Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered Review — A Mediocre Classic With Cosmetic Upgrades

While we wait for a full-fledged new part of the Tomb Raider series, the publisher is re-releasing Lara Croft's early adventures on modern consoles and PC. On February 14, 2025, a collection was released, which includes The Last Revelation, Chronicles and Angel of Darkness. However, this remaster is not for everyone. From our review, you will find out what the reissue of the classic is like and can decide whether you should spend money on it.

The very first Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and turned out to be a real revolution in the gaming industry. It set the standards for third-person shooters for many years to come and brought the adventure format to a new level. And thanks to it, it became clear that girls can be not only damsels in distress, but also the main characters in video games. In order to turn Miss Croft's popularity into commercial success, publisher Eidos Interactive instructed the developers from Core Design to release new parts every year.

The games in the series that were released in the 90s and early 2000s were sets of additional levels with specific innovations. If this approach worked at first, then over time, fans began to lose interest in Lara. This can be seen in the falling sales. The Last Revelation and Chronicles, the fourth and fifth parts of the series, seemed outdated even at the time of their release. It was obvious that something had to change.

Work on the Tomb Raider reboot took three years, but the game still remained unfinished. Critical bugs that were present in Angel of Darkness simply did not allow it to be completed. Also, one can note the inconvenient controls, which looked especially bad against the background of the then-relevant Splinter Cell and Max Payne. As a result, "Angel of Darkness" faced a commercial failure. After that, work on the series was transferred to Crystal Dynamics, the authors of Legacy of Kain.

The Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered collection includes the last three parts worked on by Core Design. They received the lowest ratings from the press and disappointed many players.

Today, there are many ways to reissue classic games on modern hardware. For example, you can leave the graphics the same as they were 20 years ago. This is what the authors of Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour did. There is another option — to improve the picture, but keep the gameplay unchanged. The first two parts of the Warcraft series received similar remasters last November. Some publishers go further and release full-fledged remakes that are perceived as modern games. Bright examples are Final Fantasy 7, Mafia: Definitive Edition and Resident Evil 2.

The developers from Aspyr chose the second option — they slightly adjusted the graphics and controls, but left the gameplay the same as 25 years ago.

"The Last Revelation" greets us with a detailed tutorial, where all aspects of the game are explained. By default, the so-called tank controls are used here, like in the early parts of the Resident Evil series. The heroine does not go where the camera is pointed, but in the direction of her own gaze. The movement keys, which are usually responsible for moving to the side, turn her body left or right.

It sounds simple in words, but in practice it is difficult to get used to such a layout. The first couple of hours will probably see you bumping into walls and falling off ledges. Even a simple acrobatic move with a rope can cause serious problems. It is important that Lara looks exactly at the rope, otherwise the girl will jump in the other direction.

The situation is aggravated by the camera. It can suddenly change its position, or even choose such an angle that Lara is simply not visible. Moreover, when you are trying to figure out what to do next and inspect the level, the camera suddenly starts moving itself to take the default position.

Fortunately, this moment can be bypassed if you enable modern controls in the settings. Thanks to it, in the remastersa standard third-person view has appeared, and you will set the direction of the main character's movement with the mouse or the gamepad stick, like in the latest parts of Tomb Raider.

Shooting is implemented archaically by modern standards. Instead of clear aiming, we must direct the main character's gaze to the enemy and open fire on him. In this case, Lara will aim herself. You only need to jump to the side in time to avoid an enemy attack.

The graphics have really become better. By pressing one key, you can see the original picture of the game, which was released during the time of the first PlayStation, to feel the difference.

As for The Last Revelation itself, it is a classic adventure in the spirit of the first part. After a short prologue in Cambodia, where we play as a very young Miss Croft, the action moves to Egypt, where the main events will unfold. There we will have to face the ancient gods and prevent the end of the world.

In our opinion, the walkthrough turned out to be drawn out. Interesting moments or dynamic shootouts are rare, most of the time we crawl through the ruins and solve puzzles. Meanwhile, The Last Revelation is the best thing in this collection.

The latest part of the series, which was based on the mechanics of the first Tomb Raider, is a set of levels that are not connected to each other. This is due to the plot — after Lara's disappearance in Egypt, her friends gathered to honor the memory of the Tomb Raider and recall the adventures of Miss Croft, which we did not know about yet. You will find four levels — Italy, a Russian submarine, Ireland and von Croy's headquarters in New York.

True, you won't find any big differences from The Last Revelation. The developers clearly focused on fan service: for example, they showed Lara in a beautiful evening dress, a tight leather suit and a military uniform. But due to the mediocre graphics, such outfits will impress few people today.

The advantages of The Last Revelation and Chronicles include a special old-school charm that permeates both games. If you had the first PlayStation or Sega Saturn, then a feeling of nostalgia is guaranteed.

In "Angel of Darkness", Lara turned out to be slower and more clumsy than in the earlier parts of the series. In addition, questionable innovations appeared in the gameplay, for example, a stamina scale and strange RPG elements. After physical activity, such as breaking a door with a crowbar, Lara will become stronger and learn to perform actions that were previously unavailable to her. In essence, this is not pumping, but simply disguised scripts.

The list of Angel of Darkness's shortcomings is long — a gray, gloomy city and sewers as the main setting, a banal plot, poorly written dialogues, disgusting stealth, problems with artificial intelligence, poor design, due to which interactive objects do not stand out against the background of the environment. At a certain point, we start playing not as Lara, but as her partner Curtis Trent. In theory, this decision should have brought variety to the gameplay, but in practice it only irritates, because the character turned out to be uninteresting.

You can find detailed descriptions of what the sixth Tomb Raider was planned to be like online. On paper, Core Design's ideas sound interesting, but in the end we got the worst game in the series. The developers of the re-release returned some of the cut content, from working shops to Curtis' special abilities, and also fixed some bugs. However, this has little effect on the overall picture. Compared to other remasters, "Angel of Darkness" looks alien. It's even good that the publisher at the time refused to further develop this concept.

Despite improved graphics and modern controls, the games from this collection are perceived asfrom the distant past. In our opinion, The Last Revelation, Chronicles and, especially, Angel of Darkness need not a remaster, but a full-fledged remake. It is curious that such a project has already been released. In 2007, the very first part of the series was re-released on the engine of the then-relevant Legend. The result was an excellent game that felt modern, but at the same time accurately recreated all the levels and the atmosphere of the adventure from the 1996 original.

The Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered collection can be recommended to fans of Lara Croft and those who want to personally get acquainted with all her adventures. The rest can safely pass by.

Are you planning to replay the early parts of Tomb Raider in an updated form? Or are you not interested in them? Share your opinions in the comments!