Wow developers were so sick and burned out what they secretly wrote an ending to kill Lara off just so they stop making games about her. Just amazing. I also love how they talked about it with such an enthusiasm lmao.
I like the guy that when asked if he dreams of Lara he just said "no" as if anything relating to her was his hell and he couldn't wait to go to bed and dream about literally anything else.
Are uncharted and tomb Raider related because they as I can tell making similar games but now uncharted release maybe for the first time a game call lost legacy which really reminds me of TB 2 females in a jungle of India for treasures in similar game play and kinda stoeies.I know that's there is only so many games played style of games but this game maybe as well be a called tomb Raider friend's game adventure one thing maybe more shooting here he is a character from the uncharted games now getting own 9 chapter show game play.I like looks great in own way so wondered if they making or related and if they paid to do own games even though Uncharted out 2007 to 2016 TR way earlier and TR re boot 2013 2018 is similar to uncharted either way I have alot multiple
That was very mysogynistic of them. The byzantine empire would not be proud. But america would! Proudest nation on planet earth, or in other words the- _this comment has been restricted_
Tomb raider can be so much more... but like many other titles the rights are owned by bonoboes who haven't increased anything but graphics in a literal decade
Not exactly Tomb Raider fan, but I certainly dig her original, sharper design in concepts. Bit stylised, round glasses and that cheesy 90s attitude just fitted better for this tomb raidering business. The original lore for her becoming adrealine addict after accident is surprisingly good backstory for simple setting and didn't really need anything more.
@@karnagefails333Classic “Can’t Leave This One Alone” Syndrome. Some things deserves exploration (What inspired Henry Jones Junior to actually become Indiana Jones), some things are ripe for a great story (Remembrance of the Daleks answering the question of what exactly the Doctor was doing at the junkyard in An Unearthly Child before his granddaughter’s teachers came in) and a lot of things are better off left as a mystery (Too many to name).
Her original design was awesome and the new one can't hold a candle to it. She was a badass and an icon of female power. The new version is a boring sap.
@@fernie-fernandez Depends because you can also consider the reboot a failure in terms of nobody really gives a crap about the new Lara anymore and she's just seen as a Nathan Drake wannabe. She wasn't even invited to the Who's who party of Super Smash. Sure you can bring in the "sales" of the reboot even though the free / 100% discount sales are also counted as a sale.
as a huge tomb raider fan, i didn't realise how bad things were for the development team. i knew they wanted to kill her at 4 but i didn't realise 5 was created with resentment and frustration. cannot wait for part 2.
@@josephwatkins527 I'm assuming by part 2 he means the Tomb Raider series as it continued with Legend and onward. There are still 6 Tomb Raider games that aren't covered by this video. Legend, Anniversary, Underworld, the 2013 reboot, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. More than enough material to make a part 2 to this video.
@@josephwatkins527We're probably getting a third one. The 2013 one failed because the Prachett team were unable to write their own story with Lara because of manbaby fans. Like Kevin Smith and his Heman reboot
It’s honestly crazy to think about just how long the shitty business practices of game publishers have been going on. The fact that crunch of this level and general treatment of developers have been going on since these games of the late 90’s is just…fuck. Not to mention how yearly release schedule games were *already* destroying series. Sucks that it doesn’t show much sign of changing these days either.
I honestly think it was worse in the 90's, because you *could not* release bug fixes or even communicate with your audience. It was burned into a disk and any hidden bugs still left were set in stone forever.
Sonic Xtreme's lead programmer was told he had 6 months to live from the crunch they endured at SEGA Technical Institute. Nobody was safe from this except Nintendo pretty much.
For me, Lara Croft is supposed to be as reckless as Indiana Jones and as fierced as Bettie Page. It is this mixture of personality. She is a sophisticated upper class british women, a female James Bond.
Which was awesome in the 90’s, she really broke the glass ceiling of what female characters could be. 20+ years later however it’s too surface level and comes off as shallow.
@@kjh4496 No, 20+ years later OG Lara is still as revolutionary as she used to be and we have regressed to the point where fiction with that kind of money behind it isn't allowed to have a protagonist like Lara Croft in it.
This video is a masterpiece. As a person who has been a fan of Tomb Raider for over twenty years, this was eye opening and definitely very informative. Even though I don't think the new trilogies will be such development rabbit holes as the old games, please do part two.
It's not a masterpiece. It's a hitpiece. The only good stuff was exposing edios horrendous exploitation but the dude had nothing but negative things to say about tomb raiders gameplay
Good god, I feel bad for the developers. Hearing how ruthless the publisher was, is something else. I never realized that the game industry being so messed up extended that far back. He'll they even had annual releases that were later made famous by Ubisoft. The developers definitely have my respect for still putting out quality games, even in that environment. That's something that doesn't really happen now.
It's always been a problem. Atari wouldn't give programmers credit. EA and Activision (80s Activision todays Activision is in name only) were both founded by disgruntled Atari employees that wanted credit and creative freedom.
Well with Ubisoft, it was very different. At first they started small, sure, but as they grew larger, they handed difficult projects to different branches rather than having one small group do everything at the same time. This gave Ubisoft the ability to get each game (more or less) complete each and every year they released a new one. With CORE, they not only had yearly release mandates, but were also a small team splitting focus among both Tomb Raider and other games as well, rather than putting all their manpower into one or two specific games or game series. Steve of Warr actually did an interview with someone who worked at CORE Design and worked on all six CORE games, and he laments that they worked on multiple things at once, rather than working on just Tomb Raider. That, and not pushing back against Eidos during the Angel of Darkness production.
@@peachesandcream22 Inevitability. The biggest companies always get bought out one way or another and sucked dry by soulless corporate shills who have no intent other than to make the easiest money sat on their arses doing nothing whilst the engineers do all the work. Every industry ever, but ESPECIALLY the games industry since it was always a new, evolving medium constantly changing.
everytime i hear stories about the development of Tomb Raider, it was always about the funny anecdote like the accidental size of her 'ballistic', the slow butler, and the nude code. Never knew about how Eidos basically f**ked the creator, the developer, and Lara herself. Amazing videos and i would love a 2nd part, because the Legends Trilogy by Crystal Dynamics were my first experience with the franchise.
Please do a part 2 Marco, would love the see and hear the stories of the development cycle for both the Crystal Dynamics reboot trillogy and the new Squire Enix trillogy. Keep up the good work.
Honestly, I do feel for the developers, but despite it all, I adore the last three installments. I hold them near and dear to my heart and love replaying them. Despite the criticism and negative feedback from so many people - I think the games are genuinely amazing.
same. I do believe most fans of the first 3 still hold 4,5,+6 near and dear, we were just really disappointed in the end result. Hindsight being 20/20, I get the feeling the OG fans would still choose those last three over the 2 reboots we got. The Core developers truly loved Lara, they just hated how they were treated by Eidos. I just want a developer who truly loves Lara for what she was originally rather than pandering to this insane need to make the most well established female gaming character completely unrecognizable in both looks and behavior bc it make her “nicer and more relatable” to our current society.
The ultimate lesson here is that greed is one of the biggest killers of creativity. If the developers had been given the time to work on their products without being crushed under ridiculous, repeated deadlines and unrealistic expectations from shareholders and publishing executives (most of whom had probably never played a videogame in their lives, let alone tried to create one), then burnout and disillusionment - and hence substandard products - wouldn't have been an issue. A really interesting video. Bravo for putting it all together (and shoutout to the cameo of Murti Schofield's website, which I helped build xD).
But i also guess that keeping push the devolopers to make more and more and a vital need, Just think about how much expensive must be Run a studio. About all the taxes plus all the cost, risk and the salary from all the employer, was economy possibly speend much making a game?
Yep, I think you guys are both correct. It's definitely bad when publishers put developers through unreasonable demands and timelines with only the maximization of profit in mind. But thinking that you will strike gold simply by letting the devs cook whatever for however long it takes is also a trap. You'll burn all your money and have an unfinished product you can't sell. Greed is a killer of creativity, sure. But in my experience, creativity needs its time, and time is money. They kill each other.
This is a thing in industries that involve digital products. Heads of the companies who have not the slightest idea of how things are done and how realistic their requests are.
What impresses me even until today is the quality of animations. Her movement always felt grounded, heavy and believable, compared to how arcadey most games where back in the 90ies. The animations where so good they could even carry them over to the current 1-3 remakes just with a better model slapped on. No rework needed for them since they still work today. It even has dynamic foot placement on steps and inverted kinematics for the arms individually pointing at enemies, ... which was way ahead of its time.
