Just a year after Tomb Raider I-III Remastered brought Lara Croft’s Core Design entries to a modern audience for the first time, the release of Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered in February gave fans a chance to revisit Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. While many will appreciate the polished textures, revamped character models, and modernized controls, true Croft-heads will savor all the delicious cut content that developer Aspyr restored to Tomb Raider’s sixth entry, The Angel of Darkness. Considered a major departure from its PS1 adventure-platformer roots, The Angel of Darkness pivoted to a darker tone from its predecessors. It also added a number of new features, including a stamina meter that governed Lara’s grip, stealth attacks and hand-to-hand combat, light RPG elements (such as strength upgrades for Lara), branching decision points, and even a second playable character named Kurtis Trent.
Kurtis uses a bladed weapon called the Chirugai during cutscenes, which led many fans to wonder why the player couldn’t use it during his sections of the game. Aspyr restored the weapon’s functionality in The Angel of Darkness remaster. You can now throw the Chirugai, attack in melee range, and use it to create a “psychic shield” that lowers the damage you take. It gives this alternative character his own identity, making him feel more distinct from Lara.
Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered restores some smaller aspects of The Angel of Darkness that you might not notice on a first playthrough, such as purchasing weapons and ammo in the pawn shop, the ability to get poisoned by gas (along with a new “antidote” item), and more notebook entries. Though fans will never really be able to play the ambitious version of The Angel of Darkness that Core Design originally intended to craft, these restorations go a long way towards making it more playable and complete. If you’ve always been curious about that one Tomb Raider game that few people talk about, this is your opportunity to experience the best version of it. (And The Last Revelation and Chronicles are also quite good, so there’s really no going wrong here!) Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is available in the Epic Games Store.
