Summary
The firstTomb Raidergame, released back in 1996, is often seen as agroundbreaking achievementin video games with how it was able tofully visualize a 3D environmentthat not only looked great for the time but was also incredibly easy to navigate because of how seamlessly Lara could flip and swing around the world thanks to her acrobatic movements.
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It wasn’t just the movement and ability to traverse walls and buildings that madeTomb Raiderstand out, though; it was also one of the very first games to feature a female protagonist who would go on to become an icon within the industry, still being as relevant now as she was all those years ago with new games, novels, and even movies from theTomb Raiderfranchise being released on a regular basis to this day.
Of course, this also means there have been plenty of “clones” which have heavily borrowed certain mechanics and aspects of the early PS1Tomb Raidergames, and while this term is often viewed through a negative lens, there are actually a fewTomb Raiderclones that turned out to be extremely fun and unique in their own ways, while also carrying over that iconicTomb Raidergameplay loop that fans fell in love with.
6Space Bunnies Must Die!
Saying thatSpace Bunnies Must Die!isa weird gamewould be a massive understatement, and despite it being written off by a lot of gamers when it was released in the late 90s, the whacky and weird nature of the game has actually earned it somewhat of a cult following of fans who still discuss all the mysteries that surround the title to this day.
Whatiswell-known about the game, though, is that it was clearly jumping on theTomb Raiderwave that was still riding high. While the plot ofSpace Bunnies Must Die!is drastically different, nearly everything else about the game is heavily inspired byTomb Raider, from its level design to its gameplay. The biggest giveaway is in the main character Allison who is near-identical to Lara with hereffortlessly charismatic personality, and to top it off, she even borrows the dual-wield pistol motif that at the time became synonymous with Lara Croft.
While it didn’t sell well on release,Space Bunnies Must Die!is still a fun game, especially for players who love being surprised with strange and surreal enemies and bosses along their playthrough.
5Prince Of Persia 3D
WhilePrince of Persiahad been around for a few years prior to the firstTomb Raidergame, it was initially a 2D side scroller that didn’t have much of an identity aside from its Persian influence on the character and level designs, but afterTomb Raiderreleased in 1996,Prince of Persia 3Dborrowed heavily from the game in many different aspects.
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The gameplay loop of navigating tombs and ruins by swimming, leaping, and crawling under obstacles was very much in the same vain as Lara’s adventures in her own games. In fact, there were actually many peopledenouncing the game upon its releasein 1999 as yet anotherTomb Raiderclone, including series creator Jordan Mecher who only joined development on the project later in its development cycle.
Of course,Prince of Persiawould eventually go on to become a lot more sure of its own identity as the years passed by, but the heavy focus on traversal, acrobatic melee combat, and mysterious tombs featured inPrince of Persia 3Dwere clearly taken fromTomb Raider, and have even remained central aspects of thePrince of Persiaseries ever since.
4Heretic 2
When looking at screenshots ofHeretic 1andHeretic 2, it’s very hard to believe that both games are even part of the same series considering how different they are in visual style and gameplay, especially the change in perspective from first-person to third-person, but a huge reason for this was because of how influentialTomb Raiderwas in making this viewpoint the go-to for action-adventure games at the time.
It’s never been a secret that Raven Software took the idea of implementing athird-person camera angleinto their game due to the arrival ofTomb Raider, with them even going as far as to use theQuake 2engine in an attempt to merge a first-person perspective, which many fans loved from the first game, with the brand-new third-person gameplay that was taking the gaming world by storm. What it results in is essentially a dark-fantasy iteration of Lara’s adventures that is still enjoyable to run through to this day and a game that classicTomb Raiderfans should definitely know about if they don’t already.
3Deathtrap Dungeon
While it definitely has a much more horror-themed aesthetic to it, there’s no doubt thatDeathtrap Dungeon,which was named after the gamebook of the same name, was heavily inspired in both its gameplay and even its environments byTomb Raider. While the player explores numerous dungeons in this game rather than tombs, their wide-open layout andcryptic puzzleswere near-identical to those found in the earlyTomb Raidergames.
The protagonist Red Lotus is also virtually the same as Lara in her appearance and in the way she is able to seamlessly navigate vertical structures thanks to her athleticism, and upon its release in 1998, it was very much seen by many critics as a decent game that would hold people over until the next hotly anticipatedTomb Raiderentry, but looking back at it in isolation, it’s still a decent PlayStation 1 title that feels like classicTomb Raiderif it was injected with a little more horror.
2Drakan: Order Of The Flame
It can be easy when looking at the cover ofDrakan: Order Of The Flameto mistakenly assume that aTomb Raidergame featuring dragons had been released. Rynn looks very similar to Lara, and they also both use an acrobatic martial arts style to take down enemies and traverse the world.
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It’s well known thatTomb Raiderwas one of the most influential games when it came to introducing badass and confident female protagonists into video games, and whileDrakanundoubtedly took a lot of inspiration from this, and while the inclusion of apet dragon to traverse the worldwas certainly unique, the ground movement is more or less identical toTomb Raider.Drakanis admittedly a lot less grounded thanTomb Raiderand is more rooted in the fantasy genre, which does allow it to include a few interesting enemies and allies, such as the feral dragons, but theTomb RaiderDNA can still be felt when playing through this beloved PC title.
1Heavy Metal F.A.K.K 2
By the timeHeavy Metal F.A.K.K 2was released in the year 2000, theTomb Raiderseries was already on its fifth game and had fully realized and demonstrated exactly what 3D action adventure games could be. This was not only the case in terms of the series' gameplay but also in regard to graphics, where the different areas and locales Lara could explore would all pop out from the screen, making for atruly immersive experience.
Developers Ritual Entertainment seized the opportunity to develop a game in the action-adventure blueprint at the time before it started to evolve further in the early 2000s with their gameHeavy Metal F.A.K.K 2, which follows female warrior Julie who must use an assortment of weapons, alongside her acrobatic prowess and knowledge of ancient civilizations and gods, to save her home planet of Eden from a tyrannical force known as GITH.
This should all sound fairly familiar to any longtimeTomb Raiderfans, but it was notablya lot faster-pacedand much more punishing with its puzzles. On top of this, the graphics were also notably more colorful and vibrant than theTomb Raidergames, meaning that whileHeavy Metal F.A.K.K 2is undoubtedly still a clone that was benefiting off the success ofTomb Raider, it ramped up the gameplay to make it a much more difficult but also rewarding experience.
