Tomb Raider: Anniversary

"Lara's birthday has been a spectacular one!"

If you liked Tomb Raider 1, or got into the series with Legend..what are you waiting for? Buy this!
Well, where to begin here? Unless you were born in the late 90s, you'd remember the very first Tomb Raider. It was revolutionary for it's time, the first one to have ‘No, you can't go here' or ‘yes you can go here' gameplay and in full 3D to boot. Everyone knows the protagonist too, armed to the teeth British archeologist Lara Croft as she shot her way through tombs. Six games later, her franchise was in danger, then came Tomb Raider Legend and set the franchise back on track. This is a good retro trip with Anniversary,revisiting the first time we travelled with Lara. How so? Read on.

Gameplay:

What can I say? As this uses the Tomb Raider Legend engine, the controls for it are almost exactly the same with Lara being as athletic and smooth as you expect her to be as well as making effort seeing as she is an ordinary aristocrat. If Anniversary was your first exposure after AOD and you were turned off because of the controls for example, there's an Autograb option where Lara dosen't have to press a button to grab ledges, however, in Anniversary, you can switch it back to the classic way. Some criticised Legend for being too easy and too hand holding, oh, that's not the case with Anniversary, far from it. You have the option of the game being handholding with hint markers or switching them off, leaving a nostalgic case of ‘OMG WTF DO I DO?!!' you'd get with the original Tomb Raider, however, understandably, the only markers it dosen't switch off are the Interactive Cutscene prompts (I'll get to those in a minute) and the grapple markers (yes, her grapple is back, but it's a hook one rather then a Magnetic one so no pulling enemies towards you this time =p) . And of course there's Easy, Medium and Hard which as far as I'm aware only really makes a difference with how many shots the enemies take to kill. I tell you what, anyone who wanted this game to be hard that's played Tomb Raider One complains it's ‘too hard' I'll eat each and every one of their hats.

Tomb Raider Anniversary surpasses the original in all senses of the word. Instead of divided, fragmented levels with load times left, right and centre you get with each location a massive streaming world with no load times. It is still divided into levels with the stastistics when you finish, but hell, if you wanted you could backtrack from the Tomb of Qualopec (end of first area) back to the Mountain Caves (beginning). Some nostalgic good bits return from Tomb Raider 1 which I'm leaving you to find for yourself. New moves such as the wall run can be annoying, but can actually be pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

Speaking of hidden stuff, even after you've finished, the game will keep you coming back for more with the different difficulty options to mess with as well as the Secrets and Relics to unlock things such as outfits (some from previous games, to boot) and commentaries in the ‘Rewards Menu'. Croft Manor is also back with things to do for the first time since TR2, it keeps to the original in a sense seeing as you are limited in things you can do (saving manually in the Manor is gone even though it's present in the Main Game as well as checkpoints) but it also adds an extra layer to Lara's life.

Now, the Interactive Cutscenes. If you've played Resident Evil 4, God of War, hell, go back even further with games like Shenmue (which is still an amazing game) or Dragon's Lair these will be familiar to you. If you've played none of these, basically, Lara is in a situation of unfortunate peril and you have to quickly press a button to get her out of it or you get a rather…possibly unintentionally hilarious death scene although some can be rather gruesome. These are actually very good, regardless of what people have said about them as it gives you the chance to have Lara pull off some cool manuvers. While the game wouldn't let you do these, the situations could be done with the regular game engine but are still thrilling. Those who have watched the GameTap documentary noted that Toby Gard's original intention for Tomb Raider was to make it an Interactive Movie, and he succeeds in this. While it's not very challenging, it can be very fun.

So what's wrong with the gameplay? Well, it may be much more challenging then Legend, but sometimes it's actually easier, however, these occasions are rare. Such as the strict pattern with bosses, while they may seem hard at first such as with a certain fight but once you've figured out their pattern which involves the ‘Rage Meter' it becomes easy. (Basically, Rage Mode is shooting at an enemy constantly until it gets pissed off and charges at you, then if timed right, you can make Lara dive and time it correctly and she can land a headshot on enemies which has massive damage inflicted on them). Having more creative ways to deal with said boss for example would've been welcome to add to the challenge besides the Rage Meter. Although this is also a rare occasion, you do sometimes get the ‘Linear Path' that Legend provided. But still, it isn't often that happens. The other challenge added are the camera problems. It isn't as noticeable when you start, but as you get further it does get more annoying.

