Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC) Review

Tomb Raider: Anniversary begins exactly like Tomb Raider: Lara is given the task of finding the Scion by the mysterious Natla of Natla Enterprises, and she is more than eager to do so. Even better? No annoying intercom chatter from forgettable sidekicks, no mercenaries, no nothing. It's just good ol' Lara and the passion of her life, the silent magnificence of ancient tombs, and the secrets within them; tombs that retain their initial majestic aura, and become even more beautiful through the use of Crystal Dynamic's new-gen engine. Note, however, that this is not just an HD facelift of Lady Croft's first trip down the world of ancient mysteries.

What that means is that Anniversary plays more like Tomb Raider: Legend, since it uses its gameplay mechanics, controls and all. With that being said, everything you want is right here, fellow Tomb Raider fans! The original cut-scenes (in their new, polished versions), the snowy caves that lead to the lost city of Vilcabamba, the mysterious, trap-filled temple of St. Francis' Folly and the nicely-ornamented sewers and arenas underneath it, the imposing temples of Egypt, and then some. It all looks fantastic, and the inspired-by-the-original, magnificent OST fits like a glove to everything.

The thing is that this doesn't just look the same as before, but it also "feels" so - it has the same heart. It's silent instead of loud, it's mysterious instead of action-packed, it's experiential instead of full of exposition; it's the way Tomb Raider was always meant to be. Note, however, that although cut-scenes are few and far between, they actually manage to offer a very pleasant storyline, which, like everything in here, is similar to the core material, but has undergone some very welcome changes, ranging from the look of the main antagonist (100 thumbs up for Natla not being a generic Texan broad anymore), to the few additional scenes and dialogue sequences.

Is this better than the original? Yes, and by a large margin. For starters, like with Legend, levels are much smaller, and thus, never become boring. Secondly, the jumps required get much more difficult and ingenious as the game proceeds, to the point of being a unique brand of puzzles and not just a bunch of challenging jumps. Even the action, the part where no Tomb Raider has ever managed to be more than… nice (at best), turns out to be quite good here, first because enemies (almost all of them animals) require a bit more skill than just pointing a gun at them, and, secondly, because battles don't happen too often and never last too long.

The part where Anniversary will surely blow your mind, though, are the puzzles. Tomb Raider had some really good ones, but most of the time the whole adventure felt like a hunt for keys to collect, and levers to push. Not anymore. The puzzles provided here are simply fantastic, requiring the use of good observation skills, and, like all good adventure games, lots of imagination and out-of-the-box thinking.

In conclusion: this has surpassed the "master," and is truly one of the gems of the franchise. It's still far from a flawless one, however. Besides some tiny issues, like the occasional boring section of a stage, or the fact that it all feels slightly more linear than before, some things don't work as intended. The original Tomb Raider series could be very annoying, but, although people claimed that their controls sucked big time, they never felt unfair.

The controls were not as responsive as they should, yet death was almost never the fault of the game… unlike here. As levels become more complex and the jumps more demanding, Lara will occasionally fail to do as instructed. Why did she jump "there" even though she was facing "there?" Why did she fall down, despite slowly walking towards the edge to grab onto it? Luckily, this problem never turns this title into a bad one, but it would surely be better if it was non-existent.