Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered.
INTRO.
Regardless, guess what I luckily won in a contest?
Yeah, you guessed it: TR1-3 Remastered for Steam!!! Shout-out to CheapyD here, for the giveaway. I'm so stoked - and glad I was stoked for this too. Yeah, it's a bit flawed, as I do have a few minor issues with it - but I'm still so far loving TR1 RM here, so far.
THE CONTENT REMAINS...WITH A WARNING.
About dev's and/or pub's deciding on whether content alterations on old titles or a warning with content uncharged b/c some content might be questionable in a modern era: I'd rather Crystal Dynamics put their little message in there, whine about it & state their own values than say the actual game actually be altered from its OG form. Disney did the same thing w/ their old-stuff w/ the new disclaimer on their re-releases on digital services of classic films - and IMHO, it's fine and whatever to me. It's not like their message lasts long on the screen anyways here - and I'm glad this classic stuff is being preserved, as it was from back in the day.
THOUGHTS SO FAR.
So, I'm tackling TR1 Remastered so far here. My biggest complaint here: trying to switch b/t old-school Tank Controls & Modern Controls. You have to go into Inventory, then Game's Options Menus, Control Menu, and then in there yo can switch b/t them - there's too much here to jump through here, IMHO...just to switch control styles. I'd really like to see them patch-in a switch on-the-fly while playing, as I feel I can easily line-up Lara better for precise-climbing and precision-like stuff w/ Tank Controls...even though doing long running & jumping and combat's way better & easier w/ the newer Modern Controls (think like CD's control-style since TR: Legend). Honestly, that's my only real complaint here, as a button to switch on-the-fly b/t the Two Control Styles would likely solve that problem of mine here.
Another minor complaint - ugh, the camera can be so janky and move in bad spots, making it hard to aim, see, and/or do anything worthwhile at times. Always been a problem in old TR's - and well, it can be a problem here, too. Probably not something easy for them (those doing the Remaster) to fix, I'd guess...even with the Source Code.
You can switch on-the-fly seamlessly while playing b/t Old Graphics and New Graphics - for the New Graphics here, this looks great here, IMHO; think like say an Xbox 1 era to X360 version of Lara TR1-3 Remastered game here. I did notice, the new graphics has better & more realistic type of lighting (and is much darker in tone, mostly) - meanwhile the OG graphics look old, pixelated & much brighter. I really hope we get TR4, TR: Revelations, and especially TR: Angel of Darkness Remastered in THIS style, at some point; this needs to be done, IMHO.
I love that there's an "Exclamation Mark" to identify what you can interact with. This helps a lot, especially if you just want to know what you can and can't pick-up or interact with (like levers, boxes to move, etc). You can turn this on & off in the Game Options menu, if you want it or don't want it; it's on you.
Also, this Steam-version DOES work w/out Steam running in the background, which is great! I likely won't have to rebuy it from GOG later, if not need be. Good job, Aspyr (they published this Remastered Collection). And let's hope they tackle TR4, TR: Revelations, and TR: AoD with this type of Remaster. Loving TR1 RM so far....and I have a feeling, the same will probably go for TR2 RM & TR3 RM.
More to come later.
