The Best Tomb Raider Game Ever Made (All Games Ranked)

Tomb Raider is one of the most famous action-adventure series in gaming history. The franchise has survived tank controls, reboot discourse, cinematic set pieces, and enough spikes, wolves, and ancient death traps to traumatize several generations of players. Lara Croft is not just a gaming icon at this point; she is basically the final boss of adventure-game legacy. But as legendary as the series is, not every entry hits with the same force.

That is what makes choosing the best Tomb Raider game so tricky. There is no clean consensus, and honestly, that is part of the fun.

Source: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XSvMK5feigKzRprsB3fnFB.jpg

In this article, we are going game by game through all Tomb Raider games to see which entries still slap and which ones deserve a little more respect than they usually get. Instead of tossing out one hot take and calling it a day, we are digging into each title in more detail to figure out what it does well, where it stumbles, and how it fits into the long search for that one Lara Croft game.

Platforms: PC, PS2
Released: 2003

For many fans, Angel of Darkness is the Tomb Raider old game that totally upended classic Lara. The controls are disorganized, the camera confronts you, the stealth is jagged, and the whole thing feels like it shipped three boss fights and six patches too early. But that is also why it still has a strange cult following.

Underneath all the imperfections, a darker, brooding, moodier Tomb Raider is struggling to claw its way out. One that features rainy streets in Paris, creepy museums, secret societies, and an OST that really does carry half the load on its back.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225020/Tomb_Raider_VI_The_Angel_of_Darkness_2003/

The Tomb Raider remastered version makes it easier to revisit, and that alone gives it a bit more breathing room in the ranking. It still has plenty of issues, but the improved visuals, updated controls, and restored content help smooth out at least some of the pain.

Platforms: PC, PS1, Dreamcast
Released: 2000

Tomb Raider: Chronicles is a “we’re still doing this?” sequel. Rather than propelling the series, it works as a grab bag with Lara stories sewn together after The Last Revelation offered her a dramatic send-off. The structure is fascinating and still gives a nod to classic Tomb Raider in the exploration, traps, and puzzle-solving, but you’re walking on fumes with the franchise. The engine appears fatigued, and the controls appear even stiffer than usual. We could even say it is shot through with that late-game PS1 vibe where everybody that’s working feels like one annual release ahead of collapse. 
That being said, it is not a complete write-off either. There’s a bit of charm in the anthology structure. Players appreciated a few cool locations and plenty of old-school Lara nonsense to retain longtime fans and keep them up at some level in their grooves. The pros are the mix, the familiar classic formula, and a few decent atmosphere-heavy stretches.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225000/Tomb_Raider_V_Chronicles_2000/

What makes Chronicles different from the stronger entries is that it never really feels essential. It is more of a “for the fans who want one more run on the old engine” kind of game than a true standout.

Platforms: PC, PS1, Dreamcast
Released: 1999

The Last Revelation is one of those classic Tomb Raider games that longtime fans tend to rate way higher than casual players do, and honestly, fair enough. This is old-school Lara with the gloves fully off. It even opens with a young Lara section, which is still a slightly weird bit of series trivia. But once the game settles in, it becomes a very committed return to what the original did best. Less show, more isolation, more ancient ruins, more “I have been stuck in this room for 40 minutes and I refuse to look it up.”

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/224980/Tomb_Raider_IV_The_Last_Revelation_1999/

What really makes it stand out is how confident it feels compared to some of the later Core Design entries. The atmosphere is great. The Egypt-heavy setting gives it a strong identity. The downside is that it is still very much a late-90s Tomb Raider game (tank controls, awkward movement, and a refusal to explain itself).

Platforms: PC, PS1
Released: 1998

What makes this Tomb Raider PC game memorable is how hard it commits to being bigger without becoming cleaner. The pros are the more advanced engine, varied locations, added traversal moves, nonlinear progression, and a stronger sense of scale.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225320/Tomb_Raider_III_1998/

The cons are the punishing difficulty and awkward control. For some, even level layouts can feel like a personal attack. Tomb Raider 3 is not the easiest classic Lara game to love, but it is one of the most distinctive. Let’s call it a slightly unhinged sequel that pushes the formula in interesting ways, even when it is also trying very hard to ruin your afternoon.

