Tomb Raider: Anniversary - Back to Lara's Roots

I can't believe we're eight entries in on the Tomb Raider series! This one is on the aforementioned 8th entry to the series, Tomb Raider: Anniversary.

Let's get into it!

Back to the Beginning

The success of Legend had left fans cautiously optimistic about the series' future, but the guys at Crystal Dynamics were going to have a lot of work to do - after all, a single title's success isn't really much to go on; it could've been a fluke.

Determined to prove that they knew what they were doing, and the Legend's success wasn't a fluke, the team at Crystal began working on the next entry in the series - Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Instead of making a direct second chapter to Legend, however, the dev team decided to go all the way back to the beginning. They were going to remake the original 1996 classic.

The team rebuilt many of the first game's levels, tweaking a few things here and there to make things interesting. Tomb Raider: Anniversary was released in June 2007 and was met with positive reviews all the way 'round.

Returning to Atlantis

Jacqueline Natla is a business tycoon who hires Lara Croft to recover an artefact called the Scion of Atlantis. She travels to Peru, Greece, and Egypt to collect the various pieces of the artefact.

What Works Here?

So, what works?

• The visuals are great, Lara's new look is really nice, rocking the classic braid, teal tank, and shorts, but with a more modern twist.
• Levels were really well-designed - they look great and the traps are a lot more intimidating.
• Troels Brun Folmann returned to composing duties, and his musical work here is fantastic.
• The performances are great. Keeley Hawes returns as Lara Croft and she's phenomenal. Every performance is great, with a particularly flirtatious chemistry between Larson and Lara that's very engaging..
• Combat is very satisfying, and the adrenaline dodge/kill system is really cool - if a little finicky at times.
• Lara's first human kill, and her subsequent realization that she'd killed someone is very subtle and very, very well done.

Anything That Doesn't Work?

Okay, so what doesn't work? Is there anything that doesn't work? Well...yeah, unfortunately, there are a few things.

For one thing, the save system isn't really a save system. It's a checkpoint system. Specific actions and in-game locations trigger a checkpoint where your progress is saved. Unfortunately, the checkpoint system can cause a major issue. If you die before hitting a checkpoint, you can often lose around 30 minutes or more of gameplay.

The brutal death scenes from the original game have been replaced by ragdoll physics. This isn't really a problem; it's just a nitpick, but the ragdoll animations are somewhat silly. Now, I think this was done to make the game more accessible to younger players, but I can't be sure.

Interactive cut scenes are all over the place which, in most cases, is fine but here it's like every major moment in the game. Killing the T-Rex in the lost valley? Cut scene. Fighting Larson Conway outside Qualopec's tomb? Cut scene. I think you get the idea. Now, this was a thing in Legend as well, but here it feels wrong. You don't feel triumphant after the T-Rex fight, you feel almost cheated in a way.

Lastly, the timed ledges and such are here en-masse and they are just a nuisance. Previous games had timed ledges and/or events too, but not to this extent and it makes some areas feel almost unplayable at times.

I have heard that the game is glitchy in some cases, but I didn't have that problem. It's worth mentioning but not quite relevant to my review.

A Pretty Good Remake Overall

Overall, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a really good remake. It does enough differently to stand on its own without ignoring the 1996 classic. It's a fitting tribute to our lovely lady Lara, and I can't wait to get to the rest of the series.

That's all from me for now, everyone, thanks for reading. Let me know what you think of the game in the comments - as always - and I'll see you next time.