I grew up playing the franchise and I always love seeing documentaries on it. I'd say it was a good call to separate the "survivor trilogy" into a second part because those games and an entirely different animal. and all this from the guy that taught me how skill haste works in a looter shooter 6 years ago. You've come a long way.
Never played Tomb Raider. Never watched Tomb Raider. Still watched the whole thing. Seeing you evolve over the years and expand into heavily-researched, beautifully arranged video essays like this has been special. One day you'll get the recognition you deserve.
The classic Tomb Raider games are definitely worth the play, if you can ignore the blocky graphics and clunky gameplay on the platforming aspects, then yeah Tomb Raider back then was a enjoyable experience. I do hope someday we will see the original Tomb Raider design in a remade classics over the rebooted Tomb Raider.
The new trilogy are well worth playing if you like action adventure puzzle games with a slight puzzle box world motif (think more Dark Souls unlocking new areas and less Breath of the Wild). The gunplay is better than the first 3 Uncharteds and way better than The Last of Us series. The original TR games don't hold up at all and the first reboot trilogy is a gibberish story with bad acting.
Together with all the flaws they had, the games before reboot have aged very poorly. I am not blaming them - the first one was ground breaking and, as such, you can't expect peak quality of the genre. The first reboot I actually return to every few years, for me they are the 'best' games - that is, if you can stand two decades old games at best. For me 3D from the nineties is now a no-no, but the second half of '00 are ok. Now, TR was never the best action games, and CD had certainly reduced the difficulty threshold *a lot*, comparing to things like Revelations, so if you expect it to hold solely on game play like Dark Souls, give them a pass. But if you are a great Indiana Jones fan, than, frankly there is next to nothing that evokes those vibes, aside from uncharted (which comes with its own problems). I put 'games like Tomb Raider' into google countless times by now, so I'd know.
It was "arguably" the biggest achievement for its time". What? There is nothing "arguably" about it, this game was MASSIVE. It changed the video game industry and the first time I played it, it made my jaw drop. Games, today, can't do that anymore. The fog to hide draw distance and black skybox, I always felt, added to the atmosphere instead of detract from it. It definitely made open areas such as lost valley or colosseum look "bigger". I would take a burnout any day for a few hundred thousand dollar in royalties. "It starts off in a long corridor that wants to kill you and it only gets harder from there", this is false. Most of the game is actually easier than the first level. It takes a decent while for anything to match the opening gauntlet. But we did have a "Tomb Raider 2.5", it was called "The Golden Mask". TR1 also had a gold version with new levels.
Marco, the quality of these videos is absurdly high. Congrats on the improvement of your editing skills my man! Awesome to see you do so well homie. Cheers!
My first ever Tomb Raider game was Anniversary. Don't know if its the nostalgia speaking or if the game was really good, but I absolutely loved it. Played underworld after but was disappointed. Anniversary still has a place in my heart as one of my favorites. I never knew all this was going on behind the series though.
The game was really good, but it's a bit of nostalgia. I played it when I was 11 and I loved it, and I still like it quite a bit, but going back to replay it a few months ago, it's got flaws. Especially control wise.
I loved this video. It really was a true deep dive into Lara Croft and Tomb Raider back in the day. I loved Lara as a child. I always wanted to be her because she was fearless, beautiful, capable and self-sufficient and no body messed with her. Lara always could hold her own and in a world where women were (and in some cases still are) underestimated and dicriminated against, she was the idle I would look upto, even as an adult. To help me to persue a career in the motor trade, I had to deal with extreme cases of discrimination and some more diluted cases of misconduct from men and it was thinking "what would Lara do?" that got me through. I have now been in the motor industry for around 12 years. I can hold my own, I am determined and capable and self-sufficient and nobody messes with me. Sound familiar? Power fantasy figures like Lara are essential to help us all mere mortals to keep improving ourselves and striving for better. They help us to aspire to be more than we could ever have imagined. I really really hope that Lara Croft isnt destroyed. I want her to remain, strong, beautiful, independent and a real go getter. I dont want to see her crumble to a lifeless, depressed, shell of a being, just to conform to somw kind of 'realism'. That doesnt propel us forward, it just makes us stagnate.
That last part was beautiful and really nails exactly what video game and media companies cannot comprehend nowadays. Hopefully within the next decade we'll see a return to the old school larger than life figures to aspire to and Lara returns to form, rather than what she's become with this latest revision.
Looooove long deep dive videos like this one. My dad introduced me to TR as a child, since he had been a long-time fan of the franchise. He's a completionist so he used to print guides he found online lol. I only played TR Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld on my PSP though. So many of the levels are still so memorable to me that I can just see them, it's so nostalgic! I also used to be obsessed with exploring Lara's mansion, doing the gym thing countless times, and ofc trying on all the outfits,,,,, she made me Feel Things lol. I played the Survivor trilogy last year which I really enjoyed, especially Rise. I'm still obsessed with Lara and her clothes and I'm still in love with her. I've also become a completionist oop. Would love to see part 2!!
You should replay them on PC they look so good or if you can't play them on PS3 or Xbox 360 to get the tomb raider experience, my favorite TR game is Legend and Anniversary
Yes the outfits were sooo fun in Legend, I loved when games didn't take themselves so seriously, like how the survivor trilogy is boring to me because they try to make everything "realistic" which takes the fun out of the games
I hate the reboot completely. The original Lara Croft look, voice style and personality was GOLD 🏆 “I only play for sport darling” sums her essence up. Beautiful, not bothered by the modern world, or living up to her privileged background - in love with the ancient world .. not driven by money or gain but as her passion. Her dry, strong British female tone was sexy, and both informal and formal at the same time. Her ambiguous olive skin, large lips and long brown hair allowed her to be universal. I’ve played since Tomb Raider: I came out, I’m 31 now. I feel like they robbed us of real Tomb Raider stories since after Angel of Darkness. I liked the Anniversary, Underworld etc games in between the original games and the the unfortunate “prequel” games that I can’t stand. BRING BACK ORIGINAL TOMB RAIDER 🔫
I finished the video and scrolled down expecting like...5 million views or something. This very thorough and polished look-back of a video is criminally underrated. Good job bro.
I rarely buy AAA games since I can't keep up with modern hardware so the latest Tomb Raider trilogy (well the first two games anyway) hold a special place in my heart. Thoroughly enjoyed those especially the second.
For Toby, Lara was so much more, some of her features were inspired by her sister. He was so disgusted by the sexualization of the industry, as he should ! I was a kid and LARA CROFT is my hero, it makes me sick how the marketing to make paper money pushes that part. Toby co-wrote some Tomb Raider comics, focused on exploration, and her bold personality.
It also means he was very far exluded from reality though. People want to undress characters. Be it 8-Bit Samus or 3D Sephiroth. He should be lucky being born pre Rule34-era if he already looses his mind seeing Lara in a Bikini or as an april joke with Stars "to prtotect the innocent" in a magazine.
Even if some of what he said about playing it safe was absolute nonsense. The reboots took many risks with survival before that was a huge thing, great dlc tombs to add life to the game etc. Generally they offered great value for money for AAA game unlike most AAA games today that launch as a broken mess.
My wifes uncle worked on Angel of Darkness. He was an artist and he built and textured the Parisian Ghetto. A lot of family photos were used as set dressing and even family names used for shop names! He left his signature in Carviers apartment. A box of 'Wayno's' cereal in the kitchen. He told me a few stories about his time working on the game, real horror stories. We still have the AOD style guide that he pinched when Core was sold off and dissolved. We did have a replica Kurtis shirt signed by Core staff along with loads of other merch but all got lost along the way somewhere. Tragic.
Holy- the quality of the editing is keeping my eyes glued to the screen, and the content itself is so intriguing in itself too - incredible stuff, im in awe
I've started my TR journey with TR 2013 reboot on PS3, then checked out Anniversary "remaster" or whatever it is (loved it), and actually enjoyed Angel of Darkness with community patches on PC. Also dipped my toes in the PS Vita homebrew port of Tomb Raider 1 which was very nice. I never had any interest in TR before my older brother introduced me to TR 2013, but after that I just had to see what came before it - and I've never experienced a more satisfying movement system than what the classic TR games offered. It was jank at times, but so satisfying to figure out and master. I wish more "modern" games offered such depth of movement.
It's not depth, it's just stiff. You can't tell me it has more depth than Mario 64's movement or the new TR games ftm. They're smooth and actually intuitive and there's so much more you can do in terms of climbing and traversing.
