Specifically 2, 3 and 4 The Last Relevation. Never been into Tomb Raider. I bought the original awhile ago but I haven't played it. The series does look like something I want to try though and I do tend to like adventure games so I can see myself liking the series. I normally wouldn't want to buy the sequels before I even play them but being half off now would be the time to buy them and if I don't like them I'm only short 9 bucks.

Well I can't say concretley. The puzzles and level design are quite good. The combat is bad, but there isn't that much except in TR2. TR3, has a bit of the arbitrarily difficult puzzle syndrome (IE things that you need are just in random places and that's why it's difficult). But I liked/loved all of them a lot. 

However the controls are very bad. It uses a grid based system which is unique in some sense. But it's very tanky. I would try to play the original for a bit to see if you can stand it as the first 5 are very very similar with maybe the exception of 2's emphasis on combat with humans. All of them being so similar is why the series started crashing down in the first place.

You can also get a fairly good idea of what its going to be watching someone play youtube. It's very very dated but still very fun if the puzzle design is what you're looking for (imo this is where the core games excel), but I wouldn't recommend it unequivocally. I know that's not exactly the answer your looking for, but it's hard for me to blindly recommend something that has a few drawbacks that would render the game unplayable for some.

They were amazing when they came out, particularly 2 and 4 but it'll probably take some effort for you to get into them because of the dated graphics and control schemes.

I've only played 1 and 2, but they're two of the best games I've ever played. I can only imagine the other PS1 titles are also good.

So I say go for it :)

Do yourself a favor and play TR Legend, Anniversery (Remake of TR1) and Underworld instead. While the old games were brilliant at the release they aged pretty badly. I still have nightmares from the jumping puzzles. The controls...:ohgodwhy:

If you like the original, you'll most likely like others too...problem is, though they are still great games, controls are really odd from today's perspective, so if you can't get into first one cause of that, chances are you'd be much better if you go straight for Legend/Anniversary/Underworld, cause they have different (more modern) controls.

Just don't expect any of them to be remotely similar to this new TR, which has almost nothing to do with original IP.

1, 2 and the last revelation were incredible. For $9 you can't go wrong but they won't hold up well graphically.

They're pretty dated. 2 & 4 were the best, in my opinion, but I got around to playing them recently and the control scheme is infuriating. It was bad at the time, but it's worse now.

Still, they're pretty enjoyable adventure games. And a piece of gaming history, so worth playing for that alone.

Yeah, they're very good games. The puzzles and platforming are very creative, but the graphics are extremely dated (I don't know how much that maters to you).

I managed to get around the controls of the original Silent Hill. Surely it has to be better right? I love Silent Hill but the controls were horrible.