Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Collection

Welcome to the Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Collection! This is a little journey through the original adventures of the legend Lara Croft herself, now ready to be explored on your New 3DS with almost all of them featuring patches and improvements along the way. So watch your step, we're gonna explore the places Lara was never supposed to find!

Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Collection

Tomb Raider established Lara Croft as an icon right from release. Lara travels from Perú to Greece, Egypt and Atlantis hunting the pieces of the Scion with huge rooms, hidden switches, traps, platforming, swimming and animal enemies doing most of the work rather than nonstop shooting. The tank controls take patience but the fixed grid makes jumps surprisingly learnable and getting lost is part of the deal. Visually it is rough today with the blocky Lara, awkward cameras and some brutal combat, yet the lonely atmosphere, eerie music cues and massive spaces still hit. Also, the fanport of Unfinished Business adds the missing Tomb Raider Gold content, giving you the complete experience.

Tomb Raider Ⅱ: Starring Lara Croft

Tomb Raider Ⅱ pushes Lara from Chinese mountains and Venice to an ocean liner Tibet and even her mansion, while chasing the Dagger of Xian before Marco Bartoli's crew gets it. The sequel keeps the familiar tank controls, switch and key puzzles and deliberate platforming,but adds more guns, human enemies, flares, zip lines, a speedboat and a snowmobile. That extra action gives it a faster rhythm, but some people find the vehicle sections clunky and the linear combat heavy stretches padded. The new save anywhere system is a genuinely great improvement over the crystals, especially when levels become long. Atmosphere is another W: Venice feels completely different from the wrecked María Doria or the cold Tibetan monastery and the soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting. Plus, the PC expansion Golden Mask, also received a PS1 conversion which adds custom loading screens, localizations, 60 FPS gameplay and unlocks Nightmare in Vegas through New Game selection without altering its levels.

Tomb Raider Ⅲ: Adventures of Lara Croft is the ambitious one, throwing Lara across India, Nevada, the South Pacific and London while she hunts four Infada artifacts tied to a much bigger conspiracy. On PS1, the core formula is still there: careful jumps, environmental puzzles, secrets, traps and plenty of shooting, but Core Design clearly wanted more variety, so sprinting, crouching, vehicles, larger areas and branching routes enter the mix. That sounds great on paper and some locations are memorable but the execution is uneven since the game is considerably harsher: several sections are easy to misread and the controls can feel especially rough during the kayak and other vehicle sequences. That said, its atmosphere is strong, the music fits each region nicely and the more open structure can make exploration feel rewarding when the level design clicks. By the way, from what I've looked into, this one doesn't have any cool hacks yet, which is a bummer 'cuz it's the only one in the collection without one.

Tomb Raider Ⅳ: The Last Revelation is a much more confident fourth chapter, sending Lara almost entirely through Egypt after she accidentally releases the god Set and ends up racing to undo the disaster. The PlayStation version leans harder into exploration and interconnected level design with long areas that loop back on themselves, more elaborate puzzles, item combinations, vehicles and a younger Lara tutorial that ties directly into the story. It's also noticeably more atmospheric: the lighting, ruins, wind, tomb interiors, FMVs, voice acting and Peter Connelly's score give the whole adventure a darker mood. The catch is its length and backtracking, some love the huge puzzle box structure while some others find it exhausting and confusing. Technically, it pushes the aging PS1 hard, even if texture pop in, camera issues and glitches still show. Its improvement hack is clean and practical: it polishes graphics and a bit of the UI while fixing all grammar and typos.

Tomb Raider Ⅴ: Chronicles is the finale to Lara's PS1 run, built as four flashback adventures told by her friends while she is presumed dead after The Last Revelation. Instead of one continuous journey, you get Rome, a submarine and snowy setting, a spooky Ireland chapter with younger Lara and a high tech stealth heavy mission, so the game constantly changes mood and pacing. The basic Tomb Raider formula remains intact: platforming, key and switch puzzles, traps, secrets, combat and plenty of trial and error but by 2000 the engine was definitely showing its age. The structure makes Chronicles easier and more approachable than Tomb Raider Ⅲ or Ⅳ but the quality of the four stories is uneven, with the Ireland chapter standing out while the final stealth section can be brutal. Its soundtrack, atmosphere, character callbacks and new moves keep it enjoyable for fans, even if it feels more like a collection of leftovers than a grand finale.  Its improvement hack does the same thing polishes graphics and a bit of the UI, fixes grammar and typos and restores PC and Dreamcast loading screens.

Tomb Raider Ⅰ • Ⅱ • Ⅲ

 

Tomb Raider Ⅳ • Ⅴ