>Difficulty Level: Go Fuck YourselfWhy did the devs do it? Were they angry at the fans?
>>12267714It's not that difficult if you play it carefully.
>>12267714different team did tr3
>>12267714I had a demo for this game as a kid. And it was her stuck in a prison cell. I would just be unable to leave and after a while I turned the console off
>>12267714So, it's a confluence of a few things.A) Fatigue and stress due to a shittty mismanaged dev cycleB) Key personnel left, new ones came on who were not sufficiently onboarded in how to make TR levels rightC) Poor/no playtestingD) A lot of game design principles basically weren't yet established. Andy Sandham (I think) has a video where he replays Thames Wharf (which he designed) and he basically explains that he made the level to be deliberately misleading and arbitrary. He's now an academic and understands that even exploration games should basically lead players to the right path in SOME ways or at least confirm that they've made a good choice from time to time.
>>12267714It's not any more difficult than any other CORE TR besides the save crystal crap. Just use a cheat code to get plenty of save crystals, and enjoy the game the same way as the others.
>>12267798So in regards to the last one, they intended for players to explore the shit out of a map and find solutions? Not that I see a problem with that, but the first two games and their expansions had relatively smaller maps.
>>12267851I think it's partially that they expected exploration (and things like note taking and manual reading which are out of fashion today) and partially that they'd lost their sense of scale. Both in terms of sheer size and also how much work a player would do and still feel rewarded for (like mastering the kayak, doing the diving section in Lud's Gate, all of Temple Ruins, etc.).
>>12267908That makes sense. I remember trying to play a couple of the games using guides and being bored as hell. The guides themselves would just add to the tedium so I'd toss them aside. They were better without and I had no problems navigating on my own anyway.On that note, Chronicles was so god damn boring.
>>12267962That tracks. I think TR3 holds some really good examples of exploration along with the stinkers. Levels like Crash Site, Antarctica, even Madubu Gorge are all sprawling but they have a sort of through-line of... not story but gameplay that makes sense? When you get from A to B in Antarctica you know you've progressed, and it's a good feeling. Even in a brutal gauntlet like Tinnos you work it out and you move forward one room and it's GOOD. Thames Wharf is bad because there is no feedback, no sense of progress even as you wander around. It's like trying to ask a girl with Borderline Personality where she wants to go for dinner.Chronicles is boring because it has the same unreadable-level problem too often. A few levels are good (Ireland, IIRC) but in general it's a wander-fest. Also a lot of features ape other contemporary games (MGS, for example) but do such a bad job it embarrasses the rest of the game.
>>12267731No they didn't you fucking inbred retard.>>12267714It was designed for people who beat TR1 and 2.
>>12268229> It was developed by the expansion pack team- a new group formed from other Core Design developers- rather than the Tomb Raider II team.
>>12267740was it a demo that came on a purple disc with your ps1? If so, I beat that demo recently but I kinda had to cheese my way out of a cut scene early in order to not get killed
>>12268229I legitimately played it immediately after beating 1 and 2 and I found it immensely confusing to find shit. All I remember is really hidden out of the way alcoves that you had to get close to even notice due to the way the monotextured walls tend to bleed together and tons of darkness, along with the glowsticks that for some reason are in really low supply when flares in the previous games lasted ages and were everywhere. I remember running around firing the infinite ammo pistols as a ghetto way of seeing in the darkness with the muzzle flash.That and the nightmarish raft and minecart sections oh my fucking Christ.
>>12268492I'll hear criticism of the kayak - if you don't know how they work IRL it's hard to steer. The minecart is trivial though. It has like three or four rules.>Brake if the travel sound is so high it's distorted>Leaning into corners gives you leeway to go a bit fast round them>Duck all the girders>Hit all the switchesIt's NOT hard.
>>12268515You'll hear what I tell you, bitch. All of those points you listed are annoying to deal with. Just because you get done with after 1-2 deaths doesn't make it fine.
>>12268515If three buttons is too many for you, maybe you need to get a Pong cabinet or something.
I actually enjoy the deliberate gym class platforming in these games. Way more than back then when I was a stupid kid.I play a little bit of TR 2 because the first one is in dos and it looks all fucked in DOSBox.Remastered versions are fine.
>>12268492>nightmarish raftI beat that section pretty fucking easily. Of course, I played it on PC and saved right before getting into it, so reloading wasn't that big of an issue. It played fine though, I only died like....4 or 5 times. I died more on the T-Rex in South Pacific than I did on the raft.
>>12267804That you would even suggest cheating in this way is an admission that the game is difficult in a way that demands save scumming. TR1 and 2 are not like this.
>>12269238I genuinely think the section of Madubu with like four boulders in a row plus flame traps is much harder than any of the kayak. F in the chat for early PC players who couldn't see the red/green ropes on the water because of resolution fuckery though.
The difference is that devs assumed everyone was familiar with Tomb Raider 1 and 2 and had gotten good at them, and that would be mostly correct, Tomb Raider was a must play. It's the same with Duke Nukem Time to Kill, the game assumes all the players are already familiar with TR.Anyway I'd rather have a sequel that amps the difficulty with its mechanics rather than adding a bunch of shitty new side mechanics like the Spyro sequels or Banjo Tooie. With that said TR3 also adds a bunch of shitty side mechanics like the vehicles aren't great, but those sections aren't too annoying or long. The real issue with TR3 isn't the difficulty per se but the bullshit moments, badly designed because rushed or obtuse.
>>12267714I actually liked it more than 2. But it definitely is quite a step up in difficulty yeah.
>>12267804>Just use a cheat code to get plenty of save crystalsOr play a version that doesn't have the save crystal requirement, like the original PC version, or the remaster.
>>12267714The throne boss that kills you in one hit can go fuck himself. What the fuck were they thinking
>>12269728Legit one of the easiest bosses. All you need to do is just jump left and right constantly. That's it.
>>12269728They were thinking he's the end of a very short level and that you should get good.
https://github.com/Trxyebeep/tomb3Anyone use this? Is this a good way to get TR3 working well?
>>12269580People are rightly complaining that the game's level design is boring and doesn't take advantage of Lara's kit, or that the puzzles are boring (backtracking) or full of bullshit (too cryptic).
>>12270696>backtrackingThere's significantly less backtracking in TR3 than TR1 or 2, and definitely less than TR4, specifically because TR3 has "alternate routes" as a design element, meaning you pick one direction and stick with it.I have rarely heard of Tomb Raider 3 being criticized for too much backtracking. Too cryptic? Yes.
>>12269580Man the lighting in the PC version is so fucked.
>>12267714They admitted that they were done with the series already and wanted to do other things. But success forced them to do it.
