10 Year Reunion
Tomb Raider Anniversary revives the once-dead franchise but inherits some of the series' faults.
Published: June 25, 2007
The final sequence in the game at Natla's Mines almost made me burst a blood vessel as it combined timed jumps that had to be perfect with enemies that would spawn and hit Lara with attacks to knock her off the smallish platform. Another part earlier had me retrying a couple dozen times to make a simple jump that I eventually discovered was just the camera yet again making it look like I had the angle right when it was off. The game tries to make up for this with generous checkpoints (and they're greatly appreciated), but some of the jumps are so finicky that I was praying for PC-style quicksave/load option.
It is a crying shame because so much of Tomb Raider Anniversary was obviously done with a reverence for the original game (though almost all of it is more or less new with set pieces from the old game; there's very little in the way of straight copy/paste level design, which is fine). Even the unlockable commentary tracks in every level were enough to get me to play through a good portion of the game all over again, but frustration eventually won out. Coming from the absolute bliss that was Tomb Raider Legend, I was a little surprised to see things so janky here. I know people bitched about the difficulty, but it seems to have swung too far into cheap shot territory.
Oddly enough, the one area that wasn't made more difficult was the very one most people thought was too easy in the first game: boss fights. Granted, the fights are a blast, but they can rely a bit too much on the whole piss-enemy-off-watch-them-charge-dodge-shoot mechanic that was introduced. The final fight in the game is tough not because of the actual battle (it's in an open arena with plenty of room to maneuver), but because afterward there's a QTE-style event that takes absolute split second timing to pull off.
Normally I'd say an easy final boss helps the game build to a breakneck finale (which I actually enjoy; if I'm racing to the end and I can have a challenging but not overly tough boss fight, I actually prefer that the pacing is kept), but having that interactive cutscene in there (complete with rant from the end boss) killed that momentum. Not to mention the ending was just as truncated as it was in the first game. But hey, at least once it's all over there's still Croft Manor (which is familiar, but redesigned for a new set of challenges, which I loved), and the aforementioned commentary sections in the levels, plus a handful of cheats, light debugging options (like turning off the textures, just as in Legend), costumes and so on.
It should also be said that the game is downright gorgeous, even on the PS2 (on the PC, of course, it's even better, and some of the texture issues I had might be cleared by having it all run at a better resolution). Lara's animations are clean, smooth and natural (though obviously most of them were brought over from the last game -- including the utterly superfluous but awesome series of flips she can do), and some of the newer ones are nice little touches (the cannonball after going off a waterfall was a great touch). The framerate is quite solid as well, but then Crystal Dynamics has pretty much gotten the PS2 hardware down pat, and the Kain: Defiance engine can still pump out some pretty visuals.
If there was an area that I really felt was updated compared to the original, though, it was the sound department. Because so much of the game is just Lara clambering around on rock faces, the attention to detail in the way hands and feet slap against the rocks or how all her gear is constantly shifting really does add to the ambience. Weapons have a nice aural kick to them, and what little music (in classic series fashion) pipes in when first coming across a huge vista or new area is wonderful stuff, simultaneously familiar and yet new.
On the whole, the game is a great little update to the game that made Lara such an icon in this industry. Some stuff, like the general lack of real storyline (and no, Lara's "growth" in the game isn't really deep enough or well-played to add any real emotional impact), annoyed me a little, and how the camera and level design could be simultaneously freeing and yet cramped had me scratching my head. Is Tomb Raider Anniversary worth picking up? Absolutely -- especially for folks that still fondly remember the trial and error gameplay in years past -- but if you're expecting a proper update to Legend, this isn't really it.
Hopefully whatever Crystal Dynamics has cooking for Lara's next completely new (and I imagine next-gen) adventure will blend all of the advancements they've managed to add to the series with level designs and puzzles that really nail what it's like to play as a female Indiana Jones. Until then, this will have to suffice.
