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Fans of the first two games -- beware!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: January 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Be careful when forming the theory, "Oh, the first two games were great so this latest installment in the series must be equally great!" Tomb Raider 3 is a perfect example of such a virus which would squash our above theory. To be frank -- This game SUCKS.

Is this Super Mario Bros or Tomb Raider?

Gameplay consists of:

1 - Jumping on a bunch of rocks

2 - Pushing a bunch of rocks -- Mario is impressed -- he could never push.

3 - Shooting various types of wildlife.

4 - Finding keys so you can stick them in a keyhole, but otherwise getting stuck without this IMPARATIVE key.

5 - Avoiding an occasional boulder.

After the 3D engine becomes a snore -- which happened after 5 minutes of Tomb Raider 2 in this reviewer's case, the gameplay severely lacks.

As far as the challenge of this game -- there isn't one. Loading a game 50 times and trying to do 30 jumps and shoot 15 different types of wildlife without saving is VERY redundant. That's not a challenge. Tomb Raider 3 will consist of more loading than playing, no matter how good a gameplayer you are. Staring out a window watching the colors change in the sky is more productive than watching that loading bar fill up with vomit-esque shades of blue and purple for the 9th time in the past minute.

Personally, I'm very tired of this series and very disappointed in this game in particular. However, games like this make me happy -- I get to cut them apart with my reviews.

Just Say NO!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I adore the TR games & I have completed them all except for this one. I have tried to get into it and have started it on 3 separate occasions. I just do not find it fun. The most frustrating aspect is the save crystals. This game is unreasonably hard in some sections yet you are afraid to save and waste a save crystal in case you need it more later on. I don't feel the crystals add to the challenge of the game. They just make the game annoying.

Don't waste your time and money. Just enjoy the rest of the TR series and pretend this one didn't happen.

Excessively difficult even with guide book!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Don't get me wrong, I am a big TR fan. I have every single game. But TR3 sucks big time. Although visually rich and detailed, it's extremely and unnecessarily hard to play even with the guide book. The method of saving is excessively awkward, as bad if not worse than the first game. Even with the walkthrough, much of the jumps and leaps require a great deal of trial and error to get the specific angle or character position just right or you die. That's rough! Although the backgrounds are beautiful to look at, they often look so similar from point to point, you can easily get lost or end up running in circles. And to make things worse, there appears to be a glitch in the game's programing. When I finally finished the first section (India), instead of moving onto Arizona or some other section, the game starts me all over again from the VERY beginning in India (level 1)!!! Now I cannot move beyond the first section, and cannot finish the game!!! I was successful the very first time, and moved onto the next section. But unfortunately, when I realized after looking at my book, I had forgotten to pick up the grenade launcher after defeating the boss, I replayed that last level again, picking up the grenade launcher, but then not being able to move beyond to the next section. One can argue that it's just my particular CD that's defective, but when I went to my local Game Express store, I was told by the salesperson that AT LEAST THREE OTHER customers have made the EXACT same complaint about TR3 - the exact same complaint!!!! So I suspect this problem is a design flaw that may be widespread. I know for certain I followed the guide book exactly, and didn't miss anything. I am very, very disappointed!

Didn't even get off the ground, hardly...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 09, 1999
Author: Amazon User

After getting addicted to Tomb Raider II, I was really looking forward to the third episode. However...

If the prospective buyer has a Toshiba Satellite 2100CDT machine with the follwing specs... 400mhz AMD K6-2 processor S3 Virge/MX video ...the chances are very good that Tomb Raider III will crash incessantly. The causes of the crashes vary so one cannot rectify the problem. The EIDOS patch does not cure this phenomenon. I'm auctioning off my copy, along with the official hint manual.

BLEH.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is the worst game I have ever played. To sum up the gameplay:

Load 50 times so you can just BARELY get past a falling rock yet at the same time jumping over swinging blades that just seem to be "running on empty" in the middle of an ancient palace that supposedly hasn't been visited in thousands of years. That is not a challenge. A challenging game should be well thought out, not so asinine that the player is bordering on throwing everything within reach at the TV screen due to extreme frustration over why this game was even produced.

-Tomb Raider is a great game.

-Tomb Raider 2 is ok, but it could have been better.

-Tomb Raider 3 could not have possibly been worse.

As a series of games progress, a certain level of expectation takes place where the successor is supposed to be that much better than its predecessor. This latest installment is just a cookie cutter rendition of the first Tomb Raider game with new backgrounds slapped on. Hey if you thought the first two games were equally great and weren't let down even slightly with the second game, then by all means, shell out more money on this game. If you look to grow as far as a human being and look towards growth in everything you do, look elsewhere. This is a steadily declining series, rather than the preferable opposite.

The game is way too hard and there are too many puzzles.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 13, 1999
Author: Amazon User

The game's graphics are really nice, but the gameplay is totally boring, you have to go back and forth through rooms pulling levers and finding open doors. It just isn't worth it.

Tomb Raider 3 Classic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: December 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

dont get me wrong i love the first two tomb raider games and was eager for this one to come out. I got it when it first came out. I played the first level and was bored out of my mind. I got pretty far in it but my intrest was lost in it. It just doesnt have that thing that makes you want to continue on to the next level like on the firts two games. There is one thing i liked about this game and it was laras improved house. There is a secret key that you can find that unlocks a race course that has a four wheeler. I have to admit that was pretty cool. But all in all i was very disapointed in the game. Take my advise DONT BUY THIS GAME. If you really want to see here new house just rent it or something.

spend your money elsewhere

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Lara Croft games have NEVER been any good. I remember when the very first one came out 10 years ago. Teens were practically DROOLING on their controller every time they saw Lara's pretty face. Tomb Raider must have been advertised like it was the most groundbreaking video game to ever hit the freakin' market. The thing is, the games are boring and Lara Croft isn't very pretty.

