With less than a month left until the return of Lara Croft’s classic adventures, publisher Aspyr has released the much-coveted release of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Editions on February 14th. We’ve made good on our recent promise to bring you the best news.
Although there’s no gameplay to show, Aspyr details many of the features included in the package. PlayStation.Blog. Aspyr details the history of Lara Croft, who published old titles on his Macintosh computer until 2003. And while Lara has undergone some major changes over the years, the developers wanted to allow new fans to go back and re-experience the classic. We partnered with Crystal Dynamics.
The two teams focused on what Aspyr calls the “three buckets”: engineering, gameplay, and art. We’ll briefly explain all the additions to the game below, but let’s start with some of the highlights. These apply to all three of his next games in the package. Tomb Raider I + Unfinished Business Expansion, Tomb Raider II + Gold Mask Expansionand Tomb Raider III + The Lost Artifact Expansion.
Let’s start with the controls. If you grew up playing video games in the ’90s, you probably played more than a few games that used “tank control,” where you moved based on your character’s position rather than your camera’s position. The remastered version lets you switch between the classic control scheme and “modern controls” inspired by the series’ Legends, Anniversary, and Underworld eras.
Another big update is the boss health bar. In the original PlayStation game, you didn’t know how much health a boss had left until you defeated it and it fell to the ground. All bosses have a visible health bar, which helps you decide which weapon to use.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a new game these days without a photo mode, right? This allows you to freeze gameplay at any time, switch between classic and modern visuals while taking shots, and capture iconic moments experienced during your playthrough.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at some of the other updates Aspyr has confirmed.
- Baked real-time lighting effects
- Graphics toggle – also in photo mode
- Lara Croft’s new character model
- Adjust animations, textures, and VFX
- New models, environments and enemies to match the new style
- Item sprites have been replaced with 3D models
Pre-orders for Tomb Raider 1-III Remastered are now open on both sites on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Europe and North Americaget 10% off when you pre-order the game by February 15th.
In a separate tweet, Nintendo of America introduced two new costumes that can be unlocked in-game: Antarctica and Wetsuit.
That’s a lot of information about three popular classics that seem to be getting the attention they deserve. Of course, we’ll reserve judgment until we get our hands on the collection, but we’re excited to revisit the seminal game from our childhood. Perhaps a little more gameplay will be added before the game launches next month.