Lara's original adventure is back with a new facelift, but skin-deep beauty can't fix everything.
When Lara Croft first appeared on our PCs, many of us greeted her warmly. The tomb-raiding adventures of the aptly-titled Tomb Raider were unique and Lara was propelled to virtual stardom. Since then she's had a few ups and downs but is currently on a relative upswing thanks to Tomb Raider: Legend from Crystal Dynamics. Legend was the game that finally brought Lara into the 21st century, giving her new moves, new gadgets, a new look, and an all-new adventure. Now the same developer is giving the treatment to Lara's original outing in a title dubbed Tomb Raider: Anniversary.
If you've played Legend you'll be able to get up and running, tumbling, and jumping in no time. The controls are virtually identical, including nearly all of Lara's new moves from Legend. This means she can move freely and is no longer stuck on the classic Tomb Raider grid system and has a grappling hook that can be used to swing from objects or pull other objects in the environment. Combat is slightly simplified from Legend. Lara's flashy "bullet time" moves are toned down to dodges which can be done in slow motion and offer her a chance to pull off a headshot, ending fights quickly. Also, Lara's classic dual-pistols are back, and she'll eventually accumulate a shotgun, dual Desert Eagle pistols, and dual sub machineguns
Blending the Old with the New
You'll get to use every single one of Lara's new moves as you progress through what is basically a tweaked remake of the original Tomb Raider. This means Lara is searching for the powerful Scion, an artifact that will lead her to discover the true fate of Atlantis and have her traveling around the world looking for its three pieces. Tomb Raider veterans will come across many familiar locals, such as the Egyptian level with the underground sphinx or the vertical madness of St. Francis' Folly. The levels have the same names as they do in the original game and share many similar traits with their original counterparts. What's different is that some puzzles have been reworked to take advantage of Lara's new abilities. You'll use your grapple so often you'll wonder how you ever got through the original game without it.
As with any other remake, the graphics have been given a lot of attention, and as this is basically the Legend engine, the game looks sharp and clean but won't blow anyone away. Of course, Lara looks great as always and looks slightly different from how she does in Legend. The pre-rendered cutscenes from the first game are now replaced with real-time in-game cutscenes and we think the game is better for it.
As Lara leaps, climbs, and swings her way through Anniversary's levels she'll have to put down a number of animals after her tasty flesh. Small rodents and bats will appear in inconvenient places and she'll also have to fend off wolves, bears, Raptors, and other more exotic creatures. The AI for these critters is bad, even for animals. These guys will often run into walls trying to get to you or trying to run away from you and are fairly easy to put down when their numbers are limited. We found most encounters to be more of a nuisance than a challenge. And yes, the T-Rex is back, only this time the fight will be vastly different from the first game making it feel more like a boss fight and not just another animal encounter.
In Tomb Raider Lara had to fight off human opponents as well, and that's still the case here. The big difference is that instead of fighting them as you would any other creature, you'll take them down via interactive cutscenes much like those in Resident Evil 4 and Shenmue. These scenes are a treat to watch but aren't especially challenging.
If You're Looking for a Challenge...
Luckily (well, depending on how you look at it) the rest of the game is tougher. We thought that going back to Lara's first adventures would be a cakewalk, but we received a big wake-up call once we got playing. There were many times when we'd have to sit and think about how to solve new puzzles and you'll often have to make jumps that look impossible, or at least improbable. During the course of the game you'll see Lara make amazing moves and fall in love with her all over again. Then she'll fail to grab a ledge or jump the wrong way while on her grapple and you'll curse her black name. There are some rough challenges and puzzles and sometimes it feels like the developers just have it out for you. The floor will fall at just the wrong time, or bats will appear just as you're about to make a vital jump, or you'll get put on a timer when you have to do something ridiculously challenging.
As if to hammer this point home, there are a few points in the game where you have to avoid huge crushing machines in a hallway. These machines close and open in a pattern, but if Lara gets caught in one, it'll forget about the pattern and rapidly smash Lara's dead body multiple times, as if taunting you. Another challenge lies in the save-game system. You can save anytime, but it only saves to the most recent checkpoint you passed. For the most part, these check points are close enough together to prevent any headaches, but sometimes they'll be so far apart that you'll feel like you're being picked on. We'd like to think that the developers behind Anniversary aren't really bullies and didn't set out to make gamers pound their desks in frustration, but after dying for the umpteenth time trying to get past a certain obstacle, we can't help but wonder.
Going to the Source Material
Even with the borderline-cruel difficulty, the biggest problem we encountered with Anniversary was the pacing. Legend featured a great action/puzzle balance and had a fast-paced story. With Anniversary you get all the technical enhancements of modern-day gaming, but the pacing is still the same. As a result the game can feel slow and tackling puzzle after puzzle can become draining and tiresome.
In many ways, Anniversary is its own worst enemy. Being a better-looking, better-playing Tomb Raider is great, but Tomb Raider came out in 1996 and the world of gaming has advanced a great deal since then. We're glad the game stays true to the source material and does a great job of updating it, but once you get past the new moves and touched-up graphics we found ourselves feeling a bit... bored. Really, there's no one to blame for that; we just figure that gaming has matured and we've matured with it. Anniversary is a great way to relive the original feel of Tomb Raider; just don't expect anything more.
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