@@Parker-- While it's true that original Tomb Raider's controls aren't anywhere as smooth as in Mario 64 or the new TR entries, that doesn't mean that there isn't any depth at all. Just like in those other games, in early TR there are plenty of situations where you can get to the same place by utilizing different moves - just like in the games you've mentioned. At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal preference more than anything - many consider old TR controls outdated and "stiff" as you said, and many others still enjoy them to a great degree. I'm not trying to make anyone like the old controls or dissuade them from enjoying what the like in other games. :)
I come from a time where more or less every game had a completely different control scheme. Some of it worked some of it didn't, some of them fitted your personal preference some of it didn't. But what it meant was that every game offered you unique new gameplay to experience. Classic Tomb Raider games did that. Contrast that to most modern gaming where it doesn't matter whether you are playing Tomb Raider, Uncharted, GTA or Assasins Creed... it all controls the same making you feel like you are playing the same game over and over with just another skin on top.
... so it isn't even that much about "depth of movement". Lara's classic controls are simple and predictable and they work really well with the type of game the original Tomb Raider is. (as is mentioned in this video, as they moved away from the grid based environments into full 3D environments with Angel of Darkness that control scheme stopped making sense)
This is such a phenomenal video essay. It feels like a true documentary in every sense of the word. The editing, transitions, script, and especially tracking visuals or whatever is relevant into the in-game footage is all utilized perfectly. I can't give enough praise to the overall experience as a viewer. I'm sure this kind of content takes so much time and preparation, and I'm very thankful that you put this together for all of us. This is the type of content that I wish I could give more likes because it deserves it. Genuinely wishing you the best of luck on your future projects.
As a Tomb Raider fan, since tr1 to the latest, I feel really overwhelmed by the information! Wow, so much insight. I really liked all games except tr6. Each game has something appealing. Maybe not so much with the latest trilogy because it kinda missed the exploration concept.
@@eranronen573He is a shade of a past time. Legends say that he appeared around the 7th Generation of game consoles. But there are some accounts that can be tracked all the way back to the foundation of mankinds history!
Great deep dive, Marco. I am super happy you're still making content and didn't throw in the towel when Destiny wasn't doing it for you anymore. I didn't know any of this was going on behind the scenes at Core. Goes to show you how game devs really need a union. The level of work these devs were made to endure was insane.
I just really wanna say that these types of videos are the ones that will become recommended and what people (judging by the views on other videos) really come for this channel, including myself. I hope you dont get indimidated by the length of the videos, like you said in the Far Cry video about it being 2 and a half hours, but thats what I really enjoy, and feel like many more do as well.
The amopunt of work that went into those games can only be comparable to the amount of work that went into making this video. From one RUclipsr to another, hats off man. Hats off!
Big TR fan! I love how you incorporate the clips & art into gameplay. This is some next level work, I've never seen documentary style like this, & I'm here for it ❤
Outstanding work, truly. TR was one of a few staples I played during those years. I clearly recall my reactions to each installment, which dwindled in pretty much the way this video describes them. That culminated in just abandoning AoD partway through, it was so bad. At least now I have more insight into why. Look forward to Part II but, as I've never been tempted to try a TR game since the move to Crystal, it's only because you do such a great job with topics like this.
This video is a masterpiece. Amazingly done! I'm a Tomb Raider fan for decades now and this is truly the best insight into the making off of Tomb Raider I have ever seen. Please let it be a second part!
Wow! Just wow! This video is so well-made and well researched, not to mention the quality of the editing is also great. So, thank you for this very entertaining 1-hour video, man. I really hope you continue this until the end with Part 2 as I really enjoy watching it in one sitting.
This was really well done! I especially liked that you made the effort to animate the blocky environments and that you were mentioning and showing tools and letting level designers speak. Great work!
Dude, this video is amazing. Great editing and great commentary. Don't be let down if you don't get many views, the franchise is not in your highest point at the moment, but I will certainly recommend to everyone who has interest. You deserve.
Hi I'm from Brazil. I wanted to congratulate you on the unbelievable quality of editing and timing of this video. Seriously, this was the best video I've ever seen of any game ever covered. The editing is perfect, the phrases fit very well with the scenes. CONGRATULATIONS!
I've never come across your videos before but I am glad that this is the first one I've watched. It's really well put together and I'm left with wanting more! impatiently waiting for part 2! Keep up the good work!
My favourite video from you yet. Def the best of your new format. I never expected these insane backstories behind all those games. Far Cry, Tomb Raider, CoD Zombies, ... keep it up. Really enjoying the new format
I rarely comment but this vid was so well put together, edited, researched and presented how could I know comment to boost engagement! I've been in the TR community for years now and watched so many retrospectives, reviews and analysis vids and thought I knew all there was so know. This is the first video essay in a long while now to have shown me a whole other side of the franchise. To think people have touched on the conditions of the classic games for the developers but never in this detail. I can't believe I never knew just how horrific their life was during the time working on this project 😮 really draws a contrast on those of us that still love and appreciate the crystal dynamic time line of games but to know all this about the core team and their struggles and burn out makes me appreciate the growth of tomb raiders identify so much more but in a darker light given the history that was really there
This review is like visiting a museum of a long lost art. Loved it. Hope I could see part two on crystal dynamics games and part three on newer ones. Thank you for all the work you put into this one regardless!
This video is SPECTACULAR! Information, narration, script, pacing, editing.. It's like a movie or a documentary, you're so hooked you don't wanna stop! Hopefully there's a part 2 covering LAU and maybe the relaunch.
Wow this video felt like it flew by. I really enjoyed it, I’ve barely got into the Tomb Raider Franchise with TR 2013 and Rise but this video made me really want to go back and play the older games.
Man... I absolutely loved this video. Thank you for your time and effort sir. I am a huge TR fan, ever since I played my first TR game back when it was released. I have played every single one. I had no Idea this was happening on the dev side, even though I felt all the effects on the player side and everything makes total sense now. Hope you release part 2 soon
Jesus christ man, the production level is among the best I have ever seen, tbh I started watching the video just in the background, and soon I just been floored by the level of quality yiu've produced, first time on your channel and already subscribed. Amazing work
French viewer here, huge tomb raider fan, started to play the series with Tomb Raider 3 (yes I know, what a BAD idea at the time !) and I have to say this was the most informational, complete, entertaining video I had seen on this topic ! Great, great work !
Nice work, but small nitpick: "Downloadable Content (DLC)" wasn't a thing in the 90s. They were called expansion packs and released on physical media. Playstation 1 didn't have internet connection. I can't remember any PC single player games being published as downloadable content in the 90s.
In game development, if something is a success everyone around you wants to take the credit and have a bigger say in any sequels, but if it fails it's all on you.
First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love the way this video looks. The editing and graphics really make everything pop a lot and give it a healthy visual flaire. Second of all, I have to say, as a lifelong fan of Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness is the first game I ever played), it really is heartbreaking to see the extent to which Eidos abused the Core team. This really was nothing short of an abusive employment, and I can't imagine what it was like to work in that environment for literal years. I'm also kind of shocked to find out that Angel of Darkness wasn't a victim of overambition, but rather inexperience and a lack of vision. I will say that I think it's interesting how a lot of the Tomb Raider fandom seems to be much fonder of AoD these days. I think it's in part due to the fact that the series did end up recovering and is still relatively healthy, on top of a couple of other factors. The game, if nothing else, does have a very strong aesthetic. It *looks* great for the most part, and the visual style is very compelling. On top of that, there's kind of the "what could have been" angle to it. If AoD had been given proper breathing space when the development finally got back on track, it likely would have been very good if nothing else. Also, I will... Maybe tepidly defend 2 and 3, as I do think those games are overall fairly strong, at least for what they are. Tomb Raider 2 absolutely suffers from an overabundance of combat, but outside of that, I think most of it is great, and it does a good job of balancing the modern settings and the tomb stuff. 3 is more of a mixed bag, you can kind of tell it was made by people who had both been working on the series for too long and people who had just started on it. I love a lot of the more insane stuff, especially Nevada, that entire section is- hilarious. Lara just casually breaks into Area 51, murders a ton of guards, and steals an artifact from the US government and it's never mentioned ever again, amazing. Granted, as good as I think the section look, the Pacific Islands part is also kind of- racist, so the devs' gun-ho attitude about just doing whatever didn't 100% pay off. I think Chronicles is the only one here I can't defend. Most TR fans don't like Chronicles. You can feel throughout every single level how much nobody wanted to make it. It barely feels like a finished product, both in terms of how short most of the levels are, the small level count (only 14, which is one shy of the first TR), and in terms of how buggy it is. It also just- looks worse than Last Revelation, and it's paced pretty badly. Overall, this will always be my favorite era of Tomb Raider, but it really does cast a shadow (of the Tomb Raider) over the entire thing when you look at what the poor devs went through making these games. On top of that, I and most other fans really hate the way Lara was treated as a sex object by the public at large. Those Duke Nukem easter eggs especially left a really bad taste in my mouth, just a huge amount of disrespect to a character who is incredibly badass and charismatic. I almost wonder if "Don't you think you've seen enough?" was meant as a kind of sassy response from the devs to fans and people who didn't respect Lara beyond her being attractive.
