 The Best Before 'Anniversary', 2007-06-12
So many people say TRIII is 'too hard', 'too many puzzles', waaaah... Before Anniversary came out, I considered TRIII to be the best one of all. The levels included India, South Pacific Islands, Nevada Desert, London, and Antarctica.
INDIA: While some may say the levels made no sense, they are my favorite. With some cunning and a little looking around, I have found shortcuts, solutions, and secrets without help from a guide, although at times I had to look online for walkthroughs. 'Jungle' is the easiest and my favorite; 'Temple Ruins' amps the difficulty level so that you cheer when you finish it; 'River Ganges' is straightforward and a lot of fun; and 'Caves of Kaliya' is claustrophobic, and I usually just skipped it.
SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS: The beauty of the levels is breathtaking, even now in our days of 100,000+ polygon cliffs. There are whitewater rapids to manuever with a kayak, dinosaurs to kill, mind-bending puzzles to overcome, and plenty of surprises on the way. 'Coastal Village' features a few 'heart attack' moments and plenty of puzzles to overcome; 'Crash Site' features dinosaurs, swamps, and gloomy jungles with back-then impressive misting effects; 'Madabu Gorge' features whitewater rapids and the tugging need to remain above water; and 'Temple of Puna' features rolling traps, spinning blades, more 'heart attack' moments and the return of the rolling boulder.
NEVADA DESERT: With a little ingenuity and curiousity, these levels can be found to be easy once you find the correct paths. However, these levels are extremely challenging. When playing on the PC, you may want to download a Savegame for Area 51 due to the difficulty. 'Nevada Desert' is easy and lots of fun to play, featuring high dives off cliffs, plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, and lots of pickups. 'High Security Compound' is the more difficult of the levels as you bust your way past guards, convicts, machineguns, 'wrong buttons', high drops, and deadly trapdoors. 'Area 51' is a curious, alien level of mysterious buttons, weird doors, and more guns as you battle your way deep inside to reach the ultimate pickup, Element 115.
LONDON: While expansive and taking command of an old version of the now-frequently-in-use Skybox for Tomb Raider, the London levels are tough and feature long drops, barbed wire, rats, guards, dogs, a machine that has short-circuited, spinning underwater blade traps, etc. 'Thames Warf' is one of the most difficult, although it's funny to see the end of the level from where you begin the level - a bit of trickery and teasing; 'Aldwych' is very difficult, taking place in the subways beneath London - keep on your toes or get crunches by a passing train; 'Lud's Gate' takes you deep within a museum in search of embalming fluid for a faceless man; and 'City' features a battle against a Natla lookalike, Sophia Leigh, in search of the Eye of Isis.
ANTARCTICA: The entire group of levels takes place either in the RX Tech Mines below ground or on the frozen surface above. 'Antarctica' forces you to travel downstream in search of the key that unlocks the hut near the start; 'RX Tech Mines' features battles against mutants with seriously bad breath; 'Lost City of Tinnos' is a bizarre level where it will take a walkthrough to find your way out of the starting room; and 'Meteorite Cavern', where you face a giant spider mutant.
Well, that's my review for Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft. I hope this is helpful to you in your various Tomb Raiding adventures!
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
EXTREMELY challenging!!, 2004-07-13
Tomb Raider 3 is the hardest of the Tomb Raider series (at least in my opinion). It has a very complicated plot, decent graphics, and a moderate amount of action--although I have not completed it myself. It could use more action and less puzzles, however. The biggest problem with it that I've faced is that it has a lot of bugs and errors throughout. Some errors can be fixed without a lot of hassle, others can be fixed but with a lot of hassle, and some can't be fixed at all. Myself, I don't have a lot of patience, I just play the game because I love challenges. So, unless you have a LOT of patience, or enjoy tough challenges like I do, TR3 is not for you.
