Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

By Skinny Minnie
August 2001

Ahh, Tomb Raider 4—it was the first-ever game that broke me out of the "strictly adventure" genre and into action/adventures. I never thought I would get out of the first level! Lara seemed so hard to control in this nonlinear, free-roaming 3D world that I actually bought a gamepad just for this game (Logitech's Wingman Extreme, which works great). All of the keyboard commands like jump, roll, move in different directions, look, duck, crawl, flip, draw weapon, fire, access inventory, use, walk, and sidestep, never mind the swimming and vehicle driving, just got too confusing in the heat of the gaming moment! It was much easier accessing the gamepad's condensed area of little buttons than it was trying to program some keyboard commands that were intuitive to me!

Often imitated but never replicated, Lara Croft is the most graceful 3D character you'll ever move. Unflinching in the face of danger, our heroine's focus never wavers from the ancient artifact collecting at hand.

As the game begins, Lara, daughter of a wealthy English aristocrat, sets out across Asia at age 16 as an assistant to the world-renowned archaeologist, Professor Werner Von Croy. Von Croy is in pursuit of a famous Egyptian gemstone called the Iris. This first level also functions as the gamer's training level—Von Croy instructs Lara on basic jumping, climbing, swimming, rope-swinging, puzzle-solving, and artifact-collecting techniques. Besides getting comfortable moving the young, weaponless Lara around, you will attempt to collect eight golden skulls in hidden areas. This level then culminates in a test of Lara's newfound abilities: a race against Von Croy to the Iris itself. If you find all eight skulls, the path is more difficult than if you do not. Either way, Lara ultimately refuses to steal the gem, as ancient hieroglyphics on a nearby stone slab threaten torture and entombment should the Iris be disturbed. Von Croy brushes the warning aside, ultimately triggering a collapse of the tomb from which Lara barely escapes with her life. Von Croy is not so lucky ...

After some incredible-looking cut scenes, we find a now-adult Lara in a windswept desert of present-day Egypt. She cannot pause for formal introductions, though, as she is too busy trying to keep alive in a sudden landslide that spirals her downwards into the depths of the Tomb of Seth. This little mishap actually occurs because the ever-curious, lever-happy Lara triggers its opening right beneath herself by accident! Coincidentally, Lara's present tomb-raiding expedition brings her back to the area where her former mentor disappeared all those years ago. As the story progresses, Lara's as-per-usual quest of gathering all that is the rage in ancient artifacts brings her up against her now-grudge holding enemy, Von Croy, who eventually managed to escape the Iris's trap but is still ticked off that Lara left him dangling from that sharp precipice way back when ... Hey—she tried to warn him! That's gratitude for you, I guess.

Von Croy actually has his own agenda in the tombs; he is after some sacred armor worn by a mummified ancient Egyptian god named Horus. Lara does put her usual tomb raiding on hold to try and thwart his efforts, as disturbing the relics is said to bring about plagues and horrors in response. It is actually Lara who winds up causing all hell to break loose, though, midway through the game, when she mistakenly rouses a long-dead evil god, Set, by taking a priceless amulet from Set's tomb. You will then spend the rest of the game wildly attempting to right the wrongs, prevent fires and floods, and lift the curse that ominously darkens the skies ...

As for the beginning, though, when you first begin to control the adult Lara, you will spot glowing inventory items lying about, some out in the open and some hidden in cubbies and corners. The venerable shotgun is the first weapon Lara finds, adding some variance to her default dual-pistols scenario; trust that more weapons will follow. MediPaks to increase her health will also come in handy as mummies, spirits, and ancient guardians try to debunk Lara's spelunking, so be sure to pick those up as well. As you play through this game, be sure to climb up on to all ledges, pull up into all cubbyholes, and follow all paths, as there is never a dead end in Tomb Raider. All points lead to treasures, puzzles, inventory items, traps, or troublesome otherworldly enemies, but never is there a road to nowhere!

Action abounds in every level. I think I was in the fourth level before I worked up the nerve to have Lara actually fire a weapon, though; before that, I just ran away from all enemies, and missed a lot of "goodies" and inventory items in the process!

