To start out, I’ll just go full disclosure. While back in the day the original Tomb Raider series was all the rage in the gaming community, I wasn’t much of a fan. For an action-focused game with frequent platforming sections, a number of which required precision and being successful in a pretty tight time window, it felt incredibly sloppy. Bear in mind, this was after the release of Mario 64, so it isn’t as if everybody was stuck in the same position. Of course, its gunplay and far sexier (though admittedly quite polygonal) protagonist were still an effective draw by comparison, so it still went on to be a massive success… but I always felt it was given a little too much of a pass for its shortcomings.

The thing is, once you fast forward to the rebooted version of the series, I’m completely on board. With the game mechanics being handled more competently the formula came together nicely, so while the original incarnation failed to sway me, the problem was never the spirit of the series. Now focusing attention on today, the question is whether a remastering treatment can not only pull in the obvious throng of fans of the originals looking for that nostalgia hit, but also change the hearts and minds of those either unfamiliar with or simply not enamored with that OG trilogy. The answer is firmly in the middle in my mind, as it absolutely includes some clear improvements, but it also isn’t able to quite shake off some of its fundamental problems, and even adds a few new issues of note.

As for the positives, I absolutely respect the level of reverence this team obviously had for the original games, and it shows. Despite what are undoubtedly some complications that would have arisen from doing so, the geometry of the original game has been absolutely preserved to the point that you’re easily able to toggle the graphics from the original textures to the newly-updated ones… and that is consistently impressive. In addition, the option to use a modern control scheme is much appreciated, especially when it comes to the more action-oriented sequences where you’re gunning down enemy wolves (or dinosaurs). Finally, while there’s only so much re-skinning the geometry can do to improve the look of things, for the most part it's at least a little easier to play this without reflecting quite as much on how dated it looks.

Now, as much as they’ve done some quality work to make the game look better (while still running wonderfully on the Switch, even in docked mode), there are some notable missteps too. Some of the textures, by adding a higher level of detail, have some obvious problems when they’re repeated in different lighting conditions and situations. Critical nuances like being able to tell the difference between standing and running water, or seeing subtle differences in swamp-like tiles that create a sort of maze, are lost in the shuffle. That can sometimes outright require you to swap back to the original look to be able to detect some of those elements that fell by the wayside in the conversion. Similarly, while the modern controls work great for action they’re not always so hot for platforming, especially since the camera can be a real pain in some key areas. So, again, I would find myself resorting to using the classic tank controls to get through some areas before then switching back to the modern ones again. The good news is that the ability to do this helps you tackle situations more effectively as needed, but given the high profile of this remaster it feels like these are areas that failed to get the proper attention.

Taking it all into consideration, recommending it feels like a pretty conditional proposition. If you love the originals, and still feel like you have some degree of muscle memory for conquering tough platforming sections and timed puzzles, this may be a really mind-blowing trip down memory lane. If, however, you either weren’t a fan of them back in the day, or simply aren’t familiar with them I’m not sure I could assume with confidence this experience could clearly win you over. It’s still its iconic self, but given some of its issues that are hard to brush completely under the rug I don’t see a way to realistically consider it a must-play experience… if anything, I’d continue to recommend the very different and far superior overall reboot series instead.