Expeditions of the Tomb Raider | A Complete Franchise Retrospective

[@CainageCritique]

Which Tomb Raider game and version of Lara was your favourite? I would pick Rise of the Tomb Raider and the Keeley Hawes rendition from Legend respectively. (Apologies for the shifting screen resolution, especially in the early games. Getting the older releases to run properly on a modern PC was a challenge at times)

[@Awdhah-]

Your narration is so calming. Love this. Made me want to play the games.

[@CainageCritique]

Thanks a lot for the kind comment :) I will say you'll need a lot of patience when playing any Tomb Raider game before Legend, but if you're curious to see how Lara got her start, the early titles do have some solid brain-teasers.

[@xNachtmahRx]

The secret statues in TR2 are not just bragging rights...you won't have severe health kit or ammo problems if you seek them out, and you even get the big weapons earlier. I also didn't hear you mention that TR3 on Ps1 also uses a save crystal system. I think the healing crystals were the PC version's substitute for them

[@CainageCritique]

The correction is appreciated; I've found that finding all statues in a level does indeed give you stronger weapons. Though as a whole, you don't earn anything extra for finding every single secret in the game. As for the save crystals in TR3 on PS1, that was an oversight on my part.

[@ReactionZero]

Love me anything Tomb Raider related!

[@CainageCritique]

Thanks for checking out the retrospective; no one had ever done a massive video with all twelve games before. Playing through the entire franchise was an intriguing journey.

[@parker2k1]

All the big issues you experience make me enjoy console gaming. (Though I really want to get into trle) fun vid 😊

[@narrq1337]

Really good and interesting video!!☺️ My favorite Lara is Legend and TR13. Let's hope for another good Tomb Raider game in the near future

[@CainageCritique]

We might not have to wait long with Crystal Dynamics working with Unreal Engine 5. Let's see what they do with the franchise next...

[@S9uareHead]

My favorite game in the series was actually Underworld. I liked its level design and how it reduced focus on combat relative to Legend/Anniversary.

[@CainageCritique]

I agree that the level design could have been expanded a lot more if Crystal Dynamics had kept going in that direction. Something seemed to be lost in translation in-between 2006 and 2008 when it came to the gunplay.

[@SerafiniProductions]

Such an amazing video! It deserves more views! Thank you for your hard work

[@CainageCritique]

Thanks a lot, this is actually my most viewed retrospective ahead of InFamous and Resistance. I'm hoping to have my next one out by the end of this year.

[@TheShoe1990]

Thanks for making this well-made retrospective. I fell in love with TR 2013, so I've been going backwards over the years to play all the other games in the series. I hope to hear your thoughts on TR I-III HD later this month!

[@CainageCritique]

Thanks a lot for watching and glad you enjoyed the retrospective! Those remasters of TR 1-3 look interesting, hopefully they're able to make improvements while staying true to the originals.

[@cryogenical_]

It's so interesting that Shadow is a culmination of the trilogy that truly takes a lot of feedback to heart and becomes the best of both classic Tomb Raider and Modern Tomb Raider. Challenging stealth and combat sequences, as we've gotten used to from Rise, paired with really solid puzzles required to go through the story. It becomes especially great when taking all the optional and DLC tombs into account, some real gems in there. My favourite is the howl of the monkey gods, it's so incredibly clever to have a giant killer orchestra to traverse.

[@ninjapurpura1]

I prefer the LAU trilogy, mainly Underworld It's the best Lara, fun games in general

[@Gold26502]

Legend Anniversary and Underworld are NOT buggy. You are playing 2008 era games with 3 million fps, obviously there will be bugs. Cap the framerate at 60 to eliminate all of those

[@SethMcKenzieTV]

Really good video, it was nice to hear your thoughts 😊 well done. Just a couple of things that might make future playthroughs more enjoyable; don't shoot the monks in TR2 and they will remain your allies, and turn on V-sync for Legend and Anniversary will fix all the physics bugs you had. (Also Widescreen being turned on will look better.)

[@CainageCritique]

Many thanks for your comment and tips, glad you enjoyed the video! I should have known v-sync would work for Legend as it did for Underworld... If I cover another retro franchise on PC I'll keep that in mind.