Although the TR game engine is dated and blocky visually because it's ported for Playstation, the levels in TR4 are nonetheless quite vast, vividly colorful, and even breathtaking at times. The visual feel of this game is uplifting and poetic. It is rarely dark, dreary, or end-of-the-worldish. I have always been a sucker for ancient Egypt, and ever since playing this game I have gravitated toward other games with this same setting as well.

The music is in sharp contrast to the surprises-around-every-corner gameplay; its synthesized score is creative, melodic, tasteful, calming, worldless, and ageless. The main menu screen plays both a rolling visual demo and a continuous loop of the TR4 theme song, justifying many a pause before loading a saved game. The sound effects are sparse, the most memorable being Lara's "hup!" as she leaps up on to a structure, and her "ahh!" when you give her a healing MediPak. Weapon and vehicle sounds are realistic, as are the water sounds, but extraneous noises are at a minimum in this game. Sometimes it is only Lara and the whistling winds ...

Many of the enemies are supernatural in origin, making their weapons and methods more interesting and taking the guilt out of shooting a human. There is also practically nothing in the way of gore to be had in this game.

There are plenty of puzzles; some are unique, while other are more predictable fare. In the best, you will attempt to decipher hieroglyphics to open sealed tombs, put together Egyptian puzzle pieces, and even play the ancient chesslike game Senet with ghostly figures, the outcome of which shall open one of two different paths of progression through the game depending upon whether you win or lose. At their worst, the "push the box or lever and find the key" type of thing so well-worn in the console gaming genre can get on your nerves in TR4 for PC as well.

What there is a good balance of is both on-foot and multivehicular adventuring, including both strategic gymnastic planning and executing, as well as some exciting off-road driving and frenetic car chases ... There are also some fabulous 3D cut scenes that truly further the story along. All of these components serve to offset the fighting for a more well-rounded game in the long run, but for all of you adrenaline junkies, be aware that excitement can take on many forms! Even though there is quite a bit of Lara's graceful gymnastic maneuvering to play through, it's a rush finding the best way to leap, roll, dash, crouch, and crawl through the almost endless array of shooting-knife traps, moving walls, rotating rooms, and steam-spouting crawlspaces ...

As far as any other negatives, besides somewhat dated graphics and the "find the key" scenes, another niggle is that about 10 levels could have been shaved off of this 39-level game without any damage to story (which gets pretty thin toward the end anyway), and it might have actually been more enjoyable to boot. Instead, Core Studios has you backtracking through many levels that you've already played through, seemingly just to drag out the game.

I must submit two more gripes to the Complaint Department. The "leaping pyramid" level at the end got annoying after watching Lara slip off the pyramid's side and plunge to her death 101 times too many; too, the game's ending cutscenes left me rolling my eyes at Lara's implied ineptness. After surviving 39 large levels of abounding danger and never-ending threats, including that crazy pyramid jumping, I would have preferred fireworks and a brass band to the cliffhanger ending I got instead ...

This isn't a very demanding game system requirement-wise. I actually saw it played on my friend's P233 PC, which is the minimum requirement, with an old 16 MB PCI video card and 64 MB of RAM, and it played fine.

I have since played most of the other Tomb Raider games on PC. TR2 is much more a straight shooter than an adventure, but that aside, the first few beginning and last few ending levels really ignite. Its expansion pack, TR2 Gold, sparkles as well. TR3 Gold: Lost Artifact, however, was on the vanilla side. Most vanilla was TR5: Chronicles, with the exception of the three "Black Isle" levels in Ireland, which are classic, mythical, creepy, and unique, featuring an unarmed, childhood-aged Lara ... My favorite all in all would still have to be TR4, though! I give it a gold star and highly recommend it if you can stand being chased by flying fire demons, mummies, skeletons, ghostly tin men on horseback, and ancient raging bulls, or ... even if you can't! 

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Core Design
Publisher: Eidos
Release Date: 1999

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System Requirements

Pentium II 266 MHz or equivalent without hardware 3D acceleration
Pentium II 233 MHz or equivalent with hardware 3D acceleration
Windows 95/98
16MB of RAM (32 MB recommended)
DirectX 6.1 or higher (included)
4X CD-ROM drive
4 MB video card
100% DirectX 6.1 or higher compliant sound card
Keyboard and mouse

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