Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Playing this game after the reboot trilogy is a breath of fresh air and it reminds me of what Tomb Raider used to be about. The atmosphere, the sense of isolation and figuring out well crafted puzzles are all here and it's a joy to play. The story they added is B movie action nonsense but it's amusing enough and doesn't really take itself too seriously. You shouldn't really be playing Tomb Raider for the story though lol.

- Surprisingly good graphics, particularly texture quality. I assume this is a port of a higher fidelity version than the PS2 copy I played back in the day as it looks really crisp. Recommend turning off depth of field as it's a smeary looking implementation. - Fun platforming puzzles. They did a great job taking the original levels and expanding them with intricate climbing puzzles. Probably the best gameplay improvements. The readability of the levels is mostly fantastic too, with grabbable platforms clear without requiring obnoxious yellow paint. That said, the acrobatics is not as satisfying as the original due to being so mechanically less demanding. - Combat is decent but lacking drama; feels more spammy than frantic. It handles smoothly though and due to the relative infrequency of the fights it's more of a punctuation mark than anything. Weapon choice is as clean and simple as the original TR, though the guns lack punch in the sound department, plus no de-syncronised firing of her famous dual pistols sadly. - Most refined controls & camera in this era of TR IMO. Legend's was stiff, Underworld's gave me motion sickness, this get's a good balance. The controls are fast and loose like the other two games, but feel more predictable than Legends and tighter than Underworld. You do still get issues around "relativity to camera or character", sometimes left is Lara's left, sometimes it's camera left, but I find it's the least egregious of the three. - Tonally it's a bit limp. Lara looks great but all the characters have a Disney cartoon quality that doesn't quite do it for me. The atmosphere and storytelling is friendlier, less dark and sinister than the original. Lara is sympathetic, not a ruthless badass. Dialogue is embellished in a way that doesn't feel necessary or additive. The game misses the eerie, epic loneliness the original possesses. More Indy 4 than Raiders/ToD. - Really nice amount of extras like costumes, time trial modes and commentary tracks.

While being a remake of the 1996 release Anniversary also offers enough changes to still be its own experience. The gameplay is in the same style of Tome Raider Legend but with a slight twist to combat involving a slo-mo attack to deal heavy damage. Level design is based on the originals levels with some areas being streamlined but honestly this is for the better. It is otherwise very faithful in its recreation with every level being easily recognizable with a few exceptions. The story is essentially the the same with Lara getting caught up in Natlas scheme and ending up saving the world. Graphically its very good on par with Legend with a little refinement but lacking the next gen features which is okay in this case at the art design is top notch and it run great.

This is almost perfect. The only thing I would call "annoying" is when you die, you always start with 100% health (even on hard mode) regardless of how low you were before dying. And you don't even have to die - just quit to main menu and load the game and you'll always be at 100% health. This makes the game a little bit easier and you find yourself having 20 unused health packs at the end of the level. Also, this game is really difficult, especially if you want to collect every relic and artifact. Compared to the TR from 2013 it was really all about tombs, without shooting every 30 seconds, unnecessary skill tree, teleporting, etc. This is much better and rewarding gaming experience that I miss in today's productions.

I remember there used to be some issues with the original Tomb Raider, back in the PSX and Saturn days. Sadly only after about 10-15 mins I had to take a break. It was really jumpy and jittery. Either I'm doing something wrong, or it's not going to be an enjoyable experience. Nostalgia can only take a game so far.