Lara Croft has a history of being a pawn in corporate chess matches. You probably remember the drama back in 2015. Microsoft dropped a bag of cash to keep Rise of the Tomb Raider locked to Xbox for a full year. PS4 players were furious. Honestly, it was a mess. But when the Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration PS4 edition finally landed in 2016, the wait actually felt worth it. Crystal Dynamics didn’t just port the game; they stuffed it with every piece of DLC, a VR mission, and a massive hit of nostalgia that made the Xbox version look like a demo.
It's weird looking back now. The gaming industry has changed so much since then, yet this specific release remains a gold standard for "Complete Editions." It isn’t just about the base game—which is fantastic, by the way—it’s about how it handled the legacy of a character who had been around since 1996.
The Xbox Timed-Exclusivity Backlash and the PS4 Redemption
The "Console Wars" were at a fever pitch when this game was announced. Square Enix caught a lot of heat for the exclusivity deal. When the Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration PS4 version finally arrived, it felt like an apology. And a loud one.
Most games just give you a "Game of the Year" edition with a few extra skins and maybe a boring side quest. Not here. Crystal Dynamics added "Blood Ties," a story chapter set in Croft Manor. If you’ve been playing since the PS1 days, walking through that dusty, cavernous house felt like coming home. You weren’t just shooting mercenaries in the Siberian wilderness anymore. You were digging into Lara’s trauma and her father's obsession. It added a layer of emotional weight that the initial release arguably lacked.
What actually comes in the box?
Basically, everything. You get the "Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch" DLC, which is a trippy, hallucination-filled quest that leans into Slavic folklore. It’s better than most of the main game’s side missions. Then there’s "Cold Darkness Awakened," which is basically a zombie horde mode where you have to shut down a chemical plant. It's tense. It’s stressful. It’s great.
Then you have the skins. They included a low-polygon Lara skin from the 1996 original. Seeing a blocky, 32-bit Lara Croft running around a photorealistic 1080p forest is hilarious. It’s a small touch, but it showed that the devs actually cared about the "20 Year Celebration" subtitle. They weren't just slapping a sticker on a box.
Survival is More Than a Mechanic
The "Survivor Trilogy" gets a lot of flak for making Lara "too emotional" or for being "Uncharted clones." I disagree. Rise of the Tomb Raider hit a sweet spot between the cinematic action of Naughty Dog games and actual, crunchy survival mechanics.
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You spend half your time scavenging for wood and mushrooms. It sounds tedious. It isn’t. Upgrading your bow felt earned. The Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration PS4 edition also introduced "Endurance Mode," which turned the game into a rogue-like survival sim. You have to manage hunger and warmth while raiding procedurally generated tombs. You can even play it in co-op. I spent dozens of hours just trying not to freeze to death with a friend. Most modern AAA games are afraid to let the player struggle that much. This game embraced it.
Technical Performance on the PS4 and Pro
If you played this on a base PS4, you got a solid 30fps at 1080p. It looked incredible for 2016. But for those who jumped on the PS4 Pro, this game was one of the first real showcases for the hardware. You had choices.
- 4K Mode: High resolution, but locked at 30fps.
- High Frame Rate: 1080p but aimed for 60fps.
- Enriched Visuals: 1080p but with better shadows, foliage, and textures.
Most people went for the 60fps. The fluid movement of Lara climbing ice walls or dodging a grizzly bear felt transformative. Even by today's standards, the animation work—the way Lara shivers when she's cold or wrings out her hair after a swim—is top-tier. The "20 Year Celebration" version also added PlayStation VR support for the "Blood Ties" mission. It’s a bit janky by modern VR standards, but for the time, exploring the Manor in first-person was a dream come true for long-time fans.
The Tombs Actually Mattered This Time
The 2013 reboot was great, but the tombs were... well, they were tiny. They were "puzzles" you could solve in thirty seconds. In Rise, the developers listened. The Optional Challenge Tombs became the highlight of the experience.
The Prophet’s Tomb in Syria is a masterclass in pacing. You start in a sun-drenched desert and end up in a flooded, ancient ruin. The puzzles require you to actually use your brain, manipulating water levels and timing jumps. In the Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration PS4 package, you get all the extra DLC tombs too, like the Wicked Vale. These aren't just hallways with spikes; they are complex environments that reward exploration with unique skills you can't get anywhere else.
Narrative Depth and the Shadow of Richard Croft
The story follows Lara’s hunt for the "Divine Source," an artifact that supposedly grants immortality. It’s standard pulp fiction stuff. But the real meat is Lara’s relationship with her dead father. She’s trying to clear his name after he was mocked by the scientific community.
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Trinity, the shadowy organization hunting her, serves as a decent foil, though they can feel a bit "generic evil" at times. What keeps it grounded is Camilla Luddington’s performance. She brings a vulnerability to Lara that makes the moments where she becomes a "one-woman army" feel like a desperate necessity rather than a power fantasy.
Comparing the PS4 Edition to Other Platforms
Is this the best version of the game? Honestly, yes. Unless you have a high-end PC that can push the settings to "Ultra" at 144fps, the PS4 version is the most complete package.
- PC: Better graphics, but you have to buy the DLC separately unless you find a bundle.
- Xbox One: The original home, but lacked the "Blood Ties" VR and some of the anniversary content at launch.
- PS4: Everything is on the disc (or in the download). No mess.
The inclusion of "Extreme Survivor" difficulty also added a layer of challenge that wasn't there initially. No checkpoints. You can only save at base camps, and you need resources to light the fires. It changes the game from a shooter into a high-stakes horror game. One wrong jump and you lose forty minutes of progress. It’s brutal.
Misconceptions About the 20 Year Celebration
People often think this is a remaster of the older games. It isn't. It is the second game in the reboot trilogy with a massive amount of "legacy" content.
Another common mistake? Thinking the VR mode is the whole game. It's not. The VR is restricted to the "Blood Ties" chapter. You can't play the main campaign in a headset. That would probably be a vomit-inducing nightmare anyway, given how much Lara falls off cliffs.
Actionable Steps for Players in 2026
If you’re looking to pick up Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration PS4 today, here is how to get the most out of it:
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Don't skip the documents. Seriously. This is one of the few games where the "lore notes" are actually well-written. They fill in the gaps about the Mongolian invasion of Siberia and the tragic history of the Remnant people. It makes the world feel lived-in rather than just a shooting gallery.
Play Blood Ties early. You can access it from the main menu. It gives you so much context for Lara’s motivations in the main story. It’s a combat-free "walking sim" style experience, but the environmental storytelling is some of the best in the series.
Check the Store. Even though the "20 Year Celebration" includes almost everything, there are occasionally free community skins or small add-ons available on the PlayStation Store depending on your region.
Optimize your PS5 settings. If you’re playing this on a PS5 via backward compatibility, use the "High Frame Rate" mode. The system will lock it to a silky smooth 60fps, and the loading times—which were a bit long on the original PS4—virtually disappear.
The game remains a landmark for the series. It’s more focused than Shadow of the Tomb Raider and more expansive than the 2013 reboot. It represents a moment where a developer took a PR disaster (the exclusivity deal) and turned it into a definitive, celebratory package that reminded everyone why Lara Croft is the queen of the genre.
Next Steps for Your Playthrough:
- Start on 'Seasoned Raider' difficulty to ensure the survival mechanics actually feel necessary without being frustrating.
- Prioritize the 'Ancient Skills' found in the Optional Challenge Tombs; they are significantly more powerful than the standard level-up rewards.
- Explore the Endurance Mode in co-op if you have a friend; it transforms the game into a completely different, highly replayable experience.