Game, Seth and match.
Egypt, present day.
A woman makes her way through the Tomb of Seth accompanied by a silent man holding a burning torch.
When he moves quickly, something exciting’s going to happen - you’re free to feel it.
That’s just the way it is.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered review
Today - in therealpresent day - there is nothing special about this.
But inTomb Raider: The Last Revelation, I remember the impact of this scene.
I say I remember the impact anyway.
Because somehow, over the years, I started to forget about a lot of this.
Every few days it feels like something makes me think of thefirst Tomb RaiderorTomb Raider 2.
They are part of the permanent lens through which I see games in general.
But the Tomb of Seth?
I last played through this particular tomb on a holiday break in my final year of university.
All this has been sealed away under the earth and sand for two decades.
Now it’s free again.
That doesn’t matter as much as you may think.
Here are oddities, partial or total misfires, and games that were somewhat in danger of being forgotten.
The remastering itself continues to work complicated wonders.
There have been some tweaks, though.
The new graphics do a lovely job of updating each game while keeping them looking somewhat old.
It contains the definitive god rays and the definitive water.
I want to see that in its original form.
With that stuff out of the way, I can get onto what’s most interesting here.
How have these games aged?
I will always stick up for The Last Revelation.
I can still remember the excitement when it was first released.
The Last Revelation offers this again and again.
What if I set this room on fire?
What if I filled this one with sand?
What if I’m thinking about everything wrong?
It isn’t that bad, but it isn’t always that good either.
Take the opening levels, which I think dump you into Rome in the modern era.
You may see the sky overhead, but: tomb.
You may be collecting fuses and messing with old engines, but: TOMB.
This is wonderful because it makes the games really, really weird.
Rome is filled with alleyways that have dead ends and gardens that become labyrinths.
None of this is a criticism.
So that’squite good really, andokayishout of the way.
How doesfamously terriblehold up?
Warning: if you opt for the tank controls here, they are still truly terrible.
In short: The Angel of Darkness still feels awful to play.
But it is interesting, and much more of a departure than I remember.
No Tomb of Seth here.
Then I remembered when this game finally made it through development.
This was no longer the cinematic era of Indiana Jones, but the era of people like David Fincher.
The grim backstreets and the brooding Howard Shore-style score suddenly start to add up.
Oh, and semi-open environments where Lara engages people in conversation and picks through dialogue trees.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered accessibility options
Modern and tank control options.
Rebindable keys and controller options.
On/off toggles for boss health indicators, action indicators, and dashing and ducking.
Controller dead zone area and sensitivity parameters.
It’s a lot.
It’s an odd place to leave Lara.
And in certain moments, as is always the case with this series, they still shine.
A copy of Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered was provided for review by publisher Aspyr.