[@artyfartblast3289]

Wow, that was a great video. Thanks!

[@CainageCritique]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it. Long-form content takes a while to put together; always good to see some solid reception on KZbin.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

I've played the Core Design entries multiple times. 1 and 3 are my two favourites, followed by 4, then 2, then 5, and then AoD in dead last.

[@CainageCritique]

Now that Tomb Raider 4, 5 and 6 are getting remastered, we'll hopefully see some big improvements to Chronicles and Angel of Darkness in particular. It will be great to see those games redeemed after so long.

[@radiolagoas1234]

Nice work! I've just met this channel and it's awesome! I hope you'll do more TR videos!😇

[@CainageCritique]

Cheers... glad you enjoyed my longest retrospective yet :) I'm thinking about a shorter one for the two Overlord games in future.

[@occasionalfeelgood23]

Epic rundown, thanks for the video. You've clearly played these games, and I agree with you on almost every little thing.

[@CainageCritique]

Cheers... glad you enjoyed the retrospective. It was a massive trek through all twelve games. Makes me wonder where Tomb Raider will go next following the recent classic remakes.

[@occasionalfeelgood23]

@@CainageCritique The recent trilogy is pretty great, and you pointed out why “Shadow” was flawed - too many characters, a little too generic. Lara is best when she’s alone without the distractions of other humans. Hopefully they bring back more of the horror elements, a little less of the melodrama. Just my opinion, though!

[@Andrew-Bastin]

1:10:30 - I’m a bit late for this comment but while many fans place the Legend Trilogy as it’s own separate timeline it really is just a continuation of the Core games sharing the same continuity, the only real change was a revised backstory for Lara but to be fair her original backstory was never featured in the games and the revised backstory was overseen by Lara’s original creator Toby Gard. So at most Legend could be considered a soft-reboot but for all intents and purposes it is Tomb Raider 7. 1:23:56 - it doesn’t ignore TR2-6, Lara’s home has multiple references to those games, implying she has yet to go on those adventures

[@CainageCritique]

I hadn't thought of that, your insights are appreciated. Angel of Darkness was orginally planned as a trilogy which may have taken place in some kind of shadow dimension. Though as those follow-up games were cancelled, you could easily connect the ending of TR6 to another tomb Lara explores before segwaying into TR: Legend. As for TR2 through to Angel of Darkness, they could be placed after Anniversary but before Legend and Underworld when it comes to continuity.

[@Andrew-Bastin]

@@CainageCritique that was the intention by Crystal Dynamic, in fact they were originally going to do a direct follow up to Angel of Darkness’s story but decided to go with their own story after Toby Gard suggested going back to a more upbeat tune and delving into Lara’s backstory. The Survivor Trilogy was their only intended reboot but they even started to backtrack on that by placing in references to older games implying it’s in fact a prequel, which in hindsight them announcing they’re converting the series into a single continuity doesn’t come as a surprise.

[@NawiTheCore]

They made major changes to Lara's story so that's why most people consider it its own timeline. The changes just weren't as drastic as what we'd see in the Survivor trilogy.

[@Andrew-Bastin]

@@NawiTheCore I’m aware of that, although I did find it somewhat confusing how so many fans held the backstory only featured in the first game’s manual as gospel for the series, and in all fairness Legend wasn’t even the first game to contradict that backstory Last Revelations was and people don’t seem to consider that a separate continuity, I guess it gets a pass because it was developed by Core as well. 🤷‍♂️

[@Skylerjones624]

TR Underworld was great the open world environments getting to use the motorbike to traverse back and forth through Southern Mexico was awesome and wielding Thor's hammer was great. Sadly the novelty with Thor's hammer wears off after a while and without the DLCs you never properly see how Natla is taken out and like you said there were so many missed opportunities such as fighting the doppelganger. There was something I noticed in the Legend and survivor timelines Natla said she dated Lara's dad then that she killed him for betraying her in Thailand. In the survivor timeline it was Ana dated Lara's dad then Trinity killed him after he apparently learned too much.

