Gaming's WORST Remake? | Tomb Raider Anniversary Review

we seem to be living in an era of remakes while some of these are being celebrated as refreshing revivals that were sorely needed others have us questioning whether there was any point to remaking the game in the first place this is partly due to diminishing returns the leap from the PlayStation 3 to the PlayStation 4 and even 5 is not as pronounced or impactful as the leap from the PS1 and N64 to the PS2 GameCube and Xbox when we also saw a similar trend of remakes in a shorter time span Resident Evil went from looking like this to looking like this Metal Gear Solid went from looking like this to this Conker's Bad third a transformed from this to this and Tomb Raider went from this to this these weren't just graphical upgrades either Resident Evil remix the layouts puzzles and added new story elements Metal Gear Solid became hilariously unbalanced due to the addition of abilities from its sequel that the original was not designed to consider or counter Conker's Bad Fur Day was censored which some found to be a deal breaker meanwhile Tomb Raider was completely reimagined as a massive Tomb Raider fan that should be an incredibly exciting prospect for me right a new better way to play one of my comfort games well that word reimagining is key to understanding both the strengths and weaknesses of Tomb Raider Anniversary I personally arrange remakes into three categories you have the shop for shot remake the same game rebuilt from the ground up with modern tools and brand new assets think Crash Bandicoot and sane trilogy then you have your remasters this is a game from a previous generation pretty much exactly as it was but with improved resolutions and frame rates the PS3 HD collections are good examples of this finally our subject matter for this video your reimaginings what would this game look feel and play like if we were making it from scratch today using current game design best practices Resident Evil 2 is the best example of this where the fundamental gameplay has changed the story has been altered and you're exploring a brand new environment all of which are only Loosely based on the original Tomb Raider Anniversary firmly sits in that latter Camp of reimaginings in fact an in-game statement from Jason botter creative director of Tomb Raider Anniversary states that the team were inspired to create a brand new game heavily inspired by the original TR not just a remake but something more and this is where that cause for concern is will a brand new game based on the original give me the same feeling and satisfaction that the first outing did on the surface the intent certainly seems to be there Toby guard often credited as Lara's Creator had been brought back into the fold for the first time since the original Tomb Raider to work on the game prior to this Tomb Raider legend he then continued to play a role in both anniversary and underworld looking at the interviews that came with the PS2 limited edition of anniversary the team as a whole seems genuinely passionate excited and well-meaning did the team achieve their vision is this a brand new retelling of Lara's first Adventure that successfully modernizes and elevates the game for a brand new audience does it serve as an effective replacement for the original game or in their efforts to create something new did the team forget what made the original so special in the first place finally if anniversary is worth your time which version should you play it released on pretty much everything at the time settle in and make yourself comfortable as we answer those questions today thank you one of the most fundamental things to understand and this will impact multiple sections of this review is that Tomb Raider Anniversary follows and inherits a lot from Tomb Raider legend was a reboot with a new developer an updated control scheme and different key gameplay pillars as their focus areas anniversary inherits so much from Legend you can still buy anniversary as dlc4 Legend on the Xbox store Legend released at a difficult time for Tomb Raider the previous game Angel of Darkness had been so poorly received critically and commercially did it almost sank the entire franchise development duties shifted from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics who completely reinvented Tomb Raider from the ground up Crystal was successful in this with Legend being a great entry into the series but imagine having to immediately follow that up with a remake of the original game putting yourself in their shoes you've just thrown out the rule book and completely redesigned the fundamentals of this series proving yourselves as capable and your new Direction and vision as being solid to a very loyal and potentially critical fan base now you have to apply that same approach to what's arguably the most sacred Tomb Raider game the one that started it all that's certainly a tall order Lara's movement has been completely revised the grid-based system and tank controls of old are gone replaced with the third person analog controls we're familiar with today grabbing ledgers is now done automatically although there is an option to make it manual and you can speed up Lara's shimmying and swimming speeds by tapping the North Face button so triangle on PlayStation or Y on Xbox Lara can also now swing on poles jump across small perches and she has a grappling hook for not only swinging across long gaps but also wall running these introduce new and different challenges to the original game that we'll discuss in more detail once we get to chatting about level design proper ly Lara can also fudge a lot of her movements requiring a quick tap of the North Face button to prevent her falling off the pole perch or ledge that she'd just grabbed I never really got a feel for what triggers this and it became a major issue leading to seemingly unfair deaths during timed challenges Egypt I'm looking at you generally I found Lara's movements to be more fluid but also more squarely I was never confident in how far Lara would travel or whether she would make certain jumps in several cases it seemed that the exact same inputs from me resulted in different outcomes from Lara this was especially prevalent during wall running sections where I was required to LEAP away from the wall I was on Lara seemed to magnetize towards certain platforms or Ledges possibly based on what the camera is focusing on this can cause you to feel like you're actively fighting against the controls especially when going for Secrets stutter off the beaten path the general unreliability of Lara's movements will quickly become a source of frustration for you these issues become particularly apparent in the game's time trial mode and when going for achievements such as complete the central shaft of Lost Island without dying you don't feel like you're in control your success or failure is not entirely up to you owl agreed that the tank controls of the original were dated they felt clunky at first and took some getting used to I won't argue against that however once you had a firm grasp of those controls you could be confident in knowing exactly what Lara could and couldn't do with deaths being your own fault and some of the secrets rewarding mastery these new controls conform to the expectations of modern players your average gamer can realistically pick this game up and start playing it most likely without needing a tutorial at the same time the lack of rigidness also presents a lack of precision the flow of movement is entirely different as you're no longer having to survey your environments and plan your moves before executing them but a rare instance of tracing apart from your destination to a potential starting point these New Movement options would give a greater sense of confidence while navigating these environments if the controls could be trusted thank you fortunately the unfair deaths you will face as a result of these unreliable controls aren't as devastating as they could be in the console versions of the original Tomb Raider you could only save your progress at single use predetermined save points if you died you went back to your most recent save sometimes losing significant progress Tomb Raider Anniversary gives you frequent automated checkpoints so when you die you're only ever losing about a minute's progress you can retry segments as many times as you like without consequence so deaths quickly become a minor inconvenience that takes away from the original sense of danger and Peril where I would be careful before fearing being sent back a fair ways now I'm more willing to experiment and act recklessly this modernization Alters your behavior as a player fundamentally changing the experience in my opinion for the worse ridding the game of its tension and lowering player engagement laughs the combat mechanics have also been updated previously Lara would automatically lock onto nearby enemies while your guns were drawn now you have a manual lock-on that allows you to swap targets by flicking the right stick with the exception of the Uzis you tempt to fire rather than holding the button down which feels unnecessarily manual the enemies appear to have been made more agile