There was a learning curve playing the Tomb Raider remaster where I had to come to grips with the different ways you can jump, the fact you have to hold a button to grab a ledge in the air, things like that, but now that I'm used to it (mostly), I have to say

I think I like this system better than having everything be automatic

At least this way if I don't grab a ledge I know why

Like there's just a button for "Grab this ledge when I walk off it"

No creeping up to an edge and hoping you grab it

Just push the button

It's so good

Anyway you should try the Tomb Raider remaster if you're interested in weird 90s controls and also game design

I was figuring out a puzzle and I looked at a potential solution and said "They wouldn't make me do that"

Then I thought for a second and said "Yes they absolutely would, it was the 90s"

Turns out I was right

It's not good or bad that they made the solution to the puzzle be whatever weird annoying time-consuming thing it was, it's just different and I think it's interesting that I cottoned on to what they wanted but almost passed on it because of how games today are made

Honestly a lot of the 90s jank and slight player hostility really adds to the atmosphere

You are dropped on a ruin

You don't know what the goal is, so you just wander around

You flip a switch, but you have no idea what it did

Eventually you figure out the big puzzle of the level and how all the parts fit together

It's really satisfying because you figured literally ALL of it out

Some of that was intentional I'm sure but I also think some of that is just games in the 90s were like that and the industry has sanded a lot of those edges away