Tomb Raider Anniversary
The adventure begins when Lara is hired by a powerful syndicate to retrieve a mythical object called the Scion. As Lara searches ancient tombs and isolated worlds that have lain undisturbed for thousands of years, she discovers that she is not alone. Not only has she awoken their fearsome guardians but there are others desperate to learn the Scion’s dark secrets. Celebrate and commemorate ten years of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft with Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a new action adventure inspired by the original Tomb Raider video game, one of the greatest action adventure games of all time.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars good game
This is a very challenging game but I love the challenge. It is not for little kids because it is too hard. But I recommend it for teenagers and up.
2 Stars Creative Adventure; Short Interest
Despite the fact that Lara Croft can rile up any young male gamer, Tomb Raider really isn’t that impressive. It is fun in the short term, but after a few levels and several hours the creative transforms into the boring. How many traps can you disarm? How many walls can you scale? How many savage beasts can you kill?
There are a lot of action-shooter fans out there, so maybe this game will be popular with that crowd. If you want some interesting gameplay, but don’t hunger for story richness, this will do. Even the most creative games will get repetitive if it’s the same type of gameplay: scenery and sounds don’t guarantee prolonged interest.
Graphics: Excellent. You won’t be disappointed by the visuals and effects.
Sound: Excellent. You won’t be disappointed by the realistic environmental audio.
Mechanics: Fair. The controls are awkward and the rotating camera can be disorienting and distracting.
Gameplay: Poor. No real story to the game – at least not one big enough to sink your teeth into. No incentive to replay the game. Feels kind of ad-hoc.
4 Stars classic tomb raider fun
This game is fun for anyone who likes the tomb raider series or if it is your starter. Another Puzzle solving shooter with a decent plot. The game mechanics are good. Enjoy
4 Stars An excellent current-gen interpretation of a classic
Prior to the current generation of video game consoles, I had last played Tomb Raider when it was introduced on the PC in the 90’s. Before this release, I had already played Tomb Raider: Legend, which I had really enjoyed, so I figured I would give this title a try. Fortunately, it did not disappoint.
From a graphics perspective, this game provided an incremental improvement over Tomb Raider: Legend. The environments are beautifully detailed, and they are extremely large. Not only are the environments big, but they are also extremely high — be prepared to climb a lot. Once you enter an area, nothing additional needs to load, so you are not disturbed by “loading” screens, and you end up totally immersed in the environment. I encountered no framerate issues. The sound is excellent, and compliments the environments perfectly. Music is kept to a minimum, so you won’t be distracted during gameplay.
From a control perspective, this game introduces a new “adrenaline dodge” move, which may take a bit for novice players master. The move is extremely important to gameplay, and it will be necessary to master the move in order to complete the game. This move replaces the “bullet time” move, which became standard in many games in recent years. Otherwise, the control scheme is exactly the same as Tomb Raider: Legend, and Lara’s movements have not changed. If you played Tomb Raider: Legend, you can play Anniversary.
The level bosses are amazing. The T-Rex is probably the most enjoyable challenge I have ever encountered in a video game. There are some other challenging moments, and you may find yourself reaching for a strategy guide, but if you are patient and continue to practice, you should be able to master the game and complete it.
“Completion”, however, is subject to interpretation. The game’s achievements are challenging, and it will take some effort to achieve a 1,000 GS on this game. Reaching the end of the game may take between 10-15 hours, but completing everything and collecting all of the items in the game could take an additional 10-15 hours — without a strategy guide. Fortunately, the game has decent replay value because of the way the achievements are structured.
The only thing that keeps me from giving this title a perfect score is the poor development that went into the CGI transitions between levels. They are simply too short, and they don’t provide enough information to really get immersed in the story. The final CGI presented upon completion of the game is somewhat disappointing, when compared to the ending in Tomb Raider: Legend.
This title may only appeal to Tomb Raider fans, but I believe it is a must-play for this console generation. It’s exactly the type of title that I would like to demonstrate for friends and family. Given its solid gameplay and replay value, it will retain its place in my collection indefinitely.
4 Stars A decent remake of a great game
Back when I was 16 I played the original Tomb Raider, and when I picked this up, I thought to myself there’s no way I could ever remember anything of the original one. I quickly found out that that was definitely not the case. In playing just the first level I found myself saying “Wow, I remember this!” and also found myself astonished by how much prettier the locations were in the game this time around. What was once blocky, lego-land type levels have become (relatively) smooth environments. However, I don’t think this game deserves to be reviewed on how nostalgic it is, but by its own merits. So here we go.
By today’s standards TR:A is a decent looking game. If you want Bioshock-like graphics out of it, you will be disappointed. That being said, the graphics are still beautiful, the motions fluid, and the frame-rate didn’t seem to slow down at any parts that I remember.
On the 360, the controls are very nice and didn’t get in the way of my playing the game (until I did the time trials, but more on that later). Lara jumped and grabbed stuff on her own without me needing to anything extra, and I didn’t want to chuck the controller at the ground out of frustration. Sometimes the game’s controls got a little too helpful though, and Lara aimed herself at things and grabbed ledges that would’ve been more convenient if she had done what I wanted her to in the first place. But those times were rare in the actual game, as I found this to be more of a problem in the mansion than I did in the other levels.
I should add that I’ve only had problems with the controls now that I’m attempting to go through the time trial versions of the levels to claim the last few achievements. I know this is likely due to me rushing through parts I should take slower, but there are times when her head and shoulders literally rub against a ledge I want to grab, and she falls to her death.
The only part of the game that I didn’t like, and the reasoning for it dropping a star, is that it was too easy, and subsequently a fairly short game. Here, I have to compare it to the original a little, because the original was insanely hard and took forever to get through. The levels in Anniversary were shrunken, watered down versions of the original levels, and this felt a little disappointing. I say a little disappointing, because some of the levels in the original drove me so crazy I had to shut off the computer and walk away for a few days before I came back. So I don’t know if making the game easier is all that bad. I don’t mind being a little frustrated by games though, and for the most part it was a cake-walk getting through Anniversary. The time-trials are what add the true difficulty of game, and that’s what saves the game from being completely too easy. So it balances out a bit from that.
In the end though, I’m very much happy with my purchase of this game. It was a fun remake, even if it was a little easy. Getting the last 100 or so achievements will take me awhile, since they are all attached to the time trials.
One final thing for Xbox 360 players– I had a glitch in the game happen that was annoying. I was about halfway through the game, and decided as a break, to try the Croft Manor level. I restarted it, out of frustration, and when I did, I lost all of the relics and artifacts I had found, and the game simply forgot that I had completed Peru (and thus I couldn’t replay the levels). So I had to delete my save games and start from scratch. While I looked at this as an oppertunity to gain some replay value from the game, I can see how it might tick others off. So complete the Croft Manor (preferably with all the artifacts) before you start the rest of game. That way you don’t have to worry about this happening to you. Or just don’t restart the level like I did, as that seems to trigger the glitch. It’s annoying, but not so much that it made me hate the game, obviously.
