If you're reading this, you have probably already tried at least one of the other Tomb Raider games, and are wondering, "How will I react to Tomb Raider 5: Chronicles compared to the other Tomb Raider game(s) I have played?". I will try to review Chronicles based on its quality relative to the other classic games in the series (i.e. the ones developed by Core).

Compared to the first four classic games, Chronicles is fairly short and (for me) probably the easiest out of the five "Core classics". I enjoyed the varied settings in the game's 13 levels, and I think the developers did a great job in creating a suspenseful atmosphere despite a dated graphics engine relative to that time period of PC gaming. To support this atmosphere, there are plenty of varied puzzles (although they are nowhere near as difficult as Tomb Raider 3's puzzles), good use of ambient sound effects to set the mood, an emphasis on exploration and, for a number of levels, a fun avoidance/stealth-based mechanic where the clunky combat is non-existent.

Chronicles is split into four locations and unfortunately I feel that only the first location (Rome) has that traditional tomb-raiding feel which I so dearly love. I don’t mind the occasional “modern-day” level; however I felt that Chronicles was a bit too heavy on modern-day exploration (more than half of the levels are in modern-day settings). This is a matter of taste, but one of the things I really appreciated about some of the older Tomb Raider games was getting immersed in the lore of Ancient or lost civilizations. So, while the atmosphere of Chronicles is overall still suspenseful and well-crafted, I felt that the game lacked that “epic feeling” that certain levels of previous Tomb Raider games provided (I’m looking at you, Temple Ruins of Tomb Raider 3 and St. Francis’ Folly of Tomb Raider 1).

TLDR: Chronicles is a decent “classic” Tomb Raider game, despite it being relatively short and easy, and lacking a certain epic atmosphere that all 4 previous games possessed. I would only recommend it if you have played some of the other classics (i.e. 1-4) and are just looking to add to your collection for a very cheap cost ($6.99 for approximately 10 hours of gameplay). If you’re completely new to the series and are looking to start your Tomb Raider experience, start with Tomb Raider 1, or, if you can’t tolerate the outdated graphics of the Core classics, start with Tomb Raider: Legend developed by Crystal Dynamics.

Just for reference, here’s how I would rate Tomb Raider 5: Chronicles relative to the other classic Tomb Raider games I have played, from best to worst:

Tomb Raider 1
Tomb Raider 3 ( Read my review )
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider 2 ( Read my review )
Tomb Raider 5
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Tomb Raider 4

(I haven’t played Angel of Darkness)

95 Hours and still havent beat the game... I'm either bad or this game is worth its money.

Tomb Raider Chronicles received mixed reviews and was criticized for the fact that "it started becoming more of the same" and I agree; both this and TR4 utilize the same game engine and TR2 and 3 utilized a similar engine, this is very easy to notice in game. Although I agree with this, I will be reviewing Chronicles as a game in its own respective right and disregard its predecessors.

The game on the whole acts as a memorial tribute to Lara Croft who is presumed dead (after the events of TR4). The game is comprised of 13 levels which are split into 4 "acts". Each act tells a story of one of Lara's many past adventures, reminisced by her butler and past friends. Her adventures vary from her quest in search of the Philosopher's stone in Rome to infilrating a high-security tower block in New York to steal the Iris. There is a fair amount of variety in the game that stops it from getting bland and boring.

The vital, important aspect that's always held up well in the Tomb Raider games are the puzzles in them; whilst the puzzles in Chronicles aren't as complex and mind-boggling as the puzzles in the previous games (especially TR4) there are still there and keeps you constantly thinking and questioning in the game.

In terms of the graphics in the game, there isn't much to say, as mentioned it utilizes the same engine as TR4 and therefore looks exactly the same in terms of graphic detail. For a 2000 game, it really doesn't look that bad.

Sound was another aspect of Chronicles that was criticized, with it being viewed as mediocre; I personally slightly agree with this, the sound in Chronicles doesn't exactly stand out, it is very ambient and takes the "back seat" for the majority of the game, only in particular flybys or boss fights that there is distinctive music. A lot of music has also been reused from The Last Revelation, which is slightly disappointing.

