Here are the best places to start with Tomb Raider if you’re new to the game.
It’s not a secret that Tomb Raider changed a type of game. Before adventure games like Uncharted and Lost Horizon, Lara Croft was exploring tombs and stealing treasures. It’s hard to imagine any adventure game from the last 30 years without a touch of Tomb Raider.
Amazon just announced that it will publish the next Tomb Raider game. Many players who are new to the series aren’t sure how to play this game. This article looks back at the best parts of a show that has been on for almost 30 years.
Tomb Raider
Released: 1996
Formats: PC, PS1, Android, Sega Saturn, iOS, N-Gage
There are a lot of great games in the series, but none of them are as important as the first one from 1996. When it came out, Tomb Raider was the only game that let you solve puzzles and shoot in a 3D environment. The game has held up well over time, and its main ideas are still used in many new games.
In the story, a mercenary talks to Lara Croft and hires her to find a mysterious artifact buried in the mountains of Peru. Tomb Raider was a good enough game to start a series that now includes more than a dozen games and a movie. Tomb Raider had a fun setting and easy-to-use controls, but Lara Croft also made many gamers in the 1990s fall in love with the game.
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Released: 2015
Formats: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Mac
Rise of the Tomb Raider takes a lot of ideas from the reboot of the series in 2013. It gives the player more freedom and room to grow than ever before in the series. There are also set pieces that are on par with those in Uncharted, which at this point in the series seemed to have surpassed the Tomb Raider games in terms of gameplay. After the events of Tomb Raider (2013), which took place a year ago, Lara Croft is still having trouble with PTSD. Lara goes on an expedition to the Forgotten Cities, which are in the northwestern part of Syria.
Even though this game is a sequel to the one that came out in 2013, it goes deeper into the character and has better graphics, more crafting, and fun gameplay.
Tomb Raider 2
Released: 1997
Formats: PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS
Most people who have played this game will remember the training sequence where Lara can lock her old butler in a walk-in freezer. Tomb Raider 2 was a highly praised sequel to the first Tomb Raider game. It added to the first game’s exciting gameplay while keeping all of the same great parts. In Tomb Raider 2, Lara is looking for the Dagger of Xian, which once belonged to the Emperor of China and has the power to turn the person who uses it into a dragon.
In this game, you can ride a jet ski and other vehicles, which was a very new idea in 1997. Because of this, the world in Tomb Raider 2 feels much more real. This game is a must-play if you want to see what kind of trouble Lara was getting into before the movie and the massive reboot.
Tomb Raider (2013)
Released: 2013
Formats: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
After a time when there were no new Tomb Raider games, this reboot got the series going again. This reboot, which took some ideas from Uncharted, helped move Tomb Raider into the future. The game shows how Lara came to be. You will go on an amazing journey with Lara, starting with her first treasure hunt on the ship Endurance.
The reboot is one of the best games in the Tomb Raider series. It is a gritty, dark, open-world adventure with easy platforming and fun shootouts.
Lara Croft Go
Released: 2015
Platforms: PS4, iOS, PC, PS Vita
Lara Craft Go was a new take on the Tomb Raider series. Its control scheme was similar to Hitman, which was made by the same company. Lara Croft Go is a strategy game, not a puzzle or an adventure game. In this game, Lara goes deep into the Amazon Jungle to find a lost civilization. Along the way, she meets enemies, falls into traps, and hears about the story of the Atlas of Beyond.
Multiple games with this style of gameplay probably wouldn’t have done well, but Lara Croft Go is a great one-time experience that will stick with players who like to plan out their moves.
Tomb Raider: Legend
Released: 2006
Formats: PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, Game Cube
The Tomb Raider series got a new start in the 2010s, and Legend was a big part of that. After the last Tomb Raider game wasn’t very good, this one helped remind people how good the series could be. Legend starts with Lara going to Tiwanaku, a city that has been abandoned for a long time. The story quickly shifts to Lara’s search for Excalibur, a legendary sword. Puzzle-solving and platforming are back as the main parts of the game.
This is the game you want to play if you want to see how the first few Tomb Raider games fit in with the reboot that came later.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
Released: 2018
Formats: PC, Mac, Xbox One, PS4, Stadia
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a beautiful and well-made game, but it lacks the great quotes and emotional feel of some of the early Tomb Raider games. This game takes place a few months after Rise of the Tomb Raider. Lara still has to fight Trinity. Lara also goes through both North and South America to get to the lost Incan city of Paititi. Along the way, she fights bears, jaguars, and other animals.
The worst part of this game is the story. You’ll keep playing anyway because the graphics are so good and the controls are so easy to use.
Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light
Released: 2010
Formats: Xbox 360, PS 3, PC, iOS, Stadia
Guardian of Light is different from most other games because the camera looks down on Lara from above. The game has both puzzles to solve and action scenes to watch.
The battle between Totec, the Guardian of Light, and Xolotl, the Keeper of Darkness, is the main focus of the game. With the help of a smoke mirror, Totec’s army beats Xolotl. Lara finds out about this story in the present day and wants to find the mirror.
The story is probably the weakest part of this game, since most of the important things happen in the past instead of as things the player goes through. Guardian of Light feels the least like a Tomb Raider game because the story is weak and the camera is strange. Even so, the level design is interesting, and the game has many of the same action and platforming elements as other Tomb Raider games.
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Released: 2008
Formats: PC, Xbox 3 60, PS3, DS, Wii, PS2
After Anniversary and Legend, the best Tomb Raider game of this era was Underworld. This game was probably so popular because it has both classic Tomb Raider elements and new ways to play. Fans thought for a while that Lara Croft might be done after Underworld. Even so, Underworld is not a perfect game. Slope Game is hard to play, and the story doesn’t seem important.
The game takes place after Tomb Raider: Legend. In it, Lara is looking for her mother and the legendary lost land of Avalon. Even though it has some problems, Underworld is a fun adventure game that lets players explore as Lara and jump from platform to platform.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Released: 1999
Formats: Playstation, PC, Dreamcast
Most people remember Last Revelation as the game where Lara Croft almost died and a new main character joined the series. Even though The Last Revelation has a strange tone, it is still a fun adventure game. In The Last Revelation, Lara is a teen who goes to Egypt to look for treasure. The game has a new inventory system, better weapons, and puzzles that are harder to solve.
The Last Revelation doesn’t add much to the series, and it’s mostly puzzles and not much action.
