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Other Tomb Raider-Like Games

Are there games other than Tomb Raider worth playing? This question has been asked more often lately as the delay of the next Tomb Raider game has left many fans wondering what to play in the meantime. Hopefully this section will answer that question for you.

5.1 Other Games

Most of the games below have drawn comparison to Tomb Raider at some point or other. Most are similarly presented 3rd Person Perspective (3rdPP) adventure games like Tomb Raider although some differ and/or blend several other gaming sub-genres together. A Tomb Raider review for comparison:

Tomb Raider series (TR, TR2, TR3, TRLR, TRC)

[3rdPP chasecam action-adventures, Core Design, 1996-2000]

PROS: Great atmosphere of open exploration. Very smooth and precise responses from Lara. Great themey soundtracks.
CONS: Lame autoaim. Lego-block type level construction -- levels mostly plain linear in design as well. Very dated graphics/character models. Generally bad enemy AI.

5.1.1 Alone in the Dark

[3D fixed-camera adventure/horror, Interplay, 1995]

PROS: Excellent Cthuloid ambience. No autoaim -- no crosshairs either.
CONS: Far too short (the sequels did better in this regard). Virtually no enemy AI to speak of.

Fantastic graphical adventure, which was followed by two sequels, that while very good never managed to top the original for ambience and horror. Game style since copied for the dire Resident Evil series on the PSX. The recent remake featured better graphics and sound etc., but appears to have forgotten the horror and abandoned any idea of making improvements - dated eye candy.

5.1.2 Deathtrap Dungeon

[3rdPP chasecam action-adventure, Eidos, 1998]

PROS: Better graphics than Tomb Raider. 'Chalk mark' feature.
CONS: Still blocky level construction. Bad enemy AI.

Loosely based on the Fighting Fantasy book of the same name with a slight 'steampunk-fantasy' feel. You play one of either two characters; the hulking Chaindog or more svelte Red Lotus, who must survive the Dungeon to win the grand prize. Actually featured some improvements, which should have made it into the continuing Tomb Raider series but it felt like an inferior copy at the time.

5.1.3 Drakan: Order of the Flame (Demo)

[3rdPP chasecam action-adventure/lizard flight-sim, Psygnosis, 1999]

PROS: No autoaim. Great graphics and large exterior levels. Aerial battles with dragon are great. Good inventory system. Decent enemy AI. Booming Conanesque soundtrack.
CONS: Lousy voice casting (valley girl-medieval?). Rynn is worse than Lara so far as bodyshape goes. Eventual empty feeling in level design and too short overall? Uses D3D.

The flying lizard. It's a lot of fun. Rynn isn't. Her voice is as annoying as hell and she looks like a famine refugee on a diet. She doesn't have many of Lara's moves either, so she's limited to just running around and swinging her sword to explore. The game itself plays very well though with nice graphics, good sound and neat control -- with its best advantage over Tomb Raider being the mouse-aim (no simplistic llama autoaim here). The demo gave me an empty feeling eventually however, and reports of the full game say it's too short as well.

5.1.4 Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine

[3rdPP chasecam adventure, LucasArts, 1999]

PROS: Decent graphics. Indy well animated with a large number of moves. Decent enemy AI. Chalk mark feature.
CONS: Autoaim. Indy's sluggish response time. Uses D3D.

A very Tomb Raider-like game in feel (quid pro quo really given that the Divine Ponytail's adventures bare more than a passing resemblance to the Indy movies) which although far superior in all the technical aspects; graphics, sound, plot, etc., fails utterly because Indy's responses are far more sluggish than Lara's are; press a key and there's a feeling of resistance (slight lag) before he moves (if he moves at all -- hence 'Infernal Indy') and some of the fancier moves require obscure combination key presses. His walking action when swimming on the surface is funny. Otherwise the game is a reminder of what Tomb Raider should be like.

