I very much consider Angel of Darkness to be the Sonic 06 of Tomb Raider.
To be fair, I enjoy games with unorthodox controls and interesting mechanics, and games that use controls and design in unique ways. Hell, one of my favorite indie games of all time is the super-divisive Rain World and that game is "depowerment fantasy" by the dev's own admission, wholly designed to make you feel like weak and vulnerable prey
Controls are defined by their intent and by the design of the game in which they're implemented. The notion that "by today's standards" is what defines good gameplay is a flawed one, and is certainly no valid criticism for how or why the gameplay is bad. Such a notion implies that age alone is what makes controls or design outdated or bad or "unplayable" without considering the context of the game design that those controls exist to serve. By the metric of "by today's standards", text adventures, turn-based games, Tetris, Chess, and Go should all be unplayable today too.
Doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia goggles. I'm playing the game(s) now for the first time and comparing their gameplay to current games and platformers
So people who liked it even in 1996 on release only liked it due to nostalgia? How does that work, exactly?
I played the first three games as a kid and I was pretty sure back then that the order was TR1 > TR3 > TR2. I replayed them last year and my opinion has now changed and I now feel it's TR2 > TR1 > TR3.
Any particular reason you'd play the PS2 version over the PC version with fan patches?
It really comes down to automated platforming versus one that requires patience and skill. It's a problem these specific types of games haven't really solved. I can understand why some folks might find the originals clunky but they require a lot from the player in order to succeed and simply climbing a tall structure can be quite thrilling once you get the hang of it.
Platforming that isn't automated and that requires skill can exist without grids and tank controls from an era before analog sticks were a thing. Think more Super Mario 64-style platforming rather than, say, Uncharted.
Absolutely it can but that's not how Tomb Raider and Uncharted work. Mario style platforming would look weird with a realistic human, I think.
I'm so jealous of you right now. 1-5 are all great in their own ways, but especially 2, and a little less so 5 cos of the shorter length and a couple gamesave glitches.
The feels! The music score in TR1 was so key to atmosphere, suspense and tension really built up even higher with it.Did you reach this part?
This song should have played right after entering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfzszoM8uN0&feature=youtu.be
Well, at the time it was new so it felt like it needed some skill even if it was way slower paced than cute platformers. I guess a lot like Prince of Persia or Oddworld style platformers were also slower paced than Mario. Cinematic platformers I think they called those, Flashback, Heart of Darkness, Another World...
One of the best ones I found once was this Attack on Titan fangame that ran in a browser where you controlled each 3D gear cable independently.
Breath of the Wild climbing actually has skill involved with finding the spots where you can stand up to recover your stamina; even the spots where you start to slip after a moment are still valid if you can do it repeatedly. You can cheese it with stamina potions but you also don't need to. Also jumping is normally an inefficient way of climbing but finding the right rhythm between jumping and slow climbing lets you climb in the rain.
Mario 64, Sands of Time, Uncharted all fall under the same umbrella. They aren't revolving around the same kind of skill and gameplay as Tomb Raider.
