Line #12 YMMV/TombRaiderIII


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: It has been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ1jqHCLV28 theorized]] that Lara's ruthlessness in this game is the result of handling the artifacts, which certainly seem to have driven others in the story fairly crazy.
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''TR III'' provided us with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9ItrdOmfjQ Puzzle element]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGyEwaE2uM Something spooky in that jungle]]
3	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Despite how weird the game can get at times, everything that happens is pretty believable, until the end portion of the Area 51 level which has a laboratory with two killer whales in a giant water tank and if you manage to get inside it for the secret, they'll playfully swim towards Lara and circle her. It is never explained why the U.S. government that has a secret military facility would have two live killer whales in the base. It sticks out far more than the autopsied aliens and their alien craft that you can see.
4	* BreatherLevel:
5	** Temple Ruins is followed by a rather relaxed and significantly less dangerous The River Ganges, most of which is spent riding a quad bike.
6	** City is a ''much'' shorter level than Lud's Gate before it; although it contains a rather tricky boss, she's all that's in the level and it can be beaten in only a few minutes.
7	** Compared with the rest of Antarctica, and especially Lost City of Tinnos right before it, Meteorite Cavern is a breeze, ''despite containing the final boss'' and a tricky fight against it.
8	* CameraScrew: Often, but a few are notable as they are ''benevolent:''
9	** In the South Pacific, a few drops from heights are much easier to aim thanks to this.
10	** At one point in the RX-Tech mines, Lara is forced to crawl, while a mutant slowly gets closer to her from the opposite side. He's only visible thanks to the camera, turning what would otherwise be a guaranteed JumpScare into a merely tense moment.
11	** At one point in the Lost City of Tinnos, a map of safe platforms is drawn on the roof. If Lara is carrying a flare at that time, the camera will always turn to show the map.
12	* CompleteMonster: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Sophia Leigh]] is a [[VainSorceress obsessively vain woman]] who had obtained the Eye of Isis in [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian times]]. [[ImmortalityImmorality To remain immortal and youthful over the years]], Sophia would hire homeless people to work for her, later subjecting them to cruel experiments. The aftermath of the experiments would leave them [[AndIMustScream immortal but decaying]] in which Sophia would then dump them into the sewers of London and keep the best results for herself. Seemingly killed off, Sophia returns in ''[[VideoGame/TombRaiderIIITheLostArtifact The Lost Artifact]]'', where she steals the Hand of Rathmore and uses its highly volatile properties to experiment on people in an underwater facility.
13	* DesignatedHero: Upon its release, the game was harshly criticised for this approach. You see, in [[VideoGame/TombRaiderI the first installment]], there were barely any human enemies and they were all hired crooks trying to kill Lara. [[VideoGame/TombRaiderII The second game]] vastly increased the amount of human enemies, but they were again criminals or [[ItMakesSenseInContext reanimated ancient warriors]] and the plot gave Lara a "saving the world" license to kill. By Tomb Raider III human enemies include [=MPs=], museum guards, homeless people living in [[UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground London's Tube]], tribesmen in their own village, security personnel guarding private mine... you get the picture. And this time around there is no excuse to kill any of them, as the save the world plot doesn't kick in till you are out of human enemies.
14	** The very last cutscene of the game sees Lara boarding a helicopter after shooting the pilot inside, who had nothing to do with any of the plot; she shot the guy just because he was there, when she could have just as easily commandeered the helicopter [[MundaneSolution by kicking him out of it]].
15	* DifficultySpike:
16	** The ''second'' level of the game, Temple Ruins, ramps up the difficulty after a rather chill and relaxed opening Jungle, being full of death traps, tricky platforming and dangerous enemies that require some strategy beyond simply unloading a few shells from the shotgun - to the point it's directly followed by a BreatherLevel to somehow balance it out.
17	** Depending on the order of doing levels, South Pacific can qualify, as Lara might be lacking certain weapons and[=/=]or ammo to them.
