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1997 to 1999 were Lara's golden years. Tomb Raider II put her on the trail of the mysterious dagger of Xian and streamlined the gameplay while incorporating a range of sensible additions. We had new moves, including wall-climbing and a handy roll manoeuvre, larger, more exotic locations - including the canals of Venice - drivable vehicles and new weapons. On top of that, Lara looked better than ever, thanks to a new, flowing plaited hairdo and a cool dynamic lighting system. Tomb Raider II was a huge success, selling over eight million copies worldwide.

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The fan favourite for many years, Tomb Raider 3 added variety and a non-linear narrative to the series.

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It was, however, comprehensively bettered by Tomb Raider III, which added a nice layer of non-linear gameplay to the whole Tomb Raider experience. This time Lara was trotting the globe, taking in the sights (and the tombs) in India, the South Pacific, Nevada and London. Cleverly, the game had no set running order; the player made decisions and the levels branched accordingly. What's more, the game was a little more player-friendly than its infamously difficult predecessor. Lara had new monkey-swing, sprint and crawl moves to work with, and TRIII introduced stealth into the series for the first time. Thanks to its more varied and flexible gameplay, TRIII was generally considered the best of Lara's adventures for the best part of a decade.

In the meantime the hype machine showed no sign of abating, as Paramount Pictures began work on what would eventually become the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie.

Yet even as Angelina Jolie signed on for the part and the franchise seemed on the up and up, there were signs that not all was going brilliantly in the Tomb Raider camp. Core and Eidos had started to milk the franchise fairly early on with additional episodes and Gold repackaging efforts for the PC Tomb Raider and TRII in 1998 and 1999. At least, however, the episodes were made freely available to owners of the original. With Tomb Raider III: The Lost Artefact in 2000, however, they produced the first stand-alone Tomb Raider expansion pack. None of the expansions were poor, but there was a growing sense that too much Lara might not be a good thing.

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By the time Last Revelation and Chronicles emerged, the series was beginning to run out of steam.

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This feeling didn't abate with the arrival of The Last Revelation in late 1999. Actually one of the strongest titles in the series, it was hyped as the end of Lara Croft, beginning with episodes set in her youth and ending with a cliffhanger demise. Fans liked the updated graphics on the PC and Dreamcast formats, not to mention the return to straight tomb-raiding. After the scattered and more modern settings of TRII and TRIII the decision to stage the game mostly in Egypt struck a chord. All the same, critics started to notice that the gameplay seemed stuck in a rut. If anything, 2000's Tomb Raider: Chronicles confirmed this. Constructed as a series of flashbacks delving into Lara's past before her death, Chronicles felt all too much like a fill-in project while the team went to work on the real next-generation Tomb Raider. The Fans enjoyed it for what it was, but there was an awful lot riding on the next Tomb Raider, Angel of Darkness.

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