Customer Reviews

Tomb Raider Anniversary

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The original Tomb Raider was my favorite game of all time, the title that really got me into gaming. Now the developers have gone back to Lara's roots with Anniversary, and in the process they have re-discovered what made the title such a hit in the first place. Anniversary is the best in the series.

What makes Anniversary great is it focuses on the series' strengths rather than its weaknesses. Tomb Raider is primarily a game about exploration and puzzle-solving. The environments in Anniversary are enormous, and the primary challenge for the gamer is finding out how to get from point A to point B by using the environment to your advantage. It is very daunting when you're standing at base of a statue the size of the Statue of Liberty and realize you must find a way to climb to the top. Even defeating the bosses is more about using your brains rather than your reflexes.

Action-oriented gamers may be turned off -- Anniversary isn't about gunplay, which has never been a strength of the series. Human opponents have been replaced by animals, a great touch that, along with echoing sound effects, adds tons of atmosphere to the tombs.

The graphics are gorgeous, with wonderful lighting effects, and run smoothly on older PCs like mine. The levels are surprisingly consistent with the original game, with even some items in the same places. The story is servicable, nothing to write home about, with most of the changes from the original game made to fit it in with the story arc started in Legend. However, there are some nice touches about this being Lara's first outing -- she is not the battle-hardened adventurer we see in Legend, but we get to find out how she became that way.

Unfortunately, there are some flaws that keep this game from perfection. The biggest is the camera. Too often Lara will be making blind leaps from ledges because you can't pan around to see what is off-screen, and it will change angles at sensitive moments, such as when you're making what needs to be a perfectly timed leap. Also, during gun battles in close quarters, it will zoom in so close that all you can see is Lara's back.

There are several little bugs that detract from the game. I kept losing my autosave, so make sure to manually save often unless you want to restart from scratch. And there are sound problems with Windows XP that were not resolved even after I followed the company's troubleshooting advice.

Regardless, this is a great game, and at $30, it's a steal. Let's hope that in future Tomb Raider games, the developers will stick to the formula set in Anniversary.

I cut my teeth on the very first Tomb Raider when I stumbled onto it. I loved the game, although there was no sound and the pixels were a bit too large. Still, it was a jump in technology and fascinated me.
After Eidos' departure from the original Tomb Raider formula in Angel of Darkness, I was delighted to hear they were going back to the old formula which made Tomb Raider so popular.
Unfortunately, the one thing they didn't go back to was the camera. Like recent Catwoman and Indiana Jones games, they use that damned revolving camera. The old Tomb Raider games were a blast to play because the camera was behind Laura's head and made you feel like YOU were her AND, you could press a few buttons and look through her eyes; up, down, left and right when you were entering an area that looked like trouble.
I Love the Tomb Raider games; all but Angel of Darkness. But, I absolutely hate the camera in the last few games. Laura walks through a door and now you see her as if she's entering the new area. The cam is now positioned in front of her, so you have to keep turning your mouse until you can see behind her. If there's an enemy approaching, you can't see it until you get the cam behind her. That's annoying as hell.
Also, when she's in combat or making jumps, again, you have to continually position the camera. The old method was excellent. WHY do they have to use THIS stupid camera???
In ALL the Tomb Raider games, there seems to be a delay in action when you hit the keys and sometimes you have to hit them twice. For example, when you want her to jump. Often, there's a second delay in her performing the jump after you hit the key. It must be something with the engine they use. For example, I'd have her run and jump off a platform to another ledge or something and she'd run and just fall off the edge to her death. I hit jump at that split second but she fell. Or when the T-rex is charging, I hit jump and the right or left button, but she stands there taking injury. Now that really pisses me off.
Also, like the last Indiana Jones game, the level I'm stuck on right now is the battle with the T-rex. It's one of those timed levels with no place to hide, no place to relax. I think I counted over 1000 attempts to get Indy to run and jump and escape the tank-thing chasing him on the second-to-last level of the Indiana Jones game and by then, it wasn't fun anymore. I'm running into that now with the T-rex. I've read how to kill it but it doesn't help when Laura crouches rather than jumps or that I can't SEE the T-rex as I'm running. It doesn't help that she runs at one speed only or that the keys have a tendancy to be non-responsive. I absolutely hate timed levels. You have to do everything exactly right or start over.
When THIS game came out, I realized I had never really completed the very first Tomb Raider game because I couldn't hear the cut scenes. I downloaded all the Glidos stuff and upgraded my original game and played it to conclusion. It was very enjoyable. The animals in the original look goofy as compared with the critters in the remake here. The graphics are absolutely excellent and so far, it's relatively enjoyable. I DO wish the designers would allow for alternate routes rather than being strictly linear. I've rated the game, thus far, as 4 stars, only because I haven't completed it.
In the original, I had no trouble defeating the T-rex because you could back into a tunnel when it attacked and shoot from safety. You don't have that option with this version. And because of the camera, it's awkward turning her around to face the T-rex and then fire. My fingers are cramping up from constantly firing her guns and jumping.
I still have ALL my Tomb Raider games and play them over and over again. All except Angel of Darkness. I trashed that one. Jesus, I sure wish they'd go back to the original camera behind Laura's head. At least that way you could see what's coming and I liked the old controls better too. It was much easier to control Laura and flip sideways, back and front. Now when you hit jump and left or right, she turns and jumps in that direction rather than flipping. I liked the flip better.
Also, there's no real roll in this version. She can roll when you're running, but not from a standing position; as if you were standing in front of a lever. Previously,when you were standing facing a wall and you hit "end" on the keyboard, Laura would flip and be facing the opposite direction. I also miss the fact that you could get her to burst into a full sprint. Now she just casually runs from enemies, and usually takes a lot of damage because of it. Not to mention that YOU feel the urgency for speed.
Tomb Raider II and successors (except AOD)all had great controls and cam. You really felt like you could do almost anything. I wish they'd have left those controls in place and upgraded the graphics and all would've been perfect.
One other thing that I've noticed thus far. Laura can't interact with a lot of the environment. She can't really explore other areas. You see an obvious ledge, but she can't jump up to it or grab on. C'mon... half the fun is exploring everything and feeling like you're really alive and a part of the game.
Overall, I'm sure I'm going to love this game, despite all the criticisms I've had. I just want to see more adventures. But, the older games are still better because you could control the actions better and SEE better. That was the formula that made it all enjoyable.
If they could change only two things to make this game and future Tomb Raider games better, I'd say get rid of that camera and go back to the original and restore the orignal controls. I'll add an update when I finally progress beyond the T-rex...

