Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation + Chronicles

The Last Revelation is the game that brought the Tomb Raider series back to its roots, and it some ways, is even more of a tomb raiding experience than the first game. Gone are the "Lara as James Bond" levels, replaced by pure tomb raiding goodness. The entire game DOES take place in Egypt (apart from a training level in Cambodia), and while that might sound boring for a series known for its country to country hopping heroine, there's actually plenty of variety in the levels. Lara explores Old Kingdom locations all the way through to the Egypt of the Ptolemies (including Cleopatra's palace) and the alleyways of modern Alexandria, giving you a good idea of just how many cultures Egypt influenced and was influenced by. Oh yeah, and since this is Egypt, Lara gets attacked by mummies! :) REAL mummies this time, not those fake ones from TR1. The game does take some departures from the series formula, such as Lara being able to travel back and forth between level sections instead of only being able to progress forward. If you're stuck in a certain area, it might be because you need to backtrack to an area you were at a couple of loading screens ago. Lara can also combine items in her inventory in this game, a feature which is necessary for her to progress through the game. For example, in one level, she combines items to make a pole with a hook on the end so that she can use it to obtain an item that's locked up in a cage. As for Chronicles, well... it's a mixed bag. For every step that TLR took forward, Chronicles took two steps back, and unfortunately gave us the return of James Bond Lara, even going so far as to have her break in to a rival's high tech fortress to steal an artifact there. To make matters worse, the levels don't really live up to the quality of previous games, giving them a "fan made" vibe. It's still a fun game, especially if you like Lara's more high tech antics just as much or more so than her tomb raiding escapades, but just don't expect TRC to be of the same quality as TLR.

When it comes to the exciting outings of Lara, Core Design's 'The Last Revelation' is, for me, the pinnacle of the Tomb Raider series. As a fresh return to the series' roots, the fourth game focuses more on high adventure and exciting exploration, sending the player on an epic journey across ancient locations in Egypt to resolve a prophecy that spans millennia. Gone are gloomy London skylines and secret military installations of the previous two games. Instead of diving into underwater bases, Lara will delve into ancient tombs and mysterious ruins. You'll search for archaic artifacts instead of keycards, dodging devious traps and whirling blades, instead of laser wires and auto-turrets. The game still has plenty of frenetic gunplay, with new weapons, ammo choices and smarter enemies. But exploration and puzzles take centre stage here. The atmosphere is fantastic. You'll feel isolated as you tiptoe through dark corridors, treading where no foot as stepped for centuries. The graphics are a step up, but the sound makes the most impact. Musical cues still feature, but for the most part you'll hear nothing but your own footsteps, the wind rolling through passageways, and the occasional crumble of stones somewhere in the distance. Exploration has never been so exciting or tense! The game is well balanced. Tomb Raider 3 often had the player wandering aimlessly around, not sure where to go; Levels were completed almost by accident. Here, everything makes sense: You'll always know the item you need to proceed - even if you don't know where it is. The puzzles are challenging, but never tedious trial and error. A great feat, considering puzzles can span multiple levels and require multiple items. You'll rarely find yourself backtracking simply to see if you missed a hidden switch or obscure item. Overall, the game provides the series' best adventure. It gets the important parts right, and brings enough fresh features to keep the series interesting. Highly recommended.

I played Tomb raider 4 on my sega dreamcast 10 years ago. It is one my favourite games of all time and my personal favourite in the series. It is the most balanced of the tomb raider games. Tomb Raider 4 the last revelation has a intriguing story line and balanced difficulty. To put this dfficulty into perspective. The original Tomb Raider game was too hard, the second was too easy and too short, the third was slighly harder but still to easy and the 4th game was jus about right. It had memorable charcters in Set and Von Croy. The voice Acting was good and Lara maintained her cheeky personality not seen much of the newer more modern games. The sountrack was OK and Lara had been given new moves. The Fourth game really felt like it desered the name "Tomb raider" As you spent nearly the entire game raiding ancient egyption tombs. The puzzles in Tomb Raider 4 are quite intriguing and some of the most memorbale in the series. It is hard to talk about the 5th game chronocles without spoiling the ending of the 4th one. however I will say this if you fancy diving deeper into Lara's history and finding out more about her relationship with previous characters in the series then tomb raider 5 is another good adition to the series. It has faily good puzzles too and good level design albiet not as good level design as tomb raider. Considering Tomb raider 4 is the best is the series you should realy consider Tomb raider 5 as an additional bonus and more bang for your buck. Lara has a updated 3D model in this game making her looking more realistic for the 32bit generation then in the previous Tomb raider games. She given a few new abilities like dive rolling whilst running and the ability to put half and half together to make a whole item to be used later on the game. this how puzzles in tomb raider were further advanced. Tomb raider 4 and 5 is not just about pulling levers and jumping platform to platform it much more then that. With DRM free you truely cannot go wrong. A must Purchase game in my opinion, espcially if you have not played it before as they simply do not make games like this anymore you owe it to yourself to try it out.

By the time the fourth Tomb Raider had rolled around, critics had started to tire of seeing the same old, same old. And though it is true that Lara's fourth outing wasn't drastically different from what had come before it, it is arguably the best of the classic Raiders. While the previous two instalments had replaced the puzzling and exploration of the original with action and gun play, The Last Revelation took the series right back to its roots with an isolated, Ancient Egyptian setting, its cryptic riddles and booby traps taking the place of thugs and speedboats. That's not to say the game doesn't have its action sequences (a rather memorable car chase and train journey spring to mind), but rather than being the main focus, they instead act as a staging area to break up the blocks of old-school adventuring. New additions such as Lara being able to hop back-and-forwards between levels is also a nice touch, allowing a sense of depth and exploration more akin to a modern open-world game. The sprawling levels are also more cleanly designed than the abstract confusion that tended to plague Tomb Raider 3, with some lavish environments and graphical effects that still hold out well to this day. As for Chronicles... well, it's not that it's actually a bad game, far from it, it's just that it's a bit short. Split into four separate chapters, each one with its own distinctive setting and style, there is a nice mix of different gameplay elements, from stealth and action, to puzzling, platforming and exploration. It won't last too long by itself, but on top of The Last Revelation, there's a good chunk of top-notch gaming here to enjoy. Overall, if you're a fan of any of the other classic Tomb Raiders, then you'll certainly enjoy these two. And if you've never played a Tomb Raider game before in your life, then it's as good a place as any to start, and you'll see why in the late '90s Lara Croft was at the top of her game.