5.1.5 Metal Gear Solid (Demo)

[Overhead 3rdPP action, Konami/Micro$oft, 1996/2000]

PROS: Strong plot, well presented. No autoaim.
CONS: Pretty awkward controls regards overhead view. Uses D3D.

I've only played the demo of the PC version. Nicely presented intro in a movie-style method highlights a strong, if typically anime-style 'stoic lone hero saves us all', plot. As Snake you must save the world before the Terrorists destroy us all with their killer virus, or something to that effect... Like Indy above he has a cool walking action when 'swimming' too... ;)

5.1.6 Heavy Metal FAKK2

[3rdPP chasecam slasher-adventure, Ritual Games, 2000]

PROS: Great Quake3-based graphics and character animations. Excellent weapons handling system. No autoaim on big guns. Some new moves. Stonking soundtrack. Average AI. Uses OpenGL.
CONS: Autoaim with handguns. Levels very limited in size -- not enough of them (or plot) anyway. Julie can't swim.

Based on the Heavy Metal comic of the same name so basically the overt sleaze has to be taken at face value. A lot of fun although I couldn't help wondering where the rest of the game had gone upon finishing it -- entire plot elements went missing such as the psychic little girl, Gith's ship, Julie's sister, who sent the warning message -- the entire ending had a distinct feeling of loose ends being quickly cobbled together in the face of an impending release deadline. So half of a game though it is it's still what Tomb Raider should be like had Core and Eidos bothered to keep up with the technical side of things. The way the weapons are handled (you can have different combos of swords, guns, shields in each hand) is particularly magnificent. Slightly disappointing is that despite adding a few new moves Julie still can't match The Divine Ponytail for sheer volume of moves available -- swimming being the chief loss.

5.1.7 ODT (Demo)

[3rdPP chasecam action-RPG-adventure, Psygnosis, 1998]

PROS: No autoaim. Nice-ish graphics.
CONS: Slight feeling of displacement with characters. Bad enemy AI. Lousy control system.

ODT = 'Or Die Trying'. Four explorers travelling on a dirigible are lost in the 'forbidden zone' of a strange techno-magical world and must fight and find their way out, ODT. You get to play one of the four characters (a priest, engineer, soldier, or female cartographer) during the adventure. Very nice appearance and the game features a neat weapon/equipment handling system which is only beaten by FAKK2, but, the way the characters appear in the maps just doesn't look right -- it's as though they're floating an inch off the floor or somehow 'displaced' from the surroundings. Lousy enemy AI too; you can tell when the game is supposedly getting harder because the new bad guys can fire their weapons slightly faster than the last ones could... and that was it as far as difficulty settings go.

5.1.8 Oni (Demo)

[3rdPP chasecam combat-action, Bungie, 2001]

PROS: Great fighting moves. Excellent camera control system. Good AI. Large levels. Can use OpenGL.
CONS: Slight autoaim on gunplay. Complete lack of Lara-like exploration moves.

More of a beat-'em-up really. Oni follows the adventures of a female police officer called Konoko who is out to bring down an organised crime syndicate. It's based very heavily on the excellent epic manga _Ghost in the Shell_ and does capture some of that movie's ambience quite well. Despite some fantastic fighting moves Oni really falls down in the exploration department -- it comes down to just wandering around the large emptyish levels beating people up in a certain order -- even the gunplay is deliberately kept limited due to the seriously low ammo situation. Otherwise Konoko can't climb, vault, swim, shimmy along ledges, etc... and as in Tomb Raider all the fun-looking fancy action is kept to the pre-scripted cutscenes.

5.1.9 Outcast

[3rdPP chasecam action-RPG-adventure, Infogrames, 1999]

PROS: Huge levels with utterly open (non linear) exploration. No autoaim (or even crosshairs...) Solid plot. Good AI. Fantastic orchestral score. RPG-like interaction. Excellent camera control.
CONS: Very low resolution graphics. Limited moves. Uses D3D.

