Tomb Raider: Anniversary

First and best of the old trilogy Remember the order - Anniversary - Legend - Underworld (Legend was earlier but the story begins in anniversary) + Nice artwork (many years I had screenshots of the game (Peru level) as my desktop backgrounds, only Castlevania Lord of Shadows 2 had more epic sights) +Nice level design (at least MOST of the times) - levels are puzzles that are combined with each other in a good manner. Sometimes levels can be cruel and seem unfair (Egypt!) but the game overall make it great + Nice difficulty scaling (only latest enemies are really tough (Egypt), puzzles maybe a bit complex in the end, but the difference is subtle because you learn game patterns + Nice ambient soundtrack + Boss fights are realtime puzzles! + Checkpoint system make it easy to explore and not afraid of dying. Sometimes you just want to test those leaps of fate and you not risking anything + Secrets and Time Attack - these 2 thing make the game hard for me. Managing time, routing and solving puzzles that are not the part of the main story line (for cheats, new skins and trophies in your Manor) are totally worth it + Developer commentaries (just try it) - QTE - too easy, could be very interesting and intense boss fights (Larson, King Kade, Kid) sometimes they kinda mess up the game pace (T-Rex, endgame) - weird input lags - scary (but not really) save corruption WARNING! If your game crashed or you just Alt+F4 the game, or PC was shut down - your autosave could be lost. Thats why I recommend to save progress at least twice per level. Also if you cant find your saves because the old corrupted autosave blocks them you need to do next steps: 1. Go to the game folder 2. Make the backup of your saves 3. Start new game, wait for the new, proper autosave 4. You can now load your old saves again! (or try other ways from the web) Hope you will enjoy this game as much as I did! (also after finishing I recommend to find on YT speedruns for this game, both glitchless and Any%)

The game is excellent. Works better here than Steam. Steam has a frame time issue, here it's fixed. You must cap the FPS at 60, this makes the game less glitchy and jumps more precise. This game has very dull colours so reshade mod is recommended. Check Steve of War Tomb Raider Anniversary retrospective on Youtube for more info.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a beautifully remade version of the classic 1996 game. It features modernized controls that are very much like Tomb Raider Legend, and while the majority of the game excels, subpar boss battles detract from the experience. Boss battles in this game are simply awful. The combat mechanics overall are not great, and the boss battles are even worse. The biggest issue is the adrenaline dodge mechanic, which is necessary to defeat a boss. This involves dodging an enemy that is running towards you, and when the circle turns red, you have to press fire to damage the enemy. Without activating this dodge, it is impossible to win, no matter how much you shoot at the boss. I faced this issue while trying to kill the big mutant boss in Atlantis and had to give up on the game, as I tried everything from reducing graphics, lowering FPS to lowering the resolution, but nothing worked. This is beyond poor game design. This means that no further progress can be made. Tomb Raider: Anniversary is was a good game overall. It managed to capture the essence of the original game quite well, but the boss battles tarnished the game. They were disappointing and felt like a blemish on an otherwise well-crafted experience. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete the final two boss fights due to technical issues. While I only paid $0.98 for the game, I feel that it was worth the price. However, I wouldn't recommend spending more than that on it.

I'd give this a 7/10 (somewhere between 3 and 4 stars). Its a 3D puzzle platformer with some 3rd-person shooting bits, probably what the original 1996 Tomb Raider was meant to be. There are gameplay parts are very similar to the Uncharted, Prince of Persia, or Assassin's Creed games, where basically you're jumping from ledge to ledge in all directions, hitting switches, and to open up new areas. The graphics are really nice especially the protagonist's "assets." The music is either non-existent or background ambience most of the time but then suddenly goes up in intensity to suit the situation. The game generally plays well and is fun but hampered by some frustrating parts, both related to the game running on Windows 11 and the game itself. Running on Windows 11, the game does not run as-is. To run correctly, the Data Execution Prevention for the .exe of game needs to be turned off. (System -> Advanced -> Advanced tab -> Performance -> Settings -> Data Execution Prevention) For the game itself, there's a lot of situations where the camera doesn't show where you need to jump (and it cannot be adjusted) and results in blind jumping / deaths. Also some things you jump to cannot be grabbed unless you first jump from a correct height which isn't always obvious, i.e.: you see the character obviously should be able to grab something but just doesn't. The "adrenaline rush" mechanic needed to beat bosses are not obvious either and the game does not give you enough practice before its needed. (hold right mouse, move left/right, don't shoot, press shift at right time, shoot once at right moment). So for those frustrating parts in-game, following some kind of guide online would be recommended, just for confirmation that you're going in the correct direction, but just doing it "wrong".

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the first part of the Tomb Raider series. The game is old, but this does not prevent it from delighting the player. Beautiful cinematic views, well-chosen puzzles that you cannot predict, create something unusual from this game, which can be played every time as in a new way. I personally love this game.