Tomb Raider: Anniversary

I f*cking hated it back when it came out. Since it's on my backlog and it's been a hot minute, I decided, "Sure, why not give it a chance? :)", but this just keeps going, and going, and going, with no end in sight. I don't know how close it is to the original and I don't care. Absolute hot garbage.

The ultimate classic Tomb Raider experience.

This is a game I've always enjoyed watching other people play. 3D platform games tend to confuse my eye too much and I find them extremely frustrating to actually control. However, Tomb Raider Anniversary has been an absolute blast, and while I've had to apologise to Lara many times for getting her killed, the checkpoints have mostly been very forgiving. The graphics are dated, but still gorgeous, in a way that is stylish, like deliberately retro pixel-art games, or lower budget games like Trine, Invisible Inc., or Torchlight. All, very much to my taste. The bad part is... I can't get past the T-Rex. I've studied a whole bunch of guides, watched video tutorials, I know exactly what needs to be done, but there's no way I can pull it off. The "Adrenaline Rush" mechanic seems to trigger randomly, and often when I least expect it, if I attempt to make it happen I'm usually punished severely for trying to think about the controls rather than just play... Having a boss which requires you to perform a 1 in 30 attempt fluke shot in a specific place, at a specific time, and then do it three times in a row..? I've spent a day trying, reading, watching, re-trying, and there's just no way I can do it. As far as I can see, this means the rest of the game will be completely inaccessible to me, even though I was enjoying that platform exploration side of the game, which is its' real meat'n'potatoes. Very glad I didn't pay full-price, or the little gameplay I managed to access would have been even more disappointing. I was rather surprised at exactly where I found myself completely stuck. I thought it would be a super tricky jump puzzle. But, no; It's just a boss fight.

Not sure why, but the camera in this version is horrible compared to the console versions I've played. It will just start auto-rotating at the worse possible times before a jump. Since your jump trajectory is in relation to the camera view, you should be able to see how this is a major problem in a puzzle platformer. I'd avoid this version, if possible.

forgotten how annoying this tomb raider series was. Not even worth 0.89p