Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (PlayStation) Review

Higher resolution textures, coloured lighting, more complex level design, and a protagonist that, once again, has undergone a little bit of polishing. Does everything look great? Yes and no. Yes, the visual upgrade is more than welcome, but the whole adventure takes place in Egypt! The most unvaried and overused setting in the history of archaeology thrillers. Oh, and since Lara won't travel anywhere else, forget the nice tradition of her changing into something more comfortable, or at least, more tight.

Gameplay-wise it starts even worse. Lara is a young teenager who is being trained by an old man (as a tomb raider, you pervs!) in a long, boring, and useless tutorial that can't be skipped, meaning that one has to sit through tons of slow explanations of how to do even the most basic of moves - was something wrong with Lara's mansion, the good ol' optional training level of past games? Anyway, something bad happens in the end of this chapter, and, suddenly, THE FUTURE! Lara is in Egypt doing her thing inside some dark ancient temple, and the journey begins.

The levels aren't filled to the gills with insta-death traps, there aren't tons of enemies around, and, fortunately, the save-everywhere mechanic has returned, and yet, this might be one of the hardest titles in the series, to the point that a guide is almost a prerequisite. The main reason for this high difficulty level lies in the puzzles, which, whilst a nice break from all the lever-pulling and key searching of Tomb Raider II and III, can, at times, be very… obscure.

If that wasn't enough, remember the backtracking of previous titles? Well, now it's possible (read: required) to backtrack to a previous level! Oh, and, while the controls have remained pretty much the same, the addition of being able to swing on ropes doesn't handle that good, and, yeah, like Tomb Raider III… Too. Much. Claustrophobia! Other than that, there's not much to say here. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is an action-adventure that has some good things going for it, but, as a whole, is a tad disappointing.