18	** No matter what, the final part of the game, Antarctica, is significantly tougher than the rest of the game - to the point that RX-Tech Mine and especially Lost City of Tinnos routinely make it to the "top 5 hardest levels" lists for Core-era games.
19	* DisappointingLastLevel: After ''two'' {{Marathon Level}}s, Meteorite Cavern is nothing more than a boss fight and short route to leave the cavern. [[SkippableBoss And the boss fight can be skipped]].
20	* EndingFatigue: After beating the final boss, Lara still has to get back to the surface and fight her way to the helicopter. While it's very brief, [[AntiClimax it breaks completely the climactic confrontation]] with [[spoiler: mutated Willard]].
21	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Sophia Leigh, owing to an [[Really700YearsOld interesting backstory]] and playing off Lara well in their limited interactions. This is probably why she was brought back as the BigBad of ''III's'' [[VideoGame/TombRaiderIIITheLostArtifact spinoff]].
22	* GoddamnBats:
23	** Snakes. They can't move, so it's extremely easy to avoid their attacks, but they are usually placed in the most inconvenient spot, requiring the player to kill them at an absurdly close range.
24	** Anything that can poison Lara. The poison will slowly deplete health and can be only stopped by applying a medipack or finding a health crystal (PC version).
25	** The mutated giant dragonflies in the third Antarctica level. Depending on where you are (and sometimes depending on the game version too), they can respawn indefinitely. They don't actually hurt too much, but they have quite a bit of health and they also double as LedgeBats. Their constant buzzing is also grating on the ears.
26	* GoodBadBugs:
27	** The very first level can be finished in 36 seconds with a few well-placed jumps. The regular method takes around 20 minutes to finish. Keep in mind that taking the shortcut means almost no pick-ups from the level.
28	** Similarly, Thames Wharf can be completed in only a couple minutes by exploiting some jumps at the very beginning of the level. One of the Playstation Underground discs had a video explaining how to pull it off.
29	** One of the secrets wasn't fully removed from the beta version of the game, so it can be used to cover the potential loss of a single secret during gameplay ''or'' provide an extra secret when all the rest were also picked.
30	** With a specific way of equipping weapons you can combine firepower and fire rate of any two two-handed weapons thanks to a bug.
31	** While underwater, holding the action button while near an item will have Lara slowly move towards it to get in range. Holding left or right as she does this will have her spinning in place and the item will also spin with her.
32	* ItsEasySoItSucks: While the game is infamous for its notorious difficulty, the Japanese release is the exact opposite - all enemies have half of their normal health, weapons and ammunition are abundant and many secrets aren't that secret. Fans weren't pleased. Although, the Japanese [=PS1=] version did come packaged with two discs with the second disc being the English edition containing everything in the original.
33	** The actual combat difficulty is heavily reduced, thanks to the abundance of ammo for the Desert Eagle and [=MP5=], and human enemies having more telegraphed attacks, slower movement and never coming at Lara in groups larger than 2 or 3, almost all of the player's deaths will simply come from the unfair at times level design.
34	* MemeticMutation
35	-->'''Lara:''' Your perception of good timing is...bad!
36	* NauseaFuel: The Damned not only have their skin melted away and rotting flesh, but they use embalming fluid to preserve their bodies.
37	* NintendoHard: Everyone marvels at the [[VideoGame/TombRaiderII bloody spikes in the Great Wall]], but in this one, you can break Lara's neck just by performing a wrong jump right in the beginning. The game introduced poison attacks, which [[DamageOverTime slowly dip Lara's health]] and require a medkit or a save crystal to stop it - and three of the five locations in the game are chock-full of things that deal poison damage. The NoGearLevel is much tougher than any such instance in the franchise (and it permanently strips Lara of all her ammo and medkits), the final levels of the game have NoSell enemies making laps around Lara, only a single boss fight is a straightforward shoot-out with a baddie and South Pacific can be UnintentionallyUnwinnable with the "wrong" combination of level order and amount of ammo saved before getting into it. Oh, and Temple Ruins, the ''second'' level of the game makes the already mentioned Great Wall look like a walk in the park, thanks to the sheer amount of dead traps and enemies made out of ir... well, stone, but still. Did we mention that the Platform/PlayStation version amped it a notch further with the infamous CheckpointStarvation and also came with nonadjustable gamma, so certain places were dark even with lit flares? All of this is part of the ''appeal of the game'', both design-wise and as a playerbase reception.
