Ranking Tomb Raider games is basically an invitation to start a fight in a pub. It’s messy. Since 1996, Lara Croft has been through three distinct lifetimes, survived several reboots, and transitioned from a collection of sharp-edged polygons to a hyper-realistic survivalist bleeding in the mud of Yamatai. If you ask a fan who grew up with the original PlayStation, they’ll tell you nothing beats the tank controls and the lonely atmosphere of the 90s. Ask someone who started with the 2013 reboot, and they might find the old games unplayable.
The reality is that "best" is a moving target here. Are we talking about the cultural impact? The pure mechanical polish? Or that weird, intangible feeling of discovery you get when you stumble upon a hidden tomb behind a waterfall?
The Heavyweights: What Everyone Gets Wrong About the Classics
Most people put the original 1996 Tomb Raider at the top for nostalgia. It’s a safe pick. But if you actually sit down to play it today without the rose-tinted glasses, the friction is real. Core Design was inventing a genre from scratch. There was no blueprint for 3D action-adventure.
Lara moved on a grid. You had to count steps like a mathematician to stick a jump. It was brutal, but it worked because the level design was genius. Look at the "St. Francis Folly" level. It’s a vertical masterpiece that still puts modern games to shame with its complexity. It wasn't about shooting; it was about the environment being the enemy.
Then you have Tomb Raider II. Honestly, this is where the series peaked for many. It added the flares, the vehicles, and more human enemies. Some purists hate the combat focus, but the Great Wall opening and the Venice levels are legendary. You can't talk about ranking these games without mentioning the shift from isolation to global spectacle.
Tomb Raider: Chronicles and The Last Revelation often get lumped together as "more of the same," but The Last Revelation is secretly one of the most cohesive stories the series ever told, focusing entirely on Egyptian mythology. It was ambitious, maybe too ambitious for the aging engine, but it showed that Lara could carry a serious narrative long before the "Survivor" trilogy tried to make her gritty.
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The Dark Age and the Legend of the First Reboot
We have to talk about Angel of Darkness. It’s the elephant in the room. Released in 2003, it was a disaster. Broken controls, half-baked stealth mechanics, and a mood so dark it felt like a different franchise. Yet, if you go on Reddit or specialized forums today, you’ll find a cult following that swears by it. Why? Because the ambition was there. It tried to introduce RPG elements and a sprawling urban mystery. It failed, but it failed with style.
After the fallout, Crystal Dynamics took over. They gave us the LAU trilogy (Legend, Anniversary, Underworld).
Tomb Raider: Legend saved the brand. It was short—ridiculously short, you could beat it in an afternoon—but it made Lara feel human. Keeley Hawes brought a wit to the character that remains the gold standard for many fans. Then came Anniversary, which is arguably the best way to experience the original story. It took the 1996 layout and removed the "grid" frustration, replacing it with fluid gymnastics. If you're looking for the sweet spot between "old school" and "playable," this is it.
The Survivor Era: Gritty, Bloody, and Divisive
When Square Enix rebooted the series in 2013, the gaming world changed. Tomb Raider (2013) took heavy cues from Uncharted. It was cinematic. It was violent. Lara wasn't a confident superhero anymore; she was a terrified girl trying not to die.
Some fans hated this. They missed the dual pistols and the turquoise tank top. But you can't argue with the numbers—it became the best-selling entry in the entire franchise.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider is widely considered the mechanical peak of this era. The hubs were bigger, the crafting felt meaningful, and the tombs actually felt like... well, tombs. It balanced the "bow-and-arrow" combat with environmental puzzles better than the 2013 game did.
Then came Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Eidos-Montréal took the reins from Crystal Dynamics, and they went weird with it. They doubled down on the jungle atmosphere and the claustrophobic underwater sections. It’s a polarizing game. The story is a bit of a mess, and Lara’s character arc feels like it’s retreading ground, but the actual "tomb raiding" is the best it has been in twenty years.
The Hard Truth: Ranking Tomb Raider Games by Impact
If we’re being objective, the ranking usually shakes out into three tiers.
Tier 1: The Essentials
- Tomb Raider (1996): The blueprint.
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: The ultimate modern experience.
- Tomb Raider II: The peak of the original formula.
Tier 2: The Great But Flawed
- Tomb Raider: Anniversary: A perfect remake that slightly lacks the "wow" factor of the original.
- Tomb Raider (2013): Great game, but maybe a bit too "Call of Duty" for the hardcore puzzle fans.
- Legend: Excellent vibes, just way too short.
Tier 3: The For-Fans-Only
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Amazing puzzles, but the pacing is all over the place.
- The Last Revelation: Dense and difficult, only for those who love Egyptian lore.
- Underworld: Great ideas, but felt unpolished and buggy at launch.
Why We Keep Coming Back
Lara Croft is a survivor, not just in the games, but as a brand. She survived the transition to 3D, she survived the Angel of Darkness catastrophe, and she survived the era of "brown and gritty" shooters.
When people argue about ranking these games, they’re usually arguing about what they want from gaming in general. Do you want a solitary puzzle experience where you're lost in a silent cave? Or do you want a high-octane blockbuster where things explode behind you as you sprint across a crumbling bridge?
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The magic of this series is that it has managed to be both.
The "Best" game is usually the one that hit you at the right age. If you were ten years old in 1996, nothing will ever beat the T-Rex appearing in the Lost Valley. If you were ten in 2013, Lara’s struggle to survive on a haunted island is your definitive version of the character.
How to Play Them Now
If you’re looking to dive back in, don’t just grab the first thing you see on Steam.
- Get the Remastered Trilogy: Aspyr released a remaster of the first three games recently. It includes the original "tank" controls but adds a modern camera option. It is, hands down, the best way to see where it all started without needing a degree in ancient hardware.
- The LAU Trilogy on PC: These games still look surprisingly good in 4K. Underworld in particular has some lighting effects that hold up remarkably well.
- The Survivor Trilogy: Usually goes on sale as a bundle. Play them in order. The story is a continuous arc, and seeing Lara evolve from a victim to a "predator" (as the games call her) is a journey worth taking, even if the writing gets a bit melodramatic.
Your Next Steps for the Perfect Playthrough
To truly appreciate the evolution of the series, don't play them in chronological order of release. Instead, try the "Evolutionary Path." Start with Tomb Raider: Anniversary to get the story of the first game with modern mechanics. Then, jump to Tomb Raider: Legend to see the character-driven era. Finally, play Rise of the Tomb Raider to see what modern tech can do with the concept.
If you find yourself missing the "old" Lara, the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection is your best friend. Just remember to turn on the modern controls unless you really want to feel the struggle of 1990s platforming. Whatever you do, skip Angel of Darkness until you’ve played everything else—it’s an acquired taste that requires a lot of patience and maybe a few community patches to actually function.
The franchise is currently in a "unified" phase where Netflix shows and upcoming games are trying to bridge the gap between the classic badass Lara and the emotional Survivor Lara. There’s never been a better time to catch up on the history of the world's most famous archaeologist.