If polygon-breasted girls are your thing, go for it. But they aren't MY thing, and I know I'm not the only one to think so. Lara Croft isn't good-looking to the millions of internet gamers who understand that a blocky-looking computer babe isn't going to automatically make a game any fun to play. I'll give Lara Croft SOME credit. She was one of the originators of the "running around half-naked female shooter/adventure" type of video games. In fact, you might even say she was a MAJOR influence because soon after her very first adventure, more and more game companies were making the main characters in their games half-naked chicks. Lara brought something new to the world of video games and I will give her credit for that.

Sometimes influence doesn't matter when a game is really bad. This is one of those cases. The Tomb Raider series on the original Playstation is a joke. I absolutely *groan* when I think about playing a Tomb Raider game because I remember how ugly and dark the environments are, the glitchy problems that dominate all three Tomb Raider games, the annoying and difficult jumping style of Lara Croft (which makes it nearly impossible to progress to the end of the game. Good luck- she NEVER jumps where you want her to) and of course, mentioned above, Lara's supposed beautiful face (she's NOT pretty, remember?)

It also doesn't help that the puzzles you have to solve are ALWAYS really awful (and appear frequently) and, because of the jumping problem, very frustrating to complete. Trying to aim your gun at an emeny isn't exactly a walk in the park, either. The whole series has been an overrated disaster up to this point.

By the time Tomb Raider 3 was released people were REALLY getting fed up with the series. Now, these same people will tell you this was because they kept releasing more and more Tomb Raider games, but I actually think people got sick of Tomb Raider because games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill came along with a similar style and improved on it *drastically*, making Tomb Raider look awfully dated by comparison.

At least the third Tomb Raider game has SOME decent-looking background levels. I guess the company who created Lara Croft finally understood that Lara's pretty face ALONE isn't going to get the job done anymore. I mean, at least in some places the backgrounds LOOK good . Not exactly the prettiest environments available on the Playstation of course, and most of the time all you see is darkness or candlelight. But what's THERE is okay to look at, at least.

Tomb Raider 3 features a challenge that is mostly only challenging because of the above-mentioned jumping problem. She simply doesn't jump the way you want her to. You'd THINK the game company would've dealt with this problem with all the new moves for Lara they added to the game, but no, none of these new moves make the game any easier. The artifact-finding storyline had potential but unfortunately the frustrating challenge ruined it.

BOY am I glad I never bought any of these games (all these years I've been watching OTHER people play them). Reading reviews for the more recent Tomb Raider games on the Playstation 2, I see NO improvements have been made. Let the series END already.

What were they thinking?!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: May 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I must agree with many of the other reviewers in that this is by far THE worst game in the Tomb Raider series. I beat this game a long time ago, but I have been bored lately so I dug it up and started to play again. My opinion has not changed since I labored through it the first time. I would never have even finished it the first time except that I thought it MIGHT get better (or even slightly fun) as the game went on. Nope.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of the whole Tomb Raider extravaganza; it's an excellent and clever collection. But I was disappointed so much in this one that it almost killed my interest to continue on with the later games in the series.

First of all, the levels are unstimulating and repetitive. I hated the levels in India and the South Pacific Islands so much that I purposely killed myself off a few times just to get the frustration out. As a general rule, I think just one nature-based level should be allowed for Lara; they both were so damn similar and I got tired of killing lizards and monkeys.

Then, for someone who loves a good puzzle, the puzzles in this were just ridiculous. I had to buy the strategy guide just to find my way around the confusing dead-ends (and 'dead' I mean literally). And by the way, the strategy guide was misleading and seemed like it didn't even go with the right level at times.

Also, some of the stunts and moves that Lara has to make to reach intricate points in the game are so precise that you have to save your game before even ATTEMPTING them...or say hello to some huge backtracking or unsightly death. But oh wait...you can't save your game anytime you want. You must have the beloved save crystals! Too bad I'm always reluctant to use them in fear that I might need them for something more important than jumping to a tree limb.

I gave this game two stars for two reasons. The first being that Lara has some new moves---crawling, monkey-swinging sprinting, etc---and those were quite nifty at times (unless I was about ready to gnaw my own hands off from everything else). The second reason would have to be that I liked some of her unusual foes---the creepy Shivas, in particular.

But that was about it, my friends. And those few joys did not hold up well against everything else. I recommend TR2 above any and all other TR games. Even without some of the fancy schmancy moves and scenery, it never fails to impress or enthrall. I mean, how can you top the Barkhang Monastery? Give me a good monk any day.

Ok, but not great

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 09, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Compared to the other Tomb Raider games in the series, this one is somewhat of a disappointment. Yes there are more weapons and moves, but the difficulty level is much too high. You might find yourself in the middle of a level saying, "Uh..where do I go?". It's nearly impossible to know the routes through the levels without some kind of game guide. Also, some levels require you to travel very far to find one item or key or switch, then walk ALL the way back to the beginning to use it. This makes the levels tedious and boring. The cut scenes look pretty bad as far as graphics go. Very square. The heads bob when characters talk, but the mouths don't move! Pretty funny actually. The enemies are pretty cool though, especially the raptors and crocodiles. The music is cool, and the plot is kind of interesting. I wouldn't recommend this game unless you are a die-hard Lara Croft fan and absolutely must see her gigantic---well, you know.

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