I believe the series reached it's peak with Tomb Raider III.
The game starts off in India and Lara's journey sees her travelling across almost every continent on Earth to track down mythical treasures. Other locations include the sunny, exotic Pacific Islands, the rooftops of London and the freezing Antarctica. The locations alone are good reasons to play.
The graphics have been massively improved since Tomb Raider 2. Lara is now surrounded by a full 3D world. Boulders are smoother than ever, equipment no longer spins around in 2D. Water is now sharper, more flowing and the game now includes weather! Rain will fall randomly in the game, which is just a small touch that adds atmosphere to the game. Other improvements have been made to enemies, plants, vehicles and Lara herself has definitely had an overhaul.
Combat is fairly simplistic. Enemies are not too difficult to defeat, simply evading attacks whilst shooting until dead is enough. The level bosses, I found to be extremely tricky. All of them had there own unique attacks which was enough to kill Lara in one. Another new addition to the Tomb Raider series is the ability for enemies to attack with poison.
The game play in Tomb Raider 3 has also evolved. Lara has a few extra moves including sprint, crawl and monkey swing which does come in handy when exploring the detailed and rather difficult levels. The levels themselves do have depth and atmosphere but on the downside, they do become too hard as the game progresses, resulting in the player spending more time than necessary just to complete one. Tomb Raider 3 also improves on the amount of vehicles at Lara's disposal. These include: quad bike, kayak and underwater propulsion unit. They are all easy enough to manoeuvre and don't pose any problems.
Overall, Tomb Raider 3 is a massive improvement in the series and is my personal favourite because it featured everything that the fans love about the games. The game kept with tradition but at the same time made improvements for the better. Its just a shame the series went downhill with the next instalment.