TR had a lot of quality that went beyond the mere fact of being 3D. Clever puzzles, which is why everyone did block puzzles after that making them tiresome, agile combat sequences, nice music, some beautiful vistas... It had some great scenes, as subtle as diving in a pool from a high platform and hearing the main title music and feeling, I dunno, feelings, peaceful, for once. Or the first exit from the water tunnels. Or the Trex. Etc. It was good in more than being 3D. Sticks have nothing to do with it, they'd only help with camera control, but you rarely needed that since it was a fixed behind view. You couldn't strafe run like an FPS but in combat sequences you did jump a lot sideways and rolling and such to avoid hits...
I mean, sure, they were good for their time and are outdated now but they deserve more credit than "we didn't know better" for sure. And of course someone's still better off playing I or IV than the much newer Underworld for example... Their design was more sound.
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