When it comes to AoD there are a lot of projects making the rounds in an effort to fix all of it's gameplay issues. There is a fan made definitive edition and a whole restoration project. I think people that think highly of that game, think highly of what it could have been instead of what it is. Also the fact this was Core's biggest and last TR game ever, makes it the end to an era and gives people some bonus nostalgia points. But the game as it came out just doesn't have much to offer.
@@MarcoStyle It's definitely not very good, I cannot in good conscious defend it as a good game, but it's at least extremely interesting, and has enough there that I'd say we could have had something really great.
@@charmingpeasant9834 The problem isn't that she shoots cannibals, the problem is that the entire section is rooted in some extremely outdated, racist conceptions of "exotic islands with scary savages". It's stuff straight out of some old colonialist adventure serial where the brave white British hero saves some also white blonde lady from the terrible savages. As levels I actually think most of them (Madubu Gorge not withstanding) are really cool, and between Nevada, London, and the Pacific Islands they might be my favorite section in the game you can choose for yourself. I just really don't like the cannibal stuff, it's extremely outdated.
This guy made a 20:30 long intro which for some would be a lengthy and thorough documentary and then really told us "So now I want to welcome everybody to today's video" What a madman
Everything about this video is great. The thumbnail drew me in after the algorithm placed it in front of me. The pacing & flow is pretty good to keep you engaged, and there's the right amount of depth to the information given. I eagerly await a part 2!
The overall vibe i get from the first period of tomb raider games is definitely a tragedy of the slow death of core design. As much of a nightmare it may have been, and despite the quality of the games thanks to this, those developers' work is and will likely be forever appreciatd by many many people. Really loved this video and your deep dive into everything surrounding the original tomb raider games. Just making clear, is the next video going to be about the 2013 reboot series, or a more indepth look into the Legend trilogy? either way, thank you so much for your time and effort on this project! :3
the amount of memes you put into each section is insane, and very funny ! love your long videos. i hope this video blows up and get to millions and millions of views
Fantastic watch, Marco -- the documentary feeling and joining you on the trip down the rabbit hole that is the tomb raider spiral was excellent. Definitely looking forward to a part 2! 🔥
Amazing stuff! Never knew how brutal development was for the early Tomb Raider games. And I was definitely shocked that you ended it before going deep into the rebooted games 😅. Would love to see part 2!
I figured a 3 hour video would be too long and I wasn't sure if people would be interested enough so I just did it in 2 parts to test the waters a bit.
amazing video!!! TR is really a franchise i have a personal attachment to, TR2 was my first game ever on my PS1 so I was very emotional when the I-III remastered was announced. just finished it and I have to say that first two were amazing and just how i remembered them and quite intuitive. Just like you said most of the times you knew exactly what the main objective was but i struggled so much with the third game. It really was a fever dream and honestly cudos to everyone who finished it without any walkthrough. Im really hoping for another remaster IV-VI and honestly mainly because of the AoD. I really believe that this game deserved to be treated better, there were many many great ideas and I will forever be devastated that the AoD trilogy didn't happen (but with that leadership and tight deadlines it was probably for the best). I absolutely loved the atmosphere, how dark it was, how unafraid they were of trying new things and the soundtrack was a pure masterpiece! I really hope Aspyr doesnt end up doing just IV and V. Fingers crossed! Cant wait for your TR2013-SOTTR analysis!
This was actually a realy cool video. It's weird because I've only ever played the 2013-2017 rebooted series and Lara being caught on the island and her adventures with Jonah, so it's interesting to learn about where the franchise started and it's challenges it ran into. Would love a second part to this video! Thank you!
@@xxxaragon I did pick up the older titles Crystal Dynamics did when they first worked on the series. I'll have to at least check out Anniversary, Legend, and Underworld, and might even try TR II :)
I love the 2013 reboot. It was my favorite game back in 2013, together with the Last of Us. The next two games were also really good, especially Rise. I really enjoyed having a game set in Siberia and the villian was cool too. Hopefully there will be a new game soon.
I absolutely love how you changed in-game textures to add to the entire presentation of the video. Like, that's dedication. And if you didn't do that, I wanna know how you've managed to master Adobe Aftereffects so well. Because this is magic.
13:29 was a wtf moment. You did NOT have to edit it like that, but you did. A fast cut to the interview would have been acceptable, but no. You had to do extra, and it paid off. Awesome.
also! the thumbnail repelled me from watching this but the whole "documentation", you can say is AMAZING. maybe u wanna swap it out- to attract more. I sadly dont have many contacts to share it with but its amazing work
Just wanted to say a quick THANK YOU for this awesome documentary! Tomb Raider has been a big part of my childhood, of our whole generation, and its magic still sparkles to this day! It's so nice to be given such a deep insight into the developement of these games, it makes me appreciate them even more now! :)
![[FULL] RETROSPECTIVE : Final Fantasy Tactics](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RUBmYqs1jZ0/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FULL] RETROSPECTIVE : Final Fantasy Tactics](/img/tr.png)
Wow developers were so sick and burned out what they secretly wrote an ending to kill Lara off just so they stop making games about her. Just amazing. I also love how they talked about it with such an enthusiasm lmao.
Like Conan Doyle trying to kill of Sherlock Holmes, with same result.
I like the guy that when asked if he dreams of Lara he just said "no" as if anything relating to her was his hell and he couldn't wait to go to bed and dream about literally anything else.
Are uncharted and tomb Raider related because they as I can tell making similar games but now uncharted release maybe for the first time a game call lost legacy which really reminds me of TB 2 females in a jungle of India for treasures in similar game play and kinda stoeies.I know that's there is only so many games played style of games but this game maybe as well be a called tomb Raider friend's game adventure one thing maybe more shooting here he is a character from the uncharted games now getting own 9 chapter show game play.I like looks great in own way so wondered if they making or related and if they paid to do own games even though
Uncharted out 2007 to 2016 TR way earlier and TR re boot 2013 2018 is similar to uncharted either way I have alot multiple
That was very mysogynistic of them. The byzantine empire would not be proud. But america would! Proudest nation on planet earth, or in other words the- _this comment has been restricted_
Tomb raider can be so much more... but like many other titles the rights are owned by bonoboes who haven't increased anything but graphics in a literal decade
Not exactly Tomb Raider fan, but I certainly dig her original, sharper design in concepts. Bit stylised, round glasses and that cheesy 90s attitude just fitted better for this tomb raidering business. The original lore for her becoming adrealine addict after accident is surprisingly good backstory for simple setting and didn't really need anything more.
Spot on. Well, they have to just overcomplicate everything including development studios. Too many damn people when it should be like a handful.
@@karnagefails333Classic “Can’t Leave This One Alone” Syndrome. Some things deserves exploration (What inspired Henry Jones Junior to actually become Indiana Jones), some things are ripe for a great story (Remembrance of the Daleks answering the question of what exactly the Doctor was doing at the junkyard in An Unearthly Child before his granddaughter’s teachers came in) and a lot of things are better off left as a mystery (Too many to name).
Her original design was awesome and the new one can't hold a candle to it. She was a badass and an icon of female power. The new version is a boring sap.
@@gorgolytEver considered Tomb Raider: UnderWorld’s failures that led to the reboot to become a trilogy…!?
@@fernie-fernandez Depends because you can also consider the reboot a failure in terms of nobody really gives a crap about the new Lara anymore and she's just seen as a Nathan Drake wannabe. She wasn't even invited to the Who's who party of Super Smash. Sure you can bring in the "sales" of the reboot even though the free / 100% discount sales are also counted as a sale.
as a huge tomb raider fan, i didn't realise how bad things were for the development team. i knew they wanted to kill her at 4 but i didn't realise 5 was created with resentment and frustration. cannot wait for part 2.
?
@@josephwatkins527 I'm assuming by part 2 he means the Tomb Raider series as it continued with Legend and onward. There are still 6 Tomb Raider games that aren't covered by this video. Legend, Anniversary, Underworld, the 2013 reboot, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. More than enough material to make a part 2 to this video.
@@Xylarxcode now I wonder how they felt with the 2 reboots
@@MLU8811on youtube?
