![]() Chronicles is like Tomb Raider Lite, or a 'best of’ compilation that doesn’t really contain the hits you were looking for. Save for a few levels, it is short, linear and far from as difficult as its predecessors. Tomb Raider Chronicles however is the black sheep of the original pentalogy. The first four Tomb Raider games are notorious for their scale and difficulty and that’s just the way I like it. I do take issue with the levels however and their structure. I, of course, adore the first four titles in the series and so have no issues with the fifth game utilising the same mechanics. If you enjoyed the previous four titles, you’ll more than likely like this one. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your opinion on the series. Lara has a few new moves such as tight-rope walking, parallel bar swinging, scripted stealth kills and the ability to somersault forward out of crawl spaces (finally!) but for the most part, gameplay has remained the same mix of exploration, platforming and combat. In terms of gameplay Chronicles adds few new aspects into the mix. Anyway, this is all irrelevant but I do like to examine Lara’s biography and seeing her parents alive and well in Chronicles just made me want to discuss it a little. I also liked the idea that the previous Lara had managed to change her destiny, rejecting a life of suffocating aristocracy and a marriage to the Earl of Farringdon in favour of a life of adventure and discovery as opposed to the more recent Lara whose fate was sealed when her future self and Amanda confused her mother so much she got sucked into Helheim and Lara would spent the next twenty years searching for her. The Croft name became infamous because of her, not her family legacy. I like that Lara chose her own path in life rather than following in her father’s footsteps. In the original biography, Lara’s parents did not approve of their daughter’s adventurous lifestyle and disowned her (she inherited Croft Manor from an aunt and funded her lifestyle by writing travel books). Presumably, they attended the funeral to give the biggest ‘We told you so!’ to her memorial statue. Newcomers to the series might wonder what Lara’s parents are doing alive and well and attending their daughter’s funeral but prior to Crystal Dynamic’s rebooted biography, Lara’s parents were not the admirable figures we’ve come to know. This isn’t really relative to my review but I’d like to talk about the interesting cameo that is Lara’s parents who are seen attending Lara’s memorial in the opening FMV and leaving the churchyard during the title sequence. It is interesting to see how Lara’s death resonates with other characters in the series, such as her loyal slave/punching bag butler, Winston. While the Last Revelation introduced the series to a higher level of storytelling and narrative, Chronicles is a lot less in-depth and serves more as a stopover on the way to the Next Generation. From finding the Philosopher’s Stone buried beneath the Colosseum in Rome, to stowing away on a Russian nuclear submarine hunting the Holy Lance, to exploring a haunted island off the coast of Ireland and finally, to infiltrating Von Croy’s high-rise Industries building in New York, Chronicles is a pick-and-mix of traditional Tomb Raider style adventures. Tomb Raider Chronicles is divided into four separate flashbacks, each chronicling a never before told exploit from Lara’s past. With Lara presumed dead, her closest friends gather at Croft Manor after a memorial service to share stories of her past adventures. Keeping with Tomb Raider’s tradition of releasing a new game every year in its heyday, Lara returned in 2000’s Tomb Raider Chronicles. The last time we saw Lara, she had been buried alive in a tomb of her very own in 1999’s The Last Revelation. ![]() Tomb Raider Chronicles is coming up to its twelfth anniversary but how have the years treated Core Design’s least successful entry in the franchise? It’s round 4 of my series of Tomb Raider reviews and this time I’ll be examining Lara’s PSX swan song.
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