Aspyr has announced that they’re continuing their tomb raiding by following up with Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered. It’s coming to PC and consoles on February 5, 2025.
If you can’t even remember a Tomb Raider IV, V, or VI, that’s probably because they dropped the numerals after the third game. So what we’re actually talking about is The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and much-maligned The Angel of Darkness. These were the last of the original chronology (and Core Design’s contributions to the series), as the followup to 2003’s The Angel of Darkness was 2006’s Tomb Raider Legends, a reboot of the series.
It’s an interesting trilogy of games, because Core Design had gotten tired of making a new Tomb Raider every year. So, in The Last Revelation, they tried to kill off the character, but Eidos wasn’t just going to let it go. Chronicles was told in flashbacks, but with The Angel of Darkness, she was just alive again. Apparently, there was going to be an explanation for this, but it was among the many, many things cut in its extremely rushed development. That’s not to say this is the dregs. IV and V are decent games, and it’s just Angel of Darkness that can be painful to play.
The important thing about another remaster trilogy is that they will have covered all of Core Design’s Tomb Raider games. After Angel of Darkness, it was moved to Crystal Dynamics who rebooted it with Legends. They would later be bought by Rebellion before being shut down in 2010.
As for the remasters, Aspyr touts that they’ll be providing “each remastered with improved visuals, modern control options, photo mode, trophies and achievements, and more.” I’m assuming it will be a lot like Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which apparently turned out pretty well according to Destructoid’s Tiago “Turnstile” Manuel. He did a solid write-up of it around its release, which I found convincing enough that I bought it. Still haven’t played it, but I refuse to uninstall it. One day.
Aspyr has established itself as a remaster house, largely focusing on the Star Wars series. While their output quality has been all over the map, I see a lot of value in the fact that they’ll take on games of questionable reputation, like the upcoming Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles remaster.
Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is coming to Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 5, 2025.