[@omnihelios4547]

Why does Underworld Amanda look like Jeffrey Star 😭😭

[@cryogenical_]

FYI, if you don't shoot the monks in Barkhang Monastery they're friendly to you and will fight the bad guys with guns. On my first playthrough of 2 I basically didn't shoot any enemies in that level at all.

[@CainageCritique]

Thanks for the heads-up, that was one detail that went right over my head while playing. Just goes to show how the older games were meant to be taken more slowly for both combat and puzzle-solving.

[@NawiTheCore]

I played Legend recently and I didn't experience any of those glitches. I wonder what caused them.

[@CainageCritique]

Some comments have mentioned that on the PC version, they may have been caused by V-Sync or the game's framerate being uncapped. I'll need to keep an eye on those settings when playing other ports of older games.

[@unkommentiertesgameplay]

Agree with you word for word.

[@GuilhermeJTM]

I believe that from a sentimental and attachment point of of view, I think of Tomb Raider Legend to be my favorite since my childhood (I say the same to it's respective timeline). Although, if I were to choose a game here based on technical quality and such, I would actually pick the classics. More expecivically, Tomb Raider 1. (I can also divide my opinion on which Lara Croft I prefer the most like this, as I do find the Legend Lara to be my emotional fav but the classic Lara to be my technical fav.)

[@CainageCritique]

You have an interesting perspective; many players of the community have a strong attachment to classic Lara because they played the originals so many years ago. Personally I knew of Lara Croft from the character being plastered in so many areas outside of gaming alongside the two feature films before getting into Legend.

[@iamawesome4026]

I bought 2013 and rise in the ps store for the PS4 and I love it

[@oddwin_5150]

TR2 is my favorite. I've only played 1-4 though 🤷‍♂️

[@CainageCritique]

Interesting pick, TR2 ranked lower for me. I can see why many are so attached to the early games though.

[@Victorcolongarcia]

I would write 10 comments here. So many things to say. I could do a 3h video too 😂😂😂 good job! Loved this and agreed almost 90% with your opinion. Was legend your first full tr?

[@CainageCritique]

Yeah Legend was my entry-point into the series; I definitely do carry some bias as a result! The fans all have their own preferred visions for the franchise; the recent remastering of the first three Tomb Raiders makes me wonder if they might go back to the quiet, isolated style of the originals. I'm sure many would welcome that approach.

[@Victorcolongarcia]

As a long term fan since 1996 SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER was perfection. Rise is ok but I get tired of snow. 2013 is call of duty. Love some things but the amount of combat is ridiculous. Its too dumb. I wanna feel like an EXPLORER and discover things and puzzles. And CLIMB!! 2013 is successful with people who dont like tomb raider in general

[@Ashitaka0815]

I like tomb raider, loved the original from 1996 with it's atmosphere, still I also liked 2013 - jup it's a different kind of game abd I'm fine with it :P

[@Franku_4]

Well eidos didn't really "search" for a new studio. If I'm correct CD was already under eidos.

[@eldstoper]

I personally think Anniversary is the best TR game then Underworld and Legend. Earlier games are just hard to play and the newer games just killed Lara we loved, making the latest games no different from the bunch of others. Lara is just a whiny little girl without any skill and personality. It still frustrates me to see that people prefer the latest games as I understand while they are the baggiest and the heaviest to play (after the first games of course). TR is an exploration game not survival. Being in solitude was one of the best parts of the game as it gave you the sense of the mystery and discovery of something really ancient while in the new games tombs are more crowded than my city, everything falls apart, Lara constantly suffers, every second is a disaster (which also remind me of my city). It's extremely tiring and overwhelming to play. You never get a sense of accomplishment having found an artifact because it's 100% of the times taken away from Lara following the same scenario over and over again. Even if she finds an artefact it does absolutely nothing. You neither can use it nor you can do anything with it. They all lead to the same outcome at the end too - the world is the same as it used to be before, we saved the world and learned nothing about the mystery behind it. It's always a soapy ending. I think anniversary achieved the best balance in everything but we can never go back to the type of games as people appear to demand the same type of modern games as we get from the latest TR games being overly compacted with the elements from every game that has ever existed or so much realistic that it turns from relaxing to a nightmare so much so that the thought of playing the TR game from 1996 doesn't seem as bad and exhausting as the 2013 thrilogy. Sadly enough all of the games that I loved were recently rebranded and somehow turned into almost exactly the same type of game. I feel like Nancy Drew will soon become a survival shooter too where you will need to build your own shelter or something. I really miss TR vibe where artefacts or setting revealed a deeper mystery and truth about the world like in TR Underworld, Anniversary and Legend or even like we saw in Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood. Apparently that is not sold well enough so we will stick to the shootings:(

