Playing through Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation again, number “IV” in Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered, reminded me why I’ve always placed it just behind Tomb Raider II when someone asked me to rank the many games in this long-running IP. The fourth game in as many years, Core Design was pushed hard after the success of the first two games, but they needed a reset after the hit-and-miss Tomb Raider III.
Although saddled with an ageing game engine, The Last Revelation managed to recapture some of the magic of the first Tomb Raider while introducing structural changes that would be expanded upon in the PS2-era Angel of Darkness – a game received so poorly it would spell the end of Core Design after the IP was moved to Crystal Dynamics.
In contrast, Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation performed well enough at the time, though even positive reviews criticised the increasingly outdated tank controls and the limited gameplay advancements in what was the longest Tomb Raider campaign to date. As a teenager, Revelation felt consistently brilliant after TRIII’s mix of great and terrible levels – even if it was one of the early games that pushed me to discover internet walkthroughs on GameFAQs.
At first glance, you could argue it felt like another glorified expansion, with the same engine and core gameplay loop that involves navigating blocky environments, finding keys for locks, and shooting things until they fell over. Perhaps the biggest flaw was that while the opening levels highlighted a handful of new mechanics and visual flourishes, it was only when you reached Karnak a few hours later that you would appreciate the most impactful change to the formula.
It’s been easy to take open-world environments for granted over the last two console generations. In 1998, TRIII experimented with a few larger levels that offered more than one route to reach the exit, but The Last Revelation embraced segmented, semi-open environments for the mid-game acts set in Karnak, Alexandria, and Cairo.
Traversing these interconnected levels never feels as frictionless as a modern game given the clunky controls and some dubious level design with a fondness for crawl spaces, but Revelation still did a decent job of funnelling you from hub-like areas into adjacent levels and back again, with smartly placed shortcuts and new threats appearing in previously safe areas to keep you on your toes.
Although The Last Revelation was often criticised for not evolving the gameplay enough, I still feel that’s a little unfair given traversal felt more fluid than any game before it, and new mechanics benefited the updated structure. It may lack the globe-trotting premise of the first trilogy, but there are more interesting set-pieces, more complex puzzles, and it tried to spice up combat so you couldn’t just whittle down enemies with your pistols while somersaulting back and forth.
There were pole-climbing and rope-swinging sections that had me yearning for the quick-save/quick-load functionality of the PC version; there were tough enemies you could only destroy by knocking them off ledges or using explosive rounds; you could combine key items and switch up ammo types; and some levels were packed with more puzzles you’d see in an entire act of the previous games. Oh, and you could finally shimmy around corners; an obvious and logical improvement, but after three years spent exploring Tomb Raider’s blocky facsimiles of reality, the first time I was forced to do it in the Alexandria Catacombs to progress, I was stumped for hours.
That example provides an opportunity to highlight both the good and bad aspects of The Last Revelation‘s updated level design in the context of 1999. The prior games were primarily puzzle-corridors that featured actual tombs or manmade locations with such absurd layouts they functioned as tombs. The standout levels – such as TR’s “St. Francis’ Folly” or TRII’s “Barkhang Monastery” – were often those with an objective near the start that required exploring outlying areas and looping back.
With few exceptions, The Last Revelation‘s levels all share that structure, but each culminates in finding just one piece of a bigger puzzle-region. After foolishly releasing the Egyptian god Seth, Karnak sees Lara trying to enter the Tomb of Semerkhet to discover the location of Horus’ armour; Alexandria has her searching for the armour pieces in the ruins of Cleopatra’s Palace beneath the coastal city; and Cairo sees Lara trying to save a friend and pursue her possessed former mentor in a city overrun by Seth’s minions.
Most individual levels are smaller than those you’d find in TRIII, but they’re connected in a way that makes each act feel like a exploring a massive and cohesive space – even if they’re still as absurdly contrived as only Tomb Raider’s blocky tomb-like worlds can be. This compact and interconnected structure is great in theory, but this is a game from 1999, with no map, no quest log, and no in-game markers leading you by the hand.
Replaying The Last Revelation as an adult with prior experience, I could finally appreciate just how well constructed many of the levels are and it’s clear the developers wanted you to transition from one area to the next organically. The problem is how quickly it falls apart if you miss a key item – which is not hard to do in a game without modern progression blockers – and you find yourself fighting with the sluggish control scheme as you slowly backtrack. At the time, the freedom to backtrack was exhilarating in of itself, but aside from a friendly NPC in the Alexandria act that updates Lara on her progress, there’s little reason to unless the plot demands it.
Bringing the discussion back to 2025, the Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation remaster has a few lingering bugs and polish issues that need patching, but it’s still the best and simplest way to experience this oft forgotten classic. Textures and geometry are artfully updated, while the new lighting, shadowing, and atmospheric effects are mostly an improvement (though some areas still feel too dark). Purists can always switch to the original visuals, this time retaining a 60fps update, but one negative is that the “modern” control scheme still doesn’t feel intuitive in environments designed around fixed block dimensions, so you’ll have to give “tank” controls the love they deserve to have a good time.
If you’re simply curious and can only stomach one classic Tomb Raider game, the remastered original is still the right choice, but Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation is a fascinating look at Core Design trying to evolve the IP into a more open-world structure. It even works as a standalone experience that introduces a young Lara and her arrogant mentor, who eventually returns as a villain after she makes the same mistake.
As a final point for new players, just make sure you go in with a guide on hand, with my suggestion being the brilliantly detailed and recently updated Stella’s Walkthroughs found on the long-running tombbraider.net site.
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch.
