The transfer is a little rough around the edges, but you get three great games for an equally great price.
The three games you get here are after the original development team, Core Design, was replaced by Crystal Dynamics by publisher Eidos. Crystal Dynamics breathed new life into the franchise with Legend, which was both a critical and financial success (though not nearly on par with the original) that ended up dividing fans in half. On the one hand, the game was fun to play and had a great action blockbuster vibe to it; nicely mixing fights with platforming and puzzle solving. On the other hand, the atmosphere of the original games were pretty much gone with the inclusion of new characters, and while the dialog could be fun it was also corny and annoying at other times. The lonely feel that drove the original Tomb Raider titles disappeared, but you take the bad with the good.
Legend remains the most diverse in this set. Where it felt fresh and new, giving Lara and James Bond like attitude, Anniversary mixes those mechanics with the lonely atmosphere. The massive gunfights Lara had with mercenaries in Legend are gone, and here you'll mostly confront animals and random monsters. Anniversary is a great game, and a rather faithful recreation of the original title in that regard; it was nice to see Crystal Dynamics not just filling it with constant gunfights to make it akin to Legend. There are moments that are completely different than the original of course, but seeing Lara recreated in her first outing is amazing for long term fans. Re-experiencing the stages and story was tactfully done by Crystal Dynamics and in the long run, it feels that its the original development team that simply tried to freshen their franchise.
The final game, Underworld, is a bit darker in tone but continues the story from Legend (with Anniversary apparently taking place in the middle). There's less combat than both Legend and Anniversary, but the exploration and unique areas are worth it. The games are all relatively similar to each other. Lara keeps the same moves throughout, gaining some here and there, and it feels like solid progression, if not a bit derivative. Each game deserves somewhere around an 8 score. They're consistent and fun, but short and rather easy for experienced players even on hard.
Considering how expensive gaming can be, and also considering that you can pick up Tomb Raider Trilogy for around $30 (US) new, it isn't a bad price. Each game is easily worth $10 and it is worth mentioning there are a lot of unlockables in each game (such as weapons and costumes and the like). Plus, as an added bonus, there are developer diaries and a PS3 theme for the die hard Tomb Raider fans.
The only problem with the Tomb Raider Trilogy is really that the transfer is a bit rough around the edges. From a graphical stand point, you can hardly tell that Legend and Anniversary were last generation titles. Lara's animations alone are breathtaking, and there are tons of areas that are simply marvels to look at.
Unfortunately, the sound is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes Lara will speak, and as soft spoken a character she is, its too loud. It sounds as if the voice actress was too close to the microphone when recording. Unfortunately, this effect happens with music, the other characters, and some gun noises as well. Admittedly, this is probably a problem that plagued the original games as well but unfortunately it wasn't fixed or addressed here. Turning the volume way down on the TV set can seemingly fix the problem, but it still ends up being annoying trying to fluctuate and listen to what Lara is saying.
There are also a few little technical hiccups throughout each adventure, and again they're things you can tell were there from the beginning but not addressed here. Its just a shame that given the opportunity they weren't fixed. The graphical improvement, allowing you to play each game in 1080p, is welcome, but there a few areas that it would have been nice to see improved as well.
Complaints aside, it isn't nearly enough to make Tomb Raider Trilogy a bad purchase. The adventures are still worth taking and, although they're a bit on the short side and have a few technical problems, are solid titles that are under appreciated in the gaming world.