Tomb Raider

Originally published 2018-09-24. Updated 2022-01-29.

The very first Tomb Raider, programmed by UK-based Core Design, started its life as a SEGA Saturn project – not a PlayStation game, as convention would lead one to surmise. Tomb Raider served as an early forebearer of 3D adventure games, and had quite a bit of incidental impact on the Saturn’s (mis)fortunes in the West. Today, it perhaps serves as a bit of an exemplar to everything that was going wrong for SEGA at the time. Aside from this dubious distinction, it is an imaginative 3D action-adventure game that broke a lot of new ground in its day. Like many early 3D games, it hasn’t aged very well in terms of visuals and gameplay mechanics, but in 1996, this game was ‘the bomb’. It exploded onto the gaming scene and quickly made Lara Croft the face of gaming in the late 90s. Following her initial outing on the Saturn and PlayStation, Lara would go on to have three more PlayStation-only adventures during the 32-bit era, remaining console-exclusive to Sony until the end of 1999.

The two aspects that have failed to hold up with Tomb Raider are the graphics and controls; let’s get those out of the way so that we can dive into why Tomb Raider is a great Saturn game.

If you are used to today’s high-def, high-poly graphics, then the visuals of Saturn Tomb Raider are utterly cringe-worthy. Lara’s character model is comically blocky – her chest is hilariously prismatic, her trademark ponytail is tucked into a bun to avoid the processing load of a realistically moving ponytail, and her face looks extremely distorted – lips are too full of Botox and eyebrows look like the real ones have been burned off and very fake ones have been drawn on. That said, because the game is viewed from a third-person perspective, the face and chest are not usually visible. Lara looks much better in the various renders of the day, but even those are simplistic, featuring the unnatural smooth look of computer images of the day. One with Lara swimming stands out, as Lara sports a cross-eyed look. Ugh. Them were the early 3D days.

The environments themselves are a mixed bag, being excellent in terms of style and design and falling hard in technical execution. Levels are understandably blocky… but many of the first few are also incredibly dark in places. So dark in fact, that angles and turns are very tough to make out. This makes judging jumps very tough. Luckily, this only happens in some parts of the game. The overall diversity of the levels is quite stellar – from the lush, green initial temples to monastic motifs, to Roman structures and even Egyptian-inspired locales, the design of the places Lara visits are spectacular. The aspect of these being fully 3D constructs – with the ability to not just go forward and backward but up and down as well – helped establish Tomb Raider’s environments as a massive step forward as compared to 2D environments from older generation games.

There are rendering problems with the Saturn version, though. The draw distance just isn’t sufficient in some places and the foreground fades to black. This actually works well in some areas (St. Francis’ Folly), adding to the illusion of depth and lending an air of mystery to the environments. Areas such as the Colosseum, however, are so large that the foreground fades in to view in squares (an artefact of the way the Saturn renders the 3D environments), and this does detract from the suspension of belief the game attempts to weave. Lastly, a very few locations would have done better as explicitly – rather than implicitly – outdoors areas. Parts of the Lost Valley, for example, could have benefitted greatly from a VDP-2 sky box.

The frame rate also causes issues – it floats in between a serviceable 20-30 FPS in the more confined areas, but as the environments open up, the Saturn visibly struggles to get the job done and the frame rate declines dramatically. Case in point is the Cistern level – the central part of the environment is a large, open, multi-level room with a rising water level. The Saturn really chugs to display the level with maximum water, and the framerate drops to unacceptable levels. If the entire game ran at that kind of frame rate, the title would have justifiably been panned as unplayable. Fortunately, whilst the frame rate does drop as the environments get more and more open, the areas where it is so bad as to be shocking are limited to just a few large, open areas.

The textures are incredibly low-resolution and introduce a massive amount of aliasing into the overall look of the game. Now, in some places, this isn’t so bad: a rocky outcrop, for example, will just look like a messy pile of pixels, and the illusion is not spoilt by the low resolution. In other places, it is atrocious. Any time the Saturn is asked to display complex wall patterns or hieroglyphs, these quickly become a jaggy mess when viewed even from a respectable distance. This becomes irritating in many ways – the graphics for pickups such as guns or medi-packs are high-resolution sprites that sit on very low-resolution polygon surfaces, and the combination looks horrible. Couple that with the relatively dark environments in some areas and the pickups can be very tough to see at all. Core did compensate somewhat for the low-resolution textures by keeping certain ceiling and floor patterns very geometric: the ceilings in St. Francis’ monastery, with their square spirals, look majestic, especially coupled with the excellent light sourcing the game throws around.

