Review #547: Tomb Raider Anniversary

 Double the bits, double the breast size.

Now with extra polygons.

 Tomb Raider was a great game, but let´s be honest here, even by the PS2 era´s standards it had aged a lot, requiring a more retro-taste to be enjoyed. But Crystal Dynamics had proven themselves with Tomb Raider Legends, and thus they were tasked with remaking the first game. The end result is surprisingly good, despite its flaws.

 The story is pretty much the same as it was on the first game, Lara is enticed into helping NATLA find some Atlantean relics, gets double-crossed and then finishes the job by herself. One thing I would have wanted from the original was a bit more story, and in Anniversary we get that. There are more cutscenes that flesh out Larson and Phillip, the first two bosses, and even Lara gets more time to showcase her personality. She is a bit more of an unwilling hero in this game, showing doubt when it comes to finishing off her enemies, but it kinda works considering how most enemies in this game were, and still are in the remake, animals.

Mummies don´t explode upon death this time around.

 Alright, first of all... this is not a 1:1 remake, almost everything has changed, kinda. You will recognize a ton of elements, stages, objects and the such, except that  they look gorgeous now, but most puzzles are entirely different. Take the gods´ keys level, where you have to visit various rooms named after gods, like Thor, and get four keys to open a door at the bottom. That is still here, even the electric-orb room is back... but the way you clear the puzzles is completely different, even if you have the same end goal of getting artifacts. Everything is familiar... but it is also different. Relying too much on your knowledge from the previous game might even bite you in the back, take the three-cogs puzzle near the beginning of the game... I spent hours fumbling about searching for the third cog, since in the original you needed to place all three cogs in order to operate the mechanism... but now you need to get two cogs, put them in place, navigate the newly operational machinery in order to finally get the final cog! I found the new puzzles to be, on the whole, fairer, more sensible and more fun... even if at a few times I was lost on where to go next.

 Combat is easily the game´s blandest mechanic. R1 shoots your infinite-ammo guns, L1 locks on an enemy, you can toggle first-person, static aiming with the right analog stick,  X jumps and circle dodges. There are ammo-consuming Shotgun, Uzis and Magnums but they are useless, or rather, unnecessary. Firstly, every single human boss is a simple QTE section. Remember Larrson and Phillip? QTEs. Remember when you had to get your equipment back from the three stooges? QTEs. Then there´re the beast bosses, like the giant T-Rex, in which case you shoot to enrage them, then dodge their incoming attack and use the ´dodge-and-shoot mechanic´ to cause damage. So, y´see, other guns only make the rage bar fill faster, not do more actual damage, which makes other weapons unnecessary.

 Combat is a bit bland, but it´s not too bad.

 Normal enemies are just as lame, you just shoot at them until they die or get enraged, in which case the ´dodge-and-shoot´ mechanic instantly kill them. It is basically a QTE, since when enraged enemies and bosses charge and you the screen gets a red tint, indicating that you must dodge with circle, and then, in slow motion, two crosshairs will slowly home in over the enemy, once they merge together and turn red you press R1 and BOOM, you just killed the enemy or caused damage to the boss. Optional weapons have silly ammo caps too, and there is a surplus of ammo encouraging their use, but you don´t need to.

 The platforming fares much better, and it did some thing a few months before Uncharted 1 hit the scene. The whole climbing over various ledges and jumping from ledge to ledge? Tomb Raider Anniversary did it first. It is not perfect though, in order to reach some ledges you have to press and hold X to perform a longer, higher jump, which is silly since there is not a single time you´ll want a shorter jump. It is just a way to kill you more often since you forgot to hold the X button. Some times Lara will even lose her balance upon reaching a ledge, so you have to press triangle in order to get her to get a grip before she falls to her death, which is dumb. Dropping off platforms in order to cling to the edge, seems to be a gamble at times, since sometimes she will refuse to grab on to the edge and just fall to her doom. Back to ripping on Uncharted, Anniversary had Lara using a rope to pull objects, swing on hooks and all that hooplah over 10 years before Uncharted 4 arrived. And it works great.

 At least QTEs are only used on a few boss battles

 The games deserves to be commended on all the extras it has. You can search for hidden artifacts, in order to unlock cheats, or find relics in order to unlock many costumes... which sadly can only be worn on replays and not an entire playthrough. The Croft Manor returns, and now it is its own entire level, with tons of puzzles that almost feels like a mini-metroidvania, as you find your guns and the rope in order to access new keys and objects. It is short, but very fun.

 While the game is very easy, you will die a lot. It is easy because dying refills your entire life bar, so it is not weird to reach the final stage with over 70 healing items, and the checkpoints are very generous. What will kill you are the many jumps. You will die a ton of times while figuring out where to jump to next, figuring out if that was a length that Lara could jump or not, double checking if maybe you forgot to hold X and that is why she did not make it or even because the camera is not very good when clinging on ledges. Sometimes you will have to remember that there was a ledge or platform behind you, since you lose all 360 degrees of camera control when clinging. This also happens on a few columns, in which it´s impossible to turn the camera to the right angle for the jump. The game is fun, puzzles are entertaining, controls are smooth, movement is smooth so even though I died countless times, I was not getting frustrated... if only the loading times were not so lengthy. On their own, they´re OK, but taking into account just how easy it is to die... all the time you spend waiting for the stage to reload starts becoming increasingly annoying.

Combat is just spectacle to add spice to the adventure

 Tomb Raider is really good despite its shortcomings. It speaks volumes of its quality when you are willing to endure so many loading screens, brought upon from various deserved and undeserved deaths. Levels are large and fun to explore as you solve the many, many puzzles. Combat is lame, but it is far from being bad, and it helps add some action to the adventure, even though it is very clear that the focus is on the explorations.

 For my part, if I ever feel like revisiting Tomb Raider I will stick to this remake. The story is more polished, levels are better and the puzzles are more engaging. Being such a different game also makes it so that it does not replace the original game, but rather, stands beside it. This is not a replacement, but a modern take on an aging game. And it is a great one.
 8.0 out of 10