My god, what an epic video. Finally someone who can talk through the Tomb Raider games and give this amazing series the attention it deserves. While the modern reboots were hella fun i will always have a special place in my heart for Tomb Raider 2. Love the long format uploads btw, keep it up :)
Thanks so much, this format definitely takes more work but I really enjoy the research so I intend to make more, that’s for sure 👍🏼 Thanks for the support, really glad you enjoyed it!
What an in-depth recounting the history of Tomb Raider. Mate, this is the second video you have produced that I have watched, and I am highly impressed. I think you could be the next Total Biscuit.
Wow, high praise, thank you so much! TotalBiscuit was a real champ - to achieve his level of success would be living the dream - so I plan to keep trying!
@The Casual Gamer mate, you have all the ingredients. I subbed to Roanoke Gaming, when he had less than 20K subs, and he's pushing 700K. I subbed to YongYea when he had about 100K, and he is closing on 800K. You have the content to back up your climb. All we are looking for is the spark that sets your rise off. Keep at it.
Just spent an hour working and watching this, such a great walk through memory lane. You hit some really great points too as a lot of the older games I haven't played, but it was amazing to see how different they were!
The Cradle of Life was released in 2003, not 2001. That's why Angel of Darkness was rushed out, to ride the TR hype and release around the same time that year
Damn it, not sure how I fudged that - how annoying! Thanks for pointing it out though. I’ll see if I can add a correction overlay using subs or something 🤷♂️
Yeah I can’t do an overlay but the point is there, the game was rushed out for the movie tie-in. Just tragically it was the rubbish sequel and not the somewhat-passable first entry haha. Tried watching Cradle of Life for the first time since it came out a few weeks back - oh man I remember it wasn’t that good but damn, I think about the only memorable thing from the whole movie was the cool poster of Jolie in a silver wetsuit 😄
@@CasualGamr it looks like a TV movie rather than a cinematic release, it’s so weird. I also blame it for the creative decision to get rid of Lara’s braid in the games 🤣
tomb raider is my favorite game franchise of all time. hearing that a new one is on its way has me overjoyed! i only hope it wasnt the remaster of the original 3, but an entirely new game to get Lara back to kicking ass full time!
Great retrospective! However, allow me a nitpick: 52:00, anthitesis means "literal opposite", which is, ironically, the anthitesis of what it seems you wanted to say there. I guess you meant apotheosis?
Yeah, I totally agree, as I mentioned in the video I really liked the concept and to be honest I wanted it to be the best one yet. My favourite Tomb Raider memories are usually the ones where she finds herself in cities and not tombs. Or at least does a bit of both, you know? I think that’s why they called it. Lara Croft: Angel of Darkness. From what I’ve read, harsh as it might sound, Core just didn’t have the experience to put something that big together so quickly, and Eidos just lent on them too hard. I think Crystal dynamics did an amazing job though, and it did start the series down a very exciting new path.
The OG Trilogy and the reboot trilogy is by far the best TR games I love them so much!!! I hope this new studio makes a great game soon....but in the meantime we have the remastered collection of 1-3 coming next week!!!!!;🎉❤😁 AMAZING VIDEO!!!! 💪🏿🔥🔥🔥👏🏿
Thanks so much! I really did enjoy them too. Funnily enough, just last night I was playing a bit of Fortnight with a friend who was my fellow diehard Tomb Raider partner in the playground when we were like 10. He’s just played through a couple of them and feels much the same way as you - in fact, listening to him talk, I can see your emojis flying out of his mouth 🤣 The studios who developed this remaster were Aspyr and Saber, both of whom specialise in ports and remasters. They sit under the Embracer group, a Swedish super-publisher not known for consistency. I’m not entirely sure if we’re going to see anything original out of these developers any time soon, but you never know, they certainly have passionate developers on their staff if nothing else!!