and aggressive to account for the Player's increased fluidity they also seem to hunt in packs higher numbers of foes stood no longer wait their turn before coming at you these changes can result in some frustrating situations where you get dogpiled or trapped in a corner the game also seems fond of ambushing the player with enemies in tight corridors where you don't have much space to maneuver or Dodge often leading to what feels like unavoidable damage in particular flying atlanteans can stun lock you and push you off high ledges although I suppose that's nothing new fights are trivialized and swing wildly back into the player's favor with one new mechanic though the headshot if you aggravate an enemy enough they Roar a spark appears over their head and they charge at you time a Dodge just right and you'll enter a matrix style bullet time pulling the trigger at the right moment here results in an instant kill it works on literally everything and makes what could be some tense moments feel utterly trivial that said the timing for initiating it is as unreliable as the other controls there were multiple times where I heard the sound cue saw the visual blur on screen hit the Dodge button but nothing happened sadly this is also how almost every boss encounter including the final boss is handled shoot them to build up their rage meter Dodge critical shot for damage repeat one of the few moments of variety or interesting mechanics comes in the form of these dual centaurs where you have to steal their Shields and then use those Shields to reflect the boss's Medusa like blasts back at them turning them into stone considering this is Tomb Raider you would think they would use those light puzzle mechanics in more bosses some encounters and bosses that were optional in the original game you could Escape instead and now mandatory here and hmm oh boy I will be talking about how badly that T-Rex got mishandled later on in the video you can also forget battles with human opponents these have been turned into QuickTime events which I'll discuss more when I get to the story breakdown it does Rob us of our constant battles of Pierre in Greece though making that entire section of the game lose one of its defining characteristics even the way you get the weapons feels like a downgrade you still find them in the levels sure but the shotgun has gone from being on a platform next to the skeleton of its previous owner to being in this random cave with no environmental contextual storytelling there's also no real advantage to grabbing this shotgun as only one level later Lara will steal Larson's in a cutscene the Magnums have gone from being behind a secret door with a fun and rewarding times platform challenge to just being behind some rocks along the level's mandatory pathway meanwhile the Uzis have been downgraded from their kind of but absolutely memorable invisible floating platform two just being plunked unremarkably on the sphinxer's head it's hardly a gaming memory that will stay with you like the original did also I lost my Magnums in the end game anyone who knows Tomb Raider knows that you start in Atlas Minds without your weapons in both versions you find your pistols after completing a puzzle in the original you killed a cowboy to get your Magnums back anniversary swapses for Larson and your shotgun which don't worry we will get into you originally fought a skateboarder to get your Uzis back this is now Jerome a gang member finally the big bastard Kane had your shotgun in this remake Kane attacks you with a knife and his fists but drops your magnums while I knew to grab the Uzis from Jerome he used them in the cutscene they're very obvious and visible when you regain control that's not the case for the Magnums Kane didn't use them in the cutscene so it's not obvious he has them when you regain control you're facing away from Kane's body and Kane's black coat means there's no contrast or visibility for the equally black magnums one change that I'm torn on is the maximum ammo count the original game was happy for you to scoop up 999 rounds for a gun if you really wanted to but anniversary gives each weapon a maximum capacity this prevents the Resident Evil style hoarding and stockpiling that I used to do encouraging me to switch weapons more often again it takes the game away from its borderline survival horror routes where collecting and saving resources was vital into a use it or lose it action-focused power fantasy just doesn't hit the same way it prompts a different player response [Music] these gameplay changes also required alterations to the levels layouts puzzles and platforming challenges by enlarged the levels have been condensed truncated and made more linear in some cases entire levels have even been combined the game's stages have this weird uncanny sense about them it's like seeing a friend you went to school with and only half recognizing them it takes your brain a moment to grab their defining features from your memory before saying oh yeah James I haven't seen you in years this sensation starts as early as level one it opens with a new tutorial section where you climb a mountain and open the gates to the first level proper this does a decent job of quickly teaching and communicating the game's controls and mechanics something the original outing was missing in the 90s version the tutorial was hidden away in Croft Manor this was not only optional but the second item on the main menu most players likely jumped straight into the game and missed out on this opportunity to learn the ropes so does change makes sense what does that mean for craft manner now we'll get to that something you will notice about these tutorials is that they show keyboard inputs even if you're using a controller the controller prompts do show in the options menu but it seems the only way to have them display in-game is to manually unbind all of the keyboard controls it's a really weird oversight that only impacts the PC version getting into level 1 proper and familiar territory the opening trap can now be disabled the first secret has been expanded requiring many more jumps [Music] this bridge breaks as a surprise for returning fans this room with the Wolves a secret and a time to leave a door has been removed most importantly you no longer see the exit early on you lose that sense of having to take the long way around there's no grander connective tissue you just happen to stumble into the final area without any build up on the plus side The Bear Pit finally got upgraded to secret status now it's thought it was strange that the original didn't treat it as such on a slight tangent the original game's secrets were normal item pickups going for them helped you get extra health and ammo in this game the secrets are artifacts that you can't use in gameplay instead they unlock art galleries alternate costumes and developer commentaries if you don't care for this stuff then Secrets become much more skippable and optional going out of your way Fordham doesn't provide the same gameplay benefits that they once did the second level the city of velcabamba really showcases how the level design philosophy has shifted the original featured a large open area with various dead ends and distractions to get lost in the reimagined anniversary puts all of this into a single camera shot and makes sure that each and every square inch of the village is utilized and explored even the Central Pool which was originally optional and led to two Secrets is now mandatory for progression along the critical path in the 1996 saoting there was a key Midway through the level that was needed for the final door you could easily Miss Siskey forcing you to backtrack impressing the importance of exploration upon the player the 2007 version still has the cubby where the key would have been but both the key and the final room guarded by a bear were cut and no longer appear the game is built to be more efficient than its source material to eliminate so-called waste the developers didn't want to spend time creating anything that the player might not see the removal of this level's key also shows a commitment to streamlining the experience to removing speed bumps and giving players a lighter breezier playthrough some might see this as a good thing me not so much generally speaking the game goes from a foreboding but rewarding sense of exploring a dangerous unknown Lost Civilization to a guided tour or a curated and coordinated theme park ride this becomes very apparent when we visit the Lost Valley the first of a handful of completely redesigned levels the original was a stage of two halves a dinosaur infested jungle to the right held a series of machine cogs a platforming heavy trail to the left led to the machine dose cogs fixed once you were done the water got redirected revealing the path forwards behind a waterfall you now start the stage facing the waterfall giving your ultimate objective much more prominence you're immediately given your first Cog for free and while a dilapidated machine that resembles the originals does exist you now use these cogs on a mechanism immediately to the side of the waterfall to climb higher and higher your mission statement is uncompromisingly