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Hi everybody!
Well, since it's the series' 10th anniversary
and with an upcoming remake planned for early 2007, I think,
a remake of this episode, the first Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider. This time I'm sure everybody knows this series!
No doubt about it.
So, I thought I'd make a little presentation of this first game,
the game which started the saga.
It won't be a test, but a presentation, because, you know,
because, well, you know, I wouldn't recommend it,
It did age a bit, you'll see it,
it's really pixelized, it did age quite a bit.
But still I want to present it, humbly,
for people who may never have seen it.
We're at the beginning, where everything starts,
with the great Lara Croft in the foreground.
First, I'll let you watch the cutscene, which back then, was quite impressive.
It was not the first cutscene ever in a game,
but in the adventure genre,
it was among the first cutscenes we could see in a game,
back in 1996.
I remember buying it for the Saturn console,
since the game came out for the PS1 and for the Saturn
and a bit later, for PC.
I had the Saturn back then, so I took it for the Saturn.
I must've watched this cinematic like dozen of times,
before even starting to play the game at all.
So you get an idea of how impressed I was back then.
That was something.
When you go directly from playing 16bit games to 32bit games,
it's true this can be a little shock,
even if nowadays, it may seem ridiculous, for sure.
"It's ugly! My eyes!"
But still, I feel there was already a great mise-en-scene in this cutscene.
Anyway!
About the story: we're in Peru, actually,
and Lara's guide, who was escorting her until here, well, just got killed,
so, now she's all by herself to do what she has to do.
And what does she have to do?
Actually she got hired by a company named Natla Technologies
to recover an artefact, so a rare item from I don't remember where.
That's the story when we start.
Then, later, she'll realize the company's owner will try to beat her at that.
Then it goes further but I'm not going to tell you the whole story.
So as you can see, she could already do her famous 8 ft jumps,
just to show you some of the moves she does.
And of course she already had her famous guns,
with unlimited ammo.
We had very few weapons in this first Tomb Raider, only four weapons in all,
including her guns she owns from the beginning.
There was the magnum, the uzzies and the shotgun,
the famous pump-action shotgun.
We have a little Indiana Jones-like moment here,
like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the darts here.
As you can see, the atmosphere was already here.
Sure, these days, the pixels are a little harder to look at, but...
Look, we could already move the camera like this...
The Tomb Raider atmosphere was already here, see?
Really, we feel it somehow.
It's only the beginning, but the ambiance is there already.
There are little sound effects in the background,
very little music throughout the game, that's true.
Actually, the musics appear at key moments of the game,
such as when we discover new places, things like that...
The musics are beautifully crafted, really,
there are a lot of singing, really, they're excellent.
So, here, first fight against some bats.
Let's get them quickly.
Alright.
Actually, I realize there isn't much to show you here,
so I'm going to switch to another level.
It would be a shame to stay in this level since I don't have so much time.
Here you can see all the game's levels.
There are 15 levels in all, spread in 4 worlds, we'll say.
The Incas World, let's say, in which we have the first 4 levels,
so in Peru... well, not really, let's rather say in the Incas world.
Then we'd have the Greco-Roman civilization, as you can see here.
Then, Egypt and finally, Atlantis.
So 4 worlds, we'll say, divided on 15 levels.
We'll never end up in a populated city in this game.
In this game, we're always...
- Let's go there. -
"Lost valley", the 3rd level.
This way I can show you a key scene of the game.
The great Tyrannosaurus Rex scene.
This one will remain, even went down history.
Boy, it was something back then!
She bumped into the wall...
She banged often...
I didn't play the last Tomb Raider Legend,
so I don't know if her nose is still on her face,
but continually banging into walls in every episode like that,
I'm wondering if her nose isn't too much smashed to a pulp.
Here some moves she can make:
she can do side steps like this already,
she can go forwards, of course.
You need to know this is a platform adventure game,
and there are really loads of platforms in it, really.
As a matter of fact, it was a really hard game back then,
I myself had some real trouble finishing it,
it took me weeks to beat it, although I loved this game.
But I had found it very very difficult back then.
So now I'm going to try to do a beautiful Swan Dive.
If I don't mess up...
It was magnificient.
You see she could swim back then already.
I find the fluidity was already good back then.
We're on the PS1 right now,
I mean, I'm on the PS2, but it was a PS1 game, of course.
I find the fluidity is very good,
the light effects in the water are really stunning,
the light effects are magnificient in this game, really, amazing.
Well, the surface of the water is what it is,
that is, not especially beautiful, but whatever.
Back the weapons: I should have them all now,
because I entered a code to have them all.
See, the magnum, the shotgun, the guns from the beginning,
and here, the Uzzies, that I'm going to take,
to get rid of the wolves who shouldn't be very easy to kill.
You see this is an automatic aiming.
I don't know if it's the case in the last Tomb Raider Legend,
because I've just started playing it,
but in the first Tomb Raiders, the aiming was automatic, see?
So here, I shoot straight ahead,
only by pressing the button,
but here they're too far away so she doesn't aim at them,
but as soon as they come back, she'll do it.
Here we go...
So, this is an automatic aiming.