@@josephwatkins527We're probably getting a third one. The 2013 one failed because the Prachett team were unable to write their own story with Lara because of manbaby fans. Like Kevin Smith and his Heman reboot
It’s honestly crazy to think about just how long the shitty business practices of game publishers have been going on. The fact that crunch of this level and general treatment of developers have been going on since these games of the late 90’s is just…fuck. Not to mention how yearly release schedule games were *already* destroying series. Sucks that it doesn’t show much sign of changing these days either.
I honestly think it was worse in the 90's, because you *could not* release bug fixes or even communicate with your audience. It was burned into a disk and any hidden bugs still left were set in stone forever.
Valve seems to be an exception as they are not publicly traded nor slave driven by a short sighted publisher
How could you swear without getting your comment shadowbanned? 😱
Sonic Xtreme's lead programmer was told he had 6 months to live from the crunch they endured at SEGA Technical Institute. Nobody was safe from this except Nintendo pretty much.
For me, Lara Croft is supposed to be as reckless as Indiana Jones and as fierced as Bettie Page. It is this mixture of personality.
She is a sophisticated upper class british women, a female James Bond.
A pretty good way to describe Lara.
Yes! I completely agree! My favourite Lara was the pre-2006 Lara.
@@NizarNoorIt would've been nice if Classic Lara was Reboot Lara's canon mom.
Which was awesome in the 90’s, she really broke the glass ceiling of what female characters could be.
20+ years later however it’s too surface level and comes off as shallow.
@@kjh4496 No, 20+ years later OG Lara is still as revolutionary as she used to be and we have regressed to the point where fiction with that kind of money behind it isn't allowed to have a protagonist like Lara Croft in it.
This video is a masterpiece. As a person who has been a fan of Tomb Raider for over twenty years, this was eye opening and definitely very informative. Even though I don't think the new trilogies will be such development rabbit holes as the old games, please do part two.
It's not a masterpiece. It's a hitpiece. The only good stuff was exposing edios horrendous exploitation but the dude had nothing but negative things to say about tomb raiders gameplay
Good god, I feel bad for the developers. Hearing how ruthless the publisher was, is something else. I never realized that the game industry being so messed up extended that far back. He'll they even had annual releases that were later made famous by Ubisoft. The developers definitely have my respect for still putting out quality games, even in that environment. That's something that doesn't really happen now.
It's always been a problem. Atari wouldn't give programmers credit. EA and Activision (80s Activision todays Activision is in name only) were both founded by disgruntled Atari employees that wanted credit and creative freedom.
This is just what it takes to develop new software. It's why salaries are generally far higher than average. Don't like it, do something else.
@@NemesisOgreKing And now, EA and Activision stopped making really good games and became one of the greediest game companies ever.
Well with Ubisoft, it was very different. At first they started small, sure, but as they grew larger, they handed difficult projects to different branches rather than having one small group do everything at the same time. This gave Ubisoft the ability to get each game (more or less) complete each and every year they released a new one.
With CORE, they not only had yearly release mandates, but were also a small team splitting focus among both Tomb Raider and other games as well, rather than putting all their manpower into one or two specific games or game series.
Steve of Warr actually did an interview with someone who worked at CORE Design and worked on all six CORE games, and he laments that they worked on multiple things at once, rather than working on just Tomb Raider. That, and not pushing back against Eidos during the Angel of Darkness production.
@@peachesandcream22 Inevitability. The biggest companies always get bought out one way or another and sucked dry by soulless corporate shills who have no intent other than to make the easiest money sat on their arses doing nothing whilst the engineers do all the work. Every industry ever, but ESPECIALLY the games industry since it was always a new, evolving medium constantly changing.
everytime i hear stories about the development of Tomb Raider, it was always about the funny anecdote like the accidental size of her 'ballistic', the slow butler, and the nude code. Never knew about how Eidos basically f**ked the creator, the developer, and Lara herself.
Amazing videos and i would love a 2nd part, because the Legends Trilogy by Crystal Dynamics were my first experience with the franchise.
Please do a part 2 Marco, would love the see and hear the stories of the development cycle for both the Crystal Dynamics reboot trillogy and the new Squire Enix trillogy. Keep up the good work.
same
yesss really
Honestly, I do feel for the developers, but despite it all, I adore the last three installments. I hold them near and dear to my heart and love replaying them. Despite the criticism and negative feedback from so many people - I think the games are genuinely amazing.
same. I do believe most fans of the first 3 still hold 4,5,+6 near and dear, we were just really disappointed in the end result. Hindsight being 20/20, I get the feeling the OG fans would still choose those last three over the 2 reboots we got. The Core developers truly loved Lara, they just hated how they were treated by Eidos. I just want a developer who truly loves Lara for what she was originally rather than pandering to this insane need to make the most well established female gaming character completely unrecognizable in both looks and behavior bc it make her “nicer and more relatable” to our current society.
why? the new games suck, they made her just some boring horse girl that looks like a taylor swift fan.
@@melindamercier6811 No, the games are woke. End of story.
You like woke stuff?
@@detective2221 How are the games woke. Please explain, actually better yet. Define woke
The ultimate lesson here is that greed is one of the biggest killers of creativity. If the developers had been given the time to work on their products without being crushed under ridiculous, repeated deadlines and unrealistic expectations from shareholders and publishing executives (most of whom had probably never played a videogame in their lives, let alone tried to create one), then burnout and disillusionment - and hence substandard products - wouldn't have been an issue.
A really interesting video. Bravo for putting it all together (and shoutout to the cameo of Murti Schofield's website, which I helped build xD).
But i also guess that keeping push the devolopers to make more and more and a vital need, Just think about how much expensive must be Run a studio.
About all the taxes plus all the cost, risk and the salary from all the employer, was economy possibly speend much making a game?
Yep, I think you guys are both correct. It's definitely bad when publishers put developers through unreasonable demands and timelines with only the maximization of profit in mind. But thinking that you will strike gold simply by letting the devs cook whatever for however long it takes is also a trap. You'll burn all your money and have an unfinished product you can't sell. Greed is a killer of creativity, sure. But in my experience, creativity needs its time, and time is money. They kill each other.
lol, it’s ten time worse now. Look at all the mediocre games that are released all the time. All the franchises are dead
This is a thing in industries that involve digital products. Heads of the companies who have not the slightest idea of how things are done and how realistic their requests are.
Same thing happened with Cyberpunk 2077 it's honestly insane.
This is so well made it could be a Netflix documentary
Pfff Netflix could never
@@adoptedbyangelinajolie true dat
that is an insult, not a compliment
@@EffigyyIt's a matter of speech I don't even watch Netflix docs but judging from the comments here I won't even try
I got the point man :) You're right @@mrk-ism
I miss the retro Lara Croft tbh. She will never be replaced in our hearts
Yeah, she had a lot of HEART. The new Lara had BUDGET CUTS.
@@DarkEnigma1115 YES SIR!
I mean.. it was the 90's. Times change
You mean.. you miss the REAL LARA.
i dont miss those weird controls and bad camera angles
This is some TOP TIER content. Well researched, amazing editing, impeccable flow.. thank you for this gem.
These long form videos are massively underrated. I hope they blow up and you get the recognition you deserve. Job well done.
I prefer longform vids.
Same. Long form videos are much more entertaining than a cliff notes tiktok.
long form? In THIS economy!? Good luck haha
what makes you say that other than other people not knowing what underrated means
Not too likely if Tiktok culture sticks around, its frying a lot of people's attention spans
What impresses me even until today is the quality of animations. Her movement always felt grounded, heavy and believable, compared to how arcadey most games where back in the 90ies. The animations where so good they could even carry them over to the current 1-3 remakes just with a better model slapped on. No rework needed for them since they still work today. It even has dynamic foot placement on steps and inverted kinematics for the arms individually pointing at enemies, ... which was way ahead of its time.
I grew up playing the franchise and I always love seeing documentaries on it. I'd say it was a good call to separate the "survivor trilogy" into a second part because those games and an entirely different animal. and all this from the guy that taught me how skill haste works in a looter shooter 6 years ago. You've come a long way.
It's criminal how Eidos treated the franchise. I don't even hate Disney more for what they did to SW.
This should've hit a miillion already, insanely well researched, sourced and edited
Never played Tomb Raider. Never watched Tomb Raider. Still watched the whole thing. Seeing you evolve over the years and expand into heavily-researched, beautifully arranged video essays like this has been special. One day you'll get the recognition you deserve.
The classic Tomb Raider games are definitely worth the play, if you can ignore the blocky graphics and clunky gameplay on the platforming aspects, then yeah Tomb Raider back then was a enjoyable experience.
I do hope someday we will see the original Tomb Raider design in a remade classics over the rebooted Tomb Raider.
