Famous adventurer Lara Croft is contacted by a guy named Larson, who works for Jacqueline Natla - owner of Natla Technologies. At her request, Lare sets off in an expedition to recover a lost artifact - The Scion - presumably hidden underneath a long lost Peruvian city. However, soon Lara learns that this is only a fragment, and Natla has sent her goons after Lara's tracks - to retrieve whatever she finds of Scion's fragments. And as Lara will find, there's much, much more to Natla than being the mere owner of a multinational corporation.
Tomb Raider is a third-person action adventure with heavy emphasis on puzzle solving. The game has 15 levels spread across 4 different settings: A maze of interconnected tombs and underground cities in Peru; a massive ancient monastery in Greece; a sprawling network of cryptic temples in Egypt; and finally the ruins of the once great pyramid of Atlantis.
On your way you'll have to find an assortment of various keys, objects and artifacts in order to progress. Interaction with the environment is a very important element of the game. The puzzles you'll have to solve will vary from finding keys to open doors, to pulling certain levers in the right order to deactivate traps. And as this game also incorporate strong platforming elements, as you progress the jumps you'll have to master will also become very tricky, and will require precise timing if you are to avoid falling to your death.
Of course you will face A LOT of enemies; mostly animals like wolves, lions and crocodiles. But as the game progresses, and you venture deeper and deeper into buried ancient temple ruins, you will eventually find more sinister enemies, like unexpected dinosaur encounters (!!!), or even more sinister lovecraftian encounters - which include some of the weirdest (and most creative) creatures ever put in a game of this genre. When it comes to human enemies, there aren't many of them - but each hostile human encounter feels very, very dangerous, as human enemies are very aggressive and smarter too, putting up some of the toughest fights you'll have throughout the game
When you start the game you'll only have 2 weapons at your disposal: Your trusty dual pistols with unlimited ammo. Later you'll eventually find a shotgun, magnum pistols, and dual uzis. It is likely that you will find these weapons, however, and as this is a game that doesn't hold your hand, you can still miss these weapons if you aren't careful enough and don't pay attention to your environment. After all, long before Dark Souls there were games like these, which wouldn't hold your hand with hints and tips about what to do next, and as such, you - the player - would have to scour the environment for resources, learn your way on how to avoid traps, and learn the better ways to overcome and ultimately defeat your enemies.
However, this is not an unfair game. After playing this game for a while you'll learn that ammo is abundant, if you look for it; and medi-packs - which restore your health - can be found throughout the levels, and even more so in secret areas - which like the self-explanatory name indicates are well hidden areas which can be found by taking a few detours from the main path. On a side note, these areas are very rewarding to find, not only for the extra items, but also for the cheer atmospheric experience of exploring their often unique design, filled with unique objects, statues and architecture.
Overall, the controls feel very nice and natural - but only after you've gotten used to them. Lara's movement is controlled via what many gamers refer to as "tank controls" - meaning that, similarly to other games like Resident Evil 4, you press forward to move forward, and left and right to make Lara turn in those directions, as opposed to moving directly towards them, as it happens in most modern platforming videogames, or even in more recent Tomb Raider games. Still, it is very understandable that by today's standards the game will feel rather stiff, and it may take a while to figure out how things are done, but once you do, the controls will become second nature to you, and you'll be doing the most incredible acrobatics while shooting enemies and grabbing onto ledges. AND IT FEELS SUPERBLY REWARDING! After getting used to the way jumping, running and doing back-flips works, you'll notice how in fact, the controls are very accurate and responsive, and how you are in direct command of Lara's movement 100% of the time.
Obviously, the game engine feels a bit date by now, having a somewhat cubic nature to it, and the in-game models look all edgy and pointy. But the upside of this is that the engine allows for a nice blend of very dark and very bright areas, whose contrast looks great to this very day. The texture work is still top notch - considering the age of the game - providing the levels with a gritty, ancient vibe.
The levels are also HUGE, and very open, with an eerie atmosphere, almost fitting of a Silent Hill game in some later areas. Many gamers report having been freaked out multiple times while playing this game as kids, and honestly, I don't blame them in the slightest: The mixture of dark environments; distant unknown noises; grunting unseen beasts that can attack you from anywhere; it all contributes for a very unique experience which is hard to put into words. It's really amazing what the developers managed to accomplish with this game, considering the time of its release. The whole experience makes you feel like you are trapped in an isolated world, which is out of this world, and it can only be described as almost magical.
The audio also really sets the mood for this game. Most of the time you'll hear ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, barring your own footsteps and a few echoes coming from distant unknown locations. Which means that when you're stuck trying to figure out how to open a door, or jump across a large gap or small canyon, you'll really feel like you're on your own; like all you have is your own survival instinct and ingenuity. And this is the vibe which the game will convey towards you through its entirety.
Sometimes, when you enter a new room, and find yourself caught off guard, with numerous enemies viciously running towards you all at once, the game will quick in these amazing symphonic music pieces, which all convey the feeling of fighting for your own survival pretty well - almost too well - getting you pumped and excited and determined to put an end to every single one of your foes.
All in all, it is nothing short of amazing what a team of 6 people at Core Design achieved with this game in 96. It culminated in an engrossing , evocative, and even at times frightening and emotional experience. It is a masterpiece. Most action-adventure games of this generation are "cinematic" semi-automated linear obstacle courses. There's no control or challenge. Tomb Raider is the opposite of that. The player takes charge in a world which exists, not as an obstacle course made exclusively for the player to traverse in in a rigid, pre-planned way; but rather the world is an oppressive organic entity in itself, which the player is free to tackle as an opposing force.