Tomb Raider - The Last Revelation
Published By: Eidos

Reviewed by Strider
1/19/2000

Article Discussion Forum

First Impressions:

The blockbuster hit Tomb Raiders is back again, its newest installment taking us back to the original roots of the series -- Egypt. The story goes something like this:

According to Egyptian legend, Horus, son of the light, outwitted the evil God Set and imprisoned him in a secret tomb... Five thousand years later, Lara Croft discovers the lost tomb and unwittingly unleashes the evil God Set, fulfilling the ancient prophecy of his return to plunge mankind into darkness! In a race against time, Lara must use all of her wit and skill to reimprison Set and save the world from Armageddon.

Gameplay:

I prefer to assume that the reader has never played Tomb Raiders before, so If you have you may safely skip the next couple of paragraphs. Anyways, in Tomb Raiders you play Lara Croft in third person perspective (see the screenshots to the right), a buxom female heroine of the Playboy pin-up genre. Using a fairly simple set of controls, you must precisely guide Lara through physical obstacles and solve puzzles in order to progress along to the next challenge. Altough the controls are simple, you may find it difficult to adjust to the unforgiving precision needed to control Lara (Having played all previous Tomb Raiders games, this comes naturally to me now, but newbies will find themselves falling to their deaths more times than not).

Some of Lara's moves include poll climbing, monkey swinging, swimming, rope swinging, wall climbing, jumping, and rolling, to name a few. Make sure you learn these moves, for you will need them all! You are given a number of weapons to help defend yourself against some of the enemies you will encounter: hand gun, revolver, uzi, shotgun, crossbow, and grenade launcher. Throughout the levels you'll find various objects that are used to manipulate some part of the environment. For example, you find a broken pole and a hook. By combining these two objects in your inventory panel, you will then be able to use the pole to hook a previously unreachable keys. Some of the puzzles you will wrap your mind around in The Last Revelation range in difficulty from simple to complex. If you really get stuck, you can always go on-line and check out a number of complete level walk throughs.

For those of you that don't know, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is the fourth installment in the venerable Tomb Raiders series. Most, if not all, of the elements of previous Tomb Raiders games is present in The Last Revelation. At the same time, few if any new elements have been added. There are some new additions of course, but these new additions are fairly insignificant overall and not really worth even mentioning. No new ground breaking game play can be found in TR4. But, considering that TR4 is borrowing off its three prececessors, new players of Tomb Raiders will be in for a treat.

Graphics:

Clean, crisp, and nice, if not earth shattering, the graphics in The Last Revelation are better than in any of the previous TR games. I experienced none of the graphics clipping that some of the earlier TR games had. Some of the effects I saw were quite nice.

The levels themselves are spacious with plenty of room to explore, and follow a particular theme tied to the storyline and the atmosphere (primarily Egyptian). This is a departure from the previous TR installment, which had Lara traveling to many exoctic locations across the globe. For the most part, I prefered the greater since of variety offered in TR3 -- something not present in TR4. Despite the aforementioned lack of variety, the creativity of the levels beckons you to explore each corner and crevice. Some areas had particularly interesting gadgets for you to manipulate, and others had vehicles for you to drive (You get to drive a Jeep and a Motorcycle in certain levels). With over 30 levels to explore, you won't be finishing this game quickly.

After completeing a level, and at other times during the game, your efforts will be rewarded to you by means of a new cutscene. The quality of the cutscenes is quite good, and they bring the storyline along nicely. Some of the cutscenes are outstanding, particularly those that revolve specifically around the evil Egypt diety whom Lara has unwittingly released on the world.

Sound/Music:

The music is primarily ambient in nature, and sometimes only to be heard within certain sections of any given level, rather than persisting through an entire level. Sound effects include the sound of stone doors opening, metal blades swooshing, and the more subtle sounds of feet pattering and watering dripping. In fact, many of these sounds seem to me exactly the same as those from TR3, particularly the weapons sounds. I was a little bored with the ambient music at times, so I found myself playing some of my favorite MP3's with WinAmp during the game. The ambient sounds combined with some of the sound effects always makes you feel as if you are in some desolate location, far away from civilization, often setting the mood to lonely and mysterious (appropriately enough).

Enjoyment and Overall Impression:

For those who have never played TR before, The Last Revelation will be a unique and entertaining experience. If you have played TR before, and have had your fill, The Last Revelation will not offer you anything you haven't really seen before. Sure, there are new levels to explore, vehicles to drive, and character moves, but overall it is nothing new. Meaning no disrespect to Lara enthusiasts, but TR4 truly is the same formula we've seen three times before. However, die hard fans such as myself will enjoy this newest installment in the series for the same reasons we always have: an interesting, sassy, intelligent lead character, great gameplay, nice graphics, and some mind flexing puzzles mixed in along the way. TR is still the best game of this type out there.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Few games have created the kind of sensationalism over a game character like Tomb Raiders. You can purchase a calendar with Lara Croft posed pinup style, go to web sites dedicated to Lara Croft, etc. The sexualization of Lara Croft has become increasingly predominant in the series, and as technology has improved over time, this sexualization has become crisper and more "in your face" than ever. Let me put it this way, newer video cards allow higher polygon counts on the screen. Higher polygon counts on your screen makes for smoother curves. Get it? It's clear that the entire TR series was targeted primarily to a male audience, though the fact is I know of a number of women who have played TR at least once.

Personally, I'm more than a little baffled at the physical attraction anyone could feel for a completely digital image. However, I can understand how a sassy, intelligent lead character can draw interest to a game. Combined with great gameplay and some puzzles mixed in along the way, its easy to see why we are compelled to play TR again, and again, and...

Cheats, Hints, and URLs:

Newsgroup: alt.games.tombraider
Game Patch: Tomb Raider IV Patch
Tomb Raiders IV Home Page
Tomb Raiders IV Game Guide at Gamespot.com
Complete Level Walk Through
Fansite with lots of resources