XBOX REVIEW | Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered

As you may already know, I’m a nostalgic guy. When these games dropped in my inbox. I was thinking why not. I played the first 3 games when they first came out. In fact, I still have them on PC. When they came out, they were mind-blowing, because of the fact that this was a real 3D game. I must say that the graphics have come a long way from the first game out in 1996 to 2025.

I’m not going to tell too much about the story, because this has already been done before. So this review will be spoiler-free

Know that:

· Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation, takes place in Egypt.

· Tomb Raider V: Chronicles take place all over the world, Italy, Russia, Ireland and New York of all places.

· Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness take place in Paris and Prague

and while you don’t NEED to play all the prior games, these do take place on a linear timeline and one game continues after the other, so if you play from 1-6, you’ll get the most out of it.

Things I liked!

• Graphics: I really enjoyed the new look. For some reason, I play with Dolby Vision with my LG C2, the darks were really dark!! I couldn’t find my way sometimes. Which is funny, because I have a terrible sense of direction in games anyway. But you felt emerged in the experience of not being able to see where you are going.
  
  Another thing I really liked was the possibility of changing between the old graphics and the remastered graphics. The only issue that I had, was that there was some stuttering while changing to the old graphics. But other than that, I have no complaints.
  
  I must say that the remastered graphics looked 200% better than the old graphics. I really enjoyed wandering about in the levels and just looking around and switching between the old and new graphics. The developers have made great improvements to the overall feel of the game and made it more modern. Great job guys!!
  
• Ambiance and music: The music is what I know from the older games. It hasn’t changed much. The background noises were getting on my nerves sometimes, because I was so frustrated that I got stuck or fell down for the millionth time. But when things are going smoothly, it really helps the ambience.

Mixed & disliked!

• Camera View: Yes, this is the same issue as all the previous ones. I would have liked that they improved on that, but this is not the case. So get ready to miss your jumps or fall down. A lot.

• Controls: Why oh why, are the controls so bad. First, I had no idea that I could switch from tank to modern controls and even then, I still struggled. The controls for this game are not up to standard for a remaster. When playing the tutorials, I needed to go check the control layout every time. Why not show on screen which button to press, this makes it much easier to learn the controls. Don’t just say press this button and leave you to figure it out.

• Game Saves: Get ready to save a lot, because if you don’t, you are back to square one. Also, the quick save; you have to manually use a button to save. Almost all modern games have a quick save point when you are finished with a part of the story or when you pass a certain point, but that’s not the case here. Not to mention how easy it is to accidentally overwrite your own quicksave at a bad time and locking yourself into replaying a large part of a level or even an entire level just to get “unstuck”.

CONCLUSION

Score: 64/100 – Alright, so, bottom line? If you are a nostalgia fan or a fan of the series, then revisiting these games will have some value to you. Nostalgia aside, seeing them with a fresh coat of paint was awesome. I loved these games back in the day. But all the pretty graphics in the world can’t hide the fact that these games feel…old. Like, really old. If you’re ready to wrestle with clunky controls and going from save point to another save point, then go for it. But if you’re expecting a modern experience? You might want to temper your expectations. It’s a nostalgic trip, alright, but one that’s definitely got some bumps in the road.