Tomb Raider: Anniversary

With slick graphics, beautiful level design and of course, the puzzles and action that first captivated us completely, Anniversary lives up to the name of Lara Croft.

It’s a timeless experience for the entire family.

If you have fond memories of Tomb Raider from 10 or so years ago, then it is very likely you will be able to pick up Tomb Raider: Anniversary and relive good times. The game might not have the best graphics and some may dislike the Tomb Raider style, but for fans, its a dream come true.

This really is a special game for the truest fans. [Dec 2007, p.84]

This is retro gaming as it should be, other developers please take note!

Tapping into the sense of isolation and level flow of the original game, Crystal Dynamics has completely overhauled the individual puzzles and encounters to match more modern expectations. [Dec 2007, p.152]

Playing it today felt just as new and exciting as playing it ten years ago did. And that is this game's main strength.

If you've never played the first Tomb Raider, this is a great way to go about it. If you have, this is a great way to get reacquainted with it.

It brings a classic game world up to date, throws in simple but intuitive controls and doesn't rely on constant fire-fights to bring excitement.

The 360 is much crisper in appearance, but you'll run across frame rate hiccups while you're playing.

Those expecting a more action heavy experience will feel a little let down, but as a puzzle heavy action game, Lara can more than hold her own.

With three "episodes"--two story episodes and Croft Manor--the price tag is easily justifiable: Anniversary offers a respectable four to eight hours per slice. [Holiday 2007, p.76]

Overall the differences between the two versions are slight and other than the inclusion of achievement points - usually rewarded for the successful completion of each level, as well as the completion of time trials and the collection of scattered artefacts – it’s literally the same game in a higher resolution with a few tagged on graphical effects.

With its attractive price and workable controls, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is easy to recommend to anybody who enjoys exploring dank and dark caves looking for hidden treasure.

This is a game that delivers to both the fans of the series and newcomers and it honestly delivers in spades.

It’s been a long and tumultuous ride over the years for our girl Lara. It’s nice to see her go back to what made her the woman she is today. Solid controls, huge areas to explore and conquer, and larger than life ancient block puzzles to solve all make an appearance.

Anniversary is still a fantastic game, and well worth playing, that is, if you haven’t already.

Again, this remake of the original is based on the engine found in Legend, but really could have used more from it. It’s absolutely worth playing because it’s fun and actually better than the original Tomb Raider.

Overall, Tomb Raider: Anniversary features an age old style of gameplay that is beginning to struggle against the test of time.

It’s almost the lack of innovation that makes this fun, as it’s a throwback to the original TR game of 1996. It just doesn’t take a lot of chances either.

The game is worth a shot, especially if you’ve never jumped into Lara’s short shorts before.

Even with its technical shortcomings, annoying camera angles, and slightly underdeveloped storyline, the original Tomb Raider adventure remains fun in this new iteration.

The AI isn’t much more sophisticated than that of Space Invaders, but if you look at the reasonable $40 price tag, the good aspects of Tomb Raider Anniversary begin to outweigh the bad.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary's success is twofold: It does well by the memory of the original and makes a dynamic action adventure game that's fun to play in 2007.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the Xbox 360 may not be all that different from the PlayStation 2 version, but it's still a great game that should please those who enjoy their action games.

As an experiment to push the capabilities of downloadable content over Xbox Live, there's little to doubt Anniversary's originality - on Microsoft's console at least. However, a few extra touches to the lighting and a few soaked vests aside, the Xbox 360 edition of Lara's first outing will be more for the fans.

Nobody expects the remastering of Tomb Raider to be game of the year material, but Tomb Raider: Anniversary provides enough of the original game's thrills to be considered satisfyingly decent.

Everything is good about this game except the graphics; the developers really didn’t put any effort into making this game look good at all. It looks like a straight port from the PS2 version.

It's an improvement on the distinctly triangular original for sure. [Issue 27, p.90]

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a nice throwback, but doesn’t offer much innovation to adventure gamers in this generation of consoles.

I'd have to consider this the version of last resort: If you have the chance to check out the game on any of the other platforms, I'd recommend doing just that.