straightforward and borderline spoon fed to you The Originals jungle was a series of interconnected and interweaving caves while one of the cogs was perhaps a little too well hidden it felt like a natural area this reimagining loses that it's not only a more linear and guided experience it also feels like a set where you could trace where the water went in 96 O7 has waterfalls that don't go anywhere it's a stage superficial it doesn't hold up under any kind of scrutiny and fails to feel like a real location you have discovered it is again a theme park ride an illusion you no longer have an approach to the temple you simply hop in there immediately after the T-Rex boss fight which oh boy I am holding that in for just a little longer that sense of wonder of seeing the temple emerge from the darkness completely absent likewise the framing of the level showed you the broken bridge that you would eventually leap across to get one of the gears the height of this thing and the fact he was shown it as your objective early on made this a nail-biting and satisfying jump it required a full Runner jumping at the last possible second and reaching out to cling on to the opposite Edge to pull yourself up in the new version we see the T-Rex break the bridge in a cut scene and when we reach it it's a simple hop across we don't get the same sense of height scale or danger you actually descend from a higher area to reach it and then start climbing again straight after you might not even realize that it's supposed to be the same Bridge it takes it from being a focal point to something utterly forgettable now the encounter with the T-Rex is not only my favorite moment from the original Tomb Raider it's a standout moment of game design in general I talked at length about this in my review of the 90s Tomb Raider but that build up and the various options for taking on the Beast which included dodging and avoiding it was nothing short of Sensational it was truly Dynamic and groundbreaking for its time the reimagining turns us into the Bane boss fight from Arkham Asylum you aggro the boss it charges you dodge it hits something it takes damage repeat it loses everything but made the original so special and replaces it with a basic boss fight that we've already seen and done hundreds of times in other games it is frankly a slap in the face it doesn't even work as intended here are clips of me clearly getting the T-Rex to charge into the convenient spiked pillars but the cutscene for the spikes breaking and the T-Rex getting hurt not triggering the T-Rex is the poster boy for anniversary's team completely failing to understand the assignment they didn't have a grasp on what made this encounter so special and memorable they robbed the player of dynamic decision making and therefore any agency this reimagining completely failed him to be fair there might be a good reason for this one of the game's many unlockables is developer commentaries where tobyguard and Jason botter talk through their creative thought process let's see what they had to say about the T-rex fight and then um obviously adding in the kind of concept that you use the environment against them instead of just shooting because it was always the problem with the tr1 bosses was that we didn't have time to really do anything special for the fights against the bigger monsters it still just essentially just putting as much lead in them as physically possible adding in the environmental stuff to this um seemed like most sensible way to dig up that in combat there you have it straight from the horse's mouth it was a conscious decision that they felt was a genuine upgrade from the original game what really upsets me about this is Toby's comment about being unable to do anything special for the original fight it implies that Toby doesn't realize or understand that the original fight was special albeit accidentally and due to time constraints my disappointment continued in qualipex's Tomb before we had three puzzle rooms to the right which unlocked a path to the skion on the left now two of those puzzle rooms to the right have been removed leaving only one recognizable section of this area the path to the skeon is now straight ahead and the other two switches to open it have been relocated to this damaged main starting chamber and a new platforming challenge on the path to the left getting to each of these routes is irritating as the tomb is in a much more damaged and crumbling State than its original fully intact Incarnation you have to push and pull these platforms to create paths to jump along but the camera angle means you can't really see where you're putting them until it's too late while the squirrely controls means that you don't have a good feel for how far Lara can jump in the first place it's a mess when we do reach qualipex chamber and to ski on itself we have some more changes that I'm not fond of an Easter egg in the original release saw this Atlantean fall towards you if you got too close it was unnerving completely miscible and contributed to that Eerie spooky underlying horror vibe that was inherent to Tomb Raider but this is a team that is terrified of you missing any of their efforts and dedicated to trimming the fat and eliminating waves so of course we now see that same lunge in a cut scene that it's not interactive means that you don't get to be surprised or respond in the original I've seen players immediately hop back and draw their guns in a momentary panic but that interaction is lost here there's also a new addition koala Peck gets up from his throne seemingly still with some life left in him before being cut off by Falling Rubble the first time around it is creepy and unexpected but they don't really do anything with this it just sort of happens Peru ends with a showdown against one of natala's Hired Guns Larson this fight is still here but as mentioned it's now a quick Time Event so I consider this to be a massive downgrade over the original wow Peru's report card is pretty damning let's see if Greece can do any better Saint Francis Foley is an Infamous level that you either love or hate no doubt this area presented some of the toughest decisions for the Developers let's talk just outright cuts and removals first the gorilla room with the switch at the start banished to The Cutting Room floor the slope into a swim with a crocodile an area that held two of the secrets yeah no that's out of here in terms of changes and additions there are almost too many to list the opening area has a new puzzle that involves shooting specific areas of disc carving that puzzle is also used to replace the tough as Nails platforming Secret ha now there's just an optional extra solution to that puzzle which unlocks a gate in the main chamber all of the rooms have been renamed to represent Greek gods instead of the mix of Greek and North deities of the original the timed race at the bottom for a secret is no longer timed and only requires you to get halfway down the shaft [Music] the Poseidon challenge has been greatly expanded featuring rising and lowering water levels which somewhat tutorializes the upcoming system overall I think Saint Francis Foley was handled well it's recognizable and the changes made generally help to improve the flow and soften what was previously a bit of a difficulty Spike and dropping off point for many players while Saint Francis Foley is faithful enough to at least be recognizable the same can't be said for the Colosseum the entire level has been reimagined where the original saw you enter from The Stance of a rectangular Arena completing two areas underground and four challenge rooms in each upper corner to escape anniversary as you enter a circular Arena from the Gladiators pit before following a much more linear path to the exit on the one hand the sense of scale is different in the original entering from the stands literally being above the enemies below gave you a sense of power and superiority entering into the pit and immediately having to fight in the remake instead makes you feel smaller more fragile and as though you're there as someone else's entertainment it's perhaps the only time this reimagining not only captures the emotions of the original game but enhances them Lara seems insignificant in the very apparent grander scheme there's a sense of mortality and danger here that's rarely repeated throughout anniversary it's a shame that the rest of the level feel so forgettable and straightforward the frequent shootouts of Pierre are absent I already talked about the massive downgrade to the magnum's location with the four corner rooms gone the level loses any sense of signposting or progression with no standout moments it's incredibly Bland and disappointing as a result the nicest thing I can say about this version of the Colosseum is that it runs better than the slideshow that is the original Saturn incarnation that brings us to a redesigned Palace Midas we enter from a hallway not a pool the pool is actually our exit now we're immediately faced with the Statue of Midas which already has one gold bar informing us of our goal now I don't mind this in the original we could only see the statue's legs and the whole thing was hidden away only being