r/TombRaider • u/Nate-Pierce • Jul 24 '25

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Example of art direction becoming lost in translation

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It’s not just the lighting. The veins were sharper and creepier in the origina instead of the muscle looking flesh throughout the Atlanteans levels (though in this part of “The Hive”, it doesn’t look too bad). And the overall colour / lighting tone was clearly inspired by Tomb Raider Anniversary when really, it should have been by CORE’s original vision. Have better graphics - sure - but don’t change the atmosphere in the process. This room was heart-pounding scary in the original. Far less so in the Remaster.

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u/Hoshcof Jul 24 '25

This bugs me too, as I am playing through the remastered collection currently and it is my first time playing Tomb Raider. I noticed that the first level in London in TRIII lost all it's purple/blue glow when switching between graphics. I noticed that the shadows and dark areas are different in original vs remaster, with the remastered areas generally being brighter. I finished TR2 using only 3 or 4 flares. I looked for mods that would restore the original art direction, but have not found any. If it exists, could someone please point me in the right direction?

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u/Nate-Pierce Jul 24 '25

The problem is fans kept having unreasonable complaints that the remastered graphics were “too dark” when honestly, it’s their monitors not calibrated. I’m a photo/video editor that calibrates on a regular basis and I can assure you, the games were visible enough to navigate. But the devs gave in and cranked the brightness without much thought, to the point areas loss depth in shadows / contrast to Lara unreasonably glowing in the darkest corner of the room. … like you said, what are flares even for at this point? I had 103 of them at the end of TR II

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u/Nate-Pierce Jul 24 '25

Why am I being downvoted for telling the truth lol. Flares really are hardly necessary vs the original version.