Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered belongs in a museum

Tomb Raider Lara Croft is one of gaming's most iconic characters. While many of her outings and presentations haven’t aged as gracefully as her platformer colleagues, they still stand tall as milestones in gaming history. With Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered, Aspyr closes out the Core Design era of gaming's greatest archeologist faithfully.

Hit'em with the classics

As someone who was born after the first Tomb Raider came out, I have little to no nostalgia for that early age of 3D gaming. I have some vague memories of my then-balding, now-bald father getting stuck and frustrated in mushy-looking caves while being mauled by raptors. Between then and now, I’ve also started balding and have gone back to Lara Croft's early outings. Having grown up with games that abandoned tank controls and fixed camera angles, going back to these titles always felt like an insurmountable task. Something that's much easier with these remasters thanks to modern movement, camera, and remappable buttons. Remastered graphics and a few comfort features are just a treat on top of that.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (4) and Tomb Raider: Chronicles (5) are very much in line with the already stellar job Aspyr did with the first three entries in 2024. While the titles here are considered the weaker titles made by Core Design before Crystal Dynamics took over, the remasters themselves do a great job of bringing these titles into a new light. At the press of a button, you can switch between the old and the new visuals, and bask in how far we’ve come and what we left behind.

Lost in High-rez

I’m not a big fan of the remastered visuals. While not entirely sure if the new textures in the touched-up visuals are just AI upscales or the genuine high-rez references being used back then, they tend to look a little out of place. This is probably just complaining on a high level but the new lighting and high contrast textures tend to ruin the mood in some of these locations. Some are too dark, some feel a little too colorful, and some just obscure climbable surfaces or make others look like they are. The new models are nice, and the general art direction is mostly faithful but it takes away from the simple, visual clarity of these old levels. 

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (6) received the least amount of touching up visually in this package, probably because it didn’t need any beyond some touched-up texture resolutions and updated models. While the title has a somewhat disappointing legacy, its visuals still look fantastic today even without the makeover. However, the new and improved controls do a lot to make what many consider the low point of the series a more playable experience, but do little fix the jankey movement and, even for this series, awkward platforming.

A togglable filter-enabled look at the past

While we’re complaining, my modern comfort-addled brain can not compute the choice to not add checkpoints after every other section or at least make it an option. Yes, we should preserve titles the way they were but considering the other modern comforts this package offers, this felt like a free win but at least I now know what the quicksave and quickload shortcuts are. On the topic of shortcuts, I also would’ve loved an option to switch between the Classic/Tank and Modern control schemes. Some of the jumps require very precise platforming that is much easier with the old controls while exploring and running back after a fall is less of a hassle with the modern ones. Other new features like ammo counts, health bars for bosses, and being able to skip cutscenes are welcome additions, while the new flyby camera tool added to the already existing photo mode is fun to toy around with.

Overall Aspyr has once again done a great job of preserving and touching up the adventures of Lara Croft without changing anything while adding a few, moderate modern comforts for fans old and new. While I don’t think these games hold up at all to the iconic status that precedes them, I acknowledge that it was a different time and my dad had significantly more hair back then. As I have to come to terms with my encroaching baldness, it's nice that we can look at what we had, do the awkward short hop backward, start running, and plunge head first into our demise while wearing a nice hairpiece.

A PC code was provided by the publisher ahead of time. Tomb Raider IV-VI  Remastered releases February 14, 2025, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Timo Reinecke

Contributing Editor

Timo is an avid enjoyer of all things video games hailing from Germany. After being abandoned as a child on the Rolanberry Fields of Final Fantasy XI, they have developed an undying love for the digital worlds of MMOs. But if you can't find them crafting up a storm in Final Fantasy XIV, you'll probably find them workshopping combos in action/fighting games or being extremely passionate about the latest mobile title.

Outside of gaming, Timo is usually skimming through the Criterion Collection or praying to whatever Eldritch horror that their latest favorite manga doesn't get damaged in shipping. You can find live reactions to all of that on Blusky @alahftel.blusky.org.