The game itself is very short compared to the previous games, it took me only 5 hours to beat however I have played the game countless times in the past (I grew up around this game) so it may take a new player slightly longer. Is there a lot of replay value in the game? Not really, there are secrets in each level which are quite hard to find/gain access to and finding all of them will unlock some special features from the menu. However, finding all secrets would require you to play through the entire game again if you miss one as there is no level select and finding them all only unlocks concept and cinematic art, so is it really worth it?

Despite the mediocre sound and shortness of the game, I would recommend this game. Is it my nostalgia recommending it? Yes and no; I believe new players will find the game engaging and puzzling from start to finish there's quite a bit of variety and challenge in the game, don't be expected to just gun the bosses down, there is some challenge involved and skill needed and I feel that makes it worthy of the £4.99 that it costs.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles is the penultimate nail in the coffin of a tired, rehash-driven annual franchise that was forced upon Core Design over and over by their demonic overlords at Eidos. Even the developers didn't want to make it, and it shows. It is a dull, drab affair with disjointed storylines that were little more than an excuse to be sponsored by Timex Watches. A soulless cash grab cobbled together from B-sides, like a has-been rock band trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of their brand before being relegated to the county-fair circuit forevermore.

... is what I would say if I was a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SHEEP who simply parrots what he heard a talking head on YouTube say without having played the game. This game is actually pretty good!

Look, a lot of the above is true. Core Design were tired of making Tomb Raider, and the biggest victims of their revenge were the fans. After finishing the third and fourth instalments, which were all but designed to frustrate and sell strategy guides, I was so disheartened that I put my marathon of the series on hold for two months. Every time my cursor hovered over the Play button for Chronicles, I felt sick to my stomach and would find any excuse not to play it. I didn't want any more punishment.

But eventually I manned up, and I'm glad I did. Chronicles is an enjoyable game. Not as good as the first two, not even close. But a suitable last hurrah for this era of Tomb Raider, one of the many series that launched the PlayStation brand into the stratosphere.

In this game, Lara Croft (or as she's known in Indonesia, Lara ibn Croft) has died - buried alive in Set's tomb, as you remember from The Last Revelation. A statue of her is erected once they find granite strong enough for her thighs, everybody boo-hoos at the funeral, and goes home. When my grandfather died, we kids all huddled together to play Bounce on his Nokia phone while the adults grieved. Similarly, Lara's closest friends huddle together to pour themselves shots of her finest whiskey and reminisce about her finest moments while her rival/mentor Von Croy actually tries to dig her corpse out of her sandy mausoleum.

This forms the frame story for four separate adventures that were designed to mock as many accents as possible. Whether you are French, Texan, Russian, Irish, Russian again, German, or African-American, the voice acting in Tomb Raider: Chronicles will bring you together in saying, "What the ♥♥♥♥ is this racist ♥♥♥♥?" The game is a lot more cutscene- and dialogue-heavy than any entry up till that point, and the CGI FMVs were done by the same people who did them for Final Fantasy IX, so they're pretty neat.

Something else the game is: a lot more balanced and... like a normal game. There are only a couple of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ traps and deaths that TR3 and the second half of TR4 were inundated with, and the puzzles can actually be solved without opening a guide. Stealth elements play a major role in the final levels, and while it's still no Metal Gear Solid, the game does them far better than in TR3. Platforming is finally based on skill again instead of save-scumming and guesswork, and the areas you need to go are mostly telegraphed properly, or close enough to discover without logging onto Stella's Tomb Raider Site.

You can tell the developers were tired at points, such as piles of coal being square because cutting some polygons is too hard, or ventilation ducts being diagonal because they couldn't be arsed to make a new texture along the stairways. There are reportedly some game-breaking bugs in the final level, though I encountered none myself - I'm unaware if this was because I completed it in one go, or because the Steam version has been patched.

Yet by and large, Chronicles plays well, and is far less dreary than I'd been led to believe. It seems that the burnout that forced Core Design to handle this game with soft hands was for the greater good in the end. Tomb Raider: Chronicles is neither excellent nor essential. But for someone looking for the Tomb Raider experience in 2024, this is a far more accessible game than its two predecessors.

This was the last title that was developed by Core Design's veteran team. Elsewhere, a new team was assembling Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness at the same time. It seems no one at Eidos had ever read about the dangers of overexposure - Chronicles' unfortunate reputation, in hindsight of having played it, seems largely due to just how hard Lara was being milked at the time. There were Chronicles and Angel of Darkness being developed concurrently, there were the Tomb Raider films starring Angelina Jolie, and there was the U2 tour that Lara Croft was the mascot for. If Bono picks you to represent him you know you're sunk deep in the mire of commercialism.