discovered part way through the stage it makes contextual sense for the Statue to be proudly displayed whoever built it to honor and Revere Midas would give the statue pride of place and this change also allows for improved conveyance you quickly know what's expected of you and what your objectives are the puzzles and challenges themselves are surprisingly faithful to the original game sure the overall stage is shorter and simpler but in a way that allows power smidas to end before it can overstay its welcome the fire room in particular gets an impressive upgrade it's no longer just a series of linear jumps now it's an intricate obstacle course of varying hazards it also houses quite possibly the hardest Relic to obtain in the game requiring an optional route to a timed switch forcing you to speedrun and damage boost through what's already a tricky section [Music] foreign sure Midas is very guilty of assaulting you of enemies in Thai corridors seemingly every five minutes if the overall level design had this much care and thought put into it as it clearly has in mind us throughout the entire game I would be much kinder to anniversary sadly we immediately go from one extreme to the other as we enter the system sorry I mean the tomb of t hoken the final two levels of Greece have been merged now the system had its issues in the original being obfuscated to the point of including a potential soft lock if you did things out of the developer's intended order which was relatively easy to accidentally stumble into I even accused it of dragging on too long and not knowing when to end there was certainly opportunities for improvement I believe the anniversary team went to the extreme though they cut everything other than the main chamber thanks to VG cartography's Maps I can show you exactly how much we lost that's a severe car they done massively simplified the core puzzle to the point that you can solve it entirely on autopilot the system's exit takes us directly to the pool in front of T Hogan's final resting place originally this script was at the end of a much longer Standalone level meaning that the developers have effectively cut all of this too thanks again to VG cartography for these isometric Maps you're effectively losing an entire level here instead of looking at the Grievances people myself included had with the latter half of Greece and making it better the team decided to just amputate the entire limb instead losing the good along with the bad I've already discussed a boss here in the combat section and believe me we will talk about that cut scene in the story section regrettably Greece ends apathetically with one of the laziest levels seen so far surprisingly things actually improve as we move into Egypt kamoon is still split into the City and Obelisk stages although the city of carmoon has been renamed to the more fitting Temple of carmoon and you still find yourself back where you started to open a larger door to the sanctuary of the skion the core structure of the section of the game remains effectively the same as it was before first and foremost the first ski you need is no longer hidden in the back of the Sphinx's head at the start of City making this an immediate improvement over the original the bulk of the stage has this air of being familiar yet different in a similar sense to Saint Francis Foley you you can recognize rooms and set pieces from the original game making this one of the rare instances of anniversary feeling like a love letter towards its inspiration this is how you do it right the tweaks that have been made to improve the level's flow and evolve existing challenges while respecting and using the key structures of the original game had every level been approached in the same way as city of carmoon I would have been much happier with the game as we get into the Obelisk things start to noticeably diverge yes this is the same stage with the same goal get the Four Keys and return to the start of city of carmoon but the challengers have been updated to make use of the new controls and Lara's new abilities especially the grappling hook one particular vertical shaft sees you timing or swings across saw blades that are coming out of the wall and it's incredibly rewarding to finally nail it that said these Crush blocks positioned along perches that Lara can easily fumble nah whoever added these sections as a masochist and should not be trusted I died so many times to this in ways that did not feel like my fault likewise the sanctuary of the skin has these Crush blocks and it took me multiple failed attempts to realize that they had indents which would allow me to Duck and remain safe regrettably that's not the sanctuary's only problem you still enter by blasting your way up a main staircase albeit shortened and with fewer enemies but you will never return here the original game love to use level designs that looped around on themselves where the exit was maybe only 10 feet from your starting position just behind a locked door or a puzzle that forced you to take the long way around sanctuary of the skion was one of the most obvious examples of this with the exit being behind a locked door to your left as you enter the stage but anniversary turns this level into a much more linear affair at the top of the stairs is one of the game's more annoying puzzles you have to turn these pillars to display certain hieroglyphs but turning one pillar also turns to two adjacent to it it's fiddly and frustrating you can find yourself here for a while if you're not careful save yourself a headache turn any of the pillars 180 degrees then turn the pillar diagonally opposite 180 degrees as well to solve the puzzle quickly and easily I suspect this might be a developer shortcut solution to save time in testing and I am glad it effectively makes this pain in the ass skippable once we reach the main chamber we discovered that one of the more intricate and engaging platforming challenges which felt like a miniature puzzle box of finding safe ledgers and choosing the right jumps for each Gap is gone in its place as a pair of broken staircases that are comparatively much easier to overcome the rooms this chamber then led to are swapped out for the same pillar Rising puzzle repeated twice with only minor differences thankfully the stunning swim down to the bottom of these two large statues is still intact and still takes your breath away I think I'd have had to walk away from the game to calm myself down and come back to it later if they had been absent ly the final room no longer features a Face-Off with Larson instead you have a few pillars to quickly navigate in order to reach two switches and open a door to an ultimately anticlimactic close to Egypt while it had its ups and downs Egypt had the distinct benefit of feeling the most like Tomb Raider out of any of anniversary's locations I largely attribute this to the architecture and blocky level design the way Egypt is constructed reminds me much more of the 96 games strictly grid-based layouts there are cubes everywhere and the tiled floors make it much easier to judge distance when directly compared with the natural grass and rock textures of previous areas you're dealing with a lot of right angles and quadrilateral shapes making Tomb Raider veterans feel much more at home Egypt made the most convincing and consistent argument for updating Lara's original outing that at the time modern audiences and sensibilities that section still holds up remarkably well today given that games design best practices haven't changed too drastically in the decade or so since anniversary's release which Atlantis sorry no Lost Island then ruins to be fair it starts off okay that was mines was easily my least favorite level in the 96 outing who started with no weapons the first of many Fred Supply was behind a waterfall and it was Rife with mechanical inconsistencies such as whether doors opened on approach or after pulling a switch the challenges for the free fuses you need have been entirely replaced for in my opinion fairer segments that better communicate what's expected of you instead of getting ambushed by the cowboy while still unarmed Larson only appears after you get your pistols back and trust me we will talk about that encounter in the story segment of this video the root forward is immediately obvious you no longer have to dangle from an unassuming and random part of a sheer Cliff face the final task of opening the Great Pyramid has been adapted to take advantage of Lara's new perch ability with playing hopscotch across it feeling like a Victory lap granted the difficulty length and complexity of this stage have all been reduced you miss out on some puzzles and all three fights with natala's goons are replaced with less Interactive qtes You could argue that natala's Minds has been dumbed down but as someone who hates the original version I personally like this rebalanced take on the level of course anniversary then immediately reverts to form with its version of Atlantis first of all it's been renamed to the Great Pyramid which was originally the name of the final level yeah this doesn't get to be Atlantis in fact a cutscene goes out of its way to tell us that this pyramid is