Hindsight never looked so good…
Playing Tomb Raider Anniversary for the first time, my initial thoughts turned to Myspace. Arguably the most potent pop-culture force of the last few years, its meteoric rise has everything in common with the way Lara Croft endeared her big-bosomed self – and indeed, the entire Tomb Raider franchise – to the public conscience back in the mid nineties.
That, and, standing in a busy press event hearing games journos discuss how great a picture with the ‘real life Lara’ would look on their MySpace pages, made the two megabucks marketing phenomena seem all the more interlinked.
Part re-imagining, part re-working
Tomb Raider Anniversary really is a game designed for the MySpace generation. Part re-imagining, part re-working, and part semi-sequel to the return-to form that was last year’s Tomb Raider: Legend, it’s got the look and feel of a fantastically realised ten year celebration of everything which made Lara’s first Tomb-trawling adventure a true gaming classic. As such, it should appeal to old-time Tomb Raider fans and younger Lara newcomers alike.
I have to admit though, my experience with Tomb Raider is not what it could have been. An unhealthy obsession with the FIFA franchise and an underpowered gaming PC meant my high-point from the series at that age was repeatedly exploring the same cavernous opening level time and time again; jumping gaps, battling bears, swimming through tunnels and more often than not struggling against unresponsive controls and an irritatingly prone-to-swing camera system.
A fantastically realised ten year celebration of everything which made Lara’s first Tomb-trawling adventure a true gaming classic.
In Tomb Raider Anniversary, those two all-important flaws are a thing of the past, and make that once-laboured cavern expose feel fluid, fast and above all fun. The cam issues are a thing of the past, while controls retain the flowing grace of Legend, adding even more moves to Ms Croft’s acrobatic repertoire, with precarious pole-balancing and grappling-hook-utilising wall run and abseil manoeuvres joining Lara’s slicker, quicker Prince of Persia inspired animation and high-climbing expertise.
There’s also a certain something to be said for the way gunplay was originally envisaged in the original Tomb Raider. Like the 1996 original, animal combat is the order of the day in Anniversary, and it works much better with Legend’s lock-on targeting system than that the ostensibly people-centric battles of last year’s Lara outing. In my hands-on I saw Lara face off against bats, bears, wolves, raptors and mummies, and there’s much more besides waiting in the game’s final build.
None bigger, of course, than the T-Rex. Tomb Raider’s most talked-about set piece, Anniversary does the classic moment proud with a truly heart-pounding cinematic QTE sequence, seeing players pushing buttons at the right moments as the hulking lizard’s razor-sharp teeth lurch Lara’s way. It also shows off Anniversary’s visual flair, which for PS2 technology is quite frankly on the stunning side – easily up there with the best the console has ever produced, it’s simply that good.
Reverance
All of which is a real credit to those talented folks at Crystal Dynamics, who have shown both skill and considerable reverence for their source material; steered on course themselves by none other than Lara’s very own creator, Toby Gard.
Indeed, with hopes so high for Anniversary, it seems only right to give the final word to Gard himself. “With Tomb Raider Anniversary, we’re improving where we can, while still trying to stay within the boundaries of what the first game was all about.” Like MySpace’s “A place for friends” tagline, the mantra seems simple, but the resonance of Lara’s latest, oldest adventure may just be felt amongst Tomb Raider fans in a way that’s every bit as powerful.
Preview by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: PS2
Preview Published: 11.05.07