Anniversary shows how a remake should be done. It's really quite an amazing game.
The story is you're Lara Croft,an adventurer looking for the Scion,an artifact split into three pieces.The story doesn't seem to be the main focus,but it's still good.I found myself always looking forward to the next cutscene,and the excellent voice acting helped.
If you've already played Tomb Raider Legend,you should be familiar with the controls and gameplay.You climb along a lot of walls,solve puzzles,and sometimes kill enemies.The gunplay is a little weak,but it's a good thing to mix up the gameplay some.The big issue is the camera.In quite a few spots,you can't see where you'll be jumping,so you'll be making a lot of blind jumps,and is really frustrating,especially since this can lead to many deaths.The only difference with the different difficulties is in the combat,and it doesn't make much of a difference,because the enemies are really dumb just like in the original.I've only died a couple times from combat,and I've died a lot because of a lot of blind jumps.On another side note,the adventure is fairly lengthy weighing in at 15 to 20 hours,which is fairly good.
The graphics are pretty good,with Lara having the most detail and attention.Lara animates very well and the animations are smooth.The frame rate is mostly smooth,with a few hitches here and there.The environments look really good and are well detailed,which show off the power of the PS2.
The sound is excellent across the board with top notch voice acting,good sound effects,and great music.There's a good amount of voice acting,but I wish there was maybe more,because it was great.The sound effects are great,with good gun sound effects and the foot steps sound good and don't always sound the same.
TRA offers a lot of replay value.There's almost two dozen costumes to unlock,weapon upgrades and more.TRA is split into two different modes,Croft Manor and the main adventure.Croft Manor kinda serves as a tutorial,but you can still unlock stuff from playing,so it's a good idea to finish that too.The main adventure is around 15-20 hours long,and each level has artifacts to find,and most levels have relics which unlock extra costumes.
Story:The story doesn't seem to be the big focus,but it's still told very well. 8/10
Gameplay:The gameplay is well done and typical of a Tomb Raider game.The camera gets in the way sometimes. 9/10
Graphics:Looks great with a generally smooth frame rate.Animations are excellent,and Lara looks incredible.Environments are full of detail.This is a game you'd use to show off the PS2. 9.5/10
Sound:Excellent voice acting and great sound effects make TRA an outstanding sounding game. 10/10
Value:Offers tons of replay value,including extra costumes,weapon upgrades,and a 15-20 hour adventure as well. 9/10
Overall,TRA is a excellent game which offers great gameplay and tons of replay value,and at only $10,it was well worth my money,because I still got tons to unlock.It's well worth a look,even if you're not a Tomb Raider fan.