Tomb Raider Anniversary Talkback

[Classic Speedy]

I got the game today, and have played through three levels so far, currently starting on Tomb of Qualopec, one of my favorite levels from the original game.

Random thoughts so far:
-Hmm, they're using the Legend version of Lara's Home. Makes sense, I guess for continuity's sake, though it would've been nice to revisit the PS1 Lara's Home. Haven't played around in it much yet.
-Wonderful graphics with far more detail and rich color than the PS1 games, though since it's the PS2 version it runs at 30 fps as opposed to 60 (XBox Tomb Raider Legend ran at 60 as opposed to the PS2's 30. I know there's no XBox version out... yet... but if it does come out, I assume it'll be the same scenario).
-As you probably know, they're using the Legend game engine again, so that means no annoying "tap the directional button to move a specific, pre-determined amount of space" and no "environment based on squares" that were used in TR 1-5. The controls are far better than any previous generation TR game. And Lara has a ton more moves that weren't in the first game: Pole swinging/climbing, more diverse moves during ledge climbing/shimmying, balancing on pole tops, grapple hook swings, rope swinging, crouching, and more options for mid-air flipping.
-OK, Caves is the closest to the original level. There are a few rooms omitted and a few that are modified to take advantage of the Legend engine, and the beginning is different in that you have to gain access to the caverns instead of watching a cinema about it, but overall it's very nostalgic to run through the snowy caves.
-City Of Vilcabamba is where things start to get significantly different. There are elements that remain the same (such as the three-wing temple and the room with a cage you have to pull out to get inside) but overall there are quite a few changes.
-The Lost Valley rules. The sense of height is breathtaking here, as you'll often get really high up on the ledges. There are a lot of liberties taken with this level, more so than the previous two, but that's good because it both feels like a new game and yet the setting feels familiar. The T-rex is about 20x harder to beat than in the first game, unless you're an expert at getting him to run into the columns. I wasn't, so it took me a looooong time to whittle his health down.

One thing I like about it is that the puzzles are actually... fun. Not since Tomb Raider 2 have the puzzles in a Tomb Raider game been fun to solve, and even TR2 is a stretch. And the level design makes sense, so that everything has a logical flow. There's no running around lost, or much less of it, anyway. So yeah, I'm enjoying this a heck of a lot.

[Mek]

I'm pretty much in the same spot you are Boris (though I'm *almost* done with the Lost Valley). I gotta say, it's a pretty slick game!

Caves: Feels a lot longer than the original, with some alterations. But yeah, it is fairly close to the original.

Vilcabamba: It felt WAY shorter than the original level, IMHO. Not that it's a bad thing, but maybe it's because the last section where you had the swinging axes -and the bear on the other side of the floor where the exit is- was omitted.

Lost Valley: HOLY. CRAP. This stage is *way* longer -and harder- than the original. I love it. The T-Rex battle is epic, though I'm sure there'll be many more epic battles to come. And count me as another person who had a hard time getting him to hit the spikes. I only got him to hit it once, otherwise I spent a good 7 minutes chipping away at his health. I'm surprised I still had some health packs left! Not quite done with it yet, but I'm getting there.

I'll probably replay through most of the levels to get the relics -though I did make a clean sweep in the Caves-, save for the levels whose outfits I want the most, later on when I'm done with the game the first time through. Ya'know, make the play time alot longer and sweeter. That was the mistake I made in 'Legend': trying to get everything at once. Save for time trials (I used the time trial glitch, since I'm slow), I really didn't have much desire to replay through the game after that. =/

Just a note to other people who don't have a PS2: TRA will be out on the Wii -and apparently the Xbox 360 now- at some point in the future. You really oughtta rent it at least, as it's one of the best games in the TR series to date. =]

It's also interesting that the 'Soul Reaver'-esque real-time streaming between levels has made a comeback, this time in TR. Pretty nice to not have to deal with load times every 10-30 minutes (depending on how long it takes you to get a stage done, as some of these *feel* shorter than its original counterpart).

[Classic Speedy]

St. Francis Folly was a bit frustrating, to be honest. One thing I did like about the old Tomb Raider engine was that it was easy to back off ledges and grab them to drop safely. You just tapped back and hold X, easy. In Legend and Anniversary it's a bit inconsistent whether you'll grab onto the ledge or just fall when you get towards the edge of a platform. So I had a LOT of needless deaths falling off the extremely tall pillars in that level.

I will say though, that the four Mythology rooms were really well-done, even better than the original game. The Damocles room was excellent, with the sword patterns that you had to wade through on the floor. And Poseidon, with having to vary the water level in the room numerous times, was pretty cool.

[Mek]

Ooohhh... I can't wait to get to St. Francis' Folly. I never really did play through the original level, so this'll be all new for me in a way.

And I also agree about the grabbing onto ledges thing. The old style of gameplay may have gotten old after a while, but at least you weren't dying every few minutes if you overshot the mark.

Also, I unlocked the Classic/TR1 Lara (ya'know, the actual polygonal model?) too. I dunno, her face in the PS2 version doesn't look nearly as bad as the initial picture showed. It is fairly amusing and I can't wait to replay through the levels -and see cinematics- with it now. =D;;;

[Juu-kuchi]

I was impressed with Legend, and gave a demo of Anniversary a try. So more than likely I'll probably give this a shot as well when I have the chance.

[mammy2shoesfan]

Enjoyed Legend on Game Cube so I will most likey pick up Anniversary on Wii. I was never into Tomb Raider because I always hated the control from the first one. I gave Legend a try loved and since Anniversary will be using the same engine its a must try.

[KCJ506]

It looks like they took some levels and combined them into one. Like the Cistern and Tomb Of Tihocan.

