8 Great Moments from the Tomb Raider Series

Rise of the Tomb Raider launched last week, although you may not have noticed with all the buzz around Fallout 4. The Xbox One timed exclusive has garnered great reviews, and like many of its predecessors, has some great moments. We thought it might be fun to look back at some of those great moments from the series, so we picked out these eight as some of our favorites.

Think we missed one? Tell us what it is in the comments!

[strong]Aldwych – Tomb Raider 3

There are countless stories about what lurks beneath London, so it should be no surprise that Lara Croft would be the one to find out exactly what’s down there. beneath the ruins of Aldwych Station, she finds a gang called The Damned, which is made up of mauled product testers from Sophia Leigh’s cosmetics company. Apparently Leigh is trying to create an elixir of eternal youth, and these folk paid the price for the tests that went wrong.

40 Fathoms – Tomb Raider 2

Lara’s underwater adventure to the wreck of the Maria Doria, starts out in an interesting way. Lara’s clinging to the top of a mini-sub as it descends into the ocean. Sure, she’s not wearing any diving gear, but Lara Croft doesn’t need diving gear. After a shark causes the sub to crash, players had to find their way to the wreck before Lara’s amazing lung capacity failed her. It’s a little goofy, but the exhilaration was real, especially if you got into the ship and tarried long enough for a shark to catch up.

The Great Pyramid – Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

It only makes sense that Lara Croft would head to Giza. After all, the Great Pyramid is one of the largest tombs of all time. This is simultaneously one of the coolest and most frustrating levels in Tomb Raider history. On the one hand, you’re climbing the Great Pyramid, and that’s really cool. On the other, it’s frustrating because the control scheme at the time could leave you missing jump after jump. Once you get to the top, you get a chance to fight Horus, or as Lara calls it, “Just another Wednesday afternoon.”

Croft Manor – Multiple games

I think we can all agree that Lara had one of the coolest houses we’ve ever explored in a video game. It was huge, there was a great library, and there’s a hedge maze out in the garden. Add in the swimming pool, gym, assault course and ATV track, and you’ll wander why Lara bothers to go raiding all those tombs when she could just stay home and hang out here. Maybe it’s her gassy butler.

Midas’ Hand – Tomb Raider 1

The Tomb Raider series has had plenty of great traps, but this one is indelibly etched in my mind. In the Palace Midas level of the first game, you come across a crumbled statue of King Midas. If you decide to do the adventurous thing and jump into its hand, you’ll that just because the statue is crumbled doesn’t mean that Midas has lost his…ahem…touch.

Home Sweet Home – Tomb Raider 2

Home Sweet Home is my favorite level in Tomb Raider 2. Lara’s already beat Mafia Don Marco Bartolli to the dagger of Xian, and she’s back home in her luxurious mansion for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. A bunch of Mafia goons show up with their dogs to express their displeasure, and Lara grabs the well-placed shotgun from her closet to deal with the threat. Her “Don’t you think you’ve seen enough?” ending is just the icing on the cake.

Lara’s First Kill – Tomb Raider 2013

Lara wasn’t always the suave globetrotter she grew into, and the 2013 Tomb Raider< reboot captures that when it shows off her first kill. It’s an intense confrontation, and even the ever-present quick-time events don’t detract from the power of the moment. Her emotion is somewhat mitigated by the fact that she quickly goes on to kill several more people without showing much remorse, but the first kill is still a huge turning point for the character.

T-Rex Attack – Tomb Raider 1

This was another big turning point in the series. Up until you headed into the Lost Valley, you’d only fought with bats, rats, and a few bears. You’d been around some ruins, and you thought you had this whole game figured out, and then it’s all BOOM, T-Rex. It appears out of the game’s murky draw distances, and pretty much everyone died to it the first time around. It was one of those moments from a game that you don’t forget.