But remasters often feel like someone has plainly yet painstakingly rolled over every inch of the original with linoleum.
The worst remasters bring to mind the Spanish pensioner whobutchered a fresco of Jesus Christ.
Hard work has gone into updating the scenery and textures.
Basic vine sprites become handsome twirls of plantlife.
Egyptian reliefs are given form.
But there’s a limit to this unfurling of digital lino.
The results ultimately evoke the look common in mobile games when smartphones were becoming ever more powerful.
This is Lara Croft if she were designed by Gameloft in 2011.
Now, we’ve got this package-holiday overhaul of the next three games.
In The Last Revelation, Lara unwittingly unleashes an ancient Egyptian god.
In Chronicles, her friends reminisce about her adventures after her funeral.
But that’s years away.
This conflict between old and new is positioned as a novelty.
Except, not really.
Every janky animation and wacky texture is part of the charm.
But those decisions don’t feel driven by creativity under limits.
By contrast, the remaster’s water is a lifeless, transparent soup.
But even when you put aside the visuals, Tomb Raider’s core design (geddit?)
has not aged particularly well.
Even if the remaster tries to address this too.
You are trying to drive down a Roman road in a Toyota Corolla.
Covering the Toyota’s wheels in horse hooves will not solve this problem.
it’s possible for you to track the forward trajectory of Lara’s capabilities from game to game.
In Last Revelation she can swing on ropes.
In Chronicles she can walk tightropes.
In Angel of Darkness she can hop over railings and [gasp] make conversational choices in cutscenes.
Two out of three of these games are commonly cited as the least enjoyable of the lot.
Revisiting Chronicles today, I see why I didn’t bother playing much of my brother’s copy.
Playing Angel Of Darkness, I am grateful I never tried it at all.
I was not the only one obsessed with MGS at the time.
Core Design-ers seem to have been fans too (along with every game studio on earth).
Lara’s moveset for this entry includes crouching into a stealth mode and hugging corners to peer around them.
Higher fidelity of environment art also works against Lara’s typically griddy and fusty moveset.
Almost everything looks clamberable, craw-underable, step-upon-able.
And yet only a few things are.
Designers had yet to discover the magical properties of yellow paint.
The lighting in this one doesn’t differ between the two modes at all, though.
And judging by the previous games, that might be for the best.
But from a purely aesthetic perspective, there is something needless and gestalt about it all.
Lara Croft has not aged gracefully, which is fine - in the long run none of us will.
Only the most feverish crypt botherer should follow her into this ominously high-definition temple.