The new trilogy are well worth playing if you like action adventure puzzle games with a slight puzzle box world motif (think more Dark Souls unlocking new areas and less Breath of the Wild). The gunplay is better than the first 3 Uncharteds and way better than The Last of Us series. The original TR games don't hold up at all and the first reboot trilogy is a gibberish story with bad acting.
Together with all the flaws they had, the games before reboot have aged very poorly. I am not blaming them - the first one was ground breaking and, as such, you can't expect peak quality of the genre. The first reboot I actually return to every few years, for me they are the 'best' games - that is, if you can stand two decades old games at best. For me 3D from the nineties is now a no-no, but the second half of '00 are ok. Now, TR was never the best action games, and CD had certainly reduced the difficulty threshold *a lot*, comparing to things like Revelations, so if you expect it to hold solely on game play like Dark Souls, give them a pass. But if you are a great Indiana Jones fan, than, frankly there is next to nothing that evokes those vibes, aside from uncharted (which comes with its own problems). I put 'games like Tomb Raider' into google countless times by now, so I'd know.
@@Siranoxz The terrible controls is a hard thing to ignore.
Damn that's a crime
It was "arguably" the biggest achievement for its time". What? There is nothing "arguably" about it, this game was MASSIVE. It changed the video game industry and the first time I played it, it made my jaw drop. Games, today, can't do that anymore. The fog to hide draw distance and black skybox, I always felt, added to the atmosphere instead of detract from it. It definitely made open areas such as lost valley or colosseum look "bigger". I would take a burnout any day for a few hundred thousand dollar in royalties. "It starts off in a long corridor that wants to kill you and it only gets harder from there", this is false. Most of the game is actually easier than the first level. It takes a decent while for anything to match the opening gauntlet. But we did have a "Tomb Raider 2.5", it was called "The Golden Mask". TR1 also had a gold version with new levels.
Love this new style of content from you. Not to mention the editing, graphics work is super impressive.
This retrospective was very well made and the editing was sublime.
Marco, the quality of these videos is absurdly high. Congrats on the improvement of your editing skills my man!
Awesome to see you do so well homie. Cheers!
Thanks man, trying to really up the quality with each of these. glad it shows.
I almost though for a second that maybe there is a remastered TR1 version or something! That would be awesome 🙂 by the way AMAZING work @marco
My first ever Tomb Raider game was Anniversary. Don't know if its the nostalgia speaking or if the game was really good, but I absolutely loved it. Played underworld after but was disappointed. Anniversary still has a place in my heart as one of my favorites. I never knew all this was going on behind the series though.
The game was really good, but it's a bit of nostalgia. I played it when I was 11 and I loved it, and I still like it quite a bit, but going back to replay it a few months ago, it's got flaws. Especially control wise.
I loved this video. It really was a true deep dive into Lara Croft and Tomb Raider back in the day. I loved Lara as a child. I always wanted to be her because she was fearless, beautiful, capable and self-sufficient and no body messed with her. Lara always could hold her own and in a world where women were (and in some cases still are) underestimated and dicriminated against, she was the idle I would look upto, even as an adult. To help me to persue a career in the motor trade, I had to deal with extreme cases of discrimination and some more diluted cases of misconduct from men and it was thinking "what would Lara do?" that got me through. I have now been in the motor industry for around 12 years. I can hold my own, I am determined and capable and self-sufficient and nobody messes with me. Sound familiar? Power fantasy figures like Lara are essential to help us all mere mortals to keep improving ourselves and striving for better. They help us to aspire to be more than we could ever have imagined. I really really hope that Lara Croft isnt destroyed. I want her to remain, strong, beautiful, independent and a real go getter. I dont want to see her crumble to a lifeless, depressed, shell of a being, just to conform to somw kind of 'realism'. That doesnt propel us forward, it just makes us stagnate.
2013 Lara is fine too
Maybe the third reboot will give the best of both worlds
That last part was beautiful and really nails exactly what video game and media companies cannot comprehend nowadays. Hopefully within the next decade we'll see a return to the old school larger than life figures to aspire to and Lara returns to form, rather than what she's become with this latest revision.
hearing heather talk is like hearing OG lara talk... i cant get enough of it
Looooove long deep dive videos like this one. My dad introduced me to TR as a child, since he had been a long-time fan of the franchise. He's a completionist so he used to print guides he found online lol. I only played TR Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld on my PSP though. So many of the levels are still so memorable to me that I can just see them, it's so nostalgic! I also used to be obsessed with exploring Lara's mansion, doing the gym thing countless times, and ofc trying on all the outfits,,,,, she made me Feel Things lol.
I played the Survivor trilogy last year which I really enjoyed, especially Rise. I'm still obsessed with Lara and her clothes and I'm still in love with her. I've also become a completionist oop. Would love to see part 2!!
Same!!
You should replay them on PC they look so good or if you can't play them on PS3 or Xbox 360 to get the tomb raider experience, my favorite TR game is Legend and Anniversary
Yes the outfits were sooo fun in Legend, I loved when games didn't take themselves so seriously, like how the survivor trilogy is boring to me because they try to make everything "realistic" which takes the fun out of the games
I hate the reboot completely. The original Lara Croft look, voice style and personality was GOLD 🏆
“I only play for sport darling” sums her essence up. Beautiful, not bothered by the modern world, or living up to her privileged background - in love with the ancient world .. not driven by money or gain but as her passion.
Her dry, strong British female tone was sexy, and both informal and formal at the same time. Her ambiguous olive skin, large lips and long brown hair allowed her to be universal.
I’ve played since Tomb Raider: I came out, I’m 31 now. I feel like they robbed us of real Tomb Raider stories since after Angel of Darkness. I liked the Anniversary, Underworld etc games in between the original games and the the unfortunate “prequel” games that I can’t stand.
BRING BACK ORIGINAL TOMB RAIDER 🔫
I finished the video and scrolled down expecting like...5 million views or something. This very thorough and polished look-back of a video is criminally underrated. Good job bro.
wow, the editing here is absolutely gorgeous!
As usual, absolutely incredible script and editing and telling a terrific story.
This was so incredibly made I can't believe I had the privilege to watch it on youtube for free. Subscribed
I rarely buy AAA games since I can't keep up with modern hardware so the latest Tomb Raider trilogy (well the first two games anyway) hold a special place in my heart. Thoroughly enjoyed those especially the second.
For Toby, Lara was so much more, some of her features were inspired by her sister. He was so disgusted by the sexualization of the industry, as he should ! I was a kid and LARA CROFT is my hero, it makes me sick how the marketing to make paper money pushes that part. Toby co-wrote some Tomb Raider comics, focused on exploration, and her bold personality.
For real! She shouldn’t have been sexualized, she was a childhood hero for many and was a very personal character to Toby.
@@miyumixxx Nah, she should've been sexualized.
Don't space out your exclamation marks.
It also means he was very far exluded from reality though. People want to undress characters. Be it 8-Bit Samus or 3D Sephiroth. He should be lucky being born pre Rule34-era if he already looses his mind seeing Lara in a Bikini or as an april joke with Stars "to prtotect the innocent" in a magazine.
watched every minute and am perplexed that this solo youtuber can now entertain me better than all of Hollywood. You are criminally Underrated.
Even if some of what he said about playing it safe was absolute nonsense. The reboots took many risks with survival before that was a huge thing, great dlc tombs to add life to the game etc.
Generally they offered great value for money for AAA game unlike most AAA games today that launch as a broken mess.
My wifes uncle worked on Angel of Darkness. He was an artist and he built and textured the Parisian Ghetto. A lot of family photos were used as set dressing and even family names used for shop names! He left his signature in Carviers apartment. A box of 'Wayno's' cereal in the kitchen.
He told me a few stories about his time working on the game, real horror stories. We still have the AOD style guide that he pinched when Core was sold off and dissolved. We did have a replica Kurtis shirt signed by Core staff along with loads of other merch but all got lost along the way somewhere. Tragic.
Holy- the quality of the editing is keeping my eyes glued to the screen, and the content itself is so intriguing in itself too - incredible stuff, im in awe
Yearly releases...?! So crazy, and yet they are all masterpieces!
I've started my TR journey with TR 2013 reboot on PS3, then checked out Anniversary "remaster" or whatever it is (loved it), and actually enjoyed Angel of Darkness with community patches on PC. Also dipped my toes in the PS Vita homebrew port of Tomb Raider 1 which was very nice.
I never had any interest in TR before my older brother introduced me to TR 2013, but after that I just had to see what came before it - and I've never experienced a more satisfying movement system than what the classic TR games offered. It was jank at times, but so satisfying to figure out and master. I wish more "modern" games offered such depth of movement.
