Great remake, retains the nostalgia of the original yet stays fresh also and will appeal to old fans and newcomers!
I had actually played the first Tomb Raider game on June 5th 1998 (not that anybody would care, I’m sure), and got the game the same date but 9 years later, so it really was an ‘anniversary’ for me, to say the least. I fell in love with the Tomb Raider the moment I played it, and I actually took it out recently (the original) and played it a little, in anticipation of Tomb Raider Anniversary.
Tomb Raider Anniversary is a remake in every sense of the word, and a great one at that. I was actually a little skeptical about what kind of a game I was going to play – was it going to be exactly like the original in that I was just playing an upgraded version of the original only with better graphics? Or was it going to stray completely from the original and have nothing whatsoever to do with the original? Yes, that was what I had contemplated in anticipation of TRA, and I am so happy to say that my anxieties were put to rest right from the get go!
In truth, the game feels like a cross between the original Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider Legend, but better. Right from the start, you actually have a plethora of moves at your disposal, moves that were not even in the original, like a grappling hook, rope climbs and descends, wall runs, shimming on walls, side jumps, upward jumps and gradual drops, these were all absent from the original (but mostly present in Legend) was enough to indicate how far the game would stray from the original when navigating through the levels. However, that would be as far as it would go. Pretty much every level from the original is in there. The ones that stand out in my mind, like the T-Rex, St. Francis’ Folly, the Coliseum, the Cistern (though renamed Tomb of Tihocan) are all there, but thanks to Lara’s new arsenal of moves, you approach each level a quite differently, yet retaining the nostalgia of the first game, so Anniversary stays true to the original yet fresh at the same time.
But Anniversary will appeal to both fans and newcomers alike. The gameplay is definitely engrossing. As mentioned above, Lara has plethora of moves at her disposal just to get from point A to B. The boss battles are also a great addition, and though they’re just 3rd person shooter battles, the battles really make you think. Fortunately, the battles are more challenging then frustrating. A big thank you to the developers for making the T-Rex a boss encounter! My jaw simply dropped when it appeared! The puzzles in Anniversary compared to the original seem a little bit more linear, and a bit more straight forward, (or maybe after 10 years of playing TR I just know how to approach them?). Anyway, to be honest, I didn’t think much of the puzzles in the Peru and Greece levels (St. Francis’ Folly did get me killed a few times, but I still recall the original being more thought provoking and lengthier). In fact, I felt a little bit let down that the original seemed much harder. My perception on the difficulty of the game changed completely when I reached the Egypt levels! Suddenly there were traps everywhere, timed devices, timed jumps, platform after platform to jump on in a matter of seconds, the creatures got tougher – wow! When I reached Egypt, I took back everything I said or though about the earlier levels.
Also, there are interactive cutscenes ala God of War style within the game. A lot of times when confronted with an enemy, a cutscene ensues, and a button icon appears on screen which have to be pressed relatively fast to allow Lara to gain the upperhand in the given situation. Press the wrong button or take too long, and Lara (usually) dies in the cutscene. However, the whole thing just restarts, and the buttons don’t change. So if you pressed the wrong button before, you’ll know what you missed and be ready for it in the next round.
Graphics wise, Anniversary’s has got to be one of the best I’ve seen. Lara is simply beautiful (but then she always has been), and the backgrounds look simply rich and enthralling. The score and music is once again classic Tomb Raider – excellent! Right from the menu screen, you get a modified version of the old theme. Well, it’s different, but definitely Tomb Raider. And whenever Lara encounters an important or diversely new area or comes face to face with an enemy of sorts, the music plays appropriately with that particular situation. In fact, you get to unlock every background music within the game, and every boss and enemy seems to have a theme of their own (my favourite is the Centaur Boss theme – epic and soul pounding and exudes a constant sense of danger).
Background music aside, you get to unlock a lot more cool stuff as you progress with the game – videos, outfits, bios, concept art, commentary, and other stuff can be unlocked as you complete the levels, adding great replay value to the game.
The only downside in my opinion is that in contrast to the original Tomb Raider, this one seems just a little bit shorter, but it is a marked improvement from last year’s Legend which was way to short for a TR game in my opinion.
All in all, Anniversary is an excellent game and an excellent remake! I sincerely hope they consider remaking the 2nd Tomb Raider in the not so distant future!