 TOO HARD, 2004-06-13
Tomb Raider 3 was by far the most difficult Tomb Raider I have ever played. I'll admit, I used every cheat in the book in order to beat the game. But can you really blame me? The game first starts off with an incredibly difficult jungle level, in which you have the option of finding a few secrets and then beginning the level, but regardless, you'll be jumping to a slope and then jumping over a set of spikes, and then (surprise!) jumping over another set of spikes, and finally landing at the bottom with a save crystal and a bunch of different directions to go. Don't go into the sinking sand and watch out for anything that looks dangerous because chances are, it'll be the last dangerous think you look at. Finally, after a period of a week to a year, you've finally beat the jungle levels... WITHOUT CHEATS! Well I bet you were quite tempted! Now choose your destination. The strategy guides all tell you to go to the Nevada Desert, and then to the South Pacific, and then London. If you watch the entire "Story So far..." feature, you'll notice that the game plays the scenes with South Pacific first and Nevada Desert last. So nobody cares what order you do it in, it doesn't matter much. And believe me; you WILL get frustrated either way, so go to the one you want to go to first because it will take you FOREVER to finish that section of levels. Finally, after God-knows-how-long, you finished the whole globe, and get this; you did it ALL WITHOUT CHEAT CODES! I congratulate you. NOW WE GET TO GO TO ANTARTICA!!! Yippee. Antarctica is incredibly difficult, and it ends with a big, mumbo-jumbo mother-of-all-spiders human-headed thing. Oh, and one shot with the rocket launcher just won't kill it! And one thing to keep on mind, one-hit K.O. As in, if it hits you once, it will kill you. Good luck! But in spite of all of that, I really enjoyed seeing Lara in new costumes and playing in her new house. It was a lot of fun to get the racetrack key and find the shortcut at the racetrack. I must say, I really did enjoy Tomb Raider 3. If you like challenges, then Tomb Raider 3 is definitely for you. And regardless, the Mansion is definitely worth the 5 dollars that Tomb Raider 3 now cost at Game Crazy. But, if you're anything like me and do not enjoy getting so frustrated over a horribly pixilated British woman in a jungle tomb, then get ready to memorize " Draw a flare, take one step forward, one step back, turn around three times, then jump forward" if you want to beat this game!
Too hard...., 2003-04-22
I have played all the tomb raider games over the last couple of years. Though this game offers the best range of weapons and environments but is clearly the hardest. There is more puzzle-solving than firefights and NO hand to hand combat!POSITIVE ASPECTS: New, improved Lara
New weapons (Isreali Desert Eagle, Rocket Launcher)
New moves (Sprint, double flip, handstand, monkey swing)
Cool environments (Antarctica, Indian Jungle, Area 51)
Intelligent enemy AI (survive the challenge of wolves, giant ravens, a mutated spider, Area 51 guards, etc...)
Brilliant engine and graphics (you can even run this with a 200MHz pentium 2)
Lara looks sexy! NEGATIVE ASPECTS: The game is actually too difficult. You need to buy the strategy guide (nowadays this probably costs more than the game)
There is no hand to hand fighting system (Lara relies totally on her weapons)
It is a bit outdated (if you want to buy a modern game wait for the Angel of Darkness) FINAL VERDICT: Though better than the first Tomb Raider games its diificulty rules. It is for this that it loses two stars. Generally with the TR series, I find it is a copy of Indiana Jones and lacks ideas of its own. However, I would reccommend this game to anyone who likes adventure games!
Too hard...., 2003-04-22
I have played all the tomb raider games over the last couple of years. Though this game offers the best range of weapons and environments but is clearly the hardest. There is more puzzle-solving than firefights and NO hand to hand combat!POSITIVE ASPECTS: New, improved Lara
New weapons (Isreali Desert Eagle, Rocket Launcher)
New moves (Sprint, double flip, handstand, monkey swing)
Cool environments (Antarctica, Indian Jungle, Area 51)
Intelligent enemy AI (survive the challenge of wolves, giant ravens, a mutated spider, Area 51 guards, etc...)
Brilliant engine and graphics (you can even run this with a 200MHz pentium 2)
Lara looks sexy! NEGATIVE ASPECTS: The game is actually too difficult. You need to buy the strategy guide (nowadays this probably costs more than the game)
There is no hand to hand fighting system (Lara relies totally on her weapons)
It is a bit outdated (if you want to buy a modern game wait for the Angel of Darkness) FINAL VERDICT: Though better than the first Tomb Raider games its diificulty rules. It is for this that it loses two stars. Generally with the TR series, I find it is a copy of Indiana Jones and lacks ideas of its own. However, I would reccommend this game to anyone who likes adventure games!
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