You’ve enjoyed the original Tomb Raider trilogy, elegantly remastered on PS5 and PS4, so now it’s time to tackle the crap one. The ever-industrious Aspyr Media has announced Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered, which compiles Core Design’s darker trio of action adventures, when Eidos was in full-on milk mode.
The games are as follows:
- Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (PS1, 1999): Lara Croft discovers the lost tomb of the Egyptian God Set, unwittingly unleashing him and fulfilling an ancient prophecy – one that plunges mankind into darkness.
- Tomb Raider Chronicles (PS1, 2000): Following the events of The Last Revelation, Lara Croft is buried in an Egyptian tomb and is presumed dead. At her memorial, those closest to her reminisce about secrets from her past.
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (PS2, 2003): Accused of murder, Lara becomes a fugitive on the run, while uncovering a sinister conspiracy involving alchemical experiments and the search for ancient artifacts.
As you can see above, this includes the first PS2 title in the hexalogy, and it’s not a good one. The Angel of Darkness was an infamously troubled production, which resulted in Core Design eventually being stripped of the franchise. Crystal Dynamics ultimately took control of the series with Tomb Raider Legend, which you can also now play on PS5 and PS4.
To be fair, The Last Revelation is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the franchise – even if fatigue was slowly starting to slip in at the time. The game ends with Lara’s supposed death, but given the series’ sales numbers, Core Design was forced to work on another entry, resulting in the release of the forgettable Chronicles a year later.