I'm still hoping for a remake of 2 and 3. Can you imagine playing the Rome and sunken ship levels with these graphics?

[Mek]

As awesome as a remake of II (doing III would be overkill at this point in time) would be, I'd *rather* they continue the story started in 'Legend' next. The last thing I want is for Crystal Dynamics to be going all 'Square-Enix' on us with the Tomb Raider remakes, especially since they've worked this hard to actually have people take Tomb Raider seriously again.

A TRII remake though would still be nice, but I'd only really keep it to the first and second games for now.

[Classic Speedy]

Also, I unlocked the Classic/TR1 Lara (ya'know, the actual polygonal model?) too. I dunno, her face in the PS2 version doesn't look nearly as bad as the initial picture showed. It is fairly amusing and I can't wait to replay through the levels -and see cinematics- with it now. =D;;; Whew, that's good. That thing was hideous. Haven't unlocked it myself yet, though.

Colosseum was actually pretty short. They cut out a LOT of stuff, like that huge cavern room with the tall temple at the very start of the original level- you know, the one before you made your way to the colosseum itself. But there was one section on the rooftops towards the end of the stage which took me FOREVER to get the jumps just right. It shouldn't have been that hard but... whatever.

Midas Palace was awesome. The flame room was a billion times better designed than the original game, and it helps that if you happen to even remotely touch the fire, you don't automatically burst into flames. Makes the learning curve a little gentler. I was having deja vu when I flooded the chamber with sand, too.

Cistern/Tomb of Tihocan had one of the coolest boss fights in any game I've played, ever. You fight two of those minotaur things at once, instead of separately like in the original game. You have to shoot them a lot to get their anger meter up, then when they charge you, activate the slow motion so you can shoot their head, which causes one of them to let their guard down. You then have to grapple the shield away from them, pick it up, and use it to bounce their statue-creating beams back onto themselves. When they've statue-d themselves, you have to shoot them a bunch before they break out of it. Very sweet.

Though I didn't much care for the stage itself, which is odd because Cistern was one of my favorite levels in the original game. Since it took forever to get to the highest level, there was always a pervading sense of "I hope I'm doing things in the right order". I'll admit I had to consult a video walkthrough for some parts of this level.

[JTurner954]

I've been trying to beat the T-Rex for an hour and everytime I try to dodge his rage, he rams into me. Lara flips and yet the T-Rex ALWAYS hits me. Is there a video out there that shows him actually running into the spikes?

[Classic Speedy]

I've been trying to beat the T-Rex for an hour and everytime I try to dodge his rage, he rams into me. Lara flips and yet the T-Rex ALWAYS hits me. Is there a video out there that shows him actually running into the spikes? I can't access the link right now because there are too many connections, but IIRC this video showed gameplay of Lara beating the T-Rex with that method: http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/cgi-bin/dl02/dl.pl?mv_tombraideranniversary_trex . Let me know if that wasn't it.

[JTurner954]

I had the same problem with the video, but I finally managed to beat him with that "Matrix" dodge effect (I had to push the left stick hard to do the move) and let the T-Rex ram into the surroundings.

Thanks for the link. Nice site.

[Classic Speedy]

Starting on Natla's Mines. Have unlocked the catsuit and the camouflage suit. Not bad. Looking forward to getting the wetsuit the most.

Egypt was awesome. Obelisk of Khamoon was hard as ever, with its four rooms and the four artifacts you had to unlock. Sanctuary of the Scion where you had to flood/unflood the room with the sphinxes was better than the original, although it took way too long to get from one side to the other. So if you did things out of order, you had to repeat a LOT of steps.

I forgot to mention this in my first post but I think it's interesting how Lara doesn't gun-fight the human bosses this time around- in place are the interactive cinemas that were seen in Legend. I wonder if this has to do with criticisms that came about during Tomb Raider 2 & 3 when Lara seemed to kill more human enemies than animals and mythical creatures. Or maybe the developers felt it didn't make much sense to plug 300 bullets into Larson and then expect him to talk normally with Lara afterwards. ;)

[BrendaBat]

So Tomb Raider Anniversary is basically a remake of the PS1 game with Legend's controls and graphics, huh? I hated the original Tomb Raider games; but I played a demo of Legend and liked it a lot (plan to buy it as soon as I get the cash).

I have to ask. Did Anniversary do away with the retarded "puzzles" (like the ones where you have to locate a tiny key in a huge, shark-infested lake at the beginning of the level in order to open a door at the end of the level)? If it did then I'm totally buying it! :D

[Classic Speedy]

So Tomb Raider Anniversary is basically a remake of the PS1 game with Legend's controls and graphics, huh? I hated the original Tomb Raider games; but I played a demo of Legend and liked it a lot (plan to buy it as soon as I get the cash). Sort of. Every level from the original game is in Anniversary, but in terms of level design, it's not a 1:1 remake. There are many elements that feel familiar, and some levels stick to the original more than others, but there are enough variations in the game engine, level design, and puzzle solving that it feels like an entirely new game. While I'm not 100% certain whether people who hated the original TR games would like Anniversary, I highly recommend it.
I have to ask. Did Anniversary do away with the retarded "puzzles" (like the ones where you have to locate a tiny key in a huge, shark-infested lake at the beginning of the level in order to open a door at the end of the level)? If it did then I'm totally buying it! :D The only puzzles that are a bit confusing in Anniversary are the ones where you have to pull the pillars to match up with the heiroglyphics on the wall. Otherwise the puzzles make more sense in this game, I've found. It certainly seems more -fun- to figure out, say, how to get out of an extremely deep chamber to the top, or how to get across a gap to the switch on the other side, or how to vary the water levels to gain access to rooms.