Platforms: PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS
Released: 2008

Underworld is Lara in transition. The series clearly sought to adapt to a new era of action-adventure games, but it was at a stage in its life where it hadn’t fully shed its older identity yet. That is part of the appeal. The game looks great for its time, and provides Lara with a more seamless, physical movement style that matches the tone.

Indeed, when you slow down and get into the atmosphere of a ruin or the tension of an underwater stretch, many levels seem to carry real vibe. For fans, this is where the Legend-era blueprint seemed its most complete.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/8140/Tomb_Raider_Underworld/

It’s also a game that never fully becomes what it hints at. There are parts where it seems to be about to come out into something more unrestrained, though it typically deflates back into the safety of a container.

The exploration isn’t weak, and Lara herself enjoys control for the most part, but the camera can still be annoying and the fighting isn’t the exact thing that draws people back to this one. Final word: Underworld isn’t the boldest Tomb Raider, but it’s one of the easiest to like. It is stylish, adventurous, and much closer to the series’s best moment than those weaknesses might indicate.

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, Android, Stadia, Switch
Released: 2010

Guardian of Light is the Tomb Raider spin-off that ditches the usual over-the-shoulder format. With that, it somehow ends up feeling more inventive because of it. The isometric view changes the pace completely, turning the game into faster, more arcade-like, and much more focused title on room-by-room design.

Now, who would’ve thought how co-op actually changes the way puzzles work? But it does its work perfectly. Totec’s spears can be planted into walls to make climbing routes, while Lara’s grapple can pull distant switches or create a tightrope across gaps. Therefore, progression often depends on both players reading the room together rather than just fighting through it.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/35130/Lara_Croft_and_the_Guardian_of_Light/

That is where the game really wins hardcore fans over. A single chamber can ask one player to build the path while the other triggers the mechanism, and those little moments of coordination give the whole campaign its identity.

Platforms: PC, PS1
Released: 1997

Tomb Raider 2 does not reinvent the first game so much as go, “what if we just made it bigger and meaner?” You get more action, more variety, more human enemies, more set pieces, and levels that feel huge in that late-90s way where the game seems weirdly proud of how lost it can make you. The Great Wall opener is iconic, and Venice is still a fan favorite.

It also pushes the series away from pure lonely tomb-crawling and into something broader. There are vehicles now, more outdoor areas, and a slightly more cinematic feel, even if it is still very much a blocky PS1-era adventure. That shift works more often than it does not, but it also means the game can be frustrating in ways the original was not. A lot of older Tomb Raider review takes mention the same thing: instant deaths, trial-and-error traps, and difficulty spikes that feel less “clever challenge” and more “the game wants you dead because it is funny.”

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225300/Tomb_Raider_II_1997/

So, what keeps Tomb Raider 2 so high in the conversation is that it feels like a true expansion rather than a safe retread.

Platforms: PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
Released: 2006

Legend is the game that pulled Tomb Raider out of recovery mode. After Angel of Darkness faceplanted, Crystal Dynamics rebuilt Lara around momentum, readability, and pace. You feel that immediately. It is not the first Tomb Raider game, but it does feel like the first version of modern Tomb Raider that fully understood how Lara should control in the 2000s.

One big reason Legend works is because it knows what kind of game it wants to be. It is shorter, more linear, and way more cinematic than the Core era. Bolivia, Tokyo, Ghana, Kazakhstan, and Nepal all have their particular flavor. The game hopping between them is fast enough to avoid getting bogged down.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/7000/Tomb_Raider_Legend/

The puzzle design is lighter than most of the old games, but we end up with enough environmental traversal to make it feel like Tomb Raider rather than just third-person shooting with archaeology wallpaper. The combat is perhaps the weakest part (a lot of it comes down to basic lock-on shooting and acrobatic dodging), but the animation and the pacing of the set pieces all contribute.

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, Mac
Released: 2018

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is where the reboot trilogy feels closest to being an actual modern Tomb Raider fantasy, one that doesn't make it feel much like a straight action-driven game with a couple of ruins to show for it in the background. The entire experience is also informed by how dense the jungle domain of the game is. It gives Lara a more predatory rhythm, enabling her to move around within the world, with her being more connected to her environment.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/943200/Shadow_of_the_Tomb_Raider__The_Path_Home/

Rather than pushing show first, as has been evident in the previous reboot games, Shadow takes it for a ride with that kind of sense of every ruin constructed to challenge exactly what you can read of space and potential danger. What sets it apart is the confident way it builds its identity in tombs and stealth without sacrificing the sort of scale that the trilogy was known for. The challenge tombs feel more important to the experience as they ask even more from the player. And the big set pieces hit harder because they are set against a world that already seems hostile when nothing blows up or crumbles.

