Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered Review

 I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Tomb Raider series; not for any major reason, but just because they passed me by. The first game came out in 1996, so I was only about five at the time and never picked up the series when I was older. 

Now, I could, in theory, try and play them, but realistically, finding a machine that can run them would be a challenge. However, developer Aspyr has slowly been remastering the older series, and I had the chance to play the Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered game on Steam, so I leapt at the chance to give them a try, finally. 

I can hear you wondering, “I never played the original games, can I play these?” Well, I have good news for you because you don’t need to play any of the other Tomb Raider games to know what is happening. The plots are connected beyond the fact that you play as Lara Croft, so really, you can jump into any of them with no issue.  

All three games have been visually enhanced, and you can swap between the new graphics and the old if you like. Not only that, but the experiences introduce the option to change the older tank controls to more modern controls that utilise the mouse.

However, when I turned these on, I found that the action button would no longer let me climb up any ledges. I don’t know if this was a bug or a particular design choice, but either way, it was incredibly annoying. Not to mention that the games are designed around tank controls, so the newer options don’t work all that well. 

Now, I don’t have much experience with Tomb Raider (short of locking the butler in the freezer). As such, I’m going to be looking at each game based on their merit over what the Remaster has changed.

Honestly, Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation is the best out of the three and the one that has seen the most improvements visually. Saying that, it’s also the hardest to start, as the opening is enough to turn you away because it's a tedious on-rails section with no option to skip the condescending German man’s dialogue. However, Tomb Raider IV has the strongest plot in the long run because it focuses on a singular task with a set group of characters. Rather than darting across the planet, you have a set area to work in which allows the game world to blossom. 

Not only that, The Last Revelation has the best puzzles out of the three but is also the least combat-focused. This isn’t exactly a bad thing because… well, Tomb Raider combat is just bad. However, even with the bad combat, I would play this one again to experience the adventure, something that I likely wouldn’t do with the other two.

Tomb Raider V: Chronicles is in a bit of a middle ground in the series; it’s not quite as good as the previous game, but not as bad as the sequel. The issue with the fifth entry is that it’s just kind of dull, with a lot of tedious backtracking. One minor strength is that Tomb Raider V is an anthology rather than one story, which helps minimise how goofy the series can be and might be the ideal way to tell a Lara Croft narrative.

However, this anthology-based plot leads to the biggest issue with the experience: the actual gameplay is pretty boring. This tedium isn’t helped by how dull the levels are to the degree they all start to bleed into one another. While Tomb Raider V: Chronicles looks great, there’s no doubt that the series was starting to experience fatigue, which explains the sequel…

The sixth title in the original Tomb Raider series is infamous for being one of the most disliked at the time of release. Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness was a pretty bold departure from the other entries, which makes sense, considering the series was starting to get pretty stale. The game introduced explorable towns, NPCs with differing dialogue choices, and branching quests.

The remastered version of Angel of Darkness is easily one of the most mixed in terms of quality. This is partially because the upgraded graphics are a lot less noticeable but also due to some of the design choices. 

There are a couple of good ideas; for instance, the notebook is now a lot more immersive, but the introduction of a strength stat is just weird. In terms of actual gameplay, The Angel of Darkness offers the most modern experience, you get CQC as well as stealth takedowns and a stamina meter. However, modern isn’t always good, especially as the actual controls for moving Lara and odd camera angles make the whole experience… unpleasant. 

Aspyr also restored a lot of unfinished content and introduced it into the game, which is a nice touch. The problem is that… well, it’s Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness cut content. The problem is that this is an exceptionally buggy game, and the cut content is arguably worse. 

Overall, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is an odd jumble of games, and they’re certainly not the top of the series. However, they remain the best way to play any of these titles and there’s something to be said for that. What is clear is that Aspyr has put a lot of heart into these games, and they can be fun, but they haven’t convinced me about Tomb Raider as a franchise.