Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider introduced the world to Lara Croft and simultaneously showed that three-dimensional space could be used in an action-adventure for more than just a backdrop for shooting. The British archaeologist travels from Peruvian caves through Greek temples and Egyptian tombs to the lost city of the Atlanteans, searching for pieces of an artifact that a rival party is also after. Most of the time, though, the player isn't in gunfights but studying the space: measuring jumps, looking for levers, watching which slab in the wall moved after flipping a switch, and trying to figure out how to reach a ledge three floors up.

Lara's movement is built on a precise grid, so jumps have a fixed length and the player learns to judge them to the centimeter. Alongside this comes what's now called tank controls: the character turns in place before moving forward, which feels clunky at first, but combined with the ability to grab an edge, pull herself up, or perform a roll, it delivers a surprisingly rich repertoire. Combat with wolves, bats, bears, or dinosaurs mostly serves as seasoning between the acrobatic passages. Technically it was a flagship title of its era, released in a software version as well as versions taking advantage of the first 3D accelerators, which brought filtered textures and smoother performance. The sound is deliberately sparse, most of the time the player only hears their own footsteps and dripping water, with music arriving in short orchestral bursts exactly where something is about to happen, resulting in a feeling of total solitude in dead corridors.

At the time it was a massive commercial success, and Lara became an icon that outgrew the games themselves. The title's influence is fundamental, the very notion of a three-dimensional action-adventure built around platforming navigation and puzzles was essentially defined by it. Today the original version demands a bit of patience with the controls and camera, but the feeling of discovering empty tombs has aged far better than the technology.