38	* OneSceneWonder:
39	** Not counting Tony, Sophia, and Dr. Willard, the rest of the characters show up for a single cutscene each. Most of them managed to generate a sizeable fanbase from those.
40	** Numerous enemies show up only in single levels each, in small quantities or both. The most remembered is of course the obligatory [[spoiler: ''T. rex'']].
41	* PortingDisaster: Not as severe an example as some, but the [=PS1=] version pales in comparison to the PC/Mac version, for a few reasons:
42	** The [=PS1=] version is prone to patches of slowdown and low framerates, two problems which didn't really affect the first two games. It dropped the "save anywhere" feature of the second game in favor of save crystals, which are limited in supply. The computer versions let you save anywhere. It also has an unfortunate audio sync problem in the game engine-based cutscenes, which causes the audio to play almost a second after the video. It's especially noticeable in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IC7z_GENkY cutscene after the first England level.]] The FMV-based cutscenes don't have this sync issue, thankfully. And the lighting isn't as good as the PC version, which can be a problem in some areas like Lud's Gate, which is almost pitch black in the underwater sections.
43	** The PC version has a problem with playing on high resolution. While playing on a bigger screen obviously smooths out the graphics, it causes the HUD elements to become extremely tiny and it also causes the laser traps in the Nevada levels to become almost completely invisible. This would be fixed with the remaster.
44	* SelfImposedChallenge: A few remain quite popular:
45	** Finishing the game using only basic pistols. Just remember to take breaks to nurse your trigger finger.
46	** Picking Nevada as the last section of the game [[spoiler:and thus being stripped of all gear. Some of the weapons will be [[PermanentlyMissableContent impossible to get back]]]].
47	** Not picking up save crystals on the PC version, as they provide free health.
48	* SequelDifficultyDrop: The remaster tweaks a few things that make the game easier than the original. Enemies that died with DeadMansTriggerFinger now only fire a single bullet, bosses have their health bar visible, and, perhaps the most important change, [[spoiler: Lara can regain all her pick-ups when reaching the gun storage in the High Security Compound, including otherwise unusable Desert Eagle ammo from India levels and previous Nevada Desert]] - thus negating the reason why players picked Nevada first ([[SelfImposedChallenge or last]]). The Polynesian dart-blowers are also much easier to dodge, since they no longer operate on {{Hitscan}} mechanics and thus their poisoned darts are not only possible to dodge, but also much slower than any other ranged attack. And lastly, while this was done unintentionally, thanks to the new graphics and textures, the first secret is no longer so secret.
49	* SequelDifficultySpike: The game's increased difficulty led to the game getting a "love it or hate it" reception - and keep in mind that ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' was already infamous for ramping up difficulty. ''III'' is often seen as just plain unfair, particularly when it comes to London and Antarctica sections of the game (but other sections have their moments, too).
50	* SpecialEffectsFailure: The [=PS1=] version finally gave players the infamous nude code, if you happened to own a Game Genie-esque peripheral called Video Game Xplorer and inputted an absurdly long code. Problem is, [[FanDisservice it looks like crap]]. It literally looks like they just took Lara's default outfit, peached over it, and drew a couple nipple dots.
51	* ThatOneBoss: There's [[spoiler: Dr. Willard]]. You have to be extremely quick and focused in getting the various MacGuffin items into their proper areas, or suffer from its highly damaging attacks, one of which is a ''homing'' OneHitKill. The strategy guide advises you to conserve ammo for the Desert Eagle just for this fight, as it's the only weapon with both the power and rate of fire needed to make this one manageable.