Epic is pretty much the only way to describe this one. From the huge level sizes to the plot the game is very well polished and presented. As Cutter Slade you are sent to an alternate earth to stop some sort of technobabble-handwavium energy flux from destroying both worlds. It has a very RPG-like feel with its quest-based subplots and weapon upgrade system, but the action sequences are pure shooter, albeit in 3rdPP -- camera control during which is fantastic. Probably a bit too short in the end and despite the anti-aliasing the low-res graphics still look awful. But the sequel should be worth looking out for...

5.1.10 Project Eden (Demo)

[3rdPP chasecam action-RPG-adventure, Core Design, 2001]

PROS: No autoaim, excellent character and camera control. Good AI. Very good graphics and ambience.
CONS: No jumping, climbing, monkey swinging, or swimming. Uses D3D graphics.

Made by the same guys who brought us the original Tomb Raider. Very Oni-like appearance and game play although augmented by the choice of having more characters and weapons available. After the initial shock of "wow this looks amazing" wears off you realise that your characters can't even jump, or climb, or probably even swim. Scores some excellent points for the way the characters can manipulate the high tech objects found in the world though. Should be interesting to read up the reviews when it finally comes out -- and we could only hope Tomb Raider Next Generation looks this good at this stage.

5.1.11 Severance: Blade of Darkness

[3rdPP chasecam fantasy RPG/slasher, Rebel Act, 2001]

PROS: Excellent action, gorgeous graphics, can use anything in the game as a weapon.
CONS: More of a slash'-em-up than anything, lousy control system, lack of exploration moves. Uses D3D.

Could have been excellent bar the absolutely stunningly sucky control system. There's no sidestep function at all until you have an enemy in front of you thus making the Mouse+WASD completely useless and virtually unusable. The reason is something called 'target lock' whereby you press a key to activate it and from them on the left and right keys circle-strafe you around your opponent rather than turn you -- the combat's just not as free feeling as in FAKK2 or Drakan. After regressing to a standard TR keyboard-only setup it does become playable however (bar still having to use the mouse with the longbow). The ingame atmosphere is very good and a nice selection of characters who each have their own fighting style: Tukaram the Barbarian with two handed weapons; Sargon the Knight with sword and shield; Naglfar the Dwarf with hammer and axes (stereotyping); Zoe the Adventurer (read: thief) with quarterstaff and bo stick. All have a wide variety of moves based on their current experience level and weapon used. A major bonus is the way you can use anything in the game as a weapon; pick up chairs to throw them at the enemy, flaming torches to burn your way through obstacles/opponents, and you can even pick up severed limbs and use them to beat your opponents to death... Overall it's great fun although there's no climbing gymnastic component to the exploration as in Tomb Raider.

5.1.12 Recommended First Person Shooter Games

[FPS many genres, Assorted gaming developers, since 1994]

PROS: No autoaim -- all mouse-zapping action. Some use OpenGL.
CONS: Limited 90-degree vision most games. Lack of the exploration type moves. Often just run the mazes and shoot everything game play. Some use D3D.

It'd be hard to say that you haven't at least played one, even it was just one of the basic early run'n'shoot games. The advantage FPSes have over 3rdPP is the freedom of aim really; beyond that they tend to lack the involvement that Tomb Raider gives in seeing your character actually perform the moves (rectangular screen jumps up and down, rectangular screen climbs ladder, etc). The more recent ones have been adding plot and humour (since Duke Nukem) and successfully mixing the genres with much RPG input and strategy/enemy AI improvements. It's not as if you don't get to see your characters anymore either -- both NOLF and Deus Ex feature many cutscenes in 3rdPP. Recommended FPS games (all PC unless stated): Half-Life (even if just for its multitude of 3rd party mods, also out for Dreamcast), System Shock 2, Aliens vs Predator, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever, Marathon (Mac), Operation Flashpoint, Max Payne.

5.2 Other Games Characters Moves

[This section Coming Soon]