Dang it, got a couple labels wrong. Wish we could upload a new version in place. At least it’s extremely obvious! Sorry about that. 😢

When the original Tomb Raider released, my friend and I didn’t have a memory card. We couldn’t save our progress, so we would restart from the beginning every day. We got so good at the first 2-8hrs of the game.

The ability to flip back and forth between the original visuals and the remastered visuals is a nice addition that I wish more of these remasters would do.

It’s astounding how this remastered version looks like I remember the original games - it only shows how your brain can fill in the missing details and why most modern games look and feel exactly the same as each other. I miss the old times in gaming so much.

4:10 Original and Remastered graphics seem to be swapped.

“We dive into the world of Tomb Raider” follow by an ingame dive. That’s cinema!

11:26 Tomb Raider Classic Mode looks like Tomb Raider PS1 Emulated and enhanced to 4K, Disabled Dithering, and removal of banding. Love it, Great Job!

I'm always relieved when games I want to see an analysis of are analyzed by John. You can feel his passion for the medium in every video and he always points out little details that I wouldn't normally think about, but definitely impact the overall experience. Keep up the great work, John.

Holy Cr*p - it's been 6 years since the last Tomb Raider? That's wild. Hard to believe we haven't seen an Uncharted title either in that span.

Tomb Raider 1 was indeed the reason why I bought a PS1 in 1996 back in the days, when I was 16! I was too poor to even afford a memory card, so I used to play non-stop without being able to save. We experienced frequent power outages, which meant I had to restart the game all over again. Those were truly the best days of my childhood! 😊🎮

This is a slap in the face for the metal gear collection.

I’m the weirdo who’s nostalgic for the jittery look of ps1 era. Great video never thought I’d be interested in this collection but the way you spoke about the old game design when it comes to platform jumping and exploration made me want to play this.

Giving us the "Halo Toggle" is such a great feature.

The main menu music slap me 25 years back. This was an era of wonders filled with powerful runes such as 3DFX, Trinitron, MMX printed only on the most costly builds.

I think we will never forgot when we first played tomb raider. Before all the tomb raider mania. Really felt like the ps1 showed why it was next gen.

Happy to see Aspyr did a good job with these classics. Bought on Steam deck and looking forward to going back to these childhood memories.

The sense of isolation is what sold these games for me. I always felt I was actually deep underground or in a tomb somewhere far from civilization. Modern versions just don't get it.

I remember getting this game on the PS1 just after its release. I couldn’t afford to buy it alone, being just a simple paperboy. But my pal, also a paperboy, went halves with me. We were blown away with the game.

Rockstar should use this as a case study on how to remaster old titles. Great stuff!

I'm glad that they didn't just increase view distance to infinity and kept a bit of a fog effect in some of the levels. While the black fog was present pretty much purely due to a technical limitation, I feel like in some levels it did have a side effect of adding some atmosphere to exploring, you had to move forward to see what was ahead, you couldn't always see into the next room. It added a little bit of mystery when you were trying to reach an open archway or something but couldn't get a proper good look at what was past it until you got there. It seems like they did go a long way to preserving the atmosphere of the original games, which was my biggest concern and I'm glad it doesn't appear to be just a soulless lazy AI upscale like the GTA "remasters" were.

Looking at this really makes me want a RE1-3 remaster!

I chased the experience of playing Tomb Raider, MGS, Soul Reaver, Tenchu ect on PlayStation One from following generations of hardware and games. I never ever found those feelings and experiences again.

First played Tomb Raider when I got my PlayStation for Christmas in 1997 and it was a hell of a great time! Ended up getting II and III afterwards and had many great memories! So excited to revisit them with this remastered collection!

This is such a good remaster. Classic graphics whenever you want, which are actually remastered themselves in as close a way to the original while looking as good as possible; modern graphics mode that focuses on retaining the feel of the original but looks beautiful; modern controls to get the old type out of the way of new/modern players, but with the classic controls available for old players who liked them; facial animations added to in-game cutscenes (this was a big surprise); and one of my favorite options for remasters, the ability to toggle between the classic and modern graphics with a button press (I had so much fun with this in the D2 remaster). I hope more classic games can get this treatment (I'd kill for Doom, MGS1, or Ocarina of Time done this way.)

Imagine remastering three games in one package and doing an awesome job of it, crazy.

4:11 wow!! The original truly looked magnificent there!! 🤭😅

Absolutely superb video John. Appreciate the depth, attention to detail and cross-comparisons, as well as your fundamental appreciation of the controls and precision these original games required. This remaster feels like a love letter to the 'Core' fanbase. 😉

Great video John! Thanks for including PC and consoles in a single video. I really hope we'll see that more often on DF!

