Gameradars top 10 Tomb Raider games of all time

[Yuna´s Wish]

Originally Posted by Quebsenuef

TR4 is a fantastic adventure, with puzzles and platforming, great places with rich atmosphere! I love this game so much. I understand it’s not for everyone.

Up to Alexandria it's for almost everyone. From Cairo onwards it's definitely not. Puzzles and platforming take a step back in favor of:
- a clunky motorbike;
- a city split into several pieces with loadings that restore Lara to full health (Alexandria does the same but handles this in a less artificial way);
- deadly turrets and annoying swarms of locusts everywhere;
- a dragon (?);
- an invincible minotaur and an invincible reutilized bull...

Giza is, in my opinion, much better than Cairo and more in line with the spirit of what came before Cairo. Its biggest downside is that it's ugly as ****, but so is Cairo.

[Quebsenuef]

Originally Posted by Yuna´s Wish

Up to Alexandria it's for almost everyone. From Cairo onwards it's definitely not. Puzzles and platforming take a step back in favor of:
- a clunky motorbike;
- a city split into several pieces with loadings that restore Lara to full health (Alexandria does the same but handles this in a less artificial way);
- deadly turrets and annoying swarms of locusts everywhere;
- a dragon (?);
- an invincible minotaur and an invincible reutilized bull...

Giza is, in my opinion, much better than Cairo and more in line with the spirit of what came before Cairo. Its biggest downside is that it's ugly as ****, but so is Cairo.

All valid criticisms for Cairo, I think.
I prefer the motorbike to the kayak of TR3.
I don’t mind the levels being split but they tend to blend together.
Karnak to Sacred Lake was clearly different. There’s a lake in one and the other is a big hub of sorts. The city levels of Cairo are just too dark and too much the same to really get a grip of “Oh yeah, this is that area again!”

I still don’t care for the turrets and armed guards at all but everything else I love! The bull and the god with the hammer you have to trap in the mosque. I love it!

[.snake.]

Originally Posted by KyleCroft

TR4 is the best TR game. Cannot believe this and some of y'alls lists putting it near the bottom. Christ.

I'll never understand how some people can't love and be obsessed with TR4. But to each their own. I'm willing to admit that TR4 does not have the best single stand-alone levels like the other classic games do (apart from Tomb of Semerkhet, Catacombs, Lost Library, and Inside the Great Pyramid). But when you step back and view each location, each HUB, and the entire game as a whole, it's quite a masterpiece. Even Cairo has grown on me over the years, and Giza will oddly enough always be my favorite simply for the atmosphere and location itself.

Originally Posted by Yuna´s Wish

Giza is, in my opinion, much better than Cairo and more in line with the spirit of what came before Cairo. Its biggest downside is that it's ugly as ****, but so is Cairo.

Giza may not be as pretty as other locations in the game, but I appreciate it because that really is what Giza looks like - minus the blood red apocalyptic sky and chasms torn open in the earth. The pyramids are impressive in real life, but also kinda boring since they're just that... mountains of stone.

Core/Joby Wood actually did a really good job at capturing the location in those levels (with a few creative liberties).

[_Seth]

I actually love Giza's cookie-brown, crumbly visual style. It's just 2 levels of mastabas mazes, plus the maze in one of the pyramids, plus the underwater maze in Underneath the Sphynx really kills the fun-factor.

[Yeauxleaux]

Originally Posted by lance6439

Its normally clueless idiots behind these types of articles so I'm not all that surprised the list is ****.


Remember when some ditzo tried to say that Legend Lara was the most "Lara-like" character or something?

Like I always say, I stopped taking video game journalism seriously years ago when I realised they just fawn over realistic graphics while nothing else matters. Of course the three tomb raiders with photorealistic graphics are going to be near the top, whatever is going on otherwise.

TR4 only suffers because it came off the backs of TR1-3 and critics felt they didn't change up the gameplay and improve the graphics enough (even though, again, an entire generation of video games these days ape eachother in gameplay but that's ok because they look pretty), so its reputation has suffered because of that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it or any worse than any other of the PS1 era games, same with Chronicles really except for the late-game game-breaking bugs.

Originally Posted by Caesum

Putting Rise on top of the list is a mystery to me

Lol agreed

But not really a mystery, this just proves my point that graphics matter above anything else, because what aside from that does Rise do amazingly well that no other game in the series has done? There are other TR games with much better atmosphere, much better branching levels that promote exploration, much better platforming, a more charismatic Lara (even TR2013 had a better Lara towards the end of it in my opinion), the combat and gunplay is no better than TR2013. Is it Rise's storyline? Girl please. Everything about Rise is mediocre aside from that it looks beautiful.

[FreakRaider]

They put the reboots on top and then throw TR1 in there; kinda feels like they just wanted to praise the lame and standard gameplay Crystal has made nowadays but also not offend classic fans, by putting TR1 at the top too. Subsequently placing every other classic Tomb Raider title at the bottom tho. 🤷*♂️

[LNSNHGTDS]

Rise and TR13 are loved by casuals and TR1 and II are the ones that usually get praised / mentioned the most and LAU are always somewhere there in the middle with Legend usually taking the highest spot / being remembered more fondly.

It's a pretty standard list.

[Caesum]

Originally Posted by Yeauxleaux

Lol agreed

But not really a mystery, this just proves my point that graphics matter above anything else, because what aside from that does Rise do amazingly well that no other game in the series has done? There are other TR games with much better atmosphere, much better branching levels that promote exploration, much better platforming, a more charismatic Lara (even TR2013 had a better Lara towards the end of it in my opinion), the combat and gunplay is no better than TR2013. Is it Rise's storyline? Girl please. Everything about Rise is mediocre aside from that it looks beautiful.

I agree with you. The only redeeming quality of Rise is its amazing graphics. It also has pretty good audio quality and environmental sounds. Apart from that though it is a pretty standard game that doesn't really do anything new. Infact, I'd go as far as to say it just copies TR2013 directly without any improvement in terms of gameplay and storytelling(I mean, pretty much everything in Rise is just a renamed idea from 2013). It is just an incredibly safe game made with little to no ambition. Shadow suffers from similar issues but at least it tried to change a bit the narrative.