Tomb Raider III

I grew up watching Tomb Raider III chew through friends and cousins alike on their PlayStations, so coming back to this Steam release with fresh eyes was both a nostalgia hit and a reality check. This is Core Design at their most ambitious and most unforgiving - a globe-trotting action-adventure built around a meteor mystery that takes Lara through India, the South Pacific, Nevada, London, and Antarctica. The level variety alone sets it apart from its predecessors, and the addition of new movement mechanics - crawling, monkey swings, and a speed dash - gives the traversal a small but meaningful extra layer compared to what came before. The structure is notably more open than Tomb Raider or Tomb Raider II. After India, you choose the order in which you tackle the South Pacific, Nevada, and London chapters, which means two playthroughs can feel meaningfully different in pacing. Each area is built around maze-like level design where keys, levers, and switches gate your progress, and the game offers zero handholding in locating them. The manual save system - a fixed number of save slots with no checkpoints - is either a beloved design philosophy or an active menace depending on your temperament. Save in the wrong spot and you will feel it. What Tomb Raider III does exceptionally well is atmosphere. The South Pacific levels build dread slowly before paying it off hard. The Nevada section drops you into a very different kind of threat - human enemies, tight corridors, and Area 51 paranoia. The Antarctica endgame has a desolate, oppressive quality that still holds up. The tank-style controls, where Lara's movement is rigid and animation-locked, are the steepest barrier for modern players. Every jump has a fixed distance and height, demanding precise positioning rather than fluid stick-waggling. Players coming from the 2013-era reboots will find this alien. Players who respect the grid-based puzzle logic underneath it will find it deeply satisfying. The criticism that has followed this game since 1998 - that it is too difficult and too enemy-heavy in stretches - is fair. Some sections pile on guards in ways that feel more like an endurance test than clever design. The weapon selection wheel is slow, and using your Desert Eagle or rocket launcher at the wrong moment can leave you short for genuinely hard encounters later. Resource management matters more here than in the earlier entries. If you go in expecting a breezy adventure, the game will correct that assumption swiftly and without apology. For anyone drawn to exploration-heavy platformers with actual teeth, or for players who want to understand where the whole action-adventure genre learned its level-design manners, this is a worthwhile and occasionally brilliant game. It asks a lot. It also gives a lot back to the people willing to meet it on its own terms.

Alex · Scout Team

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