The Tomb Raider Trilogy (PS3)

This "classics" set contains 3 games on one Blu-ray disc. The games are Legend, Anniversary and Underworld which form one continuous story in which Lady Lara Croft searches for the truth about what happened to her mother.

I remember my sister playing the TR series of games on her PSone in the 1990s and I loved the stories. Unfortunately, when it came to playing the first game I wasn't that great. The saves were limited and that was also a problem. I can vividly remember Lara walking off the edge of a tall structure (somewhere around the Atlas section of the game) and dying over and over again until I gave up. I had more success with the subsequent Tomb Raider games. That's why, when I saw this triple play was available, I decided it was a must have. To be honest I was looking for something to break me of my Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil habits.

LEGEND

The main game has 8 levels which takes Lara on a round the world journey from Bolivia to Peru, Japan, Ghana, Kazakhstan, England and Nepal, before returning to her Bolivia for the final showdown with an arch-enemy.

There is the option of "playing" Croft Manor, but this only opens for play after the completion of level 1 Bolivia.

The game is relatively short (compared to some of the other games I've played), but it is engrossing.

The controls are, mostly, easy to learn and operate.

ANNIVERSARY

There are 14 levels of continuous play. Unlike Legend Lara doesn't jump from country to country, but stays, exploring, the one location - and it is a large location.

This is the remake of the original Tomb Raider, though it didn't dawn on me straight away. I had thought it was a little familiar in places but it was only when I hit the dreaded tower of the Gods and the Swords of Damocles that the penny dropped. I was a bit slow on that one, but it's been a long time since I tried to play the original game.

I dreaded the Midas section, and I was right, you have to be good at the quick jumps, or be willing to repeat the moves over and over again until you are successful.

Once again the controls were, mostly easy - the one I had the most problem with was the `rope swing and jump back' move, but this can be practiced in Croft Manor.

Croft Manor is open right from the start of the game. There is one thing I missed in Croft Manor and that was Winston the butler following Lara around with a tea tray and passing wind, silly I know but I did miss it.

UNDERWORLD

This game has 7 main levels with most of them being subdivided, and sends Lady Croft globe trotting again.

The game starts with a short prologue set in Croft Manor, and it is well worth participating in, though it can be bypassed.

Level 1 (Mediterranean Sea) has 5 parts
Level 2 (Costal Thailand) has 4 parts
Level 3 sees Lara return to Croft Manor for a single part
Level 4 (Southern Mexico) has 4 parts
Level 5 (Jan Mayan Island) has 2 parts
Level 6 (Andaman Sea) a single part
Level 7 (Artic Sea) has 3 parts

Underworld has the most problems, and these bugs can be truly irritating.

The camera doesn't line up properly with the movement. You can line up your jump perfectly, hit the jump button and she jumps to the right or left of where you have lined her up with - frequently that plunge sends her to her death and you back to the last checkpoint.

The camera flies to an unhelpful angle. For example, I jumped to a column and the camera ended up giving me a close up of the grey rocks, this meant that I was unable to tell whether she was on the column, had fallen to her death, had fallen into the scenery (which was what I thought the first time it happened), or had landed in the wrong place. Recovering the camera angle meant that I had to try and work out where Lara had landed, what direction she was facing and where she was supposed to go next (this was not that easy at times).

There is an interesting bug where Lara was riding her motorbike and suddenly she stops in mid-air and the motorbike continues on, leaving her straddling fresh air - not a good look for her ladyship. Unfortunately this is another restart moment, and this isn't the only one.

There are the instants where Lara slips into the scenery and gets stuck there, she literally becomes part of the building, once again this was a restart moment. I also came across an interesting one where Lara was walking along a beam and suddenly came to a stop, as if she was at the edge, and she refused to move until I made her jump up and down over again. And so on.

I admit that I was very shocked to come across so many bugs in a game.

There is one thing that annoyed me right from the start. The guns, which were originally on the R1 button are now on the R2 button and the R1 button is for limpet grenades. I've wasted lots of limpet grenades because of this. I know that there is probably a way to change the button designation, but, from my point of view, there should have been consistency across the 3 games.

Having the guns on the R2 button means that, what were natural buttons now became more difficult, even after I became use to the new configuration, it just seemed less natural to reach for the lower R2 button.

On thing I noticed was I have gained a Tomb Raider background picture on my PS3 menu screen. I'm not sure how, but it's there and I can't find out how to remove it.

Overall, taking the bugs and extras into account it's a really good package of games. The new generation of TR games will feature a much younger version of Lara as she starts to take up her tomb raiding (Tomb Raider (PS3)), so it looks like this will be the last release of "classic" Lara.

If you're looking for a game that will keep you occupied (it's single player only) for hour upon hour then I can recommend this one, or should that be these 3.

The Tomb Raider Trilogy for PS3, published by Eidos Interactive, is a collection of the three second era Tomb Raider games that have been remastered in 720p HD. The Tomb Raider Trilogy is the collection of the following games; Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld. These games all contain a linked storyline and as such make a logical collection for the Classics HD range. Tomb Raider: Legend is a prequel game that introduces some of the characters and explains some of the back-story for the remainder of the trilogy, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the original Tomb Raider game and Tomb Raider: Underworld attempts to conclude the plot elements from the previous two games.

The games themselves are excellent value for money and offer a huge amount of gameplay hours (at minimum 30 hours and for most people is should be even more). Also the games themselves have aged quite well both graphically and gameplay wise, with only Tomb Raider: Underworld suffering with its occasionally frustrating camera angles. The trilogy of games all follow a story based style of gameplay with a blend of acrobatics to move Lara through the environment and gun-based combat to defeat her enemies. Although the trilogy of games all have a similar style of gameplay, each individual game has certain characteristics. Tomb Raider: Legend is quite combat oriented, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is puzzle and exploration oriented and Tomb Raider: Underworld attempts to strike a balance between the two.

Overall, this is a fantastic trilogy that should appeal to any Tomb Raider fan and to almost any gaming fan in general. If you have enjoyed The Tomb Raider Trilogy then I would recommend the Uncharted Series (Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - Platinum Edition (PS3), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Platinum Edition (PS3) and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)) as they have a similar style of gameplay and also focus exploration. I would also recommend Prince of Persia Trilogy (PS3) which is a collection of the remastered Prince Of Persia - The Sands Of Time Trilogy of games, as it is part of the same Classics HD range and also features puzzle and exploration based gameplay - albeit set in a different era.

Loved Tomb Raider since the very first game.

Hated Sony when they made the PS3 incompatible with PS2 games and even bought a spare PS2 slim from ebay mainly to be able to play the Tomb Raider games. With this release I can now play them on the PS3 with the enhanced graphics as well. Result.

I still think Anniversary is the best of the bunch for those of us bought up on the original Tomb Raider.