Perhaps my favourite moment from the recent Tomb Raider III Remaster was the opportunity to play the weird The Last Artefact expansion for the first time. Tomb Raider V: Chronicles can feel a lot like it at times – especially after the focussed and very brown Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation – with a succession of diverse, distinctive levels featuring creative scenarios and theatrical villains.
If you go into Chronicles straight from The Last Revelation, it feels like an expansion that was likely repurposed and expanded to satisfy a gruelling annual release schedule (despite Core Designs’ attempt to kill off Lara and move on). The Last Revelation’s updated mechanics return – think corner shimmies, ropes and poles, combining items, and ammo types – and so too does the tighter, more compact level design and visual flourishes. There are a few new features, like updated animations, irritating tightrope sections, plenty of clunky stealth sequences, a very situational grappling gun, and parts that play more like a point-and-click adventure.
Following on from prior game, events in Chronicles are framed as a memorial service for the missing-and-presumed-dead Lara Croft, with her butler Winston, former teacher Kane, and an Irish priest Dunstan all reminiscing on past adventures. These include an early encounter with Tomb Raider’s Larson and Pierre in Rome while on the hunt for the Philosopher’s Stone; sneaking into a Russian submarine to recover the Spear of Destiny from the seafloor; a teenage Lara investigating a haunting on an Irish island with Father Dunstan; and her attempt to infiltrate the Von Croy Industries’ high-tech laboratory to steal a familiar item from her former mentor.
It’s an excuse for a more diverse selection of three-level campaigns that feel tailormade for those who missed Tomb Raider II & III’s levels that converted modern manmade environments into tombs. Rome feels most similar to TRII’s Venice, as you clamber over rooftops and leap between windows during the day, with the background sounds of the city reminding you of distant life. Russia’s naval base and submarine feel like TRII’s Offshore Rig, as you explore an industrial warehouse, crawl through too many vents, and engage in close quarter firefights in the confusing and cramped hallways of a submarine – twice over.
In stark contrast, Ireland makes use of the young Lara model – and some questionable cutscene titillation – for an unarmed and creepy adventure across a rugged, storm-swept island, with actual tombs and paranormal enemies you need to avoid or puzzle past. The last and most frustrating act of Chronicles sees Lara infiltrate a Von Croy Industries tower (guided by a familiar face from the first Crystal Dynamics trilogy) with a mix of clunky stealth, key card hunts, enemies that can only be killed using awkward first-person aiming, and several painfully unforgiving set-pieces that serve as an example of how engine limitations can curtail ambition. It was also the section that made me appreciate Aspyr’s decision to leave the classic cheat codes intact.
Despite shifting back to linear level progression, Tomb Raider V: Chronicles retains The Last Revelation’s more compact environments that are easier to backtrack through should you miss something. To make up for a relative lack of firefights, however, it doubles down on gimmicky gameplay sequences that the aged engine was not designed for. Exploration and puzzling remain satisfying, but the stealth and unarmed sections can feel like a point-and-click adventure with even more sluggish controls, barring progress unless you have the right item to disable an unaware enemy, drive off ghosts, or bypass security measures. It’s not that I don’t understand or appreciate why they wanted to tweak the formula, but these moments bring novelty and frustration in equal measure.
On the upside, this remastered trilogy is now the best and simplest way to relive this oft-forgotten Core-era sequel. Having also put a few hours into Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness, Chronicles feels like it’s received the most attention in the trilogy, with updated textures and lighting, but also far more environmental details and props. The only downsides are the rubbish modern controls (that just don’t work well within a blocky world) and the grainy, upscaled cutscenes, of which there are many to frame the globe-trotting action.
Looking past all the remastered embellishments, Tomb Raider V: Chronicles can feel like an obligatory sequel to satisfy a ravenous publisher, but it’s fragmented, globe-trotting structure means it’s mechanics and environments feel more diverse than The Last Revelation and it moves at a brisk pace – well, so long as you keep a guide on hand. It is just more classic Core-era Tomb Raider, sure, but it’s a weird and fun take on the formula that’ll scratch an itch.
Tomb Raider V: Chronicles 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.