I think the parallax effect on the ladder at 5:37 looks weird because it is inverted by mistake - the stone texture and the drop shadow seem to move in the direction opposite to that which would be required to give the illusion of depth. You see it again at 7:43 - from that angle, the shadow on the right of the texture ought to be on the left.

It’s a shame they didn’t do a physical release, but looks fantastic.

Similar to Soul Reaver on PS1, the black or gray 'fog' that was used to mask the low draw distance actually helped the game's atmosphere in Tomb Raider during the 1990s.

Faithful remastered graphics and the original menus? As a Halo fan, I'm extremely jealous. As a Tomb Raider fan, I'm extremely happy.

We need this version of Lara back!

Very good Review John! I was 14 years old in 1996 and I played them all back then. While watching your video, I immediately felt transported back to those beautiful times and nostalgia hit hard. I will play this Remaster on PS5 at midnight and enjoy the ride back to the past. ♥

I had no idea this was coming out, and man it looks good. I love seeing remakes of games from this era that actually try to pay homage to the original instead of rip out as many of the original's quirks and oddities as possible as if embarrassed to show off games that put the series on the map.

My dad and I used to play the TR games all the time when I was young, he'd solve puzzles that I couldn't figure out and vice versea, we'd take turns exploring the levels and finding secrets, and just immersing ourselves in the weird story but fun gameplay! Great memories I have playing video games with my father. RIP. I really hope the devs also release Last Revelation because that is my favorite title!

No one does this kind of stuff better than John and DF.

John really knows how to appreciate and spread the word about the best ost of a franchise, the edit for the Gears of War 4 Tech Review using the original Gears 1 soundtrack is still stuck in my mind. I wish the motorcycle sequence in Gears 4 actually had the og ost. And using the Angel of Darkness theme here is perfection.

The opening with Angel of Darkness’s theme🔥 Great video John!

Tomb Raider 1 and Resident Evil 1 always been my favorite of the series. I might even still want to play the original versions.

I remember playing the first Tomb Raider game from a PC demo CD that came with a magazine. It was amazing. My dad won't let me play it cause I might damage the computer. I think now it's the time to finally complete the dream.

The challenging navigation and traversal is what made it so immersive to me back in the day, having to pay attention and be precise and the game rewarding you for it. Super glad to hear it can still generate similar feelings. Tomb Raider on the Saturn is one of my top 10 gaming experiences.

I know some people would probably call these remasters lazy, but there's something weirdly charming about the super high res textures on the old geometry.

Looks like that particular era of videogames from the early 2000s, after the PSX generation but before the widespread use of bump and normal maps. This is an era I love, which is around from 2000 to 2003, with Max Payne 2 being the pinnacle of it. Basically very detailed textures and sometimes even geometry, but no weird post process effects like we saw in the early days of the xbox 360 (case in point Gears of War)

Im glad they kept it classy and faithful

Tomb raider 1 was one of the first ps1 games i ever played. I was so young it scared me with the wolves and bear 😅

I'm afraid this is not going to be appreciated by the many people who didn't play the originals or who don't know about 90s platformers. On the other hand, me and the other fans of the series are definitely going to love it. They kept the magic intact but somehow managed to make it look and play better. To be played with tank controls. Hopefully 4, 5 and 6 get the same treatment as well.

Brilliant review as always. I'm getting a real urge to jump back into my childhood games again. Tomb Raider 2 was my first PSOne game and I played it so much, I could run through levels blindfolded. But it was also hard as nails. I love how respectful they've been with the upgrade and staying true to the original.

It’s nice to see a remaster done well for a change.

I still remember the first time I played this on my Saturn. I cannot wait to play this again and relive the adventure and a hefty dose of nostalgia. Great video, John!

Thank you for covering this remaster!!! I’m so excited for them to come out and hope everyone enjoys them. Hopefully we get 4/5/6 remastered too!

Man, I'm definitely buying this! I remember my cousin and I breaking night playing each one of these games on their releases and we wouldn't stop until we beat each game. So many great memories. He's no longer with us and I miss him dearly. Playing these games again is definitely going to be an emotional experience. But I can't wait!

That opening music sent me back to my childhood and being completely blown away by the original TR adventure. It was something I had never seen in gaming before. The 3D world at the time felt so real, lonely, but ultimately packed with content. The music would kick in at the appropriate times but most of the time the vastness of the areas was your soundtrack and it fully put you in the character as if you were on an adventure. Loved the original trilogy so much. Even the couple follow-ups with Revelation and Chronicles. I wish Eidos would go back to remake/remaster/fix Angel of Darkness. I struggled through that one as a fan but if the controls were fixed, it could really be something.