There is a small amount of polygon tearing as well, especially with movable 3D objects such as blocks that Lara can push. The graphics on these objects tend to tear and flicker. A small plus, though, is that due to the unique way that the Saturn draws 3D graphics, we do not see a large amount of perspective distortion or warping – a problem that plagues the generally tighter PlayStation version.

The graphics aren’t all bad, however. There are plenty of places where they shine. Tomb Raider features many water sections, and the effect comes off looking very nice. Although they’re lacking in true transparency, it is well faked with wobbling polygons and a crawling shift in light intensity on underwater surfaces, creating the illusion of rays of light dancing around the ever-shifting submerged caves. This blends superbly well when, for instance, swimming towards the light as ever-brighter green from the cave’s bricks shimmer around you. There is a grandeur about the visuals that is only let down by the Saturn’s inability to display them in the majesty they command. Gazing at the underground Sphynx is one such moment that takes your breath away – seeing Lara navigate these long-abandoned, mysterious tombs of a bygone age only to come up to the massive face of the Sphynx is a spectacular experience.

The light sourcing employed in this game is also quite advanced for a third-party, 1996 Saturn title. Water effects aside, general light sourcing is genuine, and light actually glistens off Lara as she moves in and out of the scope of sources of light. Excellent.

We have spent much time discussing the graphics in the game, but for good reason. Yes, they have aged tragically, and some aspects – namely, the low-res textures and the oft-chugging framerate – were visibly sub-par even in 1996. So much of what Tomb Raider does, however, was revolutionary upon its release. The result is that despite its visual flaws, it does not take more than a few levels – even today – to get back into Tomb Raider and play it like it is 1996 all over again. There are enough plusses with this title that the graphics end up moving from ‘horrible, ugly’ to ‘could-be-better, serviceable’ in the especially jarring sections.

Lara herself controls relatively well, but again character control in 3D environments has come forward in leaps and bounds since 1996. To start, Tomb Raider released before either console version had an analog controller, meaning all controls are executed via standard, digital pad input. When pressing forward, Lara will sprint ahead, and will turn slightly when angling forward and either left or right. Pressing back causes her to take a short jump backwards, and drastic turns are performed with her standing still, a la tank control. Core thought of a very serviceable way of having Lara maneuver in 3D whilst using a digital pad. The rest of Lara’s actions map very well to the Saturn control pad and, with a bit of practice, are easily mastered. The player is also afforded access to Lara’s home, Croft Manor, which serves as the training level and plays host to a memorable line Lara speaks as she exits her swimming pool at the end of the level.

So… we have covered the outdated graphics and ‘first try in 3D’ controls, but what about actual gameplay? This is where Tomb Raider fares much better. The puzzles in the levels are usually quite clever and make excellent use of the third dimension – especially with having the player think not only of the cardinal directions, but of up and down as well. Puzzles sometimes rely heavily on switches (find the switch to activate a door, rinse and repeat) but Core did a good job of adding variety to break up this monotony. The various rooms in St. Francis’ Folly serve as a great example of this, dealing with pressure pads, levers, avoiding rolling boulders or bolts of electricity, and the like. There are also bats, wolves, lions, gorillas, and many other dangerous animals that will try and kill you; these must be gunned down. As the adventure progresses, you encounter creatures from a previous age (the run-in with the T-Rex at the Lost Valley is another iconic moment from Tomb Raider) as well as reanimated mummies and genetically engineered horrors in later levels. To combat bird and beast, Lara comes equipped with a pair of unlimited-ammo pistols. She auto-targets enemies that are in range, affording the player full movement whilst firing. This is an excellent mechanic as it adds a frantic sense to the proceedings. Oftentimes, animals jump out of hiding and surprise Lara (and scare the player, Resident Evil style!), and this requires Lara to draw her guns and begin shooting whilst running / jumping / dodging the animals. Further into the adventure, additional guns – requiring ammunition to be found separately – can be located which expedites how quickly enemies can be dispatched. A shotgun, a pair of magnums, and Uzis are all on offer. Generally speaking, players can conserve ammunition for these weapons by using pistols on the weaker enemies and saving the heavy duty guns for the later levels. Speaking of saving… saving is prompted at the conclusion of every level and can also be done in-game by finding and collecting a blue crystal marker. The lack of a ‘save anywhere’ feature may be annoying, but it serves the purpose of pacing the game well.

