Exactly one year after the rerelease of the three original Tomb Raider games with Tomb Raider I – III Remastered comes the darker half of the original Lara Croft games that I am playing for the first time: Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered.
My first experience with the Tomb Raider franchise came with the reboot in 2013, and I must say, I enjoyed the grittier sort of more realistic storylines of these newer titles, as well as the more realistic character design of Lara (apologies if you like the older design).
Now, it is my job to review the latter half of the original games, which people have told me was when the series started to decline. In this review, I won’t be discussing each of the pros and cons of each game as I feel they play incredibly similarly. I will be discussing here how I feel they have been remastered and whether I think it is a value-for-money package or if you should dust off your old systems to enjoy the original titles.
But first, I just wanted to get this out there about each game and all the individual stories they tell.
These games are truly a joy to explore and find every little detail within each of the worlds, and due to the fact you’re getting three games here, you get such a multitude of worlds and environments to explore. If you haven’t experienced these games before, I would give them a go on whatever system you have access to.
Graphics
I will say for games that came out about a quarter of a century ago, they have been redone to give that retro feeling but also some modern vibrancy. For example, when exploring Egypt, the hieroglyphics are sharper than they ever have been, and you won’t see many iffy textures when examining them in more detail.
Of course, they do not look even remotely close to what modern games do, but if you came into this remaster thinking they would look like current-gen games, then you are a little naive. If you want to see what came before, you can flick between the remastered and non-remastered graphical modes at a whim, like any good remaster, and you can also analyse the differences between the originals and the modern takes through the returning photo mode.
Given that I have checked out Aspyr’s efforts at remastering the ancient Star Wars titles (including Star Wars: Bounty Hunter), this trilogy does feel similar to the job they did with those titles. I will say the biggest benefit of the modern offering is that everything just loads instantly, which simply comes from the power of the PS5.
Gameplay
Again, this is slightly tricky to review as each game really does have its own merits and pitfalls. As you would expect, these games were designed with tank controls, and it does show.
The combat is quite clunky, and the different weapons you get to use are quite underwhelming, but as I have said throughout this review, I am comparing these games to something that I would boot up on my PS5 (especially given the fact I am playing The Last of Us Part II ahead of season two of the tv show). The weapons and combat in these older Tomb Raider titles has definitely come a long way in 25 years.
The clunky controls also tend to make the exploration a bit tricky and, at times, cumbersome, and it reminds me of early Assassin’s Creed titles when you would jump and land in areas that you just didn’t intend on reaching. However, I cut these games some slack as I know the developers wouldn’t just rip up the manual and start again. While the modern tweaks do make a bit of a difference, I wouldn’t go overboard and say they revolutionise what has come before.
Conclusion
Tomb Raider IV – VI Remastered is a collection of the great, the so-so, and the very “meh” eras of Tomb Raider. I would say that you should start with last year’s trilogy before you pick up this bargain trilogy so you can really understand the journey that these games have been on before the reboot in the 2010s.
At the price point, I can’t really say that it is not worth it, but it is a very old-fashioned style of game, and I think modern gamers will lose their rags very quickly.
Developer: Aspyr/Crystal Dynamics/Core Design
Publisher: Aspyr
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: 14th February 2025
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Tomb Raider IV – VI Remastered was provided by the publisher.
