Keiran McEwen
Keiran McEwenI’m glad everyone’s up to date on what is and isn’t Roman, so I don’t need to explain what IV, V, and VI are to Americans anymore. Continuing on from where Aspyr left off with the Tomb Raider remasters last year, we can once again jump, climb, and probably kill Lara in that poorly designed opener to The Angel of Darkness. This time (of course) we are focused on the original ending of Lara’s tale in The Last Revelation, the “quick, this still makes money” in Chronicles, and Core Design’s biggest mistake in changing the engine, giving it to a new team, and generally everything about The Angel of Darkness.
Back once again with the monkey-killing master, she dawns her John Lennon glasses, teal tank top, and long brown braid in all three adventures. The globe-trotting adventures of pointy Boobarella sees her adventure through a Dead Kennedys song, the Scottish highlands, and even the most magical place of all, the sewer system of Paris. To quote Jamie Tartt, “It’s just poopy.” Of all the Tomb Raider games, these three passed me by the fastest.
Changing from the common sense Croft Manor tutorial level, all three games in this release have first levels designed to hold your hand. Thank the baby Lara from The Last Revelation that Aspyr decided not only to put a fresh lick of paint on everything but also to fix that tutorial in Angel of Darkness. Too bad Angel of Darkness should only be preserved for you young people to ask, “Who in their right mind thought this was good?” Certainly not Tomb Raider fans, but people pressed on with the game that killed the series (and the studio) anyway. None of us really finished it though.
Little of what I’ve said so far is to be laid at the feet of Aspyr, which once again returned a fully modernized version of some older games without losing what they were. The trouble is, what they are is a product of their time. Unlike Tomb Raider I-III, The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel of Darkness aren’t classics, far from it. Spoiler for a game older than you or your children, but at the end of The Last Revelation, original developers Core Design “killed off” the titanically-chested tomb-raiding acrobat.
Only for then publisher Eidos Interactive to effectively say: “This is still making us money, we want another one.” So a studio tired, exhausted of ideas for the character, and generally at its wits’ end pumped out Chronicles. Scriptwriter Andy Sandham told Eurogamer: “We were effectively just doing that for a paycheck.” The game is essentially a hodgepodge of ideas slung together depicting Lara’s previous adventures. You know, because she’s dead. Kind of.
The Last Revelation isn’t terrible, but neither is it Tomb Raider III. It is pretty good aside from the shooting, something Tomb Raider is very rarely ever good at. While Chronicles suffers from a greater overreliance on guns to shoot Dobermans on the streets of Rome, you’ll be asking where in the Christ you have to go. The design of Chronicles suffers a lot, even with vague hints of nostalgia peering through the mist, you’re left retreading your steps looking for clues of where to go. Sometimes with direction that is about as pointed as that thing in your mum’s bedside drawer.
With a tiny improvement to The Angel of Darkness, you’ll still be screaming the name of lead designer Richard Morton. I believe he has been in witness protection ever since The Angel of Darkness’ release for fear of someone finding him after this and Rebellions’ Free Running. Tank controls are certainly preferable in the prior five games, but here you’re left in the past if you stick with them. The “Modern” controls aren’t great either, but by comparison, they work far better as The Angel of Darkness doesn’t work off a grid.
The first foray into the PS2 era, the messy design, poor controls, and too many ideas crammed into one feel like a massive departure from the series of Tomb Raider. From the double-denim dreariness of Paris to the fact your default gun (yes, singular) has ammo. Plenty can and should be said about leaving this one in the past. However, the reality is that this was probably the best experience you’ll get with The Angel of Darkness… after you work out the puzzle of reassembling your controller or opening your wallet to buy a new one.
With the young Lara having a holiday and Cambodia, the vast majority of The Last Revelation has the new plastic-faced woman herself becoming an Egyptologist. Eventually seeing her “death” come to be, not from your clumsy button presses or at the hands of zombie mummies. Instead she is crushed by an entire pyramid crumbling around her. Of the three on offer in this remaster, this is probably the one that’s most like Tomb Raider proper. The team behind it might have been tired, both from consecutive games and of the character. However, there is still some love for her.
The remaster of The Last Revelation is honestly sometimes dark and sometimes beautiful. Stumbling through King’s Valley’s “The Tomb of Seth” as a cloaked figure lights the way, swapping between original and modern graphics is like night and day. Much like the original trilogy’s remasters, some areas with the modern look can sometimes be a bit dark, but I honestly love that underground section with its use of shadows as well as light. It felt like a hint of nostalgia being sparked and it was truly wonderful.
