I'd like to rail against Tomb Raider

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I had fond memories as a kid playing the original Tomb Raider on the Sega Saturn. I must've replayed that game dozens of times because exploring ancient ruins and battling wild beasts was really intriguing to me. A few months ago when some of the newer Tomb Raiders were on sale I got TR: Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld.

I hate them.

Legend was easy enough until the last boss which was so unequivocally difficult I couldn't beat it on easy. I flew into a rage and bashed my head against that final boss for hours, watching youtube videos and yelling "How the hell is he doing that?! That's what I've been trying to do all along, what am I doing wrong?!" Then I accidentally realized that if I kept my camera at a certain angle, the targeting for the boss wouldn't reset and I finally beat the game on easy.

I dove right into Anniversary because it was a remake of the original, the one I had fond memories of. It was fun at first, the initial stages were a blast, fighting the giant dinosaur again was a treat, and it slowly became an infuriating descent into madness yet again. I uninstalled the game during the Egypt stage. You have to do so much in the new Tomb Raiders! Grapple, wall run, wall jump, finding small ledges, multi-stage puzzles, timed switches, push this, climb on that, shoot the thing, kill the mummy dog, swing here, swim over there, DON'T FALL DOWN, I just couldn't keep track of it.

I took a long break and recently started up Underworld. How'd I fare?

I died in the first minute of the game. (I wasn't angry though, this was bemusing.) Already in the second level I'm expected to do all of the advanced maneuvers including a new addition, chimney jumping from one wall to the next until I find a ledge that is otherwise inaccessible. Nnnnooppppeeee. I'm taking another break. It's incredibly stressful.

To those of you who have beaten these games without the aid of a walk-through, I congratulate. I simply no longer have the patience for this type of stuff.

I never played the original game, but I remember really enjoying the newer ones for the reasons you gave for hating it. Go figure.

I'm not too knowledgeable of the series, as I've only played these new three I believe, and I have yet to finish any of them. I think the farthest one I've gotten in was Underworld, at around the point where you start to see these undead creatures I guess they are, before I gave up. I didn't hate them, but the lack of any explanations on controls, slippery controls in general, and sometimes wonky camera, I could only bare so much.

They're really not meant to be difficult. They make the controls easier every iteration.. I don't really know what to say.

I've only played a couple of Tomb Raider games. I wasn't really a fan of them, but the new one coming out looks awesome, I'm probably going to get it.

I enjoyed the tutorial level in the mansion, I used to get a kick out of locking the butler in the fridge.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjqRYpIwnB8[/youtube]

I wonder whatever happened to the old man.