just one remnant of the greater Atlantean Empire now look I can see why people may have raised an eyebrow at the original name Atlantis is a sunken city this place is a pyramid hidden inside a volcano the two are nothing alike even so taking Lara and natala's final Salvo from the heart of Atlantis to just some random Fortress the atlanteans had really robs the finale of Gravitas and wow factor the original had me thinking this is Atlantis this is nothing like I had expected and that's awesome this new version has me going oh wow one of natala's old facilities while the game explicitly tells me that there are more of the structures out there somewhere in Tomb Raider's world I'll talk about this more in the story section as that is something the franchise never followed up on or took advantage of to my knowledge so it's just a lame demotion that has never sat well with me the stage itself focuses around a central shaft that you have to ascend back in the day this meant weaving in and out of the central column through twisting and winding tunnels that through combat puzzle and platforming challenges at you each time you survived a grueling ordeal you'd come back to the center of this stage look down and feel a sense of Pride over how much higher up you were now the reimagining just has you climb the shaft with a series of timed switches leading to grappling hooks and jumps around the walls of the chamber it is in no way shape or form as epic memorable or rewarding as the original it feels like over half of the level is missing here and that's because it is the Great Pyramid drives straight past the definition of stripped down and directly into lazy territory this is what a lack of effort and Care feels like even if this is your first experience of Tomb Raider you will feel disappointed again we do have developer commentary for this decision so let's at least hear the mail maybe I'm unfairly jumping to conclusions so the center of the pyramid was sort of this giant shaft that went up the middle in the original game largest sort of jumped from one sort of periphery room to the other off of this main area and so we really wanted to get Laura back into this big vast space with the constant fear of falling into the lava in the bottom and so we sort of cut all the side rooms off and ended up actually taking some of them and reordering the areas and putting them later in the level but we really just wanted to let Laura sort of really Traverse this big old giant shaft of nothing that leads up to the skion room at the top big old shaft of nothing I couldn't have said it better myself this is another downgrade that was a purposeful decision from a team that didn't understand the assignment the trend of asking wait is that it continues in the final Conflict the new name for what was originally the Great Pyramid where do I even start with this one the final level of Tomb Raider is a firm favorite of mine it's brutally unfair but it also had that element of just one more try I'll get it this time there have been times where I fired up Tomb Raider 96 just to play through that final level again it's that good in my review of the original game I described it as a grueling final exam a game of chess against level designers where each of us was trying to outdo the other in a way that felt personal and engaging getting to the end was an absolute Triumph and earned unsatisfying victory over seemingly impossible odds the new version of the level was over before I knew it we have the same agrod and headshot boss fight that the game has already used a hundred times we have some climbing and platforming that could be done while you're asleep at the wheel and lasts maybe five minutes stuff that lacks the inventiveness tension or tenacity of the original it would be too kind to even call it a pale toothless imitation honestly my greatest enemy was the game's controls here and when you emerge maybe five minutes later your final boss fight against natala is reduced to another aggro and headshot snoozefest where you finish her off in a goddamn Quick Time Event you don't even get to kill her yourself oh and that final platforming challenge to escape after the fight yeah forget that straight to credits you won but man it really doesn't feel like it what happened here where's running head first across crumbling platforms towards a boulder past a scythe down two slopes away from more Boulders leaping past another Scythe over a lava pit and then sprinting through a room that's flooding with molten magma did the team run out of time was this finale made at 4pm on a Friday afternoon by a guy who just wanted to get to the pub this level single-handedly scrubbed away any good will the game had built for itself through Saint Francis Folly Palace Midas both of the carmoon stages and even natler's Minds what a letdown before we move on there's one final level we need to talk about you'll remember I said that the opening Mountain climb now acts as a tutorial instead of Croft Manor you might be wondering where that leaves Croft Manor and what it's used for would you believe me if I said a puzzle box reminiscent of the original Resident Evil that's way better than it has any right to be sure you won't be facing any zombies but Lara's home presents a series of locks and keys in the form of skill checks item combinations and actual locks and keys you have a couple of different starting points I absolutely recommend prioritizing getting the pistols and grappling hook first as some of the other sections are impossible without them but yeah this was a surprisingly fun hour of asking what Maniac designs a house like this I don't want to spoil too many puzzle solutions here so I'm being selective with my footage and I'm not going to spend too long talking about it all I'll say is that an optional level that most people will probably skip has no right being this fun see I can say nice things about anniversary [Music] now you might assume that 10 years of technological progress must mean that anniversary at least works better than the original game right in terms of graphical Fidelity sheer polygon counts and texture resolutions yes absolutely this version of the game is much easier on the eyes in terms of aesthetic art Direction and overall Vibe no not even close The Uncanny Valley is the theory that the closer Graphics get to realism the more likely we are to notice flaws scrutinize them all be made to feel uneasy by them that has great applications for the horror genre weird weirdly Tomb Raider 96 is an outlier in the it benefits from the inverse of The Uncanny Valley let me explain the limitations of early 3D gaming particularly the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation meant that every asset of the original outing was blocky with low resolution textures and difficult to read the PlayStation 2 was a massive leap forwards and obvious and significant Improvement the likes of which we just don't see between console Generations anymore even in the lowest Fidelity PlayStation Portable release of anniversary significantly higher polygon counts and increased texture resolutions means that we can instantly recognize exactly what everything is supposed to be it's counter-intuitively that same familiarity that detracts from the sense of exploring lost civilizations and alien cultures in 1996 our imaginations had to do a lot of heavy lifting on the game's behalf that sense of what is that aided in the overriding sense of caution and danger that I have continuously praised that title IV anniversary loses stat appeal every structure and object matches something that we would expect to see in our everyday lives it loses that Eerie quality you're no longer second guessing yourself before approaching something that double-edged sword might just be me though I could see and accept arguments saying that I'm crazy or reaching or blinded by Nostalgia what is agreeable is that the art direction is lacking in anniversary the environments of the original Tomb Raider are colorful reverent and vibrant these are temples constructed to preserve protect and worship a civilization's leaders they are inherently celebratory deifying their rulers these were built with materials and paints that would Last Stand the tests of time and allow future generations to appreciate the people's Rich history not only is this environmental storytelling it's visually attractive and helps separate and Define each of the game's four key locations you can look at a screenshot from Tomb Raider 1 and tell which part of the game it's from Tomb Raider anniversary is much more muted desaturated and Dusty these places are crumbling in a state of disrepair sure that neglect that lack of upkeep that deterioration might be more realistic but it's also kind of dull and boring the game doesn't take my breath away or convey these lost Societies in the same way that its inspiration effortlessly achieved there's no sense of wonder or awe to these versions of these locations now granted the contrast saturation levels and visual effects do differ from version to version but let's save that for diversion comparison the environments also suffer from a lack of care and attention to detail in the level design section