Two of my all time favorite titles, Resident Evil and Tomb Raider remade have not disappointed. RE4's keyboard controls were a minus but the controls in TR: Anniversary are much better thanks to the mouse. Gameplay wise I remember a few parts from the original, lots of challenging and fun puzzles to solve. But Anniversary feels new and original, like a completely different game thanks to the updated graphics. I am playing on a IPS screen and the visuals/detail are very good. So good that I actually got a bit of acrophobia trying to pull off all those dizzying maneuvers in the St. Francis Folly level! The music and atmosphere is fantastic as well. Legend was faster paced and action packed, Anniversary is slower paced and requires a little more thinking to get through the maps and obstacles. Both titles are the best in the series and a must play for all PC gamers!

The game alternates between acrobatic maneuvers that are somewhat difficult but managable, and battles that are nearly impossible to win. Overall, I found it very frustrating to get to the big battles and get killed repeatedly, and finally gave up without completing the game.

TR Anniversary was a game that needed to be made, which is an odd thing to say about a remake. The original Tomb Raider's level design and puzzle construction were certainly brilliant at its time of release. Unfortunately the technical limitations of the old Playstation crippled the view distance and the visual detail of the game's environment. Now, seeing, hearing, and playing the original game as it was imagined by its creator was worth the 12 year wait.

Crystal Dynamics's basic concept was to recreate the original game with the basic puzzle design and story intact, and along the way fix or eliminate all the trouble spots while enhancing the goodness of the classic. They succeeded admirably. Gone are the clumsy grid-based jump mechanics and maddeningly infrequent checkpoints. Fixed is the claustrophic view distance. And added are nifty wall-jumping, a very fun grappling gun, and a fully playable Croft Mansion level.

The Croft Mansion deserves notice as it's now a fully playable stage in itself, as large and challenging as any of the main story. Hidden gems and relics are now available for view in the mansion as they're collected in the game. I enjoyed returning to the mansion and playing through its challenges as much as any of the main story features, and it's a tribute to the developer's affection for the game that they put as much loving detail into what is essentially a "bonus area".

The main story missions are rebuilt from the ground up, miraculously adding detail, depth, and distance to the original classic levels while retaining their basic aura. All the newest graphical tweaks are implemented masterfully here: HDR, distance blur, light bloom, and Legend's amazing "wetness" effect that slowly dries after Lara emerges from water. It's a solid engine, too, as all the effects at high resolution really only need an average PC. My only graphical quibbles were the AA effects that kill Lara's shadow, water reflections that incorrectly reflect objects in the foreground, and an occasionally overzealous depth-of-field effect that sometimes blurred nearby environments. Interestingly, that's a carryover problem from Angel of Darkness that they can't quite seem to stamp out.

