''UNEARTHED MEMORIES''
Developed: Aspyr
Published: Aspyr
Genre: Platformer/Adventure
Release Date: Feb 14th,2025
Platforms: PC/PS5/Xbox Family/Switch
Review copy provided to me by Aspyr
Tomb Raider IV - VI is remaster of the original games and theyre developed and published by Aspyr. With Tomb Raider I-III being a success with giving fans of the franchise, like myself, a chance to re-live nostalgic memories, Aspyr its time to do it with the rest of the titles once helmed by Core Design. But were these the right titles to bring back into the mix or was this remaster a mishap? Only one when to find out, so lets raid!
''IM GUNNING FOR YA''
GAMEPLAY:
Were back again with another compilation for the Tomb Raider series, this time dealing with entries 4, 5 and 6, with two of the entries being the weaker of the trilogy if were being honest... but even so, as a huge Tomb Raider fan since the series beginnings, I much prefer the CORE Design games over modernization of the recent trilogy, which... annoys me to no end, but thats a story for another day. Heck even Crystal Dynamics titles of Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary and Underworld were good times for me, but again... way off topic because my thoughts and retrospective could be a 40 min video itself... hmmm possible video idea incoming? we will see. Here in this compilation we have Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, which I liked playing on the Dreamcast, then Tomb Raider Chronicles which was only made because fans were pissed off that they ''killed off'' Lara to begin with and then finally the bug riddled Angel Of Darkness that was pushed out before Core design could even finish it, which ultimately ended their studio. As you begin your journey through these titles through Lara's younger years in The Last Revelation, who is mentored by great Werner Von Croy, you of course, ultimately get betrayed in the end, which by being trapped inside a collapsed tomb and pyramid for all eternity, which of course made all of us Tomb Raider fans livid because, our girl has literally fought terrorists, shes fight dinosaurs and even locked our butler in the freezer, like how can a simple collapse stop her. Huh? oh well uhh... just look past the locking the butler freezer comment, you saw nothing. Following the events of that title, the next entry into the compilation is Chronicles, which is the ''uh oh. we screwed up entry'' into the series by retconning the last revelations ending and starting this one off with her funeral and an anthology of sorts based off her past adventures that is shared among the people at her funeral, before finally arriving at the full reveal of angel of darkness and her triumphet return to the scene on Playstation 2. Well.. calling AOD a triumph and ''return'' itself is pretty contradictory since the game was broken so badly that it went the franchise into a hiatus for many years before developer were changed to Crystal Dynamics for them to take their shot at coming up with new and fresh ideas. Which... yeah... ill hold my tongue on that one once again.
I know Core Design has gotten a lot of flack over the years for nearly killing the franchise due to the shortcomings of both Chronicles and AOD, but honestly, I felt Core Design games showed more of WHO Lara actually was, what she is capable of, and why we grew to love the character in a time when ''strong female leads'' in the industry were still getting their foot into the door alongside icons like Samus, Chun Li, Tifa Lockhart and the like. Much like those examples proved, you can be a bad ass, kick butt and look good doing it without throwing ''hey guys my name is Mary Sue and I can do everything the best'' like we have now inserted into our games, which is what modern Tomb Raider feels like to me, a large case of identity crisis where developers dont want to make her sexy as previous iterations due to offending someone or dont want her to raid tombs anymore as that is an insult and culture appropriation, which.. sadly this is actually written into one of the newer endeavors of the franchise with Tomb Raider Shadows Of Truth which literally says she will longer raid tombs as she has to escape her colonial past. Yikes, barf me, but this goes back to what I said before, even with the shortcomings, Core design has managed to showcase Lara's best moments and refining new gameplay elements with every entry they made, good or bad, they understood the character and try to keep things fresh without making Lara lose her identity of why people got interested in the series itself, the tomb raiding, dual pistol gunplay and the adventure. But here we are many years later, the IP hanging on with life support by not only going through a reboot after AOD with Tomb Raider Legend, but once again being rebooted after Underworld two games later with just plain ol TOMB RAIDER, which the entire trilogy gave us whiny whimpering Lara, gave us hunger games, the Temu version and completely wiped out the Tomb aspect of the series by ''compensating'' with small puzzle dungeons, as if thats what we wanted. But with all that BS fed to us, now Aspyr comes to cleanse our pallets to try to give us at least some sort of nostalgia trip to the days when Lara Croft was actually, you know... Lara Croft.. and for the most part, they succeeded once again, just as they did with the previous 3 game remasters, complete with fixing some of the controls to be more modernized, visual toggles to experience old and new, and new additional content like Tomb Raider The Times which is a fun little side mission to partake in.
Funny enough, the one title in this compilation that stands out the most from revelations and chronicles is actually one of the worst rated titles in the original 6 games with angel of darkness. In this version of the game, its seen a really good graphical update alongside restored content like items, voice lines and even the controls for the title, notoriously known for how awful they were, have been slightly redeemed, making Laras movements this go around feel more natural than in its PS2 counterpart. Granted its not entirely fixed because its not a remake, simply a remaster, still though, you have to commend Aspyr for at least dumping water on the fire instead of gasoline, so that in itself is an improvement on AOD. However, we still dont like Kurtis, go away Kurtis, you Hot Topic Nathan Drake.
''STRIKE A POSE!''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, these remasters end up a lot of fun. Obviously they arent perfect with stiff controls here and there for older titles, but being able to explore Tombs again, solving puzzles, making hard platforming jumps, exploring europe to uncover conspiracies and mysteries, wanting revenge on those who betray you, exploring different environments around the world, it just felt great to be doing that once again, that is in stark contrast to recent titles that are all about cookie cutter ''survival'' and reminded me that there used to be such an adventurous spirit for this franchise, one that has been lost, buried and forgotten, just like Lara once was thought to be in the collapsed tombs on Last Revelation. So if you're looking to see what Lara's older adventures looked and felt like and ready for some true puzzle solving action, then I definitely recommend picking this one up or.. I'll lock you in the freezer too. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW
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