[@CainageCritique]

That's interesting how Anniversary works best for you, getting the right balance between old and new. I can see why the intensity of the Survivor trilogy can feel like too much as well, especially when compared with the classics. To many long-time fans it just feels better when it's just you and Lara exploring the tombs and finding the solutions to the puzzles yourself. Given today's gaming market, it seems unlikely that we'll get that style and tone again unfortunately.

[@eldstoper]

@@CainageCritique absolutely so. I feel like everything just generally has been mashed and mixed together in different industries to get the best results but in reality they produce the same product with slightly different variations, it's been apparent the most in the gaming and music industries. The quantity and overall quality increase but somehow it feels like there is no variety. Maybe I just need to take a break.

[@ninjapurpura1]

Yeah, I've recently replayed the LAU trilogy, and man what a blast! Sadly we'll never get new games like that anymore I wish there were more games in Legend timeline Reboot is good for what it is, solid games, but it's not Lara, nor Tomb Raider I love Rise btw, but it's not "it", right I wish they made a more stylish Lara, over a super detailed realistic one It just feels bland, a normal person...pretty girl indeed, but just too normal Like, you don't look at the reboot Lara and say "she's the goat, badass!"

[@ninjapurpura1]

Also, Lara visiting various locations throughout the game was so good We don't get that anymore

[@Franku_4]

I hated the survivor trilogy. It has all the elements I hate about AAA games.

[@zarlg]

I made it as far 2:17. How can you make a video like this and still repeat that nonsensical "finger slipped on the breast slider" myth? Her proportions were exaggerated for the same reasons proportions in cartoon characters are exaggerated.

[@Victorcolongarcia]

I cant believe you missed the conversations in underworld! Wtf!? Tr is about isolation and discovery. Crystal kinda destroyed the sense of wonder with all the spoiling and cutscenes. You might be young but nothing is better than just throwing you a dinosaur /shark/ mummy without a cutscene.

[@thorstmixx]

That's not how you pronounce Scion.

[@HeavyMetalSonicRM]

The 2013 game was ruined with shaky cam 🤢

[@Veridiano02]

Good video. Serious and profesional, I like it. I really can't pick a favourite tittle. I'm one of the few (or at least it feels that way) who enjoyed the classics back in the 90s-2000s and the survivor, reboot trilogy, but I always pick a favourite of each era. For me, Tomb Raider 2 is the best of the classic era, Underworld from the legends saga and Rise of the Tomb Raider from the survivor saga. I dislike Tomb Raider IV and V, trying to kill Lara Croft was what made me step out of the franchise, not returning until Anniversary. IMO Tomb Raider IV was a bad game made out of spite, hating the players, the characters and the saga alike. It was an attempt to murder the franchise, to kill Lara Croft and her legacy, and Chronicles was a contractual obligation, a souless corporation product. However, Anniversary made me regain my deep love with Lara, and the reboot made a fan once more, I loved the survivor saga. And the remaster made me remember why I love Tomb Raider in the first place, every jump and shootout brings a happy memory of my childhood, and a hope for the future of both the franchise and it's main protagonist, the queen of this industry.

[@CainageCritique]

Glad you enjoyed the retrospective. I always like reading the comments from long-time fans of the series with everyone having their own favourites and preferences. Tomb Raider is sure to make a full return, but it's hard to say which direction it will take.

[@alphajuliet6136]

Mostly good, but let down by another boring, over-critical assessment of Shadow