Another outdated classic that didn't age that well... perhaps you should listen to other pplz advice and check the remastered version instead.

You should definitely buy the remastered version of Tomb Raider III, not this version. The only way you'll like this game is if, like me, you enjoyed the first two and could put up with their jank.

Stella's Walkthroughs[tombraiders.net] are an absolute necessity for this game (and probably the remastered version too). I found them more necessary in this game than in the previous two.

Overall: I had some fun moments with this game, but it was more irksome than the first two and its design and handling begins to feel dated since it uses the same engine with only mild modification. The nail in the coffin was that there were entire regions of the game containing zero or few levels I enjoyed. So even though I did like a lot of the other levels, it was enough of a slog that I can't recommend the game in good conscience, especially since the remastered version is now available and solves most of the quality of life issues I'm now going to complain about.

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Thee levels were cool overall, with varied environments across different regions. The level design is hampered by the game's terrible, flat textures. They are much like the first two games, but somehow I found myself repeatedly confused because of an unintuitive ladder texture (or whatever). Otherwise, I didn't usually get stuck... but it depended on the levels.

Interestingly, in some levels it's possible to expand your playstyle a bit—if you're risk-averse or don't like shooting guards, you can often figure out ways to release or wait for allies who will kill them for you, and stay out of the fight! Not always possible, but it's cool that this is a feature in some levels. Some levels also involve more stealth than previous games, though it's clunky. Overall, the difficulty is slightly harder on average than the first two games. Since there are more mechanics, there are slightly more complex movement sequences; timing can be more important.

• I found the India levels difficult to navigate and a bit tedious. But I liked the vibe.
  
• I liked the Nevada levels fine, but I was ready to be done with them—it's not a tomb. (Area 51 had an egregious amount of backtracking, which is unintuitive without a walkthrough, but the level was interesting enough otherwise.) These levels overall felt a little bit less tight than the first game, and about the same as the second; enjoyable but nothing too remarkable.
  
• The South Pacific levels are REALLY COOL and have interesting designs. I loved how open and expansive they felt in comparison to most levels. Visually, they are commanding. All the levels are very three-dimensional, but these ones felt better. Some of these levels, like the Coastal Village, are surprisingly nonlinear—there are multiple routes you can take. They are probably the best levels in the game.
  
• The first two London levels (Thames Wharf and Aldwych) were my least favorite in the game—labyrinthine in a confusing and boring way, with too much backtracking and a relatively uninteresting (and non-tomb) setting. Lud's Gate would have been one of my favorite except for its abysmal water sequence. The City boss fight is neat, but short. India was a mild disappointment, but London was a major one.
  
• The Antarctica levels are beautiful and engaging, with environmental mechanics for freezing if you swim in ice water for too long. They have a solid aesthetic, special new enemies, mostly better layouts, more fun and intuitive puzzles, and a great boss fight at the end.

Gameplay is similar to the first two games. The camera angle and tank controls remain challenging to operate, and Lara remains just as unresponsive as ever (jumping, etc.). My biggest pet peeve is how sluggish Lara still feels, especially with some of thee animations being so slow—it makes it unappealing to use most movement mechanics in combat. She can sprint, but she's so hard to control that it's not worth doing much. She comes to a dead stop if she hits a wall, and most corridors are full of 90-degree turns, so movement is frustrating. This is nothing new, but I was disappointed they hadn't bothered to address any of these problems.

It's very easy to softlock yourself, more so than the first two games. That's bad design. I was occasionally softlocked despite being really careful. You have to save constantly, but not too often as you have a limited number of save slots. Save Crystals are a nice feature and make the game less unforgiving; they show you where you have to go in some situations. On PC, they fill up your health when touched, however they don't seem to actually save the game. (The lack of autosaves remains annoying: you really do have to save constantly to avoid wasting your time.)

The "monkey bar" swing/clamber mechanic is cool. And faster than I would have expected! But like other mechanics, the places to monkey swing aren't necessarily intuitive or easy to visually see. But I love how it expands the way you can explore. The crawling mechanic is new (I think) and fun, but slow, and the only way to drop down a ledge while crawling is to go backward, which makes no sense and is awkward.

Enemy AI and animations are a little better: they sometimes take cover and try to hide. It's not a lot better. However, Lara's auto-aim unufortunately cannot distinguish between neutral and hostile characters! This leads to friendly fire, which is no fun.

Vehicles are difficult to control (canoeing in particular is grueling) and the controls are literally unexplained, which is a problem when you're trying to dismount. Why would the player guess to press "about face" and "left/right" at the same time? The water levels remain less enjoyable than they ought to be, in large part because of the cumbersome vehicles that are required to progress.

Graphically, the game is similar to the first two. I like Lara's outfits a lot: they're cute and varied. The use of lighting in levels can be a bit creative (nothing extraordinary, but nice), though the sound remains very '90s quality, in a rustic but slightly grating way. The biggest graphical problem is still the low draw distance; this makes exploration hard and limits immersion. The lack of texture detail can be problematic and make progression unclear. However, fog in some levels is super cool! That's new. Godrays are a nice touch in a couple spots, and I wish there were more. Water looks about the same as the second game, I think.

As for the story... I had no idea what was happening at literally any point. It made absolutely zero sense. Not that the story made much sense in the first two games, but I found this one uniquely nonsensical. It was amusingly disjointed. On a more serious note, Tomb Raider has always had a colonial tinge—just think about Lara Croft's character for a minute. Unfortunately, the South Pacific levels (as fun as they were) are really pushing it—why exactly am I running around a random village killing every man I see? It's one thing to be fighting (colonial) men with guns, but IDK about the villagers. They're minding their own business, and it's not exactly tactful. I guess it was the 1990s.

The game is full of technical bugs:

• General bugs can make it impossible to progress. I didn't encounter any game-breaking bugs, but I frequently read about them in Stella's Walkthroughs.
  
• You can't change your resolution on the main menu and then load a save; you have to do it in the other order. Otherwise the game crashes or glitches.
  
• The game would not allow me to change my brightness level without crashing, so it was very hard to see visual cues. It was just too dark. This is related to the previous bug.

Tomb Raider III has its moments, but it's not for everyone. You're more like to enjoy the remaster.