gameplay just a pain in the arse, time trials doubly so. So if they fix the camera (literally,) I could probably enjoy them again.

All in all, time trials have been there from the beginning so I'd hate to see them eliminated. But they should be...fun.

[KasigiYabuSama]

D'OH! I think I'm confusing time trials with timed runs.

Time trials, gotcha. Nope, never do them. What I'm going on about are timed runs. Emily Litella says: "Never mind"

[XenoAlias]

I really like the time trials. I used to be into speedruns back with Tomb Raider 1, 2 and 3, so getting a reward now makes it even better. I think it's a great way to push your skills to the limit, and there's nothing quite like watching Lara move quickly, fluidly, and perfectly through a level, and to know you were the one controlling her.

Now, I do NOT think this should be a main feature of the game. I agree that this game is about exploring and becoming immersed in the world. Once you've completed it however, time trials are a great way to add replay value.

As for time trials being too hard, I personally found them too easy in Legend, and just right in Anniversary. (Granted, there were some rather frustrating parts.) However, I also enjoyed beating Gears of War on Insane by myself (no co-op), so I guess I'm kind of a masochistic gamer :P.

I hope they keep the time trials in Underworld, but new ways of unlocking things would be cool too. I don't really like the idea of fighting waves of enemies though. Definitley not very Tomb Raider-ish to me.

[donnabright]

I used to hate time trials, until I started to get addicted to the rush of playing and trying to beat a certain time, so my hands would shake and I would forget how to jump. I had to redo all time trials for TRL because I some-how erased all my saves. However.. I completed TRL for the 2nd time, all time trials. This time with no cheats. However in TRA, which I also some how erased, well anyway I had all the time trials beat back then. And yes it was much harder to do with TRA. I would fall off a cliff and freak out, thinking, ah I messed up my time trial. I still got threw it but it gave me a rush and it also made me angry, yet I would feel very happy towards the end when I finished a time trial, hands shaking and all. I get real hyped up because in TRA some of those worlds are very long and I am getting towards the end, I'm thinking I have to make, it..I have to make it, or I will be stuck doing this again..Wait how do I jump. Oh ya let me remember. Then Lara would get stuck going around a wall and I'm freaking out..I'm like move, move man. Now doesn't that sound like a lot of fun?