Tomb Raider: Anniversary

"TR1 v. TRA: which is really better?"

Well this game is addictive, I'll give it that. It has beautiful graphics and the storyline this time around is rather more in-depth.

However, I don't think it really lived up to the original version. When I first heard about this game, I thought it would just be the original TR, but with better graphics. Then I heard about new levels, so I was even more excited to play this game.

I was satisfied with the first few levels. The last level of Peru though, was a bit disappointing. In the first TR, it was vibrantly colorful, pink and orange and red. But in the new TR, it was... grey.

The Greece levels were rather disappointing. For me, the whole idea I interpreted from the Greece level is that your goal is the obscure, hidden tomb waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beneath layer upon layer of vintage Greece, even under the sewers. But it didn't seem as deep, as obscure and hard-to-reach a prize, as compared to the first game. For example, the Colosseum didn't have the same presence as it did, because I remember in the first game, if you stood at one end, the other was beyond sight. It was also rather disappointing that they cut out all of Tihocan's tomb except for the burial chamber itself. Overall, it just didn't have the same feeling as it did for me to get to the tomb.

Egypt was, I think, the most disappointing level because like Peru, it was... gray. In the first TR there was richly colored sand outside the tomb and clean walls and floors inside, but in Anniversary it was just a bit drab for me because much of it was just gray.

Atlantis, on the other hand, visually took a big improvement because, opposite from Egypt, it was pretty drab in the original but vibrantly colored in Anniversary. But, like Greece, much of these levels was just cut out of the game.

Not to mention, above all this, you don't get to actually fight people, just do action sequences. I liked fighting the kid on a skateboard in a room teeming with lava everywhere. Which doesn't even exist in TRA. And that big black guy is all of a sudden the stereo-typical violent blood monger? They just killed each other. And am I going crazy or wasn't there another guy with a cowboy hat there before? What the hell happened to him? And in Greece, what happened to duking it out with Pierre? All he did was shout random sentences where in the original he and Lara would shoot at each other until he ran away. Plus he looked better with hair.

Compare all this and think, which is better- TR1 or TRA? Graphics and everything considered, I would say that Greece and Egypt were better on TR1. Atlantis is definitely better on TRA, and Peru I would say was better on TRA as well. So it's a half-and-half.

Overall I just felt that more was taken away than was added. But, all this aside, it was still an awesome game and I would say you should definitely get it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/07