52	* ThatOneLevel:
53	** Temple Ruins, the ''second level of the game''.
54	** The Lost City of Tinnos is equally loathed by players.
55	** The entirety of London is usually That One Section, but especially the underwater maze in Lud's Gate.
56	** The entirety of Nevada is actually infamous for the {{No Gear Level}} that completely strips you of ''EVERYTHING'', unlike the other games which allowed you to keep ammo, flares, and medipacks. What's especially bad about this is that the Nevada levels contain the ''least total number of secrets in the game compared to other segments at a grand total of 8'' (3 in Nevada Desert, 2 in High Security Compound, and 3 in Area 51), though only 5 of those count since you lose everything in the second level. This means that even once you lose everything, you'll be hard pressed to regain much of your stocked resources, and if you actually do the Nevada section last, you'll have to rely on pistols more during the final stages of the game...
57	* ThatOnePuzzle: The final secret in the game, from the Lost City of Tinnos. It's a timed sequence that takes Lara through half of the level, with dozens of obstacles to overcome ''and'' a very strict time limit - the perfect path to it takes ''five seconds'' less than there is time to reach the secret, which allows for exactly one minor mistake through an obstacle course full of death traps. Just [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPNCcmfn3Pw&t=660s see for yourself]].
58	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Changing the grenade launcher's trajectory to fall to the ground and roll didn't sit well for many fans, as it rendered the weapon almost useless. Likewise, making the flares flicker out way sooner than they did in the previous game wasn't a welcomed change, but at least there is an abundance of them throughout the game.
59	** In the previous two games, during levels where Lara loses her weapons, she keeps all medipacks and ammo for all the weapons she had collected over the course of the game. In this one, Lara loses her gear in the High Security Compound level of Nevada, ''and is left with only a small medipack''. This severely nerfs several of your weapons as you collect quite a few things of ammo for weapons you may not even get before this point (think about the Desert Eagle clips you may have collected from secrets, where the actual weapon doesn't appear until the next level). Depending on when you choose to tackle the Nevada levels, some weapons could be lost forever.
60	*** Ironically, the remastered version caught flak for the exact reverse thing - since it returns all the pick-ups once reaching the gun locker in the High Security Compound level, players get their hands on extra 540 rounds to [=MP5=] and 80 to Desert Eagle, which makes the rest of the game a breeze - that's 25 more raptors or 16 Tinnos' Guardians (read - more than there are in the game) that can be dispatched with trivial ease due to the increased firepower, while ''still'' having the reserve for the final boss.
61	** The shotgun got hit, and hit '''hard''', with the [[{{Nerf}} nerf hammer]]. In both original and [=TR2=], shotgun boxes came with only 2 shells each, but you'd often find several stacks of boxes together in the same pick-up, so you'd often get more than 2 shells. Tomb Raider 3 almost entirely removes "stacked" pickups, meaning every single ammo pick-up in the game for the shotgun is a measly two shells. For comparison, it's main competitor, the Desert Eagle, comes with 10 bullets per pick-up and has both more range and more damage. This leaves shotgun quickly overshadowed and just plain inferior, while routinely strapped for ammo.
62	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: This game is probably the only one in the franchise that can be pin-pointed to a specific period - late 90s - due to the fashion, tech and pop-culture used and presented, with stuff like: big, blocky satellite phones (and not just due to engine limitations) and mini notebooks; camo cargo pants in all possible configurations; tear-drop belly piercings; heavy use of Desert Eagle pistol, the "super-gun" of the era, by Lara and her enemies; stealth aircrafts as the new, hot, secret thing and quad bikes as the newest fad; the high profile presence of genetics (or at least their pop-science version) or the early internet craze about the Area 51, too. Various elements started to further stand out when the remaster either enhanced their textures or removed them, making their original presence more obvious once omitted.

Context YMMV / TombRaiderIII