You are basically saying with modern double analog sheme, you can play in both the old shooter way, AND the platformer way. How is that bad? The loss in precision is pretty much negligible to any good player (if not non-existent actually) while the gain in agility is HUGE.
I think my point was rather that both controls suit a certain type of game. For instance what I've always disliked about the modern controls is that they are dependent on the camera. If the camera shifts, so does the function of the directional thumb-stick. On the tank-like-controls, this isn't a problem. A generic example to illustrate the point; In Tomb Raider 2 in one of the first levels (Peru), but pretty much present in every older Tomb Raider game, you might have Lara having to dodge some crazy trap/mechanism. In that Peru level, a boulder would come smashing down the corridor and you'd have to maneuver her through obstacles jumping or avoid them. In this scene of the game, the camera would shift to the back to show what is happening behind her (the boulder comes crashing down) in one fluid cinematic motion. This is not a problem at all, because due to the tank-like-controls, it's entirely detached from the camera; E.g. pressing front is still running forward, irregardless where the camera is pointing in that instance.
To do that in a modern game is very difficult, because once you shift the camera for 'cinematic' purposes, you are altering the meaning of pressing "forward". You would constantly have to re-adjust to keep the character moving in the direction relative to the camera. Most modern games simply add a cinematographic non-interactive scene with perhaps a QTE-press-button-in-the-right time (which there are many in the Tomb Raider remake).
I'm not saying I prefer the old Tank-like-Controls. I just liked them for what they were; A precise instrument and control scheme for the type of game Tomb Raider used to be; A platformer with complex maneuvering of obstacles etc. At the same time, the modern controls is something I've always disliked about the latest Tomb Raider remake and even the Uncharted games too - the platforming just feels rather dumbed down. Like in Uncharted, pressing the button in the right 2 second time-frame (ok, I'm exaggerating a little) will result in the perfect jump irregardless, because the game knows that the controls are not suited for split-second timing and perfect movement in the right direction when the camera, for cinematographic reasons, is in a less optimal angle. Uncharted works, because it's mainly story driven and it's essentially a shooter at heart with lots of variety of gameplay chucked in.
Tomb Raider however has been, at least for me, a game rooted in the adventuring, puzzle-solving and perhaps even platforming genre. Most of the puzzles in the older Tomb Raider games wasn't in solving complex wall puzzles - they were about finding missing pieces or attempting to figure out how to get from A to B - and questioning if there even was a way to get to that ledge. Getting there usually involved complex platforming, climbing, moving blocks, jumping from one to the next until you might reach the destination you thought might lead you to a secret tomb, maybe a hidden statue.. or indeed further into the complex cave and progress the game. That was what Tomb Raider was about. Exploring, adventuring, feeling like a little curious boy what might lie behind the next obstacle.
Which is perhaps my biggest criticism to these new modern Tomb Raider games; They're just too dumbed down, they pretty much lay out where you need to go and getting there proposes absolutely no challenge at all, since the engine is designed to help and guide you. It's a glorified shooter in my opinion, just like Uncharted, but masked by the story of Lara and that background mandating that there are a few tombs built around the game so that people recognize it as a Tomb Raider game...
I miss the old Tomb Raider games for what they were and what they used to represent. I never bought Tomb Raider because I wanted to shoot things. I actually liked the complex maneuvering and exploring using tank-like-controls, because the element of curiosity and exploration it resulted in was grande in my opinion. Sure, it probably is difficult to combine all these things in a modern reincarnation of that game, and I'm happy to admit modern controls are a must, but I still think the exploration should get a front seat in such a game. I love Uncharted, for what it is, and I used to love Tomb Raider for different reasons. I don't want a hybrid of both games.
