Why the Tomb Raider PC Games are Still Worth Playing

Way back in 1995, I got into PC video game playing, starting with Doom 2 and Shadow Warrior. With those games I received a demo for one of the Tomb Raider PC games, Tomb Raider 3. After having the main character in that game pull the first switch, I spent hours trying to figure out where the zip line I saw overhead went and how to get to the area across the river. After finally realizing that the switch I pulled had opened a door back in the previous area that would lead me to where I needed to go, I was already hooked. Doom and Shadow Warrior were left behind in the dust and I became a Tomb Raider PC games devotee.

If shoot-em-up games have become boring or were never really your thing in the first place, you do have other options for PC game playing even while still getting some trigger-happy action. Below, I give you four of the best reasons why you'll come to love Tomb Raider PC games once you give them a try.

Coordination

You can make Lara Croft (the main character in the game and the one you'll be controlling) perform several actions to get her where she needs to go. In all of the games, you can make her walk, run, jump forwards or hop backwards.

Starting with Tomb Raider 3, you can also make her sprint, kneel, crawl, do front/back/side flips, and even jump and flip forward or backward with a half twist to turn around and land facing the other direction. You can also make her do a standing roll, or a diving roll while sprinting. In the newer games (Tomb Raider 4 and higher), she can reach up and travel across areas on monkey bars in the ceiling, traversing around corners while climbing, climb and slide down poles, and climbing and swinging on ropes.

There are even some neat Tomb Raider PC game tricks that have been uncovered by players that aren't in the instruction manual with the games, like making Lara reach to climb onto a block, do a press to handstand then a back walkover to stand up on the block; or have her do diving rolls off a high cliff into the water like a diver.

Problem-Solving

Even though the Tomb Raider PC games give Lara plenty of weapons and ammunition to shoot enemies with, this isn't a shoot-em-up game. Each game has its own mystery, usually based around finding ancient artifacts, which Lara has to solve. She solves puzzles, finds clues, and goes through obstacle courses to get to the next level. And each level ties in neatly with the last one and the next one to come, sometimes even making Lara go back and forth in the levels to pick up more clues.

Beautifully Designed Locations

In Tomb Raider PC games, you'll take Lara all around the world. In the very first Tomb Raider game, Lara has adventures in Peru, Greece, Italy, and Egypt. And in the Tomb Raider 3 game alone, she travels even wider: from the jungles and temples of India, to the high security compound of Area 51 in Nevada, to villages and temples in the South Pacific, to the streets of London, to mines and a lost city in Antarctica!

The first couple of games are pretty standard, but really starting with Tomb Raider 3 the graphics are less pixelated and you get some atmospheric effects added in with that better graphic quality, like rain and snow and mist.

Throughout the Tomb Raider PC games, you'll be sorely tempted to have Lara explore around and sight-see the vast, wide open spaces that she enters. In doing so, you might find save game crystals, extra ammo and weapons, or hidden enemies.

Suspense and Surprise

This mostly comes in the form of surprise attacks from the enemy. The enemies range from animals (like dogs, tigers, bulls, and bears) to humans (guards, commandos, and hit men) to insects (spiders and locusts) to even mythological creatures like mummies and the Minotaur. Sometimes all Lara has to do is pick something up or move a block or a switch in order to trigger a charging enemy onto the scene.

Music is sometimes used in these Tomb Raider PC games to alert you when an attack is coming, similar to the way horror movies use music to make the audience jump. But other times you'll have no idea until the bad guy starts clubbing or shooting at Lara.

As for other surprises, whenever Lara pulls a switch or places an item in a niche, you'll be holding your breath to see what happens next. Sometimes you might trigger spikes to repeatedly spring up from the floor, poisonous darts to start shooting across an upcoming hallway Lara will have to go through, doors to open that previously held unknown enemies, or even the room behind Lara to turn upside down or go through some other drastic change.

Tomb Raider now has more than a decade long history with 11 games (and still counting) that have come out. They are constantly improving not just the look of the game and Lara, but the weapons she has, the moves she can do and the new places they can take her, the enemies she faces, and the locations she visits in her quests. If you're looking for a PC game to fall in love with, the Tomb Raider PC games fit the bill.