Screenshots :.
Tomb Raider Anniversary
PS2
Matt
21-06-2007
"I knew she was a pole dancer"
"The croc played with his mini-Lara doll"
"Dino and pals were after a snazzy snap of Lara for their celeb book"
"[Comment removed due to commical controversy]"
Hurrah! Chocolates and flowers to Miss Croft, then, as it’s been a smidge over 10 years since her original knee-scraping, knuckle-grinding adventure hit the PlayStation and sold quicker than a shipment of pies in a bakery in Fat Town. Original developers Core Design may well slap themselves on the back, for not only did they manage to create an exciting, genre-defining title that countless titles blatantly copied, they also gave the world an iconic character who’s arguably as identifiable as either Mario or Sonic to people of a certain generation, or fans of Angelina Jolie. Either way, it’s all good.
So here we are in 2007, pondering Tomb Raider: Anniversary. In the decade that’s passed in between the release of the original the task of developing the series has been shifted from Core to Crystal Dynamics by Eidos. It goes to show to a degree how ruthless and for-the-moment this industry can be at times, especially when you consider that Eidos might not even exist in 2007 if Toby Gard and crew had not stepped up to the plate and given them a best seller. Still, time stands still for no man, so with half a mind on the past, quarter in the present and another quarter in the pub, it’s to Crystal Dynamics’ fleshed-out version of the original that we turn.
The first point to make, as it’s the first question most will ask, is that Anniversary combines familiar locations to the original (as in, it starts in Peru and concludes in Atlantis) but fleshes out the levels and puzzles to a rather extensive degree. Those worrying that their favourite moments such as battling the T-Rex need not tremble as the majority of the classic set-pieces have made it through unscathed and polished, and the original’s focus on bears, bats and other such nasty beasties is preferred in favour of the human foes recent Tomb Raider games have offered.
Thus, it’s with a sense of familiarity that you kick proceedings off. Pretty soon, however, you come to realise that whilst the surroundings are vaguely reminiscent of the original (heck, if you can vividly remember that far back you’re doing well), the actual layout of the rooms you come across are much more advanced, with plenty of opportunity to make full use of Lara’s abilities. These actually pretty much match Tomb Raider: Legend’s move set, with full analogue control allowing you to pinpoint exactly where you want to launch yourself. Even the grappling hook has made the cut, allowing Lara to swing off conveniently protruding rocks or to grab items and pull them down off ledges. Control is pleasingly intuitive and will take only a couple of well-placed examples to get to grips with, which given the expansive scale of the levels is nothing less than a godsend.
Whereas the original game was very much hamstrung by having to tailor the levels to suit the slightly clunky d-Pad control method, Crystal Dynamics have been given a fresh sheet of shiny design paper to work with for their version due to the flowing, precise nature of control. Ledge crawling and wall jumps now blend into one another, with Lara often being called upon to string together plenty of moves to get her from point A to point B. From leaping off a ledge to grab onto a swinging rope to propelling herself gymnastically from one rotating pole to the next, everything encourages the player to scout out his surroundings and to make full use of them in order to progress.
It’s by doing this – by putting such an emphasis on exploring and traversing the game’s levels – that Anniversary marks itself out as the finest Tomb Raider game for a good number of years. Enemy encounters do occur and will lead to you expelling a great deal of ammunition throughout your journey, but the majority of time sees Lara on her own with nothing to go on but your instinct for how best to make progress through the landscape. On more than one occasion you’ll come pelting up to a room or section and then come to a grinding halt for a few minutes whilst you search around for a ledge or wooden crate to push around. The fact this change of pace never gets more than a twinge frustrating is certainly a credit to Crystal Dynamic’s efforts, and to be honest it’s a pleasure to sit down with a thinking man’s adventure game having been peppered with some action-packed run-and-gun efforts in the past year.
Aside from all the shimmying, leaping and swinging, the other main addition to the experience is Lara’s ability to go all Nero on proceedings and deal out a devastatingly damaging shot to an enemy if they become enraged and charge at her. Now, most woodland manuals state that the best way to deal with a slightly cross bear is to stand stock-still and not to panic. Doing so on Anniversary will not only see you having a giant paw swiped at you, but is also likely to see you greeted by the rather informative ‘you have died’ screen faster than Lewis Hamilton on fast-forward. Thus, when approached by such a beast that you might have annoyed by, say, firing lead pellets into, you are prompted to tap a button and watch as the action slows and two targets converge over the enemy and turn red. Pressing the trigger at this precise moment will deal the aforementioned power shot, and in some battles – particularly later in the game – this becomes a vital tactic.
