Lara Croft is one of the most famous video game characters in history. She goes on globe-trotting adventures to recover a lost artifact.
Alicia Vikander stars in the rebooted big-screen adventure. The franchise has used real-world mythology as a foundation for its stories. The OG Tomb Raider, released in 1996, is a classic that’s easy to pick up and play.
How to play
The Tomb Raider games feature the beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist Lara Croft. While you might think her job involves digging holes and dusting old bones, she’s a relic hunter who knows how to kick butt and take names.
The first game in the series was released in 1996 by Core Design and is still worth playing today. It’s the best way to get a feel for Lara Croft and her trademark action-adventure gameplay.
This sequel to Tomb Raider takes Lara on a globe-trotting quest for an ancient Scion artifact. She’ll travel from Venice to Tibet in this adventure, which has been called one of the best in the franchise. Angel of Darkness is also notable for being the first game in the series to rely on a darker story tone. It was criticized for its clunky camera settings, which made it difficult to see Lara when in tight spaces or during combat.
Installation
A reboot and reimagining of the Tomb Raider franchise, this game sees Lara Croft hunting for the Scion of Atlantis. A shift away from item collection and pulling switches, the game focuses on physics-based puzzles and environmental set pieces.
The installer is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. The installation process is similar to that of the original Tomb Raider and is easy to follow via onscreen prompts.
The installer is compatible with both VDM Sound and the Glide emulators GLIDOS or dgVoodoo (both of which are included in the installer). If you choose to install dgVoodoo, you will also need to download the 3D/FX PC version. When you boot up DOSBox, the games folder and CD drive will be automatically mounted and the game can be played. You can use the mount command in your DOSBox configuration to make sure these virtual drives are always accessible. This way the game will start every time you boot up your computer.
Controls
For the time, Tomb Raider’s controls were fairly complex. Developers Core Design gave Lara a full repertoire of moves and stuffed the corridors with instant death traps and pitfalls to challenge players to carefully plan their route while staying in character.
Pressing Select pauses the game and brings up a main menu ring where you can access inventory (weapons, Medi-packs), puzzle items, and the Options menu. Two other menu rings allow you to save, load, and quit the game.
The default keyboard controls are detailed below, although players can customize their controller settings in the Options menu. The arrow keys and D-Pad can be used to move between the different control buttons. Pressing the up and down directional buttons changes the action selected; pressing X selects an item in the inventory. The left and right triggers can be used to fire a bow or reload the firearm. The Action button can also be used to grab onto surfaces like walls, ledges, and hanging rebar.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider is a fantastic game that’s a must-play for anyone who loves adventure games and admires Lara Croft as one of the gaming industry’s first female treasure hunters. Its expert sense of pacing, captivating setting, and dark tone make it an unforgettable experience.
The reboot series has gone from strength to strength since its 2013 debut, with the second entry in the trilogy, Rise of the Tomb Raider, proving that Square Enix’s revitalized Tomb Raider franchise is here to stay. A little older and tougher than the shipwrecked archaeology student who first appeared in the reboot, Lara is now a hardened adventurer on a single-minded quest to prove her father’s outlandish claims about a lost city and a powerful ancient artifact.
During Square Enix’s E3 2018 presentation, senior game director Daniel Chayer-Bisson showed off a sneaky and stealthy Lara in a gameplay video, taking down enemies by sniping from a distance or using Molotov cocktails. The new title also features a more flexible inventory system and allows players to explore the largest hub world in any Tomb Raider game. The game will include seven DLC packs post-launch, which can be purchased with a season pass or individually, featuring new challenge tombs, co-op functionality, weapons, and outfits.