I originally gave this a 2 as I felt it was a very cynical remake, and while I think there is some cynicism baked into it, I don't think it's completely without merit or compassion towards to the original. It has a lot of fun playing around with the original's rock-solid level design and puzzles, making it genuinely very engaging for longtime fans of Tomb Raider.
It also goes without saying that, being based off of Core's original game, this is the best Tomb Raider game that Crystal Dynamics ever made, which is ABSOLUTELY the back-handed compliment it sounds like. Without their really rotten design impulses, there is nothing dragging down Anniversary quite like what happens in Legend and Underworld.
Unfortunately, this is still the Gex team, so they show their asses in different ways throughout this experience. The main one to me, being the terrible, terrible combat. Just inept attempts at action, floaty and without heft, a dysfunctional camera not cooperating well when the game spawns in gorillas to gank you in a cramped corridor. Changing the boss fights to include horrible fucking ungodly QTE sequences should be enough to drop this game to a 1 it's so putrid. The T-rex in the Lost Valley is exciting because of how little fanfare there is: the screen shakes and suddenly a giant fucking dinosaur is barrelling towards you. The player has to make a snap judgement on how to react. Turning that into a QTE and a "Get the boss to ram into the wall" fight is something that only the developers of Gex would think is a good idea.
Platforming games are often sewn at the hip to some disastrous combat mechanics, and Anniversary's almost manage to usurp The Sands of Time's Throne of Shit in regards to them. Which is amusing considering how much of this game (and Legend) really owes itself to Sands of Time.
Sands of Time is very silky smooth though. It's like playing a game from the future compared to this.
Sands of Time came out in 2003 btw.
The R1 button being an all-around context button, the more linear layout of platforming challenges, and the camera being very good at snapping to cinematic angles that give you a readable look at the environment are the secret sauce that makes the Sands of Time hum. When you slow it down and start adding complications to the proceedings, it becomes very janky and sloppy feeling. This is doubly so when the development team is the same one who made Gex.
Lara in TR96 controls the same all the time: she is the model of consistency in a video game. There is an unprecedented freedom in that game of mastering her control scheme because once you do, the game is yours to roam free! Anniversary by contrast feels much more rigid in what you can do, as trying to do platforming challenges out of order will have Lara just flatly refuse to grab a ledge or clip through poles, and the Gex team are VERY bad at signposting so you will be doing this without even understanding why you died. In brief instances where things run smoothly, there is a real glimpse at platforming goodness here. The game just refuses to get going or focus on its strengths, instead in a tug-of-war with this insecurity about what Tomb Raider is and dogged desire to make something new.
While it can be very fun and loving in its tributes to Tomb Raider, it mostly feels clumsy and insecure. It's the game equivalent of "I love this game but it's soooo bad" reviews, just totally lacking in the sincerity that makes the original game actually amazing.
It also goes without saying that, being based off of Core's original game, this is the best Tomb Raider game that Crystal Dynamics ever made, which is ABSOLUTELY the back-handed compliment it sounds like. Without their really rotten design impulses, there is nothing dragging down Anniversary quite like what happens in Legend and Underworld.
Unfortunately, this is still the Gex team, so they show their asses in different ways throughout this experience. The main one to me, being the terrible, terrible combat. Just inept attempts at action, floaty and without heft, a dysfunctional camera not cooperating well when the game spawns in gorillas to gank you in a cramped corridor. Changing the boss fights to include horrible fucking ungodly QTE sequences should be enough to drop this game to a 1 it's so putrid. The T-rex in the Lost Valley is exciting because of how little fanfare there is: the screen shakes and suddenly a giant fucking dinosaur is barrelling towards you. The player has to make a snap judgement on how to react. Turning that into a QTE and a "Get the boss to ram into the wall" fight is something that only the developers of Gex would think is a good idea.
Platforming games are often sewn at the hip to some disastrous combat mechanics, and Anniversary's almost manage to usurp The Sands of Time's Throne of Shit in regards to them. Which is amusing considering how much of this game (and Legend) really owes itself to Sands of Time.
Sands of Time is very silky smooth though. It's like playing a game from the future compared to this.
Sands of Time came out in 2003 btw.
The R1 button being an all-around context button, the more linear layout of platforming challenges, and the camera being very good at snapping to cinematic angles that give you a readable look at the environment are the secret sauce that makes the Sands of Time hum. When you slow it down and start adding complications to the proceedings, it becomes very janky and sloppy feeling. This is doubly so when the development team is the same one who made Gex.
Lara in TR96 controls the same all the time: she is the model of consistency in a video game. There is an unprecedented freedom in that game of mastering her control scheme because once you do, the game is yours to roam free! Anniversary by contrast feels much more rigid in what you can do, as trying to do platforming challenges out of order will have Lara just flatly refuse to grab a ledge or clip through poles, and the Gex team are VERY bad at signposting so you will be doing this without even understanding why you died. In brief instances where things run smoothly, there is a real glimpse at platforming goodness here. The game just refuses to get going or focus on its strengths, instead in a tug-of-war with this insecurity about what Tomb Raider is and dogged desire to make something new.
While it can be very fun and loving in its tributes to Tomb Raider, it mostly feels clumsy and insecure. It's the game equivalent of "I love this game but it's soooo bad" reviews, just totally lacking in the sincerity that makes the original game actually amazing.
5 Comments
This just about summarizes my own thoughts on the game, yea. Even as someone that fully hopped on the TR wagon this year, it was pretty evident Anniversary had one foot stuck in pleasing the old guards, with the other stuck in modernizing and remixing it to give something pleasing for the new guys. I'm someone who thinks 1:1 remakes and retooled ones can coexist in the vast environment, but in this case, I'd rather it'd be all-in on the latter so it fits much better w/ the first reboot continuity and doesn't constantly remind me that most of the events have been done better years prior.
gruel heads up you need to mark a "finished" date when you review something or else it wont show up on peoples feeds
anyway i would rather play through this 3 times in its entirety than play 3 levels of original tomb raider
anyway i would rather play through this 3 times in its entirety than play 3 levels of original tomb raider
@LarryDavis: yeah Weatherby walked me through the byzantine process to publish reviews. site works great!!
and i think that's easier said than done when you start playing a game by Crystal Dynamics.
and i think that's easier said than done when you start playing a game by Crystal Dynamics.
@gruel well I have actually finished this, and every time I tried to play Tomb Raider, including when it was new, I did not last very long. Legend was the first one I enjoyed
and yeh this site is weird as hell. 99% of the time my feed is just weatherby's reviews of sonic romhacks
and yeh this site is weird as hell. 99% of the time my feed is just weatherby's reviews of sonic romhacks
Weatherby
5 months ago