Nothing is like you remember it in the Anniversary-version of Tomb Raider. Recently I got the opportunity to play Crystal Dynamics‘ video game Tomb Raider: Anniversary and it didn’t disappoint me.
Crystal Dynamics has cut the well-known levels from the original Tomb Raider-games in smaller pieces and glued them back together as they saw fit. It takes your from The Citstern to The Tomb of Tihocan, the riddles in St. Francis Folly, the room in Qualopeq’s Tomb, the fight with T-Rex or the close combat fight with Larson. Nothing is like you remembered it.
You can play Tomb Raider: Anniversary for thirty minutes with out knowing where you are, and then suddenly drown in nostalgia when recognising something very familiar. It might sound odd, but the chapters are actually better related than in the previous games.
Everything is expanded
There is no doubt that the City of Vilcamba and the Lost Vallet was inhabited by the same tribe, and the Garden of Midas is just next to the Colosseum. You run the distance between the individual levels, making the adventure more interesting.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary is defintely different than the original. Everything is expanded. In the original all you had to do was flick a swith, now you have to solve a puzzle, what used to be a small chamber is now a three-story room, a harmless enemy is now a boss, a cutscene is now an interactive key-combinitation-sequence know from Tomb Raider: Legend.
Overall the gameplay known from Legend is the base of Anniversary. You have to use ropes, ledges, rock and grappling hooks in every level, but dexterous Lara has no problem dealing with that. What I really like about Anniversary is the lack of enemies. In Legends there was so much pointless shooting. In anniversay it is more about the lone tomb raider against the wilds of nature and not an army of mercenaries.
A few minor glitches
When giving a milestone like the original Tomb Raider an overhaul, it is bound to go wrong somewhere and of course this happened in Anniversary too.
The camera angles aren’t always the best, the check points aren’t always placed logical and I could have wished for some improved music, but that is in the details.
The official release date is: June 5, 2007 for PC, PS2, PSP and Nintendo Wii.