@@dablaccaiyan9152 and now we have the remastered reboot of the three after that as well!! I’m just psyched to see if they have somehow managed to fix some of AoD biggest flaws which were the move set, which possibly would breath life back into it 🤔
I consider myself a hardcore fan of TR from the start ....until the Crystal Dynamics era. For 1996 texture-mapped graphics was something groundbreaking, real 3d graphics, nice exploration, the sense of isolation and of course the 1st, 2nd (didn't like the 3rd one) and 4th were amazing.. Chronicles was just ok, AoD awful in every way. After that.. LOVED Legend but it was small and with only 4-5 hours of gameplay. LOVED Anniversary and Underworld. BUT I think Underworld was more of an arcade-style game specially from the 70% until the end of it. For both of them (Legend & Underworld) HATED the use of "magic superweapons" like magic swords of Legend and specially the mountan-moving "gadget" of Underworld which wearing that you can move 100+ tons of stone cubes etc..) I would imagine if a remake of The Last Revelation.. like Tomb Raider 4 Anniversary could be an EPIC game, using not engines from 2020+ but the same of Legend and Anniversary. The same thing I think would be if Legend was bigger with more levels, but TLR for me at least made the difference, if not my favorite ever, surely the most favorite of TR series and in top-5 of favorite games ever, and it was 1999 then! 25 years have passed and it's still a masterpiece, just imagine an Anniversary version of it with all features of TR1 remake in 2007.. I know, I will never find out about if such remake like the 1st one was awesome and if I am right or wrong but I am sure a lot of people agree with that. Very nice video :)
I really appreciated your comprehensive yet concise thoughts on this series. I can't say I'm a big fan of these types of games as I'm not big into puzzles, but I have a lot of love for the 2013 reboot and the wacky/interesting plots that come with each iteration of the franchise. I'm curious to see what the next game will be like.
Thanks so much, that’s really kind! When I played the first game at about ten years old (actually, I played the second one first, then the third one, then the first one … damn pocket money/Christmas present constraints 😄) I don’t think there was a single level I completed honestly. I’d be telling other kids how to do the level skip in the playground 🤣 but that’s the wonder of the game, it appealed to all ages and all audiences because there was just nothing like it at the time. Then going back and playing it in the following years, I really learnt to appreciate how well-designed the puzzles were. But indeed, if you aren’t into puzzles, the story and combat alone are unlikely to be enough to keep you involved. I look forward to the next game as well, fascinated to see where they go.
The Only Way A Unified Timeline makes sense for me is if You put the Survivor series as Prequels to Original Tomb Raider 1996 / Anniversary with Except of Chronicles as its ether set before 2013 or its remake of chronicles.
6 місяців тому+2
Great video but @ 4:00 you mention the music composer for the original 1996 TR as being Graeme Ravell but he is in fact the composer for the 2001 movie adaptation, not the game. The original game's music is by Nathan McCree.
Thank you so much, and I'm honestly speechless... I had to go back and check myself!! I usually pride myself on nailing details and I actually was aware of Nathan working on the original game, I'm trying to remember why I went and added Graeme's name into the script when I did. I must have read something last minute and added it, something which I basically try to never do now as it's risky. Thanks for the correction, and thanks for the positive feedback 🙏
@@CasualGamr McCree did not only work on the original, but also on II and III. I think his contribution to the phenomenon the franchise ended up becoming can't be overstated. Sadly, TR isn't known for its outstanding scores these days. Peter Connelly did a good job as McCree's successor (no surprise there since McCree personally picked him), and Troels Folmann excelled at creating ambient music. The reboot series had no standouts whatsoever, and without a strong musical identity there's something missing.
Very interesting and well done video. Great watch! I know it's not the popular answer but Rise of the Tomb Raider is by far my favorite TR game since the original. I can play through it over and over. For whatever reason, i just still have not been able to finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It's good, but it just didn't grab me.
Thanks so much, that’s very kind and I appreciate the comment. And no way, I preferred the 2013 reboot myself, but for replay value I can totally see how the second would trump it because there’s just more content and weaponry, and Lara does have a few more gameplay capabilities for sure. The third one just gets a bit weird, so much silly dialogue and side missions, it sometimes feels like you’ve strayed into a GTA game 😄
Oh yeah, I never added it when I first published the video and never noticed. I've added the link to the article I used but bear in mind it might no longer work. If you do want to have a go and that article doesn't work, I'd try googling it instead. Good luck!
