The Hardest Levels In Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered

The classic Tomb Raider games were renowned for their unforgiving difficulty. The third and fourth entries, in particular, have even longtime fans admitting that they are unreasonably hard. A second playthrough is often more enjoyable than the first because you actually know the solutions.

Aspyr’s 2024 remaster of Tomb Raider 1-3 made it clear that the developer had no intention of making the games easier. Now that Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is out, it’s time to prepare yourself for some hardcore puzzle-platforming. Here are eight levels you should watch out for.

8

The Karnak Mix

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

In terms of sheer scale, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is the largest entry in the fifth-generation series. This is exemplified in the game’s use of backtracking. The previous games were very forgiving in this regard: even if backtracking was required, you would never be left completely in the dark. You would be in the right area, at the very least.

The Last Revelation mixed it up with interconnected levels which meant you had no clue if you were even in the right place. The Karnak mix, as we call it, is a combination of three levels: the Temple of Karnak, Sacred Lake, and the Great Hypostyle Hall. Good luck figuring out which one you’re supposed to be in at what time.

7

Maximum Containment

Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness

Two things make Maximum Containment difficult to play through: the level design itself, and the fact that you’re playing as Kurtis Trent. No one wants to play as Kurtis Trent, because Lara is the badass and the icon, and Kurtis can’t even swim. If he falls into the water during this level, he dies instantly.

Apart from that, there’s a boss fight with a creature called a Proto-Nephilim; this game’s controls are not suited to boss fights, and the modern controls introduced in the remaster do nothing to change that. The only way through is to abuse the game’s mechanics: you will not get through this boss fight by playing honestly.

6

The Alexandria Mix

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

The Alexandria portion of The Last Revelation represents the stopping point for the vast majority of Tomb Raider 4’s audience. A lot of people will be able to tell you about the first half of Tomb Raider 4 from repeated firsthand experience, but only the hardcore veterans who stuck it through this set of levels will know what happened next.

There are several connective levels – Alexandria proper, the Coastal Ruins, the Catacombs, the Temple of Poseidon, and the Temple of Isis. It’s tiring just to name them all, let alone play through them. You get bonus cutscenes with Lara’s friend Jean-Yves now and then, and enemies are triggered the first time you run through an area rather than when you’re supposed to be there, which makes these levels even more confusing as you have no clue if you’re going the right way.

5

Hall Of Seasons Mix

Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness

One of the most unwelcome design decisions in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is the return of interconnected levels, and the Hall of Seasons mix in Angel of Darkness is exactly that. This set of levels spans the Breath of Hades, Neptune’s Hall, the Sanctuary of Flame, and Wrath of the Beast. You can complete these levels in any order, which is a euphemism for ‘you can try another level after one frustrates you too much.’

Even getting back to the Hall of Seasons after completing each segment is a challenge where each step has to be carefully measured. Angel of Darkness is the one game that could have benefited from the precise tank controls of the previous entries, yet it abandoned them for a looser if still tank-ish control scheme. Modern controls are not suited to the platforming in this section either.

4

Red Alert

Tomb Raider: Chronicles

Tomb Raider: Chronicles is quite easy compared to its predecessors, with a forgiving level design and an episodic nature that keeps it fresh and engaging. The game is, on the whole, underrated. Its negative reception can be partially attributed to how disillusioning the previous entries were. If you’re looking for an easy classic TR, you can’t go wrong with Chronicles.

All except for the final level, which is infamous among veteran raiders. This level has timed target-shooting sequences, labyrinthine hallways filled with poison gas, and several cyborg hitmen chasing Lara, who has been stripped of her iconic infinite-ammo pistols so she can’t fight back directly. Oh, and there’s a helicopter chasing you around the entire level, firing enough bullets to fill a dozen grain silos; sorry, Max Payne, but Tomb Raider did the final-level helicopter first.

The original PC port of Chronicles had a game-breaking bug that soft-locked you in the final level if you saved, so some veteran raiders had to clear the entire level in one clean run. Thankfully, the remaster fixes this.

3

The Cairo Mix

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

So you beat the Alexandria section of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, did you? Bad news: the game doesn’t let up. The Cairo section of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is ridiculous in its difficulty. Do not be ashamed to use a guide. The interconnected levels in this set – City of the Dead, Chambers of Tulun, Trenches, Citadel Gate, and Street Bazaar – unravel slowly and require you to unlock pathways for Lara’s motorcycle to get through them.

There’s an immortal minotaur whose hammer shakes the earth and the shockwave damages Lara in the Chambers of Tulun, and as if that’s not enough, a giant fire-breathing dragon guards the Citadel Gate. The only way through is to drive a motorcycle loaded with explosives into him, but you have to find the explosives first because, of course, it’s a Tomb Raider game.

2

The Great Pyramid

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

There are hard levels, and there are unfair levels; The Great Pyramid has a platforming segment that makes it an unfair level. This was where it became clear that Core Design had lost its mojo: unlike the first two titles that had well-designed, comprehensible platforming segments, The Last Revelation’s later levels feel like they were just made to antagonize fans or sell strategy guides.

There is no way to tell which spot on the pyramid is a safe landing, and which one will send Lara sliding into an early grave. It is trial and error, and it takes forever. There is no need to attempt this platforming section faithfully, so push against the game as hard as it pushes against you. Use a guide, or take advantage of the remaster’s quicksave feature to expedite your trial-and-error tribulations.

1

Underneath The Sphinx

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

If you manage to get past this level in The Last Revelation without opening a guide, you have patience befitting a saint. Underneath The Sphinx may well be the most frustrating level in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, a game whose second half is marked by obfuscation. First off, there are two bull guardians; one in the earlier Guardian of Semerkhet level wasn’t a big deal, but two is just messed up.

There are also six trap-laden passages you have to work your way through to obtain keys for each one; you have to solve a puzzle to open each of the six passages themselves, and there’s a swimming section where Lara will drown if you waste even a couple of seconds. And lastly, there is a hieroglyph puzzle whose logic has not been completely figured out to this day. This game is over a quarter of a century old, mind you, so the philosophy behind this level’s design would be an archaeological find in itself at this point.