I got the entire Tomb Raider series from the steam sale, I just finished the new one and liked it quite a bit. Which of the old ones are worth playing for someone who has no nostalgia for the series and just wants a fun time raiding tombs?

Anniversary is pretty good from what I've played of it. I'm to believe it's arguably classic Tomb Raiding at its very best.

1,2,3,4,Legend, Underworld, Anniversary.

Tomb Raider 2 is the best in the series I think, it's certainly better than the reboot.

Classic TR with gameplay of Underworld, it's great but the boss battles were replaced with QTEs. I recommend the 1st game instead.

I really like the first three games. I also can understand that they can be very archaic to people that are more used to modern game design. Go with the Crystal Dynamics trilogy (Legend, Underworld, and Anniversary) if you want something that plays more like a modern videogame. And if you want more, try out the original Core games and see if you can stomach the controls. There are some good games in those those original games if you can get past the outdated feel of them.

Edit: Double Post. My bad.

Going back to the old from the new is probably not the best idea for a few reasons, I would just do the last gen/this gen versions, I wouldn't recommend anything before Legend, honestly, you should probably just play Underworld.

But Tomb Raider 1,2 and 3 are the best Tomb Raider games.

I dunno, I feel like this reboot is the best followed by Underworld, also if the OP does revisit the old old ones then he/she will have to deal with those awful controls/movement/gunplay and I dunno, I wouldn't be down for that. It's unfortunate that the OP didn't play those first.

Do this OP, start at the beginning and if the game isn't doing it for you just move to the next, I would recommend giving the games a 2 - 3 level chance to see if you dig it, I am not a fan of the older games, I actually never was even though I finished all of them except Angel of Darkness and that Dreamcast one (something Chronicles I think). Also, a lot of people say just go for Anniversary and move forward, so it's up to you though. Start at the beginning or start where it's good(lol sorry).

I might have to side with @nmc2008 on this one. I haven't touched the PSX originals in a long time, but I can't imagine playing those games 15+ years later. That era of early 3D video games do not age well.

If you just have to play everything, I'd imagine going from earliest to latest will be better instead of playing the other way around.

The first reboot of games last generation (Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld) would still be worth playing -- maybe -- but even then, they looked pretty dated compared to the 2013 game.

Anniversary is the next game you should play followed by Legend and Underworld. I think the older games are quite hard to go back to now. There are a lot of puzzles that are incredibly obscure and it's quite easy to save anywhere and be completely stuck forcing you to restart the level ( Angel of Darkness was incredibly bad about this ... DO NOT PLAY ANGEL OF DARKNESS!)

Legend is pretty shooty, but still has a bunch of actual tomb raiding and Underworld is nearly all tomb raiding and animal murder. It has a weird ending though that just kind of happens with no boss or anything. Underworld was also really, really buggy with a bunch of puzzles that would just break, but that might have gotten patched at some point.

Anniversary is the best of the old, but far more modern in its design.

I've only played the new one and Underworld so I can't speak for the rest of the series. I think Underworld is a good game but the bast part about it is the lack of combat. It's pretty much 85% raiding tombs and 15% combat. It seems like it has a lot of backstory from previous games (or possibly the movies) that they expect the player to know.

Just play the more recent ones (Legend, Anniversary, Underworld).

Whilst at the time the originals were really great, I tried to play 2 and 3 a couple of weeks ago and my god to they control like absolute shit compared to today.

Legend and Anniversary. I remember Underworld being a bit fucked up, but they probably fixed the problems eventually.

The new one.

Legend would be a good start. It's the first by Crystal Dynamics and introduces you to their "trilogy." The puzzles aren't as complex as others in the series, but it was a fun ride. Then jump to Anniversary, then Underworld.

Anniversary takes inspiration from the first and still holds up. And Underworld has some amazing puzzles, but jumping straight into it may be a bit much. All three are a whole lot of fun. The old ones on PS1 are neat but pretty unforgiving.

the whole series always felt it was mimicking another style and kinda almost there. I'd say skip them, none of them are really as good as other games they are inspired by.

Go with #1

I played it not to long ago, and I enjoyed it quite a bit (even though it's a bit clunky). I used it as a podcast-listening game.

@iceman228433 said:

2 and 3 are good, they're old games though so nothing's going to really compare to the new one on the gameplay front. Uncharted has always been just a better version of Tomb Raider so copying Uncharted is effectively making a better version of Tomb Raider; though I take it people wanted more puzzle solving (not like the puzzles were ever amazing in the previous games).