I complained about the waterfalls in Lost Valley I showed you that these waterfalls don't actually go anywhere unlike the original making you wonder why the valley doesn't flood well ultimately cheapening your surroundings making them feel like a film set rather than a real place and then we have Atlantis I loved the original Atlantis for defying expectations the level was made out of seemingly living pulsating tissue it was outright body horror it remains one of the creepiest locations in all of Gaming think about Resident Evil 2 2019's true final boss Devil May Cry 5's wretched Arenas and do maternals Hells games granted those are more current PS4 outings but imagine the leap the PS2 could have provided to these grotesque Atlantean Abominations house squelchy and sickly the structure of sinew could have felt I bet you can't wait to see it right well too bad because the reimagining takes a completely different direction taking more inspiration from Stargate Atlantis than Tomb Raider 1996. the first warning sign is that the golden entrance is now a more refined and understated silver once you're inside the pulsating walls of Flesh replaced with sleek black stone adorned with intricate golden etchings completely removing the Eldritch Horror vibes more frustrating is that the game shows you that it absolutely could have gone for the grotesque had it wanted to with the penultimate boss emerging from a beating heart-shaped meat cocoon instead of the golden egg it once hatched from that's as metal as it gets and I don't understand why they didn't go all in it continues to be an overwhelming letdown I was Furious about this in 2007 yes the reimagining actually missed the 10-year anniversary and I'm still bitter about it 16 years later in 2023 [Music] my biggest complaint with Tomb Raider Anniversary concerns the story and characterization this may go without saying but we're about to enter massive spoiler territory here use the timestamp on screen to skip ahead if you don't want to be spoiled let's start with our Leading Lady Lara herself the first thing that we need to understand is that Lara's upbringing and motivations have changed in the original games Lara's parents had effectively disowned her they did not agree with her lifestyle in game we only see a glimpse of what we believe to be Lara's parents at Lara's funeral in Chronicles adventuring was a decision Lara made for herself despite considerable pushback and resistance in anniversary Lara is heavily motivated by her parents the previous game Tomb Raider legend started a new rebooted era of Tomb Raider with its own Cannon and continuity we learned that Lara and her mother Emilia had been in a plane crash together they came across an old Temple where Lara activated an ancient artifact that caused Amelia to disappear the mystery surrounding Amelia's disappearance consumed Lara's Father Richard who was an archaeologist he launched multiple Expeditions looking for answers about his wife's fate sadly Richard would ultimately pass away during one of those digs Tomb Raider Anniversary takes place in this new continuity this version of Lara was encouraged by her parents she's heavily motivated by her mother's disappearance and her father's death she's following in her dad's footsteps at the start of the game natler even uses this to get Lara to sign on with her which is precisely why I've come to you Miss Croft this is a game you've played before with your father you both spent years searching for the skion of Atlantis all you needed was the location of koala picks too you found Phil kabamba how quickly can you get to Peru in fact Lara's relationship with natala is also drastically changed originally natala hired Lara because she was famous for being the best there is at what she does Natalie viewed Lara as nothing more than at all there was nothing personal about it this time anniversary is part of a Trilogy that being Legend anniversary and underworld we would discover that natler had worked with Richard before and that she murdered him this time around matler didn't choose Lara by flicking through a phone book it was personal it was malicious and it was in the full knowledge of what a craft is capable of it even leads to natler offering Lara a seat besides her towards the end of the game ruling over a new era together what is it you desire natala it takes three to rule T hokan and prolopeck were too weak to destroy what stands in the way of the seventh age you have the strength to claim this seat beside me immortality has its price but what are a few lives to sacrifice for your dreams initially natala's plan was very simple to force the world to achieve the next stage of human evolution Evolutions in a rut natural selection at an all-time low shipping out fresh meat will incite territorial rages again will strengthen and Advance us even create new breeds kind of evolution on steroids then a kick in the pants there's no indication that natala wanted to rule over anyone or anything she wanted to cause chaos sit back with some popcorn and enjoyed a show if she had wanted to rule it's unlikely to have been a power that she would have wanted to share with anyone else making her it takes three to rule line seem out of character if she truly believed that why did she try to use sub Kuala Peck and T hoken seemingly making a play to take all of the Power for herself natala effectively goes from being an ancient agent of chaos of a lost world who sees Lara as nothing more than a bad rash she can't seem to get rid of a minor annoyance of flying the ointment someone she fatally underestimates to being a much more Petty and vindictive villain she's Immortal why does she care about the fleeting lifespans of Richard and Lara Croft what changed and why doesn't she see humans as being beneath her anymore that simple her inclusion and reappearance in Tomb Raider underworld a game where the story plays out like bad fan fiction I can respect and enjoy Legend it was a reboot it was an at the time self-contained story before its antagonist Amanda came back onto the scene in Underworld the new gameplay mechanics suited the shift in focus and the new villain anniversary seemingly exists so the underworld canoes Network alongside Amanda so that the new games can ride the coattails of the original's Legacy Legend did well but somehow the team lost circumference and integrity to forge A New Path instead using natler as a crutch that dislike of Underworld retroactively taints anniversary for me introducing a conscious bias when I replay this game something I expected a future game to follow up on which to my knowledge has never been clarified is the whereabouts and status of the other two rulers of Atlantis qualapec anti-hocan qualipek gets up from his throne as you're leaving his tomb implying he might still be alive he's cut off by Rubble before he can pursue Lara and we have no idea if he survived meanwhile T hokan's coffin is shown to be empty in a lingering shot that's clearly setting up a wider mystery yet this thread is seemingly never mentioned again throughout the series are qualapec and tihoken out there somewhere and if they are why aren't they doing anything about natler they're the ones who sealed her in the first place as a third ruler of Atlantis she's very much their problem to deal with half me wondered if Atlantis was demoted to the Lost Island which goes to lengths to explain is now just one remnant of the Atlantean Empire so that koala Peck T hokan and Atlantis proper good feature in a future title that never came to be back on track the lineup of natlas goons and Hell Lara interacts with them is also changed for the worse first and foremost we don't get to fight them every single human enemy is dealt with in QuickTime events robbing the player of any agency the character most impacted by this gameplay changes Pierre in the original you would fight him multiple times throughout the Greece chapter he would show up at inconvenient times you had a gunfight with him and he would eventually run away finally you would catch up to him gun him down for good and take the second piece of the skion from his freshly dead corpse that felt satisfying you were given a genuine rivalry through gameplay mechanics alone that you got to resolve it was cathartic he hadn't been taunting and upsetting Lara the character he had been ruffling the feathers of you the player you had a genuine relationship with this antagonist anniversary gives us one cutscene introducing Pierre the odd echoey sound bite from him as you explore the grease levels and then he's killed by Atlantean centaurs in a cut scene you never directly interact with Pierre you never form that rivalry you never get that payoff anniversary could cut Pierre entirely and the game would be exactly the same to play this is yet another fundamental mishandling of one of the original's greatest assets and more evidence that the new team didn't understand what made the original game stand out Larson is at the center of some of the biggest narrative and thematic changes in the original game you gunned Larson down to get the third and final piece of the skier immediately after you're ambushed by natler and her men including a cowboy that some