Why adding modern controls to 1996's Tomb Raider simply doesn't work

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https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/the-problem-with-revisiting-tomb-raider-reacclimating-to-tank-controls/

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TLDNR: Combat feels a lot better, the rest of the game (namely the platforming) breaks because of the grid system of the originals

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Too long; do not recesitate? 

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I’ve found the same thing with survival games camera controls. The originals were made with odd camera angles in mind for scenic purposes for better or worse. Tank controls mean that your direction doesn’t change when the camera suddenly shifts.

Fatal Frame had a median scheme that was tricky to work out but useful. You move relative to the camera. If the camera changed, but you didn’t change your thumbstick direction past a few degrees, your character would keep moving in a straight line.

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Tried playing Goldeneye and Turok a while back on the steamdeck. The controls were so bad I couldn’t get any nostalgic satisfaction at all. Some games were meant for awesomely weird controllers.

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Godhand and it’s tank controls. It’s just painful to play, but it has one of the best combat.

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Gondeneye always has a dual analog gameplay option just like modern games. It requires the use of 2 N64 controllers. It also let you turn off all the auto-aim if you really wanted to flex your analog skills.

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There is a setting that will allow for dual joystick? Looks like I’ll have to take another look in the controller settings then.

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It uses 1.1 through 1.4 for a single controller and 2.1 through 2.4 for dual controller setup.

Also, a the main reason why it feels like crap is because emulators do not translate the analog feel of the N64 correctly making a lot of those games feel super twitchy and very inaccurate.

I highly recommend trying out the decompiled version of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

https://github.com/n64decomp/007

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Thanks, I’ll check it out!

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Is it because she falls over with proper physics?

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I feel like a modern Tomb Raider could copy a lot of Death Stranding traversal gameplay.

I want a TR game that allows the player to choose Lara’s loadout of weapons, clothes, rope, harness, climbing equipment, etc.

It should be challenging to raid a Tomb but players must get whatever was raided out safely.

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Comments in Retro Gaming@lemmy.world

To be fair you could just have both and allow the player to hotswap between them. This was a thing in some retro games already as tank controls were phased out. Really depends on how much work you want to put into supporting that kind of context switching of controls.

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Pair this mode switch with drawing your gun. Problem solved.

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