Chronicles was less of a short-lived trip down memory lane. Escaping some chase or another and being attacked by Pepé Le Pew and Billy Bob Bumpkin, the level design might be less intuitive. However, once you get where you’re supposed to go it does click and you’ll blast through it rather easily. As a Tomb Raider game, you can feel the heart has gone out of it from a design perspective, which again isn’t the fault of Aspyr. I wouldn’t even blame Core Design too much, it was a publisher-mandated “we like money” thing. I guess what I’m saying is that it is rough but certainly not bad.
The design, despite being forced into “modern” settings such as the streets of Rome, still has a sense of a confined space that works like a Swiss watch. Alleyways and rooms with boxes to climb or push. You just need to figure out what makes it tick. It is just the fact that sometimes those ticks you hear might be echos, as you wander around the same spaces wondering where in the holy Roman hell the next key or puzzle piece is.
From a team disheartened by being forced to continue on to a game with more than just an identity crisis, it was a cry for help. The Angel of Darkness departs from the days of tombs and takes the known questionable artifact hunter on the search for some paintings through Paris. If I have to say something nice about France, I agree with James May: “France is a country that you have to drive through to get to Italy.” Or in this case, I guess to (then) the Czech Republic, now Czechia.
Starting development in 2000 as Chronicles also went into development, Core Design didn’t foresee that a new engine, new team, and a whole new direction (for the character and series) would take three years. Not only are levels designed with stealth to sneak around and a melee combat system on top of that, there is also a set of abilities she improves over time regarding doing basic tasks. At least that’s what I understood from it, quite frankly it was hit or miss when you’d see an improvement in strength or what it was exactly doing.
If this seems like it is already too much, there are also a couple of points throughout where you’ll get to stop and talk to people with very limited responses from a dialog tree. It is about that point most will start thinking, “is this really a Tomb Raider game?” No, it isn’t. However, there are earlier indications. Tank controls feel off, not just because The Angel of Darkness doesn’t work off of a grid system, but also the fact it was designed to be heavier and more sluggish. Modern controls amend some of those faults, but when polishing a turd the rag you are using does still get dirty.
Where that’s not enough, I think the starting gun problem will show the problem. Tomb Raider I-V has always featured two starting pistols with unlimited ammo, The Angel of Darkness (VI in this case) doesn’t. A single pistol with limited ammo. Even Tomb Raider: Legend got that right, with its less-than-important and generally useful combat in the first place. To say The Angel of Darkness was a misstep would be an understatement, it was dancing backward into a lion’s open mouth covered in tasty sauce.
Aspyr has done a great job preserving the history of the early series, and I’m hoping (though unlikely) to be here in another year’s time talking about the original Crystal Dynamics trilogy being remastered. Even if that did include a remake of Tomb Raider I. From the graphical uplift to The Last Revelation‘s additional level that was part of The Times newspaper’s celebration of Tutankhamun’s tomb being discovered, and is as weird as it sounds. I’m honestly surprised that a studio based in Texas managed to keep the picture of The Krankies and Paul Daniels in there.
That’s probably the biggest takeaway from this set of remasters. Despite dodgy original controls, a bit of disheartened design, and maybe a hint of the passion showing through from Core Design’s original creation, Aspyr has done its best to give some games (that maybe do or don’t deserve some love) the thing they need be at least playable more than two decades on. I’ll wait while those of us older than dust go puke at that thought. The graphical uplift for The Angel of Darkness might not be much, but at least the controls are better.
The Last Revelation and Chronicles needed more love from a graphical standpoint, but depending on your want for brightness or nostalgia, you have everything you need from them. The one fault I have between these two and The Angel of Darkness is the volume: The first two are rather quiet at the best of times, but after turning up the volume and later switching to The Angel of Darkness, I’m practically deaf. The audio balance is terrible.
Ultimately, despite Core Design’s run of Tomb Raiders coming to an end, Aspyr’s remasters here are everything a remaster should be. Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered continues where the series left off, for good or bad, with a new face-lift and in one case improved controls. For fans of the series during this era, it is a beautiful love letter to this age of gaming. To those who are too young to have played them around this time or in the following years, there will be a lot of questions about why certain things were done or why The Angel of Darkness was ever released.
A PC review copy of Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered was provided by Aspyr for this review.
Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.
Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!
87 Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered
$29.99
Pros
- Two more of what Tomb Raider was in the late '90s/early '00s.
- Aspyr showing love and care for two classics.
- Photo mode is still a delightful addition.
Cons
- The Angel of Darkness is still a buggy, unresponsive mess as it always has been.
- The audio balance between the three can sometimes be a bit iffy.
