Dredging up painful memories…
Tomb Raider is a series that I grew up adoring. I vividly remember playing through the first game in a weekend with a friend, and every new entry had my excitement levels through the roof. That was until I hit the fourth one, and fatigue set in. It was clear that Core was forced to continue to make these games, and their enthusiasm for the franchise had dropped as it went on. Tomb Raider 4 and 5, known respectively as The Last Revelation and Chronicles, were never on the same level as the original trilogy, then there was Angel of Darkness. A game that might have single-handedly killed the franchise for a long time. Yet here we are, so many years later revisiting these games. So how are they in 2025?
The package is similar to the trilogy remastered. Each game is accessible from the main menu and has its own set of options for each game. Each one has been upgraded with new textures and controls, which we will get into later. The graphics options have also come over from that original package. You can swap between graphics modes on-the-fly, which also updates the frame rate. I do wish we could customize it more, like bringing over new features for the old visuals, much akin to the recent Croc remaster. Being able to tweak each setting would be a welcome addition.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
OK, so let’s break down a little about each game. Starting with The Last Revelation, this game was definitely on my radar when it dropped, even though Tomb Raider fatigue was also setting in for me. I could tell, even back then, that this game was not on the same level as the original trilogy. One of the biggest reasons it even has any nostalgia, is it was the first one that was available on the Sega Dreamcast, therefore we got to see Lara in a much higher fidelity than any previous game, at least on console. This chapter is much more focused on puzzles and has a lot of familiarity with the first game. This one also feels like the true end of the original games, complete with that shocking ending. This one is definitely worth revisiting.
Next up is Chronicles. Shocker, Lara is not dead! Spoilers I know, but this game is 25 years old at this point. This game…is not great. It felt like they pulled a Majora’s mask, where they used a lot of leftover bits from the previous games and cobbled them together for a fifth game because they had to. This does not have the level of polish of something like Majora’s Mask, and the hooks are not as good. This game just feels like fulfilling a contract, it lacks that love and care the first four games had. It was obvious at the time that Core was more focused on Angel of Darkness, and Chronicles was just one more game to sell on the original PlayStation.
This brings us to the main course, the real reason everyone wanted to revisit these games, to see if Angel of Darkness is as bad as the legends tell. Short answer is, yes, this game is really bad, unfinished, and just a mess at times. It begins with a painful tutorial that is slower than anything I have ever played. The controls are stiff, feeling even worse than previous games. The ideas that were supposed to push this game forward, just hold it back. Lara levels up over time by doing specific actions, and it just hampers the enjoyment from the outset. Even after leveling up, it still feels awful.
Angel of Darkness was also a huge departure from the original games. Lara is not running through tombs at all, instead the game kicks off in dark alleyways with a serial killer on the loose. She spends most of the game in grimy areas and streets using some of the worst stealth mechanics ever created. They also added a second playable character, and to this day I do not know why. He is just terrible. The story is all over the place and rarely makes sense, and all the bugs and glitches are still here. This is just a bad game, anyone with nostalgia for it is just kidding themselves. Playing this is a chore from the beginning. It feels awful, the theme is completely different and not interesting, and nothing clicks with this title. It was ambitious, but also a miss. I appreciate Aspyr did what they could with this turd, but at the end of the day, it is still a turd.
In the end this collection has one good game, one mediocre game, and one travesty. Of course, I still had to have it. My nostalgia and love for these games includes the trash. For anyone with reverence for these games, this is a solid collection. For anyone curious about the franchise, but the first collection and avoid this one. That original trilogy is still classic. After that, these games went to crap until Crystal Dynamics took over the franchise in 2006. I do hope we see a collection of those early Crystal Dynamics games at some point, especially the remake of the first one, but if you own an Xbox, you can play them via backward compatibility, which is awesome. They still hold up, as for this collection, skip it unless you are just curious about how bad Angel of Darkness truly was.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