It makes things easier, but you know...
But at the same time, it would've been hard to do it differently considering the game's system.
So, let's hurry to our friend the T-Rex.
He's not far, we're almost there.
So, like I've told you, there are a lot of platform phases in this game,
such as here, climb on rocks...
Here it's easy since we're at the beginning of the game,
but when you're a few levels further,
it can be really be a pain at times.
Another thing I haven't shown you yet: first-aid kits.
This one is a big one,
but there are also small ones that refill half our life or less.
This one fully refilled our life.
I haven't talked about the enemies too.
Here we have the chance to meet some raptors.
There you go!
About the enemies, there are a lot of animals,
bears, lions, panthers, gorillas, well, a lot of animals.
Very very few humans to fight in this opus.
There are some at key moments sometimes,
we can say they're some kind of half bosses.
Here you're about to see one of the key scenes of the game.
I let you enjoy it.
This is THE great T-Rex.
Ultra pixelated, of course.
Wait, I'm turning the sound down because I can't hear a thing, really.
It's true I always make the sound loud in my videos...
Here the great T-Rex.
Let's take the shotgun to try to get him.
The first time you see him, it can be a shock,
first of all, because it's totally unexpected
and also because he's....
Well, you're going to say "he's ugly", which isn't untrue,
but back then, it was pretty impressive.
I can't even remember if we can kill him or not,
I would say yes, but I'm not sure.
Here we go.
I got him.
Really, it was a great moment,
plus, with a music that matched...
You heard the music,
so now I'm going to show you another last level...
The Cistern, it's a good one.
See, like I've told you, the music comes at key moments
and each time it's an excellent music.
So now I will show you the Cistern.
Plus, if I'm fast enough, I'll be able to show you a great platform moment.
Because, the most part of the game ARE platform phases.
There are loads of them.
And quite difficult...
Although maybe I simply sucked back then, that's also possible.
Here we go.
Maybe I wasn't good back then, I don't know
But I have to say this game caused me a lot of trouble, A LOT!
I got stuck dozens of times because of twisted riddles.
Here for example, she easily pushes a rock of probably 3 tons.
It's this game that etablished we could push rocks like that!
A lot of games then took over things like this.
I believe, if I remember well, Tomb raider was one of the firsts, if not the first game,
in which we could push rocks like this.
Also, it was one of the first 3D adventure games!
It's something you need to consider.
it was one of the first 3D adventure games!
Before Tomb Raider, I don't really what other games we had...
No, it was one of the firsts.
And it was excellent, really.
With this game of course, everybody started talking a lot about Lara Croft, the heroine.
- I'm turning the sound down, because you can't hear a thing I say -
But as far as I'm concerned, they would've put an Indiana Jones instead,
I would've appreciated the game just as much.
No problem, I mean, it was the GAME I found extraordinary
and not Lara Croft.
Honestly, I didn't really give a damn about Lara Croft.
Seriously.
Although I must've been, I don't know, 14 years old, something like that, or 15 back then.
I don't remember.
Right, a little platform phase.
And now there'll be a new music because we're discovering a new place.
See?
You can also see there's quite a lot of clipping,
we can't see the background, it's black,
because of the PS1's lack of power,
or because the developers didn't manage to really exploit the console's power.
Here for instance, this a pure platform phase.
There are LOADS of them in the game, dozens of them.
And here, it's still quite easy,
because it's on one only level,
because sometimes, upwards, there are 3, 4, 5 floors you have to go to,
on similar platforms as those.
So you have to jump on it, simply like that.
See? Often you have to walk slowly like this.
With this maniability, you sometimes get the feeling you're handling a big truck,
rather than a character, because of the clunky controls.
I find the maniability good, but I know people who didn't like the game because of it,
which is, yes, a little bit heavy.
It seems Lara Croft weighs 300 kg (661 pounds :-) ).
It feels like we're driving a huge truck,
but I kind of like it, it's part of the game's charm, really.
What did I forget to mention...
A lot of things actually.
About the saves: over there,
- I don't know if you can see it from here -
No, we can't...
I'll try to go there.
I'll jump in the water,
I could die but whatever.
Plus there are beasties down there,
or none, apparently.
Not that!
Let's go.
She sure could dive.
Actually, all I wanted to tell you is the game is magnificient
and that I didn't care about Lara Croft.
As I played it back then, I found it marvellous, I spent amazing moments,
although I found it a little bit hard.
But again, Lara Croft wasn't relevant for me.
By the way, I never understood the whole fuss about Lara Croft in the media,
which happened a few months after the game's release.
I don't see what's so extraordinary about her.
Alright, she may be pretty,
although, rather pixelated, I'd say, but whatever.
Honestly, I've never fantasized about her,
really, it's true.
I admit she's charismatic, alright,
but throughout the game, we learn almost nothing about her,
her background is practically not developped at all.
I see I have only 20 seconds left.
You see the blue crystal up there?
This is where we save our game.
You had to manage your saves well,
because once you've saved one time, it's over, the crystal disappears.
So, you really had to manage the saves well.
Ok, that's it for this little review of Tomb Raider, AND
Happy new year and see you next time!