Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation (1999) (2012)

Another entry in the classic yearly Lara's games. TR4 is the game that went back to the roots. Even when the engine is still the same old one with improvements, the game feels like a totally different one since the start. The atmosphere, ligthning, puzzles, traps, they really went with what one would expect from a Tomb Raider. Gone is Lara's home, in its place there's a new tutorial level that finds a 16 year old Lara following the steps of his mentor: Werner Von Croy. It's not that good, Werner will keep on interrupting the flow with very obvious controls, and avoid explaining some new moves that are required much later in the game. The game then moves to Egypt and will stay there for the rest of the game. This is probably the longest game in the saga, with a grand total of 35 levels. Mind that some are very short, but it's still a juggernaut. For the first time, there's now hub levels and continuity between levels. Lara will have to get back to previous maps to use an item and access even more levels. This works pretty well for the first half of the game. As usual, there are new moves to help you reach the end. The worst new move is swinging on ropes, specially when y…

I give it a thumbs up for Nostalgia points. Unfortunately the porting is not so good at all. The controls are very sluggish and really horrible bound.

i will not be recommending this. even though i thought it was super cool at first, thee problems i am running into are not worth it. first, i will say, the game graphically has a little improvement, but the biggest is how lara is actually modeled. she no longer has sticks connected together, nor a diaper butt. instead she is actually modeled and blended most of the way and it is awesome to see. areas are super unique and interesting and it is really cool to see in game cutscenes with actual moving mouths. i have to say that this feels like the actual sequel to the first game with how much improvement there is. there is actually a good amount of music and it sounds good, as well as a lot of ambience that isn't the same reused heartbeat for the last 3 games. gameplay sees some more improvement here, with being able to have more agile movement, and skipping a bit of crawling, but you can't exit crawl spaces without turning all the way around which still hurts. lara moves into place, and i feel this allows you to pick things up while being less precise. but there are still some things that are so incredibly picky with where you stand, you won't know you are doing it wrong unti…

The music is superb, Lara is on fire, you get to play Senet and the music is extremely atmospheric. 10/10 will be playing until death

Lara's most underappreciated adventure if you ask me. Not as worldly as prior games, but is still a top tier Tomb Raider.

Like the other PS1-era Tomb Raider games before it, it runs like ♥♥♥♥ and is borderline unplayable in this state on a modern PC.