It's not depth, it's just stiff. You can't tell me it has more depth than Mario 64's movement or the new TR games ftm. They're smooth and actually intuitive and there's so much more you can do in terms of climbing and traversing.
@@Parker-- While it's true that original Tomb Raider's controls aren't anywhere as smooth as in Mario 64 or the new TR entries, that doesn't mean that there isn't any depth at all. Just like in those other games, in early TR there are plenty of situations where you can get to the same place by utilizing different moves - just like in the games you've mentioned.
At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal preference more than anything - many consider old TR controls outdated and "stiff" as you said, and many others still enjoy them to a great degree.
I'm not trying to make anyone like the old controls or dissuade them from enjoying what the like in other games. :)
If you liked Anniversary you'll like Legend and Underworld
I come from a time where more or less every game had a completely different control scheme. Some of it worked some of it didn't, some of them fitted your personal preference some of it didn't. But what it meant was that every game offered you unique new gameplay to experience. Classic Tomb Raider games did that.
Contrast that to most modern gaming where it doesn't matter whether you are playing Tomb Raider, Uncharted, GTA or Assasins Creed... it all controls the same making you feel like you are playing the same game over and over with just another skin on top.
... so it isn't even that much about "depth of movement". Lara's classic controls are simple and predictable and they work really well with the type of game the original Tomb Raider is.
(as is mentioned in this video, as they moved away from the grid based environments into full 3D environments with Angel of Darkness that control scheme stopped making sense)
Impressive work on this video. This is one of those times we're part 2 is warranted
This is such a phenomenal video essay. It feels like a true documentary in every sense of the word. The editing, transitions, script, and especially tracking visuals or whatever is relevant into the in-game footage is all utilized perfectly. I can't give enough praise to the overall experience as a viewer. I'm sure this kind of content takes so much time and preparation, and I'm very thankful that you put this together for all of us. This is the type of content that I wish I could give more likes because it deserves it. Genuinely wishing you the best of luck on your future projects.
As a Tomb Raider fan, since tr1 to the latest, I feel really overwhelmed by the information! Wow, so much insight. I really liked all games except tr6. Each game has something appealing. Maybe not so much with the latest trilogy because it kinda missed the exploration concept.
He is alive guyz
The legend
who is this man? landed in my algorithm lol
@hundkebab2433 youtuber who covered division and destiny and quit then both for long form content and now barely uploads
@@eranronen573He is a shade of a past time. Legends say that he appeared around the 7th Generation of game consoles. But there are some accounts that can be tracked all the way back to the foundation of mankinds history!
Stop lying
Amazing video! Loved TR4. Enjoyed every second of the video, thanks for that.❤
Great deep dive, Marco. I am super happy you're still making content and didn't throw in the towel when Destiny wasn't doing it for you anymore.
I didn't know any of this was going on behind the scenes at Core. Goes to show you how game devs really need a union. The level of work these devs were made to endure was insane.
The quality of this video is a masterpiece in itself.
I just really wanna say that these types of videos are the ones that will become recommended and what people (judging by the views on other videos) really come for this channel, including myself. I hope you dont get indimidated by the length of the videos, like you said in the Far Cry video about it being 2 and a half hours, but thats what I really enjoy, and feel like many more do as well.
The amopunt of work that went into those games can only be comparable to the amount of work that went into making this video.
From one RUclipsr to another, hats off man. Hats off!
Big TR fan! I love how you incorporate the clips & art into gameplay. This is some next level work, I've never seen documentary style like this, & I'm here for it ❤
This video was so interesting and so well made... i keep comming back every week or so waiting for it's sequel.
Fantastic job, buddy
I know the algorithm is probably kicking his ass but these 1 hour videos are amazing
I thoroughly enjoyed this and clearly you put one heck of a lot of work into it. Top quality, well done!
Outstanding work, truly. TR was one of a few staples I played during those years. I clearly recall my reactions to each installment, which dwindled in pretty much the way this video describes them. That culminated in just abandoning AoD partway through, it was so bad. At least now I have more insight into why. Look forward to Part II but, as I've never been tempted to try a TR game since the move to Crystal, it's only because you do such a great job with topics like this.
This video is a masterpiece. Amazingly done! I'm a Tomb Raider fan for decades now and this is truly the best insight into the making off of Tomb Raider I have ever seen. Please let it be a second part!
This is well put together and edited well, great work . Big Lara fan and its nice seeing her get shine
Wow! Just wow! This video is so well-made and well researched, not to mention the quality of the editing is also great. So, thank you for this very entertaining 1-hour video, man. I really hope you continue this until the end with Part 2 as I really enjoy watching it in one sitting.
This was really well done! I especially liked that you made the effort to animate the blocky environments and that you were mentioning and showing tools and letting level designers speak.
Great work!
Had a great time watching this video, amazing work! Hoping to see you making another video about the recent trilogy! Cheers!
Dude, this video is amazing. Great editing and great commentary. Don't be let down if you don't get many views, the franchise is not in your highest point at the moment, but I will certainly recommend to everyone who has interest. You deserve.
Hi I'm from Brazil.
I wanted to congratulate you on the unbelievable quality of editing and timing of this video.
Seriously, this was the best video I've ever seen of any game ever covered.
The editing is perfect, the phrases fit very well with the scenes.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I've never come across your videos before but I am glad that this is the first one I've watched. It's really well put together and I'm left with wanting more! impatiently waiting for part 2! Keep up the good work!
My favourite video from you yet. Def the best of your new format. I never expected these insane backstories behind all those games. Far Cry, Tomb Raider, CoD Zombies, ... keep it up. Really enjoying the new format
I only seen this one, but now I have to go check his other videos about those games, such good content
I recently discovered your channel and been thoroughly enjoying your style of video essay. Looking forward to all future videos!
I rarely comment but this vid was so well put together, edited, researched and presented how could I know comment to boost engagement! I've been in the TR community for years now and watched so many retrospectives, reviews and analysis vids and thought I knew all there was so know. This is the first video essay in a long while now to have shown me a whole other side of the franchise. To think people have touched on the conditions of the classic games for the developers but never in this detail. I can't believe I never knew just how horrific their life was during the time working on this project 😮 really draws a contrast on those of us that still love and appreciate the crystal dynamic time line of games but to know all this about the core team and their struggles and burn out makes me appreciate the growth of tomb raiders identify so much more but in a darker light given the history that was really there
Never watched steve of war have u?
The quality is insane. Can't wait til you grow big and get your deserved audience. Looking forward to part 2!
I hope this video doesn't flop at all. It was awesome! I never knew how bad things got for the devs at Core :(
This review is like visiting a museum of a long lost art. Loved it. Hope I could see part two on crystal dynamics games and part three on newer ones. Thank you for all the work you put into this one regardless!
Both Lau and Survivor were made by Crystal Dynamics tho? (with different publishers) So there are supposed to be only two parts?
@@Stacy-zr8qk well, not exactly. the newest games were overseen by crystal, but I'm fairly certain that they were made by square enix
This video is SPECTACULAR! Information, narration, script, pacing, editing.. It's like a movie or a documentary, you're so hooked you don't wanna stop! Hopefully there's a part 2 covering LAU and maybe the relaunch.
Wow this video felt like it flew by. I really enjoyed it, I’ve barely got into the Tomb Raider Franchise with TR 2013 and Rise but this video made me really want to go back and play the older games.
Man... I absolutely loved this video. Thank you for your time and effort sir. I am a huge TR fan, ever since I played my first TR game back when it was released. I have played every single one. I had no Idea this was happening on the dev side, even though I felt all the effects on the player side and everything makes total sense now.
Hope you release part 2 soon
Jesus christ man, the production level is among the best I have ever seen, tbh I started watching the video just in the background, and soon I just been floored by the level of quality yiu've produced, first time on your channel and already subscribed. Amazing work
French viewer here, huge tomb raider fan, started to play the series with Tomb Raider 3 (yes I know, what a BAD idea at the time !) and I have to say this was the most informational, complete, entertaining video I had seen on this topic ! Great, great work !
Nice work, but small nitpick: "Downloadable Content (DLC)" wasn't a thing in the 90s. They were called expansion packs and released on physical media.
Playstation 1 didn't have internet connection. I can't remember any PC single player games being published as downloadable content in the 90s.
The quality of this video is insane, I’ve never clicked on subscribe that fast before, keep up the good work man
In game development, if something is a success everyone around you wants to take the credit and have a bigger say in any sequels, but if it fails it's all on you.
I have to say thank you to the developers for doing all the hard work to make Tomb Raider a good game!!
First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love the way this video looks. The editing and graphics really make everything pop a lot and give it a healthy visual flaire.