This entry, however, is fun - so much so that it's rejuvenated me to give Angel of Darkness a fair shake. Though I would have anyway. I love Lara Croft so much I wish I had schizophrenia so she could talk to me through the screen. Though not at 3 am, that would be too scary.

So I spent a solid couple of hours patching this game, then found out there was a massive level editing community with some other mod stuff involved. First, you'll want to find "Dege's" vgVoodoo patch and install it. Then there's a widescreen patch on a site called "Core Design." Finally, there's a patch that apparently fixes a lot of bugs and other weird problems by someone who goes by Troye, also on Core Design, called "the tomb5 project."

Also, if you have any kind of PC controller, someone's uploaded a file to Steam's controller thing so you can just enable that instead of struggling with keyboard controls. Or just configure your own control scheme. After all the patching above, you should be able to find that menu when you Shift+Tab and click on the controller icon at the bottom.

Hopefully this makes the game a lot easier for people who buy it. It plays and looks decent enough on PC. Sometimes games like this I think might be better just getting the console version, but this one works much better for me after some tweaking.

Collection of various short stories about some past events from Lara's life. It's interesting, but it felt mostly like a hack work. Perhaps the most interesting addition is the very complicated level editor. Only for hardcore fans, who instead of wearing nostalgia glasses, wear nostalgia contact lenses! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2575289855 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549169674

Finished it for the first time in 14 years since release :) I've never managed to come through because of the bugs in final levels. Well, my opinion is mixed. I liked the first levels (Rome) and Ireland the most. Nice scenery and story. Russian base and submarine was interesting. But the final levels in the complex were really not my style + buggy as hell. Last level (red alert!) especially. Overall i would give the game grade 7/10.

Tomb Raider V: Chronicles is definitely the worst in the Classics series. Not only is the level design uninspired, very basic and just plain boring at times, the four little episodic stories are absolutely horrendous. This game feels more like something a single hobby developer put together in a week than an actually official Tomb Raider title.

It does have its moments and some levels and designs aren't quite as bad and lackluster as others but overall it's a very dull, short and often times downright annoying and buggy experience that you can skip if you're not a completionist or fan of the series.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give Chronicles a 3 for trying to implement at least a few unique ideas and new gameplay mechanics that haven't been seen before in a Tomb Raider game.

Tomb Raider Chronicles really represents one of the last classic Tomb Raider installments before the series declined and was reboot with a new engine and style of gameplay. Do not be deterred by negative reviews of this game, it is a CLASSIC 3D adventure game with some excellent level designs that are simply very challenging and actually surprisingly varied.

I suspect that many gamers who have come from the current generation of Tomb Raider games will be put off by the level designs, which have an old school feel. Younger gamers probably don't realize that devs designed adventure games very differently back then, and commonly made levels frustrating and tedious at times to increase the challenge and force you to use your save games strategically. This game does NOT hold your hand, and if you are not using multiple save slots, you will run at risk of running into one of the many bugs featured in the final level that have been infamous for ruining gamers' chance at a full completion.

Nevertheless, some incredibly useful guides are available online and as far as classic 3D adventure games go, this game is challenging, rewarding, and something any lover of retro games can get a solid 20 to 25 hours out of. My guess is that any negative reviewers have simply not played the game enough or have gotten hopelessly stuck and logged in over 100 hours. That would indicate they are not used to these kinds of games and should rely on the walkthroughs more.

I grew up playing the Tomb Raider games and so I had a strong sense of the level designs and logic behind the puzzles. But even so, lining up perfect jumps and dealing with a challenging button layout can be frustrating for players, so beware. My review is obviously bias, but if you see this game in a bundle, get it. We are lucky to appreciate classic adventure games like this one, and people that pan this game probably just can't tolerate it's, at times, pretty ruthless sections. Actually, if you like Dark Souls, get this game haha.

By far the best Tomb Raider game developed by Core Design. The stages are diverse, the difficulty is exactly right and it doesn't drag for too long like TR3 and TR4. The submarine levels are amazingly atmospheric. One of the best stages in Tomb Raider history including the later releases. It was greatly underrated when it came out because it was the fifth game in four years and everybody was tired, including the fans.