Platforms: PC, PS1, Sega Saturn, Android, iOS, N-Gage
Released: 1996

The Original Tomb Raider still feels like a serious game. Beyond just nostalgia the game defined so much of what the series would be before there was even an idea of it. The platforming is stiff by modern standards and Lara moves with that exacting mid-90s precision that can feel like driving a forklift through ancient ruins, but the design feels so assured it barely registers.

Every room is intentional, every jump feels loaded, and the isolation of those early tombs gives the game an unsettling, almost eerie power that much of the game’s later entries never quite duplicated. And so here is when the Lara Croft storyline gets started, not with the heavy cuts and the heavy emotional speeches, but simply because she arrives as a fully formed adventurer who would seem so at home in peril.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BltNSs9Vzdg

Simply speaking. It’s a classic. And most importantly, it is a foundation.

Platforms: PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, OS X
Released: 2007

But even the foundation can be strengthened. Anniversary takes the 1996 Tomb Raider and rebuilds it on the Legend engine. Such a decision gives the original Scion storyline a completely different feel.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/8000/Tomb_Raider_Anniversary/

Peru, Greece, Egypt, and Atlantis are still the backbone. However, the remake changes how those spaces are read since Lara now moves with far more speed and control. Ledge-grabbing is smoother, jumps feel less rigid, and the grapple adds new solutions to rooms that used to be defined by stricter platforming. That makes a big difference in places like St. Francis’ Folly, where the layout is still iconic but the rhythm is much less punishing than it was in the original.

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Stadia, Mac
Released: 2015

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the entry into a game where Siberia isn't just the backdrop but actually starts to define the entire game. The cold alters the way spaces feel. We would even say how survival mechanics fit into exploration.

It’s also the game that provides Lara with some of the strongest optional tomb content in the reboot trilogy thanks to challenging tombs built around large-scale environmental puzzles. The Prophet storyline and Trinity’s presence provide the map with a very specific texture distinct from the 2013 reboot. Places like the Geothermal Valley give the game space to breathe in a way that hadn’t really been the case in the previous entry.

Much of what fans feel attracted to here has to do with how the systems work in a way that sustains this setting without overwhelming it. Rope arrows are used in a more significant way, traversal comes across with more confidence, and the hub system makes backtracking feel invested in discovery.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/391220/Rise_of_the_Tomb_Raider/

The balance resonated well with critics. Reviews consistently praised the expanded tombs and larger hubs and the freedom with regard to combat and exploration, partly explaining why Rise remains one of the easiest games to place near the top of any Best Tomb Raider Games Ranked list, let alone rank first.

Two officially announced upcoming Tomb Raider games are on the way. Even more, they are doing two very different things with the series.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is scheduled for 2026. It is being presented as a full remake of Lara Croft’s 1996 debut, not a remaster. Crystal Dynamics is developing it with Flying Wild Hog, and the official description frames it as a modern reimagining with Unreal Engine 5 visuals, updated gameplay, and new surprises built around the original Scion hunt across classic locations. It is currently announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.

The second game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, is scheduled for 2027 and is a brand-new mainline entry. Amazon Games and Crystal Dynamics describe it as Lara’s next chapter. The title will be set across Northern India, with Unreal Engine 5 powering what they call the largest Tomb Raider game to date. It is also announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. Both games will feature Alix Wilton Regan as Lara Croft, which gives this new era a shared voice across the remake and the new title.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/203160/Tomb_Raider_Game_of_the_Year/

Lara Croft built her legacy by chasing the unknown, by surviving the impossible. The best Tomb Raider games remind us that great adventures are not just about action. They are about discovery and the satisfaction of figuring things out when the path forward is anything but obvious.

If you are ready to create that kind of experience for your own players, Argentics can help with game development from very rough sketches to the polished final version. We know what makes adventure games click, and we are always ready for the next expedition.