Sound design is one area often overlooked by players, but it can be the difference-maker in setting a game's mood. Anniversary could be studied as a how-to reference. The developers recorded as many as four different tracks for each enemy type, all perfectly scored to the antagonist's behavior. The background tracks for each environment are just masterful: appropriate, and subdued while still suggesting a mood that perfectly enhances each world. Visually and audibly, I really don't believe the original Tomb Raider could have been recreated any more perfectly.

And finally, the slightly imperfect gameplay. One area that needed plenty of smoothing was the original game's 3-d engine. It was really somewhat poor even in 1996. Lara made for good box art, but she moved clumsily. Similar to Legend, Lara's animations are now silky smooth, and far more forgiving than in the original games. She's now both graceful and merciful, as the developers give you a small benefit-of-the-doubt assistance with each apparently difficult jump. Combine that with the very generous number of checkpoints, and the robotic "kill me now" enemy AI, and the game very often just feels too automatic. I appreciate the removal of the infuriating cheap death tricks, but swinging too far in the easy direction also takes some of the fun out of the game. Even less fun is the clumsy back-jump-while-swinging maneuver required to progress many areas. And the over-assisted camera could be more helpful by simply doing less, although it's manageable with some right-stick manhandling. (Don't forget to turn on your gamepad's z-axis in the menu).

Minor flaws aside, Tomb Raider Anniversary is more than I could have hoped for. It's now firmly atop my Tomb Raider speed dial, with II a close second. Here's hoping for a Crystal Dynamics remake of that classic, too.

This is an awesome re-imagining of the original. The levels are fresh yet retain that overall design that made the original so fun; the graphics are great, although not quite "Legend" caliber IMHO; the audio is *TOP NOTCH* and it's a pleasant surprise to hear the original score made into a well done update. Overall, it's refreshing and gets back to what the original was so great for: puzzle solving and exploration!

If you're a kid with finely-honed, millisecond-sharp gaming instincts, developed over years of repetitive play, you'll probably have a great time. If you're a grown up who, like me, thought you were buying an enjoyable game whose primary challenge is puzzle-solving, then you're screwed. The game is gorgeous, easy to learn, and easy to play. The levels and puzzles are challenging and fun. But when I came to the first BIG boss, the T-Rex, I got destroyed. And then again. And again. And on and on and on... It's one of those shooting sequences where you have to hit EXACTLY the right sequence of keys, at EXACTLY the right millisecond, and then do the whole thing over again several times. If you make the slightest mistake (there's ZERO margin of error here), you're dead, and have to start all over. After 30 or 40 tries, I said "screw it," and packed up the game. Thirty bucks, flushed. Oh well, live and learn. Grown-ups: stay away. Everyone else: I'll be selling mine on eBay.

well, the game WAS going fine BUT...at the level of the city of vilabamba...at the large locked door...right side to open that lock was fine BUT LEFT SIDE (after many many tries and hellp from comp savy friends) has been determined that IT'S I BUG in the game!!!!so buying it was wrong and i didn't know that...if the game is exchanged, would there still be that BUG!???? so i'm sorry that i made that purchase...needly to say....what can i do?? any thoughts &/or suggestions???is there a was to by-pass that part of the game???can the bug be cured??....liddiebugm@yahoo.com

This game is really fun, the gameplay is very realistic, and Lara looks great with beautiful graphics... This game re-started my obsession with Tomb Raider games. Im mad for Tomb Raider now!! (I havent played it since Tomb Raider III). I really liked this game and the re-make quality was really entertaining for me since I havent been avid with TR in a great while...

Gameplay is amazing smooth animation no glitches whatsoever...

Only thing I dont like is Time Trial mode seems impossible, even on levels that seem like ive played for hours. Even still this game has a high replayable factor.

i loved the first game, and this is soooo much beter, the graphics are way past awesome! the gameplay is relatively the same as legend. the story is almost the same as the first, which is great. the music is awesome. and overall, i love this game... its absolutely stunning.

words can't explain how great this game really is... it's even better then legend... you've got to have a first hand experience at this masterpiece.

if you are a long time fan of tomb raider... you must get this perfect game. and no it doesn't have any bugs.

oh, and yes it works much much better on vista.