Tomb Raider Chronicles: Remastered - PS4
Completed July 30th
Because of the event of Tomb Raider 4 (The Last Revelation) Tomb Raider 5: Chronicles feels like an anthology of small adventures that Lara Croft took place in her past, but never had there own dedicated games.
Rome
The first section takes place in Rome and feels like it a nod to the first Tomb Raider - even foes from the original game Larson and Pierre appear in the adventure and part of the main theme of the first game plays also plays during the Rome section and the dedicated title screen portion.
It is only 3 levels long, but is interesting enough and probably my favourite section of Chronicles. There are a number of memorable bosses that are quite close together which would probably have been better if they had been paced out over more levels.
I wish this section could have been longer as Rome is a great setting for a Tomb Raider adventure.
Overall, I give this section a 7 out of 10.
Russia
The 2nd section takes place in a Russian military complex and a submarine. The 2nd section resembles levels such as Area 51 Complex from Tomb Raider III and the Oil Rig level from Tomb Raider II.
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| Time for dinner |
There are 4 levels in this section - 1 is very short and another level is a revisit of a previous level, so essentially it is only 2 levels. The Russia section starts off well, but the submarine level feels a little too maze like.
Overall, I give this section a 6 out of 10.
Ireland
The 3rd section takes place in Ireland and seems too take inspiration from Irish folklore. You play as young Lara in the Ireland section and in an interesting concept in all 3 levels is there is no weapon combat and more of a focus on puzzle platforming and exploration.
When I played the Ireland section originally when the game was released on the PlayStation 1 console I remember not enjoying it that much. I do not think I played the Ireland levels more than once originally and having played the remastered version I felt that I actually enjoyed the section more that I did in the past.
Overall, I give this section a 7 out of 10.
America
The final section takes place in a building headquarters in America. When I originally played the American portion I thought that it had the most un-Tomb Raider like levels I had played in a Tomb Raider game, Lara felt more like she had been cast into a spy movie rather than on a journey to hunt ancient artefacts.
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| Sneaky Lara |
It was strange as Lara was no longer completely alone on her adventure, but she had a person in her earpiece helping out on her adventure - this was the debut of Zip who was brought along as a character when Tomb Raider's future development was handed over from the original British developers to American developers.
The American section of Chronicles felt like the developers wanted to create a spy based game and it also just gave me Matrix vibes - I mean the Matrix film was released just a year (1999) before the Chronicles, (2000) so the film was probably prominent in the developers minds.
It would be fitting if the last section of Chronicles was influenced by the Matrix as the original Tomb Raider had some inspiration in the first Matrix film - in the movie the characters infiltrate a building through an elevator shaft the same way Lara infiltrates Natla's headquarters in a cut scene.
It seems like the final section of the game wants to be a stealth adventure. The section plays fine, but I would rather be platforming and exploring an ancient tomb or temple (something that the previous Tomb Raider games excelled at) - this section is not quite as enjoyable as a stealth game that came out 2 years prior called Metal Gear Solid.
It is an interesting challenge in that you do not have the infinite pistols and only one weapon available, but I would have preferred more platforming puzzles than stealth - and I say that as a fan of stealth games such as Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell.
Overall, I give this section a 6 out of 10.
Summary
Overall Chronicles feels like a side game, or in modern terms a DLC for The Last Revelation (almost like a release to keep people satisfied while they waited for Tomb Raider to be released on the next generation of consoles!
It is quite a little bit shorter than previous outings as well. The previous Tomb Raider (The Last Revelation) took me nearly 20 hours to complete and was a satisfying epic memorable adventure. Chronicles I completed in around only 7 hours, which is probably the shortest time I have spent on the classic Tomb Raider games.
Tomb Raider: Chronicles is an okay adventure, but rather disappointing compared to the previous 4 titles, which I would say are all time classics.