This is utterly fantastic. Thank you for such an in-depth incredible thought-provoking and reminiscent review of one of if not the world's greatest video game ... and every teen boy's fantasy woman. I recently purchased multiple editions of this timeless game on the Steam platform for less than 1 USD each!
Thanks so much, so glad you're enjoying it! I did try to put my heart into it, I have so many feelings myself about so many of the games it can be hard to squeeze it all into an hour haha, but feedback like that makes all the time and effort worth it 🙏
I can appreciate the effort of this video but somewhere in the middle it turned from being a history of a franchise into a reading of Squeenix's marketing materials they send to game journalists...
Omg I did forget! And I played that game like twice through back in the day haha. Although it was basically a lame version of Hitman Go which came out a year earlier so I'm not so bothered, but good spot!
I think that’s fair, there’s some strange hate for them, and I don’t understand it, when the 2013 reboot came out I literally thought it was like the best game I’ve ever seen. Up there with The Last of Us and Arkham Asylum, it seemed like video game graphics had just reached a new high, where it was impossible to tell the difference between background terrain and what was intended to be platforming elements. And those set pieces, like the giant ship that is falling and you have to climb up it while fighting. Just awesome.
The video lives up the channel's name by not understanding what made Tomb Raider and Lara Croft so special and unique in the first place with all the praise towards the 2013 reboot and acting like how it somehow ''fixed'' the franchise, the entry that watered down and sanitized the series and Lara's character just to become more mainstream friendly, to be more like like Uncharted than Tomb Raider that was before. Also cant miss the irony in throwing shade at classic Lara by claiming that she was being ''exploited'' in the same segment mentioning how 2013 reboot has a scene that looks like SA🤦♀. Up until 2013 Lara didnt need implied SA and gruesome torture scenes to build her character. What TR 2013 did to Lara was more exploitative than whatever Eidos marketing department did.
I’m glad I’m part of the metroid fandom where most of the community doesn’t sexualize the main playable character and it’s actually widely frowned upon
I mean I'm all for being a gent 🙏 and good for you too. I would say that it's true she wasn't sexualised in 1986, the year of the great reveal, or for a bit after that, but more recent Nintendo artwork does sometimes have a bit of a Rule 34 vibe to it 🤷
I will never take anyone seriously who thinks that the 2013 reboot games where TOMB RAIDER games, they where not, they where uncharted games with a female protagonist. A shamefull shell copy of what the Original games actually inspired.
Would you have preferred it if Lara still moved around a grid and had tank controls? I mean Uncharted was inspired by Tomb Raider after all - can you think of any game that is more in line with the classic Tomb Raider vision? Having gone back and played the originals recently, I would say that puzzle solving is an important aspect, however I thought it was so clever how the created these individual brain teaser segments based on ancient puzzle designs that could be discovered, hidden away within the environment for those who explored.
My god, what an epic video. Finally someone who can talk through the Tomb Raider games and give this amazing series the attention it deserves. While the modern reboots were hella fun i will always have a special place in my heart for Tomb Raider 2. Love the long format uploads btw, keep it up :)
Thanks so much, this format definitely takes more work but I really enjoy the research so I intend to make more, that’s for sure 👍🏼
Thanks for the support, really glad you enjoyed it!
How does this video only have 3000 views?!
What an incredibly in-depth video.
Marvelous work!
Thanks so much!! I've been wondering that myself 😂 alas, that is the UA-cam algorythm for you ... onwards and updwards, I guess...
I own every Tomb Raider game ever made. I played Tomb Raider 1 on the Sega Saturn. I'm 44.
Nice, I'm a few years shy of 40 myself but am grateful I got in there in time to play the entire series as well :)
What an in-depth recounting the history of Tomb Raider.
Mate, this is the second video you have produced that I have watched, and I am highly impressed. I think you could be the next Total Biscuit.
Wow, high praise, thank you so much! TotalBiscuit was a real champ - to achieve his level of success would be living the dream - so I plan to keep trying!
