Tomb Raider: Chronicles Playthrough

Going on with my Tomb Raider Nostalgia Playthrough Series, I am now playing Tomb Raider: Chronicles, the fifth game of the classics.

I remembered Chronicles fondly, and when I started to play it again after so many years I realized why, but then I got to the notorious VCI section and everything got a bit messy. The last three levels of the game are among the best of the classic Tomb Raiders, and maybe the most original and innovative compared to the rest of the series of that era, but at the same time they are so hard and so incredibly buggy that eventually the VCI adventure turns into an assemblage that could only be compared to Stefano Valentini's morbid creations: on the one hand the bugs can be hellish; from frustrating to literally game-stopping. Although sometimes said bugs may also have fortunate outcomes: as you will see in my video, at some point I tried to make Lara stealthily neutralize a guard, which she refused to do; at that point, the guard surprisingly turned around and left the room, totally ignoring her, so I managed to go on with the level undisturbed. In an other section, a ceiling trapdoor that was supposed to open never did so, but Lara was nonetheless able to climb in the room above; the consequence of this was that two extra guards that were supposed to appear when the trapdoor would open, never showed up. I am not complaining for bugs like these. On the other hand, there is great atmosphere in the VCI, fantastic stealth sequences, enemies that are not only tougher than usual but also cunning, and some of them have traits or accessories that make them extremely hard to kill. Lara doesn't have her trademark pistols, which means we don't have the unlimited ammo luxury available, and the developers have implemented new elements, like having Lara equip a rifle with a scope for the first time, as well as a grappling gun, and use chloroform to neutralize the enemies while moving with stealth. Considering all that stuff in retrospect, I am thinking now that the three VCI levels (The 13th Floor, Escape With The Iris and Red Alert!) were maybe an attempt to prepare the ground for a - then - future Tomb Raider that would probably shift towards a different direction, a game that could have elements of stealth and heavy action involved; something that unfortunately never happened back then.

Setting that aside, however, the rest of Chronicles is pure old Tomb Raider as far as the stories and the environments are concerned, with the Rome section being a reminiscent of Venice from Tomb Raider 2, and the Submarine levels bringing back memories from Tomb Raider 3's Antarctica. The Ireland section, in which we get to play with a teenage Lara, is also somewhat different, because our heroine doesn't have any weapons in those levels - thankfully there are neither enemies that need to be shot - and the whole story is set around local folklore and magic.

Like in the previous - as well as in the upcoming - playthroughs of the classic Tomb Raiders, here too I am not going for all kills or pickups, but I do find all secrets in each level. That said, if a pickup is very tricky and challenging, I do go for it anyway for the sake of exploration and discovery which are both so important in Lara's adventures. My playthrough is split in four parts: 

Part 1 is Rome: Streets of Rome, Trajan's Markets, The Colosseum.

Part 2 is The Submarine: The Base, The Submarine, Deepsea Dive, Sinking Submarine.

Part 3 is Ireland: Gallows Tree, Labyrinth, Old Mill.

Part 4 is the VCI Headquarters: The 13th Floor, Escape With The Iris, Red Alert!

At the end of the VCI section / video, I have also left the flyby's that show after the credits, because they offer some interesting bonus scenes. 

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