hej! i was thinking about purchasing a tomb raider game. the only tomb raider game i know is very old (i used to watch my brother play it on my dad's pc, no idea which one it was tbh, but i'm talking 15-20 years ago) and there's a loootttt tomb raider on steam and idk where to start really. and i figured maybe you could help ♥ if you want to, no pressure

i truly LOVE all of them!! so i’ll try to describe them from a gamer point of view (and more like technical), so given this info you’ll be able to deiced for yourself :)

Tomb Raider I, Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles - classic tomb raider, old school, great puzzles, lots of backtracking and shooting. if you are not prejudice against old graphics and ok with tank controls, those games are iconic. note: there might be problems with launching those games, for me it works (in steam), although the music is bugged

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - the darkest chapter of lara’s adventures. also exists in a classic timeline, but first next-gen TR game. not only that changed, on one of levels we’re given second playable character. also lara talks with NPCs (scripted but still), kinda tank controls but not really. bugs and glitches all over the place, this all might be very frustrating. interesting story and good puzzles, lara has some new moves like simple hand-to-hand combat and stealth attack. you either hate this game or love it with all your heart (at least that’s how it’s in the fandom). i love it

Tomb Raider Legend, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Underworld - legend timeline, first reboot of the franchise, next-gen games, no more tank controls, good puzzles, lots of shooting, beautiful music. and although Anniversary is a remake of Tomb Raider I, it is remade considering this timeline story, and in this story Anniversary is a prequel to Legend and Underworld. lara has some new moves like adrenaline dodge and also QTE

Tomb Raider 2013, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider - survivor timeline, second reboot of the franchise, origin story of young lara and how she became the tomb raider. lots of surviving (collecting stuff for upgrades of lara and her arsenal), shooting and action, some areas you can go stealth, others game forcing you to blast through (perfect balance of action/stealth in SOTTR imo). in TR2013 tombs are extremely simple, in ROTTR they are a lot better and a little more elaborate (in physics, scale and visually). and in SOTTR there’re the best imo, bigger, more difficult and there’s such a variety of them. unlike in all of previous games, in reboot games tombs are not necessary for the progress of story. in SOTTR in some areas lara’s best friend jonah accompanies her. note: if you don’t have a strong PC, SOTTR might not run on it, this game technically requires quite a lot

Lara Croft GO - legend timeline, turn-based platform/puzzle game, really fun and simple, great puzzles with a good soundtrack on a background

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - legend timeline, action platformers with puzzles and looots of running and shooting. those games were designed as cooperative games, but there’s also a single player mode

hope it helps!