The reflexes were not what they once were, and my hand-eye coordination has seen better days, but none of these issues prevented me from conquering this game.

I don’t have a lot of spare time on my hands, so it took me a few months – and countless short gaming sessions – to get the job done. In fact, so slow was I that the next trilogy (Tomb Raider 4-6) was released at around the same time I wrapped up this game.

But despite dragging things out, reliving ‘Tomb Raider’ was an enjoyable experience, except for the last three levels – but I will go into more detail about that later. I find this interesting as I don’t recall feeling this way during my initial playthroughs back in the late 90’s, but this time around just getting through those final areas was a real slog.

It’s probably just age catching up with me.

A quick recap: The game starts off in Peru with a level called ‘The Caves’, which allows the player to get used to the controls without too many dangerous foes to deal with – except for bats and the odd wolf pack.

Following that, things get a little harder – with a battle against a T-Rex and a few rogue raptors being the highlight.

The Peru adventure concludes with Lara taking a piece of the mystical Scion at the end of the ‘Tomb of Qualopec’ level.

My overall thoughts are that the first four chapters looked good, and were fun to play without being too much of a challenge.

The Greece levels – starting with ‘St Francis’ Folly’ – is when the game’s difficulty goes up a notch. Lions, crocodiles and gorillas are dangerous enemies and attack in large numbers, while you have to constantly pull off death-defying climbing and jumping stunts.

Adding to the difficulty are the constant surprise attacks from rival explorer Pierre DuPont. This guy is a real jerk and pops up at the worst possible times, inflicting huge amounts of damage with his guns before running away once Lara gets the upper hand.

The French pest appears across multiple levels until finally meeting his Waterloo at the end of the ‘Tomb of Tihocan’ level – right next to a pot plant, in my case.

As incredible as the Greece levels were, I think ‘Tomb Raider’ hits a peak once it reaches Egypt. There’s something far more alluring about exploring ancient Pyramids and seeing Sphinxes and hieroglyphics recreated so brilliantly in the remastered game.

However, whilst Egypt was a joy – the following levels were somewhat of a disappointment.

The lead-in to the finale starts off with ‘Natla’s Mines’; a stage that is both an eyesore and difficult, with a lot of jumping and climbing – not to mention searching and backtracking – with the only enemies being various henchmen popping up to shoot at Lara.

Then there is the ‘Atlantis’ level, that goes from looking like a hellish nightmare, to something resembling the inside of a stomach. The enemies are annoying as well, as they are fireball-shooting Atlantean beings that hatch from giant eggs – not good!

Then there is the infamous fleshy doppelganger, as well as the long-armed mutant torso Lara has to fight at the start of the final level – ‘The Great Pyramid’.

By this time the game had become frustrating and I was irritated by the off-putting surroundings and constant acrobatics needed in order to progress through.

However, as you can see in the above screenshots, I defeated the final boss (Natla) and scaled the seismic-shaking pyramid to make it to the very end. It was a struggle at times, with my age (fifty-something) being an issue with some of the trickier elements and tougher fights, so I shall keep that in mind when sharing my final thoughts and giving an overall score.

Despite the last three levels being less-than-inspiring, I still rate this game very highly. It was a ground-breaking release on PlayStation back in 1996, and a lot of that magic still rubs off on the 2024 PS5 version.

I cannot fault the work involved in improving the graphics and the overall aesthetics, but unfortunately I did have one minor gripe; and it was a problem that popped up constantly throughout the game.

It has been commonly reported that the remastered version of ‘Tomb Raider’ does have some lighting issues, and this was definitely a hangup for me as well. It was hard to find keys or other pickups, and sometimes it was so gloomy that even boulders of red-hot lava could not be seen until they were right on top of you.

If you check out the split screenshot above, it is clear that the boulder trap is near-impossible to detect in the new version (top), whereas in the original game (bottom) you can spot the danger from a country mile away. See what I mean?

Anyway, besides this, I have nothing but praise for the game and would give it a solid eight out of ten – with some of the Greece and Egypt levels receiving perfect scores.

On a final note, I was looking forward to playing the ‘Unfinished Business’ bonus levels, and even made it past the first stage – ‘Atlantean Stronghold’.

Now, very rarely will you hear about an Aussie quitting, but I simply couldn’t take any more of Atlantis. This level was everything I despised – the mutants, the eggs, the lava, the fleshy corridors – but this time around it was on steroids!

So, I shall now move on to ‘Tomb Raider II’ – and will try and pick up my pace and defeat it as quickly as possible.