Tomb Raider I-III Remastered was a tough game to rate because the titles are considered to be classics. The graphical updates were excellent, and the changes to the control scheme made it a more bearable title for players who had never played the original incarnations. However, the games didn't conform so easily to these changes, and the lack of extras was disappointing to those who wanted more than a front end that tied together all of those titles. Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered addresses one of the complaints from the last game by adding the rest of the titles from the Core Design era of the franchise, but your mileage may vary when it comes to whether that was worth it.

For the most part, the basic gameplay elements that comprise a Tomb Raider game of the time have remained unchanged. Exploration plays a big part, as most of your time is spent roaming around the environment while escaping from traps and solving puzzles to open gates so you can explore while employing your litany of acrobatic moves. The puzzles usually involve flipping switches or pushing crates to manipulate pressure plates, and there are plenty of tricky ones to keep you busy. Combat is also present, and while you'll find some powerful guns along the way, you'll mostly rely on dual pistols, since they have infinite ammo. Combat is also an automatic thing; you simply hold out your guns and fire, and the game automatically aims for you.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is the fourth game in the series and the first one in this package. The story starts with a young Lara Croft accompanying her future mentor on his travels to a previously undiscovered tomb before having to leave him behind once a trap was triggered. After this flashback sequence, Lara reaches the tomb of Set, where she accidentally releases him and is charged with returning him to prison.

Considering how the first two sequels were annual releases at the time with little to no mechanical changes between them, one would assume that the same thing applies to this title, especially since it was released one year after the third game. The truth is that there are some changes that may initially seem small but become significant when viewed collectively. You can now combine some items to craft new things to solve puzzles. More surfaces are climbable, and you can even swing on vines. You can also round corners while you climb, which seems like a small thing but is invaluable in practice. The only change that can feel like a drag is the fact that some puzzles ask you to cover more ground before they can be solved. It makes sense as a way to make levels seem large, but it is annoying if you're wrestling with the controls.

When combined with the other gameplay mechanics that the game was already known for, those changes give the impression that the series is evolving. The problem is that there are some additions that make the game a bit worse than its predecessors. For example, the game now has a mandatory tutorial in the beginning, and it feels laborious since your guide moves slowly, fails to perform their actions in a timely manner, and has the game pause so often that it disrupts the normal flow of the game. This will unfortunately stick around for later titles, and it is just as annoying in those games.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles is the next game, and it's based on the events of The Last Revelation. Lara Croft is presumed dead. As her friends and colleagues gather in her mansion, they begin to recount some of the famous explorer's previous adventures.

Thanks to the premise of the story, the game has a chance to play around with how to tell bite-sized versions of the tale while focusing on different areas of the gameplay. For example, Rome follows the classic Tomb Raider blueprint while the submarine base in Russia focuses on combat. The execution is very hit-and-miss, as some levels feel right, and others feel like a chore. Overall, it works if you're a fan of the formula, but it is also a much shorter game compared to the other titles.

Finally, there's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, which is significant in that it is not only Core Design's last entry in the series but also the first appearance of the series on the PS2. The story takes a dark turn as Lara is accused of murdering her former mentor. On the run from the authorities, she uncovers a cult and a plot bigger than she had ever encountered before.

Much like The Last Revelation, The Angel of Darkness tries to add a few new mechanics with varying results. The game uses a dialogue system when talking to certain characters, but it never feels like any choices matter, since you'll always get what's needed to progress. There's a leveling up system for skills that improve through repetition, but it feels like unnecessary busywork. Oddly, the game arbitrarily locks you out from performing certain moves that Lara has always been able to do. The hand-to-hand combat is a nice idea, but the combos are lacking, and the stealth feels too sticky to be useful. The only mechanic that works is the presence of a second playable character, Kurtis Trent, who feels different enough from Lara to feel fresh.

The failure of the new mechanics further highlights some of the old things that Core held onto that make the game feel more archaic, despite the move to a newer console. The game still requires you to precisely hit objects at just the right angle before you can use them. The camera still likes to go cinematic at inopportune moments to look good while disorienting you and messing with your controls. Shooting still feels like an afterthought due to automatic aim and the fact that it takes too many bullets to kill an enemy. It feels like more of the same thing, and by this point, the formula has gone stale enough that it was difficult to muster any excitement for it.

Just like before, the biggest improvement are the controls. The original tank-style controls are still present, but the scheme is more akin to what you'd find in a modern action game. On a controller, that means the jump button is A. Pulling the left trigger causes you to pull out your guns, while the right trigger fires. The right analog stick controls a free-moving camera. It's intuitive enough that anyone who has ever played a third-person action game will immediately come to grips with it, but the option remains to remap every button for more granular control.

However, the improvement in the controls comes with the drawback of the game not being properly tuned to accommodate the new control scheme. You'll be unable to walk because you're running all the time. Your leaps will always be large, so you'll constantly miss the ledges you're trying to climb on. The portions where camera changes are constant mean that the controls will often cause you to go in the wrong direction. Some seemingly simple things, like climbing up pipes or boxes, will be more difficult since the game sometimes prompts you to do the wrong thing. The only improvement is that the levels are larger, so you won't get situations where the camera quickly jumps out of position. If you didn't come to grips with either the classic or modern controls in the first compilation, you'll get that same feeling in this title.

If you're expecting quality-of-life improvements, forget it. The game still has no autosaving feature, so unless you save often, expect to be rudely surprised when you die and realize that no continues exist, forcing you to reload the last saved game. There are no graphical options to change, aside from switching between the original and remastered styles. There are also no extras, which is disappointing considering the popularity of these titles, even if they aren't the most well-loved ones in the series.

Unlike the first collection, the graphical differences between the original and new modes aren't so stark. The new graphical style is in line with the games in the previous remastered trilogy. However, if you switch back to the original style in both The Last Revelation and Chronicles, the old texture work was actually quite good. Environments aren't as noisy as in the previous games, and while the lighting isn't up to snuff, it is a marked improvement over the initial three titles in the series.

Move on to The Angel of Darkness, and you'll see that the textures are pretty clean on the PS2 original, so the improvements are even smaller than before. One positive thing from the remastered package is that the graphical switch doesn't automatically mean a frame rate drop. You can activate it in the options if you wish, but there's little reason to do so. One negative from the collection is that the full-motion videos (FMVs) haven't gotten a good remastering. The original movies look fine, but the remastered versions are darker, which makes things look worse. As for the FMV formatting, the PlayStation originals go with 4:3, but The Angel of Darkness goes for 16:9.

Steam Deck users will find that the collection works very well on that device, just like the first compilation did. Each game shows up using the full 1280x800 resolution of the device, and while the FMV cut scenes are locked to 30fps, the main game hits a steady 60fps with no drops. When it comes to the battery life, you can squeeze out over six hours when playing either Chronicles or The Last Revelation, but The Angel of Darkness takes up more juice, causing you to get anywhere between four to five hours on a full charge, depending on where you're at.

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered takes a few steps forward and a few steps backward from the previous Remastered collection. The games are a little more open, so you won't get many camera issues, but the games still haven't been retuned to handle the mechanics of the modern controls. The frame rate issue when switching between graphical modes has been fixed, and there are a few new mechanics. Some previously cut content makes the games feel like there has been some evolution. The problem is that the games don't feel as good as the trio of titles that came before it. From a preservationist perspective, it's fine to have these titles in a more accessible form. If you have some nostalgia related to these titles, then you might get a kick out of replaying them with a modern lens. Those who are discovering these games for the first time will wonder what the fuss was all about.

Score: 5.0/10