mistook for the recently deceased Larson anniversary swaps the boss fight out for a puzzle and replaces a cowboy with Larson that's cool that makes sense combining two very similar characters who served the same purpose into one character is efficient I don't have a problem with that I do have a problem with his death let's see how it unfolds I don't have time for this get out of the way or you die what you gonna do shoot me come on Lyra I just work here now I know how bad you want this but I can't let you pass both know you're not going to kill me for it that's just not who you are I'm not here better than guns lost them down in a qt of course and acts horrified at having killed another human being a theme that continues to play out throughout the rest of this portion of the game with Lara looking at her hands both immediately after whilst and Steph and during the game's ending this is when you suddenly realize why you weren't allowed to fight Pierre in Greece and when you clock that natala's other minions kill each other juara's hands are relatively clean in that instead Larson and natler are the only people are directly kills and even then nattler is an immortal Atlantean who returns in the next game so just Larson this seems strange to me the original games Lara didn't have this moral quandary this conscience to contend with if you got in her way you had a bullet with your name on it simple as that and it's not like it fits her new reboot timeline characterization either the previous game Legend saw Lara gunning down waves of human enemies as if she had a quarterly quota to fulfill causing me to presume that Legend takes place after anniversary despite the release order it's as if a writer wanted to add depth to Lara's character without understanding who that character was in the first place the unlockable character bios give us some interesting context to natala's remaining grunts despite this not being explored or capitalized on in game skateboard kid and jacket guy now have names Jerome the kid Johnson and cold Ken Kane prior to the events of the game Colt killed all of kids gang on natler's behalf kid was left alive and hired by natler but with reluctance and resentment on kids part with this additional information cult stabbing kid and kid subsequently shooting Cold makes a lot more sense the scene was admittedly a little random beforehand we've called seemingly just wanting the glory and kid responding with if I'm going down I'm taking you with me I like that they at least tried to give these characters some backstories and motivations of Their Own overall though this is a worst retelling of the plot that tries to fix events and characters that were never broken it feels like there were egos that play in The Writer's room and are putting their own stamp on the tail was more important than understanding or paying tribute to the original story [Music] if you were to play Anniversary for yourself which release should you go for that's not a straightforward question as it might seem usually you might assume that the PC version is going to be the way to go and that's certainly what I've used for the majority of my footage here with it still being available to buy digitally while offering the highest resolutions and frame rates in Tomb Raider anniversary's case there are some surprising considerations for the game's Aesthetics bonus content and even version unique features and changes let's start with the PlayStation 2 version because it's low-key one of the more interesting and technically impressive of this game's various Sports first of all the options blew me away this is a pal PlayStation 2 game that offers progressive scan a 60 hertz refresh rate and a widescreen option normally we have to choose one of the three it's rare that us Europeans and Australians don't worry Lads I got you got to enjoy this holy trifecta weirdly the game does seem to display in a letterbox originally I wondered if this was just my capture setup but no the games cutscenes use the full screen width so I'm not sure what's going on here this version has a seemingly unique Bloom and blurring effect that I didn't see replicated in the other versions with many objects kind of glowing and lots of edges having resulting Halos I can promise you that these peculiarities are unique to this game and not a result of my capture with other PS2 games looking clean this appears to be intentional and might not be to everyone's tastes the PS2 version is also amongst the most colorful it's much more vibrant and saturated with high contrast although that did result in not being able to see where I was going when navigating certain corridors outside of the game itself the PS2 version came as a beautiful box set that packs in a soundtrack CD and making of DVD a lot of care clearly went into this release and it's overall quite impressive running and playing far better than I expected I have similar price for the PSP version which considering the hardware it's running on has no business looking or playing as well as it does in the age of the switch in the steam deck this might seem lost on some of you but I can't stress how phenomenal it was to be able to play full console games on a handheld normally if a game got a Game Boy Advance or DS sport it was an entirely different game sharing only a name with its console counterpart the PSP was to my knowledge the earliest machine to say no we're not doing that here's the full console experience on the go in fact the PSP version includes free version exclusive unlockable costumes I'm admittedly not willing to replay the entire game again while meeting the unlock requirements so enjoy these screenshots from Stella's Tomb Raider site which credits three bullfitty images not only that but while all of the console versions of the game seem to Target 30 frames per second the PSP version appears to shoot for 60. it doesn't consistently achieve it not even close but that it even tries is incredible visually it might not be too impressive blown up on a PC monitor or TV but on the PSP's relatively small phone size screen it looks great the lower physical size leads to a much higher pixel density which does a lot to mask the low native resolution my only real complaint is the controls maybe the stick is on the way out on my PSP but Lara slowed down every time I move diagonally I eventually started using the shoulder buttons to rotate the camera as I ran forwards for smoother turning and motion rounding out the standard definition versions We have the Wii release which I'm running on a Wii U here to address the elephant in the room yes there are motion controls here and you can aim your guns we've done it was fiddly to say the least thankfully you also get a lock-on option which I quickly defaulted to the back of the case doesn't list any controller support and I wasn't able to get a Wii Classic Controller to work so as far as I can tell those motion controls are your only option there are also extra activities which are unique to the Wii version for example you have to grab and turn gears to open these doors in the city of ilka Bamba I hesitate to call them puzzles though the only one which really annoyed me was this puzzle in the very first level I'm still not entirely sure what I was supposed to be doing or how I solved it you're not missing out by their exclusion from the other releases in terms of presentation the game seemed to be stuck in a weird aspect ratio making things seem squashed there's also a heavy use of dithering especially for smoke Smog and other effects I'm not sure if we'll be as prominent in this footage after YouTube's aggressive compression but they haven't seen differing this heavy since the PS1 if you don't have any other way of playing the game then I guess the Wii version is fine however make no mistake this port is at the very bottom of the packing order moving up to the HD versions the Xbox 360 version claims to be 1080p on the back of the box but in practice feels like it uses a variable internal resolution which is then upscaled to 1080p with the T-Rex Boss Arena know that poor dinosaur cannot catch a break looking noticeably more pixelated and aliased than other areas now I'm seeing this while playing on an Xbox series X so while the game is backwards compatible it doesn't appear to enjoy any performance boosts this version's presentation sees all of the color drained from the image this error of gaming is harped on for being quote Graham Brown playing the different versions back to back like this really emphasizes that those claims aren't the typical internet Echo chamber hyperbole there's actually some truth to this one as mentioned previously the game is available either Standalone or as DLC for Tomb Raider legend proving how much of Legends DNA is in anniversary I haven't bought and played the Legends DLC I honestly don't see why anyone would but Research indicates it's the same experience as the Standalone title ultimately the Xbox 360 release is fine as a poor it's largely unremarkable it gets points for still being available to purchase on the Xbox storefront as of the writing of this video making it one of only two releases you can still buy first hand the PC release is what