It’s not all rosy in the garden though, and there are a number of little issues that do detract somewhat from the experience. The first and foremost is the camera, which despite being fully controllable is still a complete pain in Lara’s shapely arse at times. Quite often you’ll find it lazily swinging around to a point-of-view that completely hampers your vision and takes a short but nonetheless frustrating period of adjusting to repair. This often occurs shortly before a jump, and whilst looking closely at parts of Miss Croft’s body might have been fun when I was 13, doing so nowadays shortly before plunging to my doom at the bottom of a rather tall cavern is plain annoying.
The second is a more general moan about the enemies that are dotted throughout the game. Now, allowing Lara to jump around and make use of the surroundings to get the upper hand on marauding lions and such is all fair and good in my book. Being able to make full use of the scattered scenery to leap to an unreachable position so you can easily do away with a particularly tricky foe is fair enough and in the right circumstances could have been highly tense, but it soon becomes more than apparent that simply doing something such as running up a couple of stairs or standing on a particularly sloped piece of terrain will flummox your enemies and keep you out of harm’s way. This would arguably have been a bigger issue had the combat formed a more integral part in proceedings, but it is still an annoyance and takes a bit of tension out of proceedings.
Still, these are by no means game-crippling issues, and more-than-likely you’ll find yourself more worried about exactly how you’re going to reach that tantalisingly-placed cave than why the camera insists on showing you the back of Lara’s right knee on the odd occasion. The fleshed-out gameplay is matched by the obvious improvements that the hardware allows graphically, with some nice touches such as Lara actually getting soaked if she tumbles into a pool of water. The terrain itself is full of earthy, worn texturing, looking remarkably like you’d imagine a Peruvian cave would. The occasional glitch does pop up and occasionally there are issues with clipping on the edges of some crates and the like, but the majority of your adventure is accompanied by a pleasingly pleasant selection of visuals.
So, that’s your lot. I’ll readily hold my hands up at this point and admit that I didn’t exactly have high hopes for Tomb Raider: Anniversary, mainly due to my lack of general interest and enjoyment from recent instalments. It is, therefore, with pleasure and no little surprise that I found myself actually feeling rather pleased with Anniversary on the whole, despite the slightly rough edges. As I said before, this is undoubtedly more a thinking man’s adventure title, unashamedly centring on navigation over combat. A fine return to form then, and whilst we’re not talking God of War 2 standards here, anyone with more than a passing interest in Tomb Raider games past or adventure games in general will get their money’s worth.
So here we are in 2007, pondering Tomb Raider: Anniversary. In the decade that’s passed in between the release of the original the task of developing the series has been shifted from Core to Crystal Dynamics by Eidos. It goes to show to a degree how ruthless and for-the-moment this industry can be at times, especially when you consider that Eidos might not even exist in 2007 if Toby Gard and crew had not stepped up to the plate and given them a best seller. Still, time stands still for no man, so with half a mind on the past, quarter in the present and another quarter in the pub, it’s to Crystal Dynamics’ fleshed-out version of the original that we turn.
The first point to make, as it’s the first question most will ask, is that Anniversary combines familiar locations to the original (as in, it starts in Peru and concludes in Atlantis) but fleshes out the levels and puzzles to a rather extensive degree. Those worrying that their favourite moments such as battling the T-Rex need not tremble as the majority of the classic set-pieces have made it through unscathed and polished, and the original’s focus on bears, bats and other such nasty beasties is preferred in favour of the human foes recent Tomb Raider games have offered.
Thus, it’s with a sense of familiarity that you kick proceedings off. Pretty soon, however, you come to realise that whilst the surroundings are vaguely reminiscent of the original (heck, if you can vividly remember that far back you’re doing well), the actual layout of the rooms you come across are much more advanced, with plenty of opportunity to make full use of Lara’s abilities. These actually pretty much match Tomb Raider: Legend’s move set, with full analogue control allowing you to pinpoint exactly where you want to launch yourself. Even the grappling hook has made the cut, allowing Lara to swing off conveniently protruding rocks or to grab items and pull them down off ledges. Control is pleasingly intuitive and will take only a couple of well-placed examples to get to grips with, which given the expansive scale of the levels is nothing less than a godsend.
