Tomb Raider Games - My Ranking

This could be called the epithomen of Tomb Raider-ness. Many people would say it's too much, even. I'd say it's a perfect game. It added sprint, crawlspaces and mokey bars. And also a neat freezing bar when swimming in cold water.

So unique, clever and interesting, with a feeling of loneliness, challenging deliberate platforming and a badass main character.

It's not as much an expansion as TRIII was, but it does expand on TR1. It's just not so memorable IMO. It added vehicles and some levels set in modern locations.

Even though TRIII is probably bigger, it's TRIV that feels a little bit empty to me, probably they wanted to show their new graphics engine and made everything bigger and bigger. Still, one of the best TR games definitely. You can now shimmy around corners, climb poles, and jump on ropes. Also, there are hub levels now.

TR bonus levels. It uses the same textures of the base game, unlike Lost Artifact, but the levels are better designed and they feel more special.

TRIII bonus levels. It's good but lacks complexity.

A broken masterpiece, a game that faced a lot of difficulties during development. Still, it's not as bad as the press would led you believe. A lot of good ideas and not as dumbed down as what would come after it. Although it added unnecessary fluff like Lara getting stronger, dialogue options and NPCs to talk too.

The best defined (actual) Lara as character in a game. It's about her and the scenes are very well done. The locations, however, although having some interest, are really shallow and uninteresting, gameplay-wise. From the gameplay additions, pole swinging and the grapple gun are shallowly implemented and underused; and tightrope walking is lame. Angel of Darkness is the better game between the two. Chronicles is more finished overall, but its last level, Red Alert, is also really buggy.

TRII bonus levels

The second game in the first TR reboot ( PS2 trilogy, also called LAU trilogy, for the first letter on the games names) is a remake of the first TR. The gameplay is a watering down of the first game, but the levels have their ups and downs compared to the original, sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse.

This brought some new things to the table, but it also isn't that memorable.

The first game after the first reboot is a dumbing down on everything from prior games, and even then people call it an evolution. I say WTF!!! Still, the game is full of style and this iteration of Lara resembles her previous one enough for me to like her a lot. Still, controls are extremely watered down, level intricacy is mostly nonexistent, looks are too drab and Lara is a bit too emotional.

An isometric version of TR that works really well for what it is, and respects what TR is supposed to be all about.

This is not a big budget game, but it does really well what is set out to do.

I did not play this and I will not play this after the disappointment the two previous reboot games gave me.

The second game in the second reboot. It's better than the first game in the rebooted universe, but not enough to be called a good Tomb Raider game (I don't even consider it a Tomb Raider game), but it's a good game. "Lara", though, is even worse in this game, she's totally annoying.

Even more dumbed down than the 1st reboot, this second reboot is, when not in combat, barely a game. Combat is better than it ever was in this series, but I don't play TR for combat, as TR was never about that (and I prefer the previous combat systems, especially LAU's). The new Lara is not Lara at all, but a bland and boring character. And tomb-like areas are optional and very simplistic while combat happens all the time. To finish it off, looks are still extremely drab.

A DVD game.

Comics from Top Cow.

Angelina Jolie is Lara Croft.

Comics from Dark Horse.