Gameplay Summary:

+ Intutitive controls

+Massive worlds to explore

+Challenging in most areas

- Still similar to Legend in some parts and camera problems can be annoying.

- Once you figure them out, the bosses can be a bit too easy since they have a strict pattern.
Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics:

Wow, what can I say. It may not have the ‘Next Gen' shine that Tomb Raider Legend had but Anniversary looks amazing. The details on the tombs and the landscape around you would make you think some Next-Gen effects were switched on automatically and some weren't. Lara looks absolutely stunning and most of her details and animations have been taken from Legend and ported over and is almost realistic in her animations. (there, Xero, I was as vague as possible so I don't sound like a perv like you stereotype Tomb Raider players to be =p).

Only real flaw is, although this is just nitpicking is having the Next-Gen content of Legend on the PC and the 360 would have been a massive bonus. However, this is only a minor pick and if I had Next-Gen content for Anniversary my PC would most probably die as a result. On the 360 it still looked amazing though. XD

Graphics Summary:

+Tombs look extremely detailed

+ Everything is fluid and effective with no framerate hitchups I noticed

+Lara looks absolutely amazing

-Next Gen content is rather absent
Graphics: 9/10

Sound:

Now, even with the VDM Sound, Tomb Raider 1 and my sound cards never agreed that often so I really can't compare Anniversary's sound to the original properly. Like the original, Anniversary is atmospheric in every sense of the word with wind in outside areas, water rushing past you in the Lost Valley Level and every detail such as different footstep sounds for every surface Lara walks on.

The music is still atmospheric. While not the Nathan McCree Orchestra music of the original, Anniversary does a damn well good job at having music that suits the mood. Such as the typical soiling yourself when enemies jump you music that I could've sworn was a Die Hard opera theme at first. XD Just kidding. The remix of the Tomb Raider 1 theme when you boot the game up does bring back some nostalgia too and is actually very good on Crystal Dynamics' part. Every part of the music suits the situation you're in.

Voice acting. Now…Keeley Hawes, the voice of Lara is absolutely perfect for this role. She sounded mature in Legend, but she pulls it off in sounding younger in this game since it is set ten years before Legend. Every emotion Lara feels, Keeley carries off very well however she may be a bit TOO enthusastic. With the screams. Calm down darlin! You're only screaming because you're thinking “OHCRAPI'MGONNADIE”. But yeah, she's great at it. The voices all carry their jobs effectively. Difficult to fault this.

Sound Summary:
+Atmospheric

+Fantastic Music

+Voice actors are fantastic

NO FLAWS

Summary: 10/10

Story:

Well, what can I say about the story so far. I've not finished the game, but still, it is pretty cool. Basically, if you don't remember the original, Lara has been hired to track down an artifact called the Atlantean Scion and it takes her all over the world to Peru, to Greece, to Egypt..and one more place which I won't spoil for you. ^^ Anniversary remakes this story and it fleshes out the details, while it adds a more personal side to Lara and a motiviation for her obtaining the Scion it also clears up plotholes that the original game couldn't clear up because of the technology. The story has been well planned so far too but however, some good parts that involves part of the gameplay have either been altered or removed altogether. But they weren't that fun anyway, I guess so CD were right to remove them.

Story Summary: + Much more detailed then the original
+Lara is being made more realistic and human
+Plotholes cleared up
- Couple of good bits altered or removed
Story: 8/10

Conclusion:

Overall, Anniversary is a fantastic celebration of ten years of Lara and also improves what was right about Tomb Raider and takes out what was wrong with it and adds things to make it more fun. It may have flaws, but they're only nitpicking, no game is perfect and is a good game for veterans to sink their teeth to and not have a complete ‘Deja Vu' feeling and for newcomers to check out Lara's first adventure with ‘their' Lara. If you didn't like Legend, this will almost certainly change your mind.

I only can't recommend this if you're a TR1 vet that absolutely hates the CD Tomb Raider adventures full stop or if you've hated Tomb Raider from the beginning. Even if you are one of these two categories, I still recommend to at least rent it to see if you like it. Happy Belated Birthday, Lara Croft! You deserve it with this fantastic game, girl! If you can, get the Collector's Edition. The Bonus Disc and the Soundtrack are worth it.

Overall score:

+Intuitive, challenging gameplay

+Fantastic atmosphere with the sound

+Graphics look stunning

-Can be too easy at times

- Sometimes can be the polar opposite. More annoying then challenging (camera). Rare occasions though

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/07