@The Casual Gamer mate, you have all the ingredients. I subbed to Roanoke Gaming, when he had less than 20K subs, and he's pushing 700K.
I subbed to YongYea when he had about 100K, and he is closing on 800K.
You have the content to back up your climb. All we are looking for is the spark that sets your rise off. Keep at it.
Excellent video. You deserve a lot more subscribers and I hope you find a lot more success on UA-cam. You deserve it.
Honestly, thank you so much - these kind comments are what spur me on! Have a great day 😊
Just spent an hour working and watching this, such a great walk through memory lane. You hit some really great points too as a lot of the older games I haven't played, but it was amazing to see how different they were!
Ah awesome man, that’s my favourite way of watching long form videos! Hopefully gave you some insight into the games you missed 😊
The Cradle of Life was released in 2003, not 2001. That's why Angel of Darkness was rushed out, to ride the TR hype and release around the same time that year
Damn it, not sure how I fudged that - how annoying! Thanks for pointing it out though. I’ll see if I can add a correction overlay using subs or something 🤷♂️
Yeah I can’t do an overlay but the point is there, the game was rushed out for the movie tie-in. Just tragically it was the rubbish sequel and not the somewhat-passable first entry haha. Tried watching Cradle of Life for the first time since it came out a few weeks back - oh man I remember it wasn’t that good but damn, I think about the only memorable thing from the whole movie was the cool poster of Jolie in a silver wetsuit 😄
@@CasualGamr it looks like a TV movie rather than a cinematic release, it’s so weird.
I also blame it for the creative decision to get rid of Lara’s braid in the games 🤣
tomb raider is my favorite game franchise of all time. hearing that a new one is on its way has me overjoyed! i only hope it wasnt the remaster of the original 3, but an entirely new game to get Lara back to kicking ass full time!
Thank you! I found out i've played Tomb Raider II, III and Legend what i almost forget. And of course the 2013 & 2015 TombRaider Games
Great retrospective!
However, allow me a nitpick: 52:00, anthitesis means "literal opposite", which is, ironically, the anthitesis of what it seems you wanted to say there. I guess you meant apotheosis?
As much of a failure as AoD was, the story concept was incredible, and if done properly, would have been the best in the series.
Yeah, I totally agree, as I mentioned in the video I really liked the concept and to be honest I wanted it to be the best one yet. My favourite Tomb Raider memories are usually the ones where she finds herself in cities and not tombs. Or at least does a bit of both, you know? I think that’s why they called it. Lara Croft: Angel of Darkness. From what I’ve read, harsh as it might sound, Core just didn’t have the experience to put something that big together so quickly, and Eidos just lent on them too hard. I think Crystal dynamics did an amazing job though, and it did start the series down a very exciting new path.
Amazing video!!! Can’t wait for the next game 🤞🤞👏🫶🏻
34:50 just me temporary book mark to finish watching this video...
The OG Trilogy and the reboot trilogy is by far the best TR games I love them so much!!! I hope this new studio makes a great game soon....but in the meantime we have the remastered collection of 1-3 coming next week!!!!!;🎉❤😁
AMAZING VIDEO!!!! 💪🏿🔥🔥🔥👏🏿
Thanks so much! I really did enjoy them too. Funnily enough, just last night I was playing a bit of Fortnight with a friend who was my fellow diehard Tomb Raider partner in the playground when we were like 10. He’s just played through a couple of them and feels much the same way as you - in fact, listening to him talk, I can see your emojis flying out of his mouth 🤣
The studios who developed this remaster were Aspyr and Saber, both of whom specialise in ports and remasters. They sit under the Embracer group, a Swedish super-publisher not known for consistency. I’m not entirely sure if we’re going to see anything original out of these developers any time soon, but you never know, they certainly have passionate developers on their staff if nothing else!!
@@dablaccaiyan9152 and now we have the remastered reboot of the three after that as well!! I’m just psyched to see if they have somehow managed to fix some of AoD biggest flaws which were the move set, which possibly would breath life back into it 🤔
Yoo lets go what a great video
Thanks so much, appreciate that! 🙏
I'll die in peace knowing that Denim and Cocktail Lara exist.
