Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Lara Croft comparison shows insane glow-up

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Lara Croft comparison shows insane glow-up
Callum Smith Updated on by

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February is a ridiculously stacked month for video game releases. There are so many great games already out and about to come out, and we’d implore people not to sleep on the upcoming Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered trilogy. It’s a trilogy of some of the best PS1 games of all time, and the package from Aspyr looks magnificent for fans of the British icon. Although it’s not a completely overhauled remake like Resident Evil 4 or Final Fantasy VII, the Tomb Raider Remastered trilogy still looks beautiful with an insane glow-up for Lara Croft.

It has been an eventful couple of years for Tomb Raider fans. Miss Lara Croft has collaborated with Call of Duty and Magic The Gathering, the series recently celebrated its 27th anniversary, and a Netflix show is set to premiere this year. Crystal Dynamics is also currently developing the 12th mainline installment, and we know that it will take place after Underworld to act as a unification between the original, legend, and survivor timelines.

We cannot wait to see what’s next from Crystal Dynamics, but, after a decade of the depressing Survivor trilogy, we’re even more excited to return to the golden era of Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Lara Croft glow up

The Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered trilogy is not to be mistaken for a remake. Each game is not completely overhauled with visuals like other remakes such as Resident Evil 4 and the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Yet, while it is not a remake, the visuals have still been upgraded as seen in the below Lara Croft model comparison shared on Reddit by user LeonardoArcie:

Tomb Raider Remastered Lara Croft comparison
Image credit: Crystal Dynamics and Aspyr

Although the above images are key art rather than in-game, you can still see the upgrade between the original and new Lara Croft for Tomb Raider 2. To be quite frank, it actually looks better than a remake focused on uber-realism. Rather than the Survivor trilogy where Lara Croft looks as real as possible, this instead rightfully focuses on style and is an accurate depiction of how we thought PS1 games looked back in the 90s.

It also just looks better than modern survivor Lara. Absolutely the Survivor trilogy is gorgeous, but the design of Lara Croft is just bland and forgettable. In the older games such as Tomb Raider 2, she just looks way more fun, iconic, and badass. This is a sentiment echoed by many on Reddit with users saying ‘remastered Lara looks cooler than survivor Lara‘ and it’s the ‘Peak Lara Croft design‘.

The Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered trilogy comes out on February 14th. Aside from the upgraded visuals, you will be able to choose between modern controls and classic tank. It is available to buy on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and we cannot wait for its arrival.