Others say...

"My Thoughts on Tomb Raider Anniversary"
If you were around to enjoy the original Tomb Raider, playing this game is like meeting a girl you thought was hot in junior high, only now you're both in your 30s and she's still just as hot as you remember. As for you, well. The less said, the better.

If you think that's just a questionable metaphor for the character of Lara Croft herself, you may be right, because she does look just as good in this iteration (given today's graphic advances) as we old-timers thought she looked back in '96, triangles and all. I was actually in college when I played the first TR on the PS1, and at the time, I was (along with legions of other gamers and non-gamers alike) smitten with the heroine that helped launch the 3D action-adventure genre. A few increasingly tired sequels...bad movies...and countless 3D action-adventure games later...and the magic was all but gone.

10 years later, this "re-imagining" takes what was great about the original TR (level design, puzzle solving, a great sense of exploration, tight control), and dresses it up in a new coat of paint, adding tweaks here and there for modern sensibilities. It looks a lot better, Lara's got new moves, everything has a bigger sense of scale. Some changes have been made - some for the better, some seemingly for change's sake. Most importantly, the soul - the essence, if you will - of the original TR is here, and that's why I give this game a hearty recommendation. I can think of few other games that deliver a sense of grandeur, danger and giddy pleasure in quite the same way Tomb Raider can when it's firing an all cylinders.

If you're feeling nostalgic, you'll love the developer commentary you can toggle on or off in the option menu, then trigger by activating one of the purple diamonds in the level (they look like the original's save points). If you're a fan, it's pretty interesting to hear Toby Gard, the designer of the original, and Jason Botta, the game director of the new version, go back and forth about the challenges and changes involved with both the original and this remake. If you're the "gotta catch 'em all" type, you'll probably enjoy replaying levels to collect hidden relics and artifacts, finish the time trials (speed runs) and take a run through Croft Manor.

Obviously, as a person who played and enjoyed the original, I'm bringing a lot of mental baggage along. If you're new to the franchise, the experience certainly won't have the same impact, but I suspect you'll still have a grand time anyway. In this day and age of first-person-shooter over-saturation, this game may even come as a breath of fresh air.

"A good remake - for fans only"
The Good:
- It is a remake of one of the most revolutionary games. Crystal Dynamics has done a good job in trying to keep the original gameplay, while bringing in some innovations.
- Graphics are very good. While the 'blurriness' of Legend is gone, the graphics better match the goal of the game and still look very good. Textures are also very good resolution - which I cannot say about Call of Duty 4, for example.

The Bad:
- You cannot save anywhere. Actually - you can - but the only thing you save is the last checkpoint. This becomes a slight frustration starting with the Egypt levels, where Checkpoints are more further apart.
- Difficulty level is a lot higher than the original and actually any of the other TR games. Prepare to die ... a lot. This will not necessarily happen because of you, but because of camera shifting in the last moment or the grapple not catching the hook always, etc. This is a very unforgiving game, so if you easily get frustrated over replaying bits over and over, then maybe this game is not for you.
- There is always one and only one way to do things. This is probably the biggest weakness of this game. For example: in the Atlas level, you can climb a wall to activate a switch, but then - when the boulder starts rolling - you cannot climb the exact same wall, because the designers want you to do something different. Same happens in many other spots. In some levels you cannot catch a ledge until you do something else, even if the ledge is already there, etc.
- Controls, controls, controls ... Maybe I remember this different, but the original - with its square blocks - controlled a lot easier. Legend also felt better and even if Anniversary uses the same, they are not as good for some reason. One thing that is sure to drive crazy everybody playing this game is Lara's hand stand animation. This is an animation that start in some cases when you grab a ledge and try to get on it. For some reason, this animation will kick in almost EVERY TIME when you are in a timed puzzle. I do not know if that is the intention of the developers - to slow you down - or just poor controls, but it gets annoying fast.

