The enemy AI in TLR is far better than any previous instalment. Your foes can be as capable as Lara, negotiating scenery and leaping across gaps with ease. Of course, the latter skill can work against them, as a liberal application of shotgun ammunition mid-jump leads to an obvious but satisfying conclusion. Sometimes, you just have to find the right weapon to beat them. In the Lost Library level, there are golden-suited soldiers who appear impervious to the more devastating sections of Lara's arsenal. After a few close encounters, you notice that there is a tiny shape on the front of their armour. Use your pistols - low on power, but high on precision - to shoot this, and they're easily dispatched.

In short, you have to think before you fire. TLR doesn't always get things right, though. There's one ninja-style assailant, for example, that really fails to convince. Shoot at him, and he'll cross his swords, rendering himself invincible. Put away your guns, and he drops his guard - at which point, you promptly whip out your pistols and blast him, the poor sap. It goes without saying that battles against 'human' opposition are as disappointing as they ever were. Still, at least Core aren't as frugal with shotgun ammo as they used to be - and there's always the delight of sniping...

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation marks the introduction of a 'hub' format for certain sets of levels. At first, this threatens to increase aimless wandering to uncomfortable levels. Somehow, though - and it could be Future Gamer's experience of the series, Core's considered level design, a lot of luck, or all three combined - we rarely found that to be the case. Some sections are more self-contained than others; on occasion, you'll need to traverse a couple of maps to find items necessary to progress through another. The 'hub' feature is an ingenious solution to the PlayStation's lack of memory, but is an arbitrary aspect on the PC - where, let's face it, even the lowest-spec games machine has 32Mb of memory, 16 times as much as Sony's ageing grey box.