Year: 1996
Platform: PC
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Core Design
Genre: 3D Action/adventure
Rating: ***

Finally, someone decided to take female action heroes seriously! After I finally broke down and bought a PC, I immediately bought the first three "Tomb Raider" games, on principal more than anything else. In her first adventure, world renowned adventurer and archeologist Lara Croft is commissioned to track down a series of Atlantean artifacts which her employer wants to use for a dark and dreadful purpose. The game and level design is very good, and the controls are intuitive and easy to use. Being able to practice in Ms. Croft's mansion is a great feature and is a lot of fun. The game is long and difficult, and most of the puzzles are downright nasty. After the first level, I had to resort to using the walkthrough for the rest of the game. Still, with perseverance, even a casual gamer such as myself can make it through the whole game, and the cinematic cut scenes are worth it. However, if it weren't for unlimited saves (which none of the PlayStation versions support), I probably wouldn't have made it all the way through.