It’s a good time to be Lara Croft. Even though the next official Tomb Raider game is nowhere to be seen, she’s getting plenty of exposure lately otherwise: her new animated series just premiered on Netflix, there’s a live-action series directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the works at Amazon, all her games are on sale this week, AND the original three have been faithfully remade thanks to Crystal Dynamics and developer Aspyr.
In fact, the remakes must have sold very well, because we’re getting a second set. Crystal D announced Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered this morning. It’ll rebuild what were the next three games in TR history: The Last Revelation, Chronicles and The Angel Of Darkness.
This news is a bit surprising. Yes, 1-3 did well, but they’re 1-3. 4-6 have long been considered the low point in the Tomb Raider series, with 6 (Angel of Darkness) being the worst. And for the answers why, here’s a bit of history…
As the Playstation 1 era was wrapping up, its original developers at Core Design had become tomb factories, churning out one TR every year whether they had ideas or not. Starting with Last Revelation, the games became noticeably repetitive, and still utilized the tank control system even though just about everyone else in the business had switched to more natural game controls.
The story in these is also kind of a mess: for whatever reason, Core Design decided to kill off Lara at the end of Last Revelation. Chronicles stuck to that story and took place in flashback, with each area being a separate adventure from Lara’s past. When Angel of Darkness appeared on the PS2….forget all that, she’s alive.
Angel of Darkness was Core’s last chance to remain Tomb Raider’s developer. After many, many delays, a bug-filled incoherent mess presented itself in 2003. They were all fired and Crystal D took full control of the series from that point, releasing the much better received Tomb Raider Legend in 2006.
Suffice it to say, these games will need a lot of cleanup to be any good, especially twenty-plus years later. Since Aspyr added cosmetic improvements like modern non-tank controls to 1-3, it’s reasonable to expect they will try to improve 4-6 as well…but it’ll be a tougher job. If it were me, I would’ve skipped ahead to 7-9. This is a brave move…let’s see if it pays off.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered will be available on all modern consoles and the PC February 14, 2025.
The post Tomb Raider 4-6 Will Be Remastered Just Like 1-3 Were appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
