Tomb Raider - Early episodes worth getting?

[Cobertizo]

I have never played any of the Tomb Raider series (well, bar a brief go on the PC demo for TR1), and having heard a reasonable amount of praise for the first one, and perhaps the second, I was wondering if it is worth picking one of them up from somewhere.

There are two questions here really. First of all, are they actually worth playing now, or were they just good at the time? If the former, then which is the best for me to play?

Sorry for asking such a strange question. I'm often rather behind the times. Only picked up Ridge Racer Type 4 yesterday... Oh well. Makes life cheaper- got to be worth it.

[Lactose Intollerant]

I have fond memories from Tomb Raider 1.

The level with the midas puzzle and the one with the sword of damocles one were both especially good. It's mainly exploring and puzzles, not too many gun battles, which is good because the controls were crap for gun to gun combat.

[Streets Of Rage]

i played tomb raider one at the time and didnt like it much, but even so i doubt it'd be worth playing today the controls and graphics will be very outdated altho if u like the puzzle side of things it cud be worth a look, btw good choice on RRT4 ive recently been rediscovering that game, absolute classic!!!

[Concept]

The original is superb. Even now.

The second is good.

The rest... Less so.

[Lebowski]

i havent played it recentley but as ive said before the controls are clunky but precise i never blammed the controls once for letting me down and affter a few levels you wont notice, its like most things once you get used to something you will do fine, atmosphere and levels are fantastic music is very suttle, only used breifley and to great affect, stick with it as its all about atmosphere.

its a shame they have beaten the game to death in recent years, and althogh i loved 1 and also to a lesser degree 2 i think 3 onwards was takeing the game in the wrong direction, if it got back to basics and sorted out the controls i think eidos would have a good game on its hands

ignore the hype the first one was and still is a good game.

[chocklo]

I liked the first one. The second one was alright - the rest I didn't like.

[Reef]

The first one was one of my favourite games at the time of playing it (erm, back in '97 I reckon')

The controls were fair and the levels were brilliantly designed. The puzzles were simple, I never had to revert to a walkthrough to get me past any bits at all, unlike some games nowadays.

Not sure about playing it now (would look very dated if nothing else) but if you haven't, then give it a go - if only for the second level.

The second game wasn't bad but after that they wen't rapidly down hill. I s'pose the last revelation was alright, but 3 and 5 were dreadful. Stupidly massive levels and monotonous play.

If I remember correctly OPSM gave each one of them a 10 - just goes to show eh? Anyway I diverse...

[Tom Salter]

Give the first one a go, it's easily the best in the series so far. For a few quid, you really can't go wrong.

Then you can come back and tell us if we are looking through rose tinted glasses