And what about the sound? To be honest, the effects are acceptable and completely forgettable, but then again, there are only so many ways you can hear Lara grunt as she hoists herself up a ledge; a flowing river sounds like a flowing river, and the various guns sound like guns. They work well, but are nothing to write home about.

Where Tomb Raider really stands out is the music. The game was scored by Nathan McCree, and the Tomb Raider theme is now a classic amongst games of the fifth generation. The main theme conveys an old English feel along with an air of mystery, which of course fits in perfectly with Ms. Lara Croft and raiding tombs. In an interesting and ultimately effective design choice, background music is quite sparse in the game, activating only during sequences meant to enhance the feeling of surprise, grandeur, discovery, or fright. This is extremely effective and adds to the atmosphere of the game. McCree wrote the entire score in a matter of weeks, without ever seeing any gameplay footage and going off only a brief description of what the game would be like. He went on to score the following two Tomb Raider games as well.

The story of Tomb Raider is that of a fantastic adventure, featuring mysteries and betrayals, shady characters, and lost continents. Lara is initially contracted by enigmatic Jacqueline Natla to retrieve an ancient artifact of mystical powers called the Scion. The Scion is said to be located in the un-found tomb of Qualopec, deep in the mountains of Peru. And just who is Qualopec? Why, none other than one of the fabled rulers of the continent of Atlantis! As Lara progresses on the adventure, cutscenes show that not all is as it seems, and deception and intrigue follow. Overall, the story is well told and well-paced, and much like the soundtrack, adds mood and atmosphere to the experience.

The initial impact of Tomb Raider on the gaming scene was immense. Released on both PlayStation and Saturn to critical acclaim, the game – and Lara herself – became an overnight phenomenon. Work quickly started on Tomb Raider 2, due out on Saturn and PlayStation in 1997, but the story gets very murky at that point. Initially, doubts began to surface that the Saturn could handle the larger and more complex environments of Tomb Raider 2, considering there were performance issues in various levels of Saturn Tomb Raider 1… but then Core was said to have been shown the Virtua Fighter 3 Accelerator Cartridge, which was being developed to massively boost the Saturn’s 3D processing power in anticipation for the forthcoming Saturn port of Virtua Fighter 3. On paper and in the press, Saturn development of Tomb Raider 2 continued, until it was revealed that Sony had signed Lara Croft to PlayStation exclusivity through to the end of 1999, effectively barring Lara from the Saturn (and the Nintendo 64). Much like the market-savvy scooping of Mortal Kombat 3 to PlayStation exclusivity in 1995, Sony repeated the feat with Tomb Raider in 1996. SEGA lost another PR battle to Sony with Tomb Raider, and Core ultimately resurrected the ‘hardware limitations’ reasons for dropping Saturn development. Ultimately, moves like this bolstered the PlayStation’s image as the 32-bit destination of choice, and continued to paint the Saturn as an also-ran with the majority of Western gamers.

So how does all of this come together in the finished product? Very well indeed. Core Design stuck their proverbial necks out in producing Tomb Raider in that a 3D game of such ambition had never been tried before. By all counts, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. In 1996, this Saturn stunner (and the generally better-regarded PlayStation version) provided a novel, new 3D adventure experience. The game is clothed in superb (for Saturn in 1996) graphics and solid gameplay, with novel puzzles to solve and an array of enemies to gun down. The soundtrack is spectacular, and the story is strong as well. Tomb Raider still sounds and plays great today, but of course suffers the visual aging that most 32-bit 3D games do. Still, there is nothing quite like the sensation of being alone in its majestic environments, discovering treasures and secrets, all the while working away at the overarching mystery of the Scion. The franchise endures to this day, and it is heartwarming to know that the entire affair began on the SEGA Saturn. More than twenty five years later, a play-through of Tomb Raider is still sure to amaze and satisfy.

Shiro Challenges:

• Find the secrets on every level! It is possible to find shotgun shells, magnum clips, and uzi clips long before you find the actual weapons… but most secrets are very well hidden and will require mastery of all of Lara’s moves to obtain.
• Gun down the T-Rex using just the pistols. Hard, but do-able.
• Even though it will require a lot of back-tracking, do a dive off the highest point in the complex in the City of Vilcabamba, into the small pool below. It’s a spectacular sight!