I consider myself a hardcore fan of TR from the start ....until the Crystal Dynamics era. For 1996 texture-mapped graphics was something groundbreaking, real 3d graphics, nice exploration, the sense of isolation and of course the 1st, 2nd (didn't like the 3rd one) and 4th were amazing.. Chronicles was just ok, AoD awful in every way.
After that.. LOVED Legend but it was small and with only 4-5 hours of gameplay. LOVED Anniversary and Underworld.
BUT I think Underworld was more of an arcade-style game specially from the 70% until the end of it.
For both of them (Legend & Underworld) HATED the use of "magic superweapons" like magic swords of Legend and specially the mountan-moving "gadget" of Underworld which wearing that you can move 100+ tons of stone cubes etc..)
I would imagine if a remake of The Last Revelation.. like Tomb Raider 4 Anniversary could be an EPIC game, using not engines from 2020+ but the same of Legend and Anniversary. The same thing I think would be if Legend was bigger with more levels, but TLR for me at least made the difference, if not my favorite ever, surely the most favorite of TR series and in top-5 of favorite games ever, and it was 1999 then!
25 years have passed and it's still a masterpiece, just imagine an Anniversary version of it with all features of TR1 remake in 2007..
I know, I will never find out about if such remake like the 1st one was awesome and if I am right or wrong but I am sure a lot of people agree with that.
Very nice video :)
I really appreciated your comprehensive yet concise thoughts on this series. I can't say I'm a big fan of these types of games as I'm not big into puzzles, but I have a lot of love for the 2013 reboot and the wacky/interesting plots that come with each iteration of the franchise. I'm curious to see what the next game will be like.
Thanks so much, that’s really kind! When I played the first game at about ten years old (actually, I played the second one first, then the third one, then the first one … damn pocket money/Christmas present constraints 😄) I don’t think there was a single level I completed honestly. I’d be telling other kids how to do the level skip in the playground 🤣 but that’s the wonder of the game, it appealed to all ages and all audiences because there was just nothing like it at the time. Then going back and playing it in the following years, I really learnt to appreciate how well-designed the puzzles were. But indeed, if you aren’t into puzzles, the story and combat alone are unlikely to be enough to keep you involved. I look forward to the next game as well, fascinated to see where they go.
The Only Way A Unified Timeline makes sense for me is if You put the Survivor series as Prequels to Original Tomb Raider 1996 / Anniversary with Except of Chronicles as its ether set before 2013 or its remake of chronicles.
Great video but @ 4:00 you mention the music composer for the original 1996 TR as being Graeme Ravell but he is in fact the composer for the 2001 movie adaptation, not the game. The original game's music is by Nathan McCree.
Thank you so much, and I'm honestly speechless... I had to go back and check myself!! I usually pride myself on nailing details and I actually was aware of Nathan working on the original game, I'm trying to remember why I went and added Graeme's name into the script when I did. I must have read something last minute and added it, something which I basically try to never do now as it's risky. Thanks for the correction, and thanks for the positive feedback 🙏
@@CasualGamr McCree did not only work on the original, but also on II and III. I think his contribution to the phenomenon the franchise ended up becoming can't be overstated. Sadly, TR isn't known for its outstanding scores these days. Peter Connelly did a good job as McCree's successor (no surprise there since McCree personally picked him), and Troels Folmann excelled at creating ambient music. The reboot series had no standouts whatsoever, and without a strong musical identity there's something missing.
Lara Croft will be 56 years old this year when Tomb Raider I-III remastered edition comes out in just over a week.
Haha nuts innit. Except in reality Lara is like James Bond, she only ages when the writers deem it is cool to do so 🤷
@@CasualGamr Lara Croft will always be 28 years old to this day since setting foot as an adventurer back in 1996.
Very interesting and well done video. Great watch!
I know it's not the popular answer but Rise of the Tomb Raider is by far my favorite TR game since the original. I can play through it over and over. For whatever reason, i just still have not been able to finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It's good, but it just didn't grab me.
