Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered was provided by Aspyr for review. Thank you!
When it comes to remastering great classic games, Aspyr has been really crushing it. Even with little hiccups here and there, the remasters they develop have been primarily improving the games, making them not only compatible with modern devices, but looking and feeling better as well. Last year, the team took it upon themselves to remaster the first three original Tomb Raider games, and now we have the next three original titles in Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered.
Originally released between 1999-2003, this package brings together Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel of Darkness together with overhauls to their visuals, a new modern control scheme, restored cut content, great quality-of-life improvements, an improved photo mode, and more. While these improvements do help a great deal, there are still some key issues that plague the games that could bring down the overall experience. However, despite these setbacks, Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is going to be the best way to play these original games and still have a great time.
The stories for each of the entries are solid and still enjoyable to play through. While The Last Revelation and Angel of Darkness follow Lara in the present day, Chronicles looks into parts of her past but still ties into the next entry in the series. The cutscenes, which are not upscaled and still look like they came right out of the original games, have a certain charm to them that helped rather than harmed. However, in-level cutscenes where you are talking with people can take much longer to get through, and it was long enough that I was starting to get a little impatient.
Graphically, each of the games in this remaster got a facelift, and it looks gorgeous. The Last Revelation and Chronicles saw the biggest improvements, with the game's textures, models, and lighting making it look like a completely new game, while The Angel of Darkness got some minor noticeable improvements across the board. With the press of a button, you can swap between the old and new graphical styles, making it easy not only to compare, but to appreciate the work that Aspyr has done to enhance the way we saw Lara and her ventures.
There may be some minor graphical hiccups here and there, and some models in the retro style versus the modern style can be proportionately different which sees Lara clip into some models, but it is mostly solid outside of that. I really like the facelift Aspyr gave to these titles overall, and having a way to switch between the two with an easy press of a button is a nice touch.
The gameplay improvements that come with this remaster do help its playability a lot, but it doesn't fix everything I would have liked to see. The biggest change comes with the new modern control scheme, which steps away from tank controls and allows you to move around freely while controlling the camera simultaneously. It's the standard for what you'd see in other third-person games like this, and I ultimately thought it would be more enjoyable to play this way. However, it's clear that the games were designed for more precise controls, and the modern style just doesn't cut it. The tank controls, while a bit jank, are a better fit.
Yet, it was still a bit painful to play. The games, by design, have Lara moving a bit slower overall. Turning, climbing, crawling, and shimmying on ledges take longer than I would like, and some patience will be required to get through the levels, similar to the aforementioned in-level cutscenes. The general gameplay elements are quite solid, and the puzzles and combat can be a good time, but with the weird feeling with the controls, it doesn't feel as good as it could.
For better or worse, the games retain many of the charm and nuisances from their original releases. Despite some quality-of-life improvements, including an admittedly cumbersome shortcut to change weapons, the gameplay still doesn’t feel up to par with modern counterparts. For those reliving the fond memories of playing the original games, this will be a great way to re-experience it. But for newcomers, it will be much tougher to dive into without some patience for early modern mechanics that developers toyed with before getting to the standard we see today.
Usually, I play games through and tend not to use tools like Photo Mode, but Tomb Raider may have converted me. Not only am I able to take photos here, but the new fly-by camera can create moving cinematic shots, and it’s just a joy to play around with. It's very easy to use and looks extremely fluid to create different shots. The Angel of Darkness doesn’t have this fly-by mode, which I was surprised by, but at least it still has a photo mode. Luckily, each game allows you to change Lara's pose, facial expression, outfit, and weapon she is holding.
When all is said and done, Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered feels like the definitive versions of these three games. The good and bad that were included in the original releases still feel prominent here, but the small quality-of-life fixes and excellent photo mode make it significantly more bearable and fun for newcomers. And it is a great game to play on the Steam Deck.
One thing Aspyr has been wonderful with is optimizing their remasters to make sure they run extremely well on the Steam Deck, and Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered keeps the trend going. Without any changes, the game runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck, hitting around 6W - 8W at 90 FPS. But there is one outlier.
The only oddity is The Angel of Darkness. The game caps at 60 FPS, so you can't run it at 90 on the OLED, and if you keep it at 90, the game will be slightly stuttery and drain at around 10W - 11W. If you set the refresh rate to 60, the drain will dip down to the 6W - 8W range of the others. So, I recommend just keeping the entire game at 60 FPS/Hz for stability across all three titles. Otherwise, nothing else needs to be changed:
For the most part, each of the three games all have the same settings. You can goggle Boss HP bars, camera invert, vibration, set dead zone and sensitivity, quicksaves and ammo counter, change keybindings, and audio sliders.
All three games included support 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars. We also have solid controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.
Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is a fantastic remaster of some of the classic Tomb Raider titles that makes them as playable as possible. Aspyr's enhancements have made these titles much better looking and easier to enjoy, with great new features like the wonderful photo mode and fly-by camera for cinematic shots. The original games do have some quality-of-life features to make them more playable, but there are still some issues with controls and speed that still keep them feeling more like a slog for newcomers. Still, this is easily the best way to enjoy the games currently, and they can be a ton of fun if you have the patience.
They all run especially well on the Steam Deck too. The Last Revelation and Chronicles run better than The Angel of Darkness, but they're all a joy to play on the go with solid battery life and an easy 60 or 90 FPS.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is a great showing from Aspyr that makes this the best way to experience the classic Tomb Raider games, and they are great on Steam Deck.