Whereas the original game was very much hamstrung by having to tailor the levels to suit the slightly clunky d-Pad control method, Crystal Dynamics have been given a fresh sheet of shiny design paper to work with for their version due to the flowing, precise nature of control. Ledge crawling and wall jumps now blend into one another, with Lara often being called upon to string together plenty of moves to get her from point A to point B. From leaping off a ledge to grab onto a swinging rope to propelling herself gymnastically from one rotating pole to the next, everything encourages the player to scout out his surroundings and to make full use of them in order to progress.
It’s by doing this – by putting such an emphasis on exploring and traversing the game’s levels – that Anniversary marks itself out as the finest Tomb Raider game for a good number of years. Enemy encounters do occur and will lead to you expelling a great deal of ammunition throughout your journey, but the majority of time sees Lara on her own with nothing to go on but your instinct for how best to make progress through the landscape. On more than one occasion you’ll come pelting up to a room or section and then come to a grinding halt for a few minutes whilst you search around for a ledge or wooden crate to push around. The fact this change of pace never gets more than a twinge frustrating is certainly a credit to Crystal Dynamic’s efforts, and to be honest it’s a pleasure to sit down with a thinking man’s adventure game having been peppered with some action-packed run-and-gun efforts in the past year.
Aside from all the shimmying, leaping and swinging, the other main addition to the experience is Lara’s ability to go all Nero on proceedings and deal out a devastatingly damaging shot to an enemy if they become enraged and charge at her. Now, most woodland manuals state that the best way to deal with a slightly cross bear is to stand stock-still and not to panic. Doing so on Anniversary will not only see you having a giant paw swiped at you, but is also likely to see you greeted by the rather informative ‘you have died’ screen faster than Lewis Hamilton on fast-forward. Thus, when approached by such a beast that you might have annoyed by, say, firing lead pellets into, you are prompted to tap a button and watch as the action slows and two targets converge over the enemy and turn red. Pressing the trigger at this precise moment will deal the aforementioned power shot, and in some battles – particularly later in the game – this becomes a vital tactic.
It’s not all rosy in the garden though, and there are a number of little issues that do detract somewhat from the experience. The first and foremost is the camera, which despite being fully controllable is still a complete pain in Lara’s shapely arse at times. Quite often you’ll find it lazily swinging around to a point-of-view that completely hampers your vision and takes a short but nonetheless frustrating period of adjusting to repair. This often occurs shortly before a jump, and whilst looking closely at parts of Miss Croft’s body might have been fun when I was 13, doing so nowadays shortly before plunging to my doom at the bottom of a rather tall cavern is plain annoying.
The second is a more general moan about the enemies that are dotted throughout the game. Now, allowing Lara to jump around and make use of the surroundings to get the upper hand on marauding lions and such is all fair and good in my book. Being able to make full use of the scattered scenery to leap to an unreachable position so you can easily do away with a particularly tricky foe is fair enough and in the right circumstances could have been highly tense, but it soon becomes more than apparent that simply doing something such as running up a couple of stairs or standing on a particularly sloped piece of terrain will flummox your enemies and keep you out of harm’s way. This would arguably have been a bigger issue had the combat formed a more integral part in proceedings, but it is still an annoyance and takes a bit of tension out of proceedings.
Still, these are by no means game-crippling issues, and more-than-likely you’ll find yourself more worried about exactly how you’re going to reach that tantalisingly-placed cave than why the camera insists on showing you the back of Lara’s right knee on the odd occasion. The fleshed-out gameplay is matched by the obvious improvements that the hardware allows graphically, with some nice touches such as Lara actually getting soaked if she tumbles into a pool of water. The terrain itself is full of earthy, worn texturing, looking remarkably like you’d imagine a Peruvian cave would. The occasional glitch does pop up and occasionally there are issues with clipping on the edges of some crates and the like, but the majority of your adventure is accompanied by a pleasingly pleasant selection of visuals.
So, that’s your lot. I’ll readily hold my hands up at this point and admit that I didn’t exactly have high hopes for Tomb Raider: Anniversary, mainly due to my lack of general interest and enjoyment from recent instalments. It is, therefore, with pleasure and no little surprise that I found myself actually feeling rather pleased with Anniversary on the whole, despite the slightly rough edges. As I said before, this is undoubtedly more a thinking man’s adventure title, unashamedly centring on navigation over combat. A fine return to form then, and whilst we’re not talking God of War 2 standards here, anyone with more than a passing interest in Tomb Raider games past or adventure games in general will get their money’s worth.
7/10