The return of 3 certified hood classics!!

The usual astonishing level of detail and commitment from you John. And I never tire of seeing those side-by-sides of Pentium, Saturn and the PSX - man that's a trip! I'm so pleased we got these remasters. I'm 54, got a load of gaming miles at my back, I want to see a lot more of this done before I finally shuffle off my mortal coil and run down the curtain.

Gotta love how john uses and gives credit to the "Tomb Raider Go" OST wherever possible

I was really surprised to hear Lara Croft GO's theme song in this video, I love that game and it's soundtrack!

Just a few more hours and I can't wait for a TR marathon, all 3 games back to back. It is going to be glorious!

I’m so glad they handled the remaster the way they did. There’s something about the original controls that I just love

I’ve yet to play any of the Tomb Raider games (original or reboot), but I might start with this package. The remastered visuals look great to me, though I won’t argue with people who dislike the style.

Starting the video with the excellent Angel of Darkness theme is an instant thumbs up for me

“No yellow paint here” Will definitely play this probably on my Steam Deck.

John’s editing is just spectacular. I love his videos.

Great review as always, thanks John. Also loved the use of the Lara Croft GO soundtrack in the background! So atmospheric. I'll have to play that again as well, since it's been over 8 years! Thanks for reminding me about it, indirectly :)

The fake depth of those log ladders looks super broken. It's as if they accidentally inverted the depth map.

i LOVE that like Monkey Island and Halo (and likely others i don't know about) and now this let you switch graphics modes in realtime 🥰

Thank you for this video. I havent finished the video, just wanted to write that I heard the menu music even though it wasn't playing when you showed the menu being improved. I just left rhat menu on for the music when it was first released.

Great Video.. Tomb Raider is one of my favourite series and I'm definitely willing to play it again after watching this video. Stronghold Definitive Edition/Remaster also releasing today. It would be great if you do a detailed video like this one on Stronghold. Its one of the legends in real time strategy games, the best being Stronghold Crusader 2.

Nice to see tomb raider again for modern day consoles and PCs

The soundtrack in the beginning is from Angel of Darkness I wish that gets a remake as well

I played tomb raider 1 on Nokia Ngage phone in 2007 and was totally blown away by the game. In that era when there were no walkthroughs on internet I remember getting stuck at few points in game for days together as I was unable to find the way or solve the puzzle. Beautiful game

01:25 Such a nice transition in accordance with the voiceover.

Just the music makes me want to cry with joy.

4:32 mixxed up comparison

real-time lara looking better than the single-frame renders of the mid-90s is in the same category as kingdom hearts giving us live-generated toy story that looks as good as the original movie. incredible really.

It's great to see these last great cinematic platformers get the love they deserve with this rerelease. Fantastic work on covering all the nuts&bolts as always, John.

I played the OG on the Sega Saturn.

Happy to see that Aspyr did a good job with the remaster and I already bought the Switch version. I love the five classic Tomb Raider games and I replay them regularly on PC. The level designs are generally very good and the few weaker levels are still tolerable. I also think the tank controls made the games age rather well. Back then bad 3D cameras were basically a given and the tank controls + tile based level design enabled precise and predictable platforming without actually needing to see what is in front of Lara.

Lovely thoughtful review and meditation as always John. Thank you. Looking forward to playing this since I played it back in the day and would love my two daughters to experience it on modern hardware.

About TR2 and combat of the original games in general. When against melee foes: either jump on a platform (use platforming: which is the more robust of the systems when compared to combat) and gain an advantage since enemies couldn't follow you to higher ground until TR4, and you can shoot them. They will try to avoid your sight but you can bait them, and some times you don't even have to. And about ranged enemies, which are mostly present in TR2 and TR3, you can jump yes, sometimes it does help, but the best is to ROLL behind them like a fucking Dark Souls enemy, the tracking tends to be slow enough to allow you to minimize damage taken, and if you're fast and precise you can avoid it all. Just run towards them with a slight turn angle so that you don't roll into them, and press the Roll button which on keyboard it's END or UP+DOWN and both are very usable and END for me personally is great to use. What with it being so near the arrow keys.

I really hope this remaster does well and we get a part 2 with The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and maaaaaaybe Angel of Darkness. Then we can have all of the CORE era TR in a nice, convenient package:

The opening music was epic.