we've been seeing throughout this video as a release I used for my main playthrough normally I would caveat that any PC version's performance is going to be dependent on your Hardware that your mileage may vary and that I'm running an Intel I9 10900k which runs at 3.7 gigahertz with 10 cores and 20 threads paired with an RTX 3070 and 32 gigabytes of Corsair Vengeance ddr4 Ram at 3200 megahertz however with the game being 16 years old at this point I would imagine it would run perfectly at 1080p 60fps Max settings on even entry-level PCS essentially this is the HD console version of the game but able to run at an actual 1080P and 60fps there are some quirks the tutorial text shows keyboard inputs even if you're using a controller despite the options menu containing default controller bindings and the QuickTime event inputs are simplified over its console counterparts but this is generally speaking the best experience you can have with the game compared to the Xbox 360 version which is 1499 GBP the steam version can be purchased for just 6.99 on Steam and Gog making it the cheaper of the two releases finally we come to the PlayStation 3 version which was late to the party while Tomb Raider legend and Tomb Raider anniversary Never Had Standalone PlayStation 3 outings they only ever released on PS2 they were included in Classics HD Tomb Raider Trilogy which also includes Tomb Raider underworld given that the class 6 HD title is typically reserved for ports of PS2 games with an improved native resolution and trophy support and are both the front and back of the case say Legend and anniversary remastered in high definition I was curious as to whether this would be a new Port of that technically impressive PS2 outing or just another Port of the Xbox 360 and steam versions drumroll please it's just a 360 and PC version again only this time at a stable 720p and 30 FPS with the bottom prompts changed to the PlayStation's face buttons and trophies matching the Xbox achievements maybe it's my fault for expecting something more interesting but I'm still disappointed before we move on I wanted to look at the games side by side again for their different treatments of visual effects especially water look at Lara's legs on the Wii and PC version and note the wobbling effect you can also kind of see it on PS2 but the bloom and smear makes it harder to detect what seems to be happening here is that the game is projecting the main camera's view onto the water's surface to give the illusion of a reflection my understanding is that the original Resident Evil 4 used a similar trick I also find the foam at the bottom of the waterfall revealing on PS2 it's practically glowing but that effect disappears on the HD versions with only the PC Port replicating it meanwhile the Wii's take is a divot mess and the PSP version just doesn't have any foam at all it's also striking to see just how different the color treatment is between the SD and HD outings if I could get the ps2's color palette combined with the PC's Fidelity I think we would have a perfect look for this game if we compare the title screen so we can get a glimpse into how differently lighting and shading is treated the PSP seems to forgo real-time lighting which given the hardware is fair enough meanwhile the Wii has quite an exaggerated approach that almost comes across as Rim lighting from a light source that seems to be on the opposite side of Lara to the other versions both the PS3 and 360 have a hazier appearance student with limited shading in the environment while the PC version unsurprisingly gives us the cleanest look overall if you have a PC then this is a no-brainer get that version hands down it's the best and cheapest way to play if you only have consoles and you would prefer to buy it first hand rather than searching for a secondhand physical copy which you know I recommend support developers and Publishers wherever you can then your only option is the Xbox 360 digital download the nicest thing I'll probably ever say about Tomb Raider anniversary is that none of these versions are outright bad in fact some of them genuinely surprised me in a good way and most of them bring something unique to the table if you're a weirdo like me with access to the hardware and a willingness to track down some discs it's actually worth playing the various builds and seeing where they diverge I would be remiss to do a video on Tomb Raider Anniversary especially one with a version comparison without mentioning the other PSP version this was unfortunately scrapped but it's a different team bringing us a much more faithful take on Tomb Raider 1. thanks to community efforts a and I use this term loosely playable build can now be found on most sites offering PSP isos if you want to learn more check out tomb of Ash they did a great job extracting and commenting on assets as well as chronicling what went on behind the scenes from initial prototype to pitch to being canned in favor of the reimagining we ultimately got it's honestly some quite fascinating history for fans and there's so much to talk about that it's also Way Beyond the scope of this already bloated video all of that said and a lot has been said here how do I feel about Tomb Raider Anniversary would I recommend it game makers toolkit posited that the reason that Resident Evil 2 and 4's respective reimaginings worked so well is that they focus on how the original games made players feel and they replicated those emotions and responses in the new versions for me Tomb Raider Anniversary doesn't do that it misses a point of Tomb Raider entirely the original Tomb Raider had this Eerie sense of foreboding unfamiliarity everything from its admittedly clunky movement controls to its purposefully obtuse maze-like open plan level design to its limited save points to even its technologically limited and therefore uncanny blocky Graphics which left a lot to your imagination contributed to that feeling you were not welcome you were being cautious you are planning out your moves ahead of time and you knew that death was around every corner this reimagined Tomb Raider with its modernized controls small linear condensed and simplified stages its frequent automated checkpoints and its increased graphical Fidelity that clearly communicates exactly what you're looking at evokes entirely different emotions and responses you don't feel intimidated you instead feel like a badass Action Hero and that's just not the same game at that point the conflict I'm facing is that I wouldn't expect a modern gamer to go back to the original Tomb Raider despite its historical significance in the Fantastic experience I consistently get out of it I believe that my kids would find it too archaic and frustrating the treasure hunting Adventure having itself become something of a relic I believe the anniversary would be much more palatable to their tastes with a lower barrier to entry and that they would be more likely to play through and engage with that version of the adventure the problem is the anniversary doesn't reflect or represent what made the 1996 game so special to me and millions of other Gamers it's Tomb Raider 1 in name only bearing only a passing surface level entirely superficial resemblance to its source material if I were playing and judging this game as a standalone entry into the Tomb Raider franchise looking at it solely on its own merits I would probably tell you that while it has its issues and frustrations it's fine a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable game something you can beat over the course of a weekend and happily move on from assessing it as a reimagining of one of my all-time favorites I wouldn't be so kind at the start of the video I quoted Jason botter creative director of Tomb Raider Anniversary as saying that the team were inspired to create a brand new game heavily inspired by the original TR not just a remake but something more and yes this is a brand new game Loosely based on and inspired by the original Tomb Raider but I also believe that it's something lesser a game that fundamentally fails to understand its own inspiration becoming a generic cookie cutter offering that lacks the magic and charm of Lara's first outing a sadly Hollow imitation that I cannot enjoy or recommend thank you for watching to the end of this incredibly long video if you've enjoyed please like subscribe and leave a comment it really does help the channel out I also have a patreon which you can find a link for in the description joining up gets you perks like early scripts a special Discord role and other behind the scenes goodies it really helps out especially with longer videos like this that take a few months to produce speaking of shout out to Crow currently my soul Patron this channel also has over 10 years of content so have a look around there's bound to be something else of mine you'll want to watch there's even a couple of suggestions on screen right now that you can click on until next time I've been Sam and thank you for your time

Channel: Webster

Views: 122,558

Keywords: Afr0Blu3, Afr0, Blu3, AfroBlue, Afro, Blue, Webster, SJ

Id: m-DeFmib7UI

Length: 89min 46sec (5386 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023