Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is the best way to experience the lesser-known story of Lara Croft, in a remastered by Aspyr that hits much more than it misses.

What I like about Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is not just its burnished look, but the way it relights the dimmer half of Lara's legacy and offers a different story.

Ultimately, while the quality of the games in this package is varied, with so being the effort going into the actual remastering process too, this is hardly an essential purchase. It is however a package that is nice for hardcore fans of the franchise, but also those who want to rediscover the most advanced classic Tomb Raider (IV, that is), the bizarre piece of gaming history that is Angel of Darkness… and also Tomb Raider V, I guess. Sometimes, even missable games are worth a solid remaster.

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered can’t quite match the line up of the first trilogy of games, but arguably offers a more varied package, even if at times the attraction is down to sheer curiosity and bemusement.

Getting to play more old-school Tomb Raider titles with the option of modern controls and modern visuals is another win from Crystal Dynamics, and I've had good fun revisiting these Lara Croft adventures. While The Last Revelation is the only game in here I'd consider a classic, both PS1 era games are still worth playing, especially now that Aspyr has given us the option to run through them with OG visuals at 60FPS. Despite being the newest title in here, The Angel of Darkness has aged the worst, and remains a stark reminder as to why the series moved to a new studio after this release. Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered's adventures might not be essential, but they're worth adding to your library as this era of Lara Croft makes its Xbox debut.

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.

Do you need to have played these games? No. But it's nice that Aspyr offers the opportunity to do it on modern systems with a few improvements. As always with Aspyr's releases, it could have been taken even further. In summary, more could have been done, but it's good entertainment and a chance to reminisce. As long as you don't expect miracles from it and know what you're getting yourself into.

If you loved the remastered Tomb Raiders I-III released last year, then you’ll definitely want to grab IV-VI remastered as well. The nostalgia and the novelty of revisiting the old Tomb Raider games is certainly worthwhile, but with IV-VI you’re witnessing three Tomb Raiders that gradually lose track of what the series was all about. The Last Revelation and its new ideas are successful, and you’ll enjoy your explorations in Egypt, but Chronicles and Angel of Darkness reek of missed potential and both of them come off as rush jobs. The remaster efforts are good enough in terms of uplifting these relics visually, and the framerate is crisp as well, but you’ll still need to wrestle with terrible design choices inherent within these three games, and the pounding desire for these Tomb Raider games to be remade for a contemporary audience.