The quality of John's videos seems to consistently improve. These are great man 👏🏽

Lara Croft Go music playing in the background is just beautiful. That game absolutely nailed the feeling of isolation and dread that the old games have is spades.

AoD Theme is the most beautiful Tomb Raider theme

Angel of Darkness soundtrack in the beginning ❤🤩

Thanks for the clear 3dfx voodoo footage alongside it !

This was an honest review, taking into account the originals by comparison vs your past experience with them highlights the remaster's strengths that I feel many outlets overlook simply because this 'isn't modern' as if it were supposed to be. Not to say 'you're old' as I'm likely older than you, but you truly get it, which I believe most recent reviews are from people born after ps2 era which is hardly their demographic. I believe majority of any bad reviews out for this are by those expecting a modern take or remake, which honestly Crystal Dynamics has tried a few times with mixed results. You don't mess with a classic. I love that you pulled out 3D0 GFX for this comparison and pointed out even then the classic setting is better overall. I was recently watching some retro comparisons on Saturn/PSX/PC and even Dreamcast and your comparison fits nicely on top showcasing the drastic improvements. The tank controls as you said are part of the challenge and level design and I appreciate how much detail they left alone yet also overhauled, it would have been nice to have SOME graphical settings or maybe RTX option for 'wow' factor but as it is they suit nearly all hardware so it doesn't bother me, hell my 7 year old '940mx gaming laptop' will actually run this perfect so I'm pleased. We can expect more from RTX Remix and mods in near future, hopefully a patch or two from Aspyr as well tweaking simple things as you've critiqued. One review I've seen said it didn't run well on their only copy for Nintendo Switch, which sadly they gave it extremely poor score. I think as you said, modern audiences likely aren't used to this type of challenge or being frustrated at all, as anyone having played retro games knows skill is required for classics. IMO The lack of auto save is really another feature for this challenge, planning is crucial, using your brain shouldn't be hard. If you have autosave and too many checkpoints the challenge and point of health packs nearly lose meaning and becomes too cheaty, I prefer the way they have implemented this as I don't think it was flawed decision. Part of the learning curve was that you'd have to start ALL OVER if you failed, which again caused many to rage quit back then, the sensitivities of modern gamers hopefully learn some coping skills that not everything is easy mode. These old games do train you to be more conscious which I feel is yet another thing lost in modern days. This seems like a homage to the heritage of the Tomb Raider franchise more so than anything Crystal Dynamics has released since. I'm truly looking forward to playing this and plan on purchasing on a few platforms, and if Aspyr continues to remaster these classics I'm very well oblige by purchasing those as well. Overall an excellent showcase, thanks for the coverage. I really look forward to playing this again, I downloaded and installed it while watching. *You mentioned auto-aiming was an issue, I believe you have full manual control using 'tank controls' as with the original. It's good you used keyboard as the first game came out before analog sticks were common so it's optimized for D pad. It's great you recommended classic controls, after all, the training mode at Lara's mansion is there for a reason.

My then girlfriend, now wife, bought me a PS1 with Tomb Raider a loooooong time ago, so I'm definitely picking this up on Steam Deck. I still remember a snowy scene in London where you can hear an underground train and traffic sounds in the background and thinking, wow, games have come on since I first played Tic-Tac-Toe on the Commodore PET! Cheers for the review!

Them thangs thangin in HD now

Ohhhh, Angel of Darkness theme used at the start! ❤

Having the soundtrack for LC: Go playing in the background is a nice touch.

One thing I’d like to see improved is the water effects even if they made it more blue, cause currently it’s like Lara is floating in thin air rather than swimming.

I really hope this sells well enough to warrant both a physical release as well as the same treatment to 4 and 5 to finish off the PS1 Core Design Era! Shame about the lack of PS5 platinum trophy though.

Dark Souls and Elden Ring do what John said was possibly un-doable today: modern detailed graphics where you're lost and don't know and can't see the path forward, you walk past an open hole that you didn't notice, you methodically slowly search an environment for shapes and openings. Especially with Elden Ring's addition of a normal jump move. The videos of Tomb Raider reminded me of Souls and Elden Ring.

DF sets the bar so high, another outstanding effort John 💪

I was just happy to have a new port of these games, but damn they really went above and beyond with this. I thought Nightdive was the only way to go but this is brilliant.

RIP putting CD games in a CD player and getting Redbook audio or secret tracks.

What a wonderful review! Thanks Diginal Foundry. You understood the remasters!

That Lara Croft Go music you use in the video is so good, that game was really cool and captured the spirit of the original games perfectly. But aside from that, I can't wait to play these remasters! 😊