Thanks so much, that’s very kind and I appreciate the comment. And no way, I preferred the 2013 reboot myself, but for replay value I can totally see how the second would trump it because there’s just more content and weaponry, and Lara does have a few more gameplay capabilities for sure. The third one just gets a bit weird, so much silly dialogue and side missions, it sometimes feels like you’ve strayed into a GTA game 😄
you removed the link :(
Hey bud - if you don’t mind me asking, which link are you referring to? Many thanks 🙏
@@CasualGamr 28:38 - 28:44
Oh yeah, I never added it when I first published the video and never noticed. I've added the link to the article I used but bear in mind it might no longer work. If you do want to have a go and that article doesn't work, I'd try googling it instead. Good luck!
This is utterly fantastic. Thank you for such an in-depth incredible thought-provoking and reminiscent review of one of if not the world's greatest video game ... and every teen boy's fantasy woman.
I recently purchased multiple editions of this timeless game on the Steam platform for less than 1 USD each!
Thanks so much, so glad you're enjoying it! I did try to put my heart into it, I have so many feelings myself about so many of the games it can be hard to squeeze it all into an hour haha, but feedback like that makes all the time and effort worth it 🙏
Great video :D btw the New announced TR game looks Interesting and good with TR1-3 :D
Reallly awesome video
Fantastic video, thank you! My favourite was shadow.
Thanks so much, short and sweet comment 😄 much appreciated 👏🙌
I can appreciate the effort of this video but somewhere in the middle it turned from being a history of a franchise into a reading of Squeenix's marketing materials they send to game journalists...
You forgot to talk about Lara Croft GO. 😂
Omg I did forget! And I played that game like twice through back in the day haha. Although it was basically a lame version of Hitman Go which came out a year earlier so I'm not so bothered, but good spot!
The reboot Tomb Raider games are some of my favorite games of all time.
I think that’s fair, there’s some strange hate for them, and I don’t understand it, when the 2013 reboot came out I literally thought it was like the best game I’ve ever seen. Up there with The Last of Us and Arkham Asylum, it seemed like video game graphics had just reached a new high, where it was impossible to tell the difference between background terrain and what was intended to be platforming elements. And those set pieces, like the giant ship that is falling and you have to climb up it while fighting. Just awesome.
The video lives up the channel's name by not understanding what made Tomb Raider and Lara Croft so special and unique in the first place with all the praise towards the 2013 reboot and acting like how it somehow ''fixed'' the franchise, the entry that watered down and sanitized the series and Lara's character just to become more mainstream friendly, to be more like like Uncharted than Tomb Raider that was before.
Also cant miss the irony in throwing shade at classic Lara by claiming that she was being ''exploited'' in the same segment mentioning how 2013 reboot has a scene that looks like SA🤦♀. Up until 2013 Lara didnt need implied SA and gruesome torture scenes to build her character. What TR 2013 did to Lara was more exploitative than whatever Eidos marketing department did.
I’m glad I’m part of the metroid fandom where most of the community doesn’t sexualize the main playable character and it’s actually widely frowned upon
I mean I'm all for being a gent 🙏 and good for you too. I would say that it's true she wasn't sexualised in 1986, the year of the great reveal, or for a bit after that, but more recent Nintendo artwork does sometimes have a bit of a Rule 34 vibe to it 🤷
There's a lot of ''muscle mommy'' sexualization of Samus going on in the Metroid fandom that somehow gets accepted.
@@Three_Stripes is there? I have yet to see this
@@CasualGamr what artwork?
@@joelsytairo6338 Google it bro, this isn’t the place for it - UA-cam blocks links for a reason.
I will never take anyone seriously who thinks that the 2013 reboot games where TOMB RAIDER games, they where not, they where uncharted games with a female protagonist. A shamefull shell copy of what the Original games actually inspired.
Would you have preferred it if Lara still moved around a grid and had tank controls? I mean Uncharted was inspired by Tomb Raider after all - can you think of any game that is more in line with the classic Tomb Raider vision? Having gone back and played the originals recently, I would say that puzzle solving is an important aspect, however I thought it was so clever how the created these individual brain teaser segments based on ancient puzzle designs that could be discovered, hidden away within the environment for those who explored.