The Ugly:
While games like Prince of Persia are evolving and newcomers get it right from first try (Uncharted, for example), the Tomb Raider series is -literally- stuck in the past. While the other games are about exploring great places, TR games continue to be about the 'perfect jump'. Crystal Dynamics should take example from Uncharted, where the game is driven by a great story. Controls never get in the way and it is actually very hard to miss jumps or die because of that. Same with Prince of Persia games. As an old fan of these games, I would really like to see an evolution, if a revolution is too much. Crystal Dynamics has got some things right, but they are still behind.

Conclusion: Despite its problems, if you are a fan, this is a buy. If you are new to this - stay away from it, as the high degree of difficulty will create a lot of frustration.

"A great find!"
This is a fitting revisit of the original. The controls were easy to master. The bosses and puzzles were challenging. And my eleven year old daughter loves the game as well. I do wish Eidos would release an Indiana Jones game for the 360 with the same format as this.

Lara Croft delivers.

"excellent gameplay but the graphics show it's a port"
some people say gameplay > graphics. They're wrong. In a video game, the video(graphcis) and the game(play) are equally important.

the gameplay here is solid, excellent except for one thing. running along side the wall with the grapple and then jumping in the opposite direction (or to the side) SUCKED in this game. it didn't work half the time. difficult to control.

the visuals? they're good, but not great. I was extremely disappointed that we had to take a step down, just because this is a port. while this game does use the Legend engine, it's completely missing the shine and shimmer (HDR lighting, blur effects, etc) of Legend. Maybe they left it out because the Wii couldn't handle it and they wanted a multi-platform release without having to do too much work with the raw material?? Not sure what the deal is because the 360 version of this title popped up out of nowhere. Seems like it was announced and then released in just a month or 2. Don't know, don't care, it's a step down from Legend visually and Legend was released over a year ago. It makes me appreciate how good-looking Legend actually was.

there's a glitch in a Peru - Qualopec that if you do something in a particular order, you won't be able to swing from one hook to the next - you'll jump, try to attach the next hook, but keep attaching to the same first hook. That was crappy.

I experienced occasional "image tearing". This is a problem with many next gen games I'm noticing more and more. No framerate drops that I can remember...not many or any camera problems.

Other than that, this was an excellent release, very lengthy, very reasonably priced, even available to download in separate chapters or entirely on XboxLive. Nice extras (commentary), cool cheats, the mansion is a nice level. there's even an unlockable playable "test level". That's all good. Great homage to a great and important franchise.

For the next release, please return to the full Legend engine. Don't dump on us 360 people.

"Little Lara turns 10"
How well you respond to Tomb Raider: Anniversary really depends on how old you are, or more specifically, how nostalgic. Essentially a remake of the original (and still the best) Tomb Raider, Anniversary offers us a chance to put Lara through her first adventure once more, only this time with modern graphics, sounds, and slightly (but only slightly) less clunky controls. Sounds like a plan.

Problem is that Anniversary is too busy; the new team at Crystal Dynamics, while very talented, simply oculdn't leave a lot of things well enough alone. As a result, a lot of things feel like they were changed simply for the sake of adding change, and not really for improvement. Thus, overly busy. For example, Anniversary thankfully features the original TR's supremely lovely theme. But it's an update that, while not bad in its own right, just feels unneeded, and makes you simply wish they'd stuck the original back in (sort of like Nonpoint's cover of Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight). While I understand that the developers wanted to keep the material "fresh" for veterans, I'd be willing to wager it'll be veterans of the series (like me) who complain most about how the City of Vilcabamba seems a LOT smaller this time around, or how the Lost Valley doesn't even resemble the wonderful original, minus a few landmarks here and there.

And that's the basic issue with Anniversary. As an adventure game, it's damn fine (minus the fact that the graphics display an unacceptable amount of slow down when lighting is played with). But as a remake of the original, it doesn't feel quite right. Sort of like New Coke versus Original Formula.

Still, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a great game, and if you haven't played the original, is even greater.