Second of all, I have to say, as a lifelong fan of Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness is the first game I ever played), it really is heartbreaking to see the extent to which Eidos abused the Core team. This really was nothing short of an abusive employment, and I can't imagine what it was like to work in that environment for literal years. I'm also kind of shocked to find out that Angel of Darkness wasn't a victim of overambition, but rather inexperience and a lack of vision. I will say that I think it's interesting how a lot of the Tomb Raider fandom seems to be much fonder of AoD these days. I think it's in part due to the fact that the series did end up recovering and is still relatively healthy, on top of a couple of other factors. The game, if nothing else, does have a very strong aesthetic. It *looks* great for the most part, and the visual style is very compelling. On top of that, there's kind of the "what could have been" angle to it. If AoD had been given proper breathing space when the development finally got back on track, it likely would have been very good if nothing else.
Also, I will... Maybe tepidly defend 2 and 3, as I do think those games are overall fairly strong, at least for what they are. Tomb Raider 2 absolutely suffers from an overabundance of combat, but outside of that, I think most of it is great, and it does a good job of balancing the modern settings and the tomb stuff. 3 is more of a mixed bag, you can kind of tell it was made by people who had both been working on the series for too long and people who had just started on it. I love a lot of the more insane stuff, especially Nevada, that entire section is- hilarious. Lara just casually breaks into Area 51, murders a ton of guards, and steals an artifact from the US government and it's never mentioned ever again, amazing. Granted, as good as I think the section look, the Pacific Islands part is also kind of- racist, so the devs' gun-ho attitude about just doing whatever didn't 100% pay off.
I think Chronicles is the only one here I can't defend. Most TR fans don't like Chronicles. You can feel throughout every single level how much nobody wanted to make it. It barely feels like a finished product, both in terms of how short most of the levels are, the small level count (only 14, which is one shy of the first TR), and in terms of how buggy it is. It also just- looks worse than Last Revelation, and it's paced pretty badly.
Overall, this will always be my favorite era of Tomb Raider, but it really does cast a shadow (of the Tomb Raider) over the entire thing when you look at what the poor devs went through making these games. On top of that, I and most other fans really hate the way Lara was treated as a sex object by the public at large. Those Duke Nukem easter eggs especially left a really bad taste in my mouth, just a huge amount of disrespect to a character who is incredibly badass and charismatic. I almost wonder if "Don't you think you've seen enough?" was meant as a kind of sassy response from the devs to fans and people who didn't respect Lara beyond her being attractive.
When it comes to AoD there are a lot of projects making the rounds in an effort to fix all of it's gameplay issues. There is a fan made definitive edition and a whole restoration project. I think people that think highly of that game, think highly of what it could have been instead of what it is. Also the fact this was Core's biggest and last TR game ever, makes it the end to an era and gives people some bonus nostalgia points. But the game as it came out just doesn't have much to offer.
Lara was facing cannibals in the Pacific Islands level, what was she suppose to do?
@@MarcoStyle It's definitely not very good, I cannot in good conscious defend it as a good game, but it's at least extremely interesting, and has enough there that I'd say we could have had something really great.
@@charmingpeasant9834 The problem isn't that she shoots cannibals, the problem is that the entire section is rooted in some extremely outdated, racist conceptions of "exotic islands with scary savages". It's stuff straight out of some old colonialist adventure serial where the brave white British hero saves some also white blonde lady from the terrible savages. As levels I actually think most of them (Madubu Gorge not withstanding) are really cool, and between Nevada, London, and the Pacific Islands they might be my favorite section in the game you can choose for yourself. I just really don't like the cannibal stuff, it's extremely outdated.
This guy made a 20:30 long intro which for some would be a lengthy and thorough documentary and then really told us "So now I want to welcome everybody to today's video"
What a madman
Done watching. 10/10 video. Waiting for part 2
Everything about this video is great. The thumbnail drew me in after the algorithm placed it in front of me. The pacing & flow is pretty good to keep you engaged, and there's the right amount of depth to the information given. I eagerly await a part 2!
The overall vibe i get from the first period of tomb raider games is definitely a tragedy of the slow death of core design. As much of a nightmare it may have been, and despite the quality of the games thanks to this, those developers' work is and will likely be forever appreciatd by many many people.
Really loved this video and your deep dive into everything surrounding the original tomb raider games. Just making clear, is the next video going to be about the 2013 reboot series, or a more indepth look into the Legend trilogy? either way, thank you so much for your time and effort on this project! :3
If I'm making a part 2 it will cover all games, so both of those trilogies are included.
Agreed. The conditions sucked but the fact they were still good is because of the devs. I wish in hindsight they pushed back more.
Incredible video, you've got until Christmas to make the next one and then we want one a year for five years.
Can’t wait for part 2, I love video game essays like that.
I never noticed how much breaking the third wall humor there is in TR5 it's hillarious
the amount of memes you put into each section is insane, and very funny ! love your long videos. i hope this video blows up and get to millions and millions of views
Please make Part 2. This was so well done.
Love your documentsaries! The quality really is on top
Fantastic watch, Marco -- the documentary feeling and joining you on the trip down the rabbit hole that is the tomb raider spiral was excellent. Definitely looking forward to a part 2! 🔥
Amazing stuff! Never knew how brutal development was for the early Tomb Raider games. And I was definitely shocked that you ended it before going deep into the rebooted games 😅. Would love to see part 2!
I figured a 3 hour video would be too long and I wasn't sure if people would be interested enough so I just did it in 2 parts to test the waters a bit.
@@MarcoStyle for me, if the topic is interesting and gets me hooked in, I would not mind a 3 hour video.
@@MarcoStyle it was an amazing job! Precious information for one series of videogames that defined us back in 90s! So much nostalgia and nice memories
@@MarcoStyleDefinitely interested. Would love a part 2 deep dive. Don't worry about viewers. Genuinely interested viewers will click.
This is quite literally one of the best retrospective like review videos I've ever seen felt like I was watching a documentary
Yessssssss, another quality Marco Style video, these have outstanding quality!!!
amazing video!!! TR is really a franchise i have a personal attachment to, TR2 was my first game ever on my PS1 so I was very emotional when the I-III remastered was announced. just finished it and I have to say that first two were amazing and just how i remembered them and quite intuitive. Just like you said most of the times you knew exactly what the main objective was but i struggled so much with the third game. It really was a fever dream and honestly cudos to everyone who finished it without any walkthrough. Im really hoping for another remaster IV-VI and honestly mainly because of the AoD. I really believe that this game deserved to be treated better, there were many many great ideas and I will forever be devastated that the AoD trilogy didn't happen (but with that leadership and tight deadlines it was probably for the best). I absolutely loved the atmosphere, how dark it was, how unafraid they were of trying new things and the soundtrack was a pure masterpiece! I really hope Aspyr doesnt end up doing just IV and V. Fingers crossed! Cant wait for your TR2013-SOTTR analysis!
This was actually a realy cool video. It's weird because I've only ever played the 2013-2017 rebooted series and Lara being caught on the island and her adventures with Jonah, so it's interesting to learn about where the franchise started and it's challenges it ran into. Would love a second part to this video! Thank you!
personally I think some of the other games might be up your alley, too (depending on how important up-to-date "presentation" is to you).
@@xxxaragon I did pick up the older titles Crystal Dynamics did when they first worked on the series. I'll have to at least check out Anniversary, Legend, and Underworld, and might even try TR II :)
I love the 2013 reboot. It was my favorite game back in 2013, together with the Last of Us. The next two games were also really good, especially Rise. I really enjoyed having a game set in Siberia and the villian was cool too. Hopefully there will be a new game soon.
This documentary is insanely well done. You nailed it!
I absolutely love how you changed in-game textures to add to the entire presentation of the video. Like, that's dedication.
And if you didn't do that, I wanna know how you've managed to master Adobe Aftereffects so well. Because this is magic.
13:29 was a wtf moment. You did NOT have to edit it like that, but you did. A fast cut to the interview would have been acceptable, but no. You had to do extra, and it paid off. Awesome.
also! the thumbnail repelled me from watching this but the whole "documentation", you can say is AMAZING. maybe u wanna swap it out- to attract more. I sadly dont have many contacts to share it with but its amazing work
What a masterpiece of a video. This deserves millions of views
As a Tomb Raider fan since I was young this was an amazing video to watch. Amazing work with the script and editing ❤
Just wanted to say a quick THANK YOU for this awesome documentary! Tomb Raider has been a big part of my childhood, of our whole generation, and its magic still sparkles to this day! It's so nice to be given such a deep insight into the developement of these games, it makes me appreciate them even more now! :)