Wednesday 05 Nov 2008

For the past twelve years, Lara Croft has been the Hollywood starlet of videogames. When she made her debut in 1996, she was instantly established as a hot new property, an object of desire for male gamers and a welcome role model for gaming’s small but rapidly growing contingent of young ladies. In a very short time she had become a true icon, a figurehead for gaming’s accelerating emergence as a significant aspect of popular culture. Her image appeared on magazine covers and in television advertisements, and her name and likeness were recognisable even to people who had never before played videogames. A Tomb Raider film was released and made more money than any videogame-based movie before or since. But then, as with so many promising young celebrities, things started going wrong.

The games that followed never quite matched the quality of the first one, and with an increasing focus on action, rather than adventure, it seemed that the developers were forgetting what had made the franchise great in the first place. Sales and review scores dwindled, and it all came to a very embarrassing boiling point in 2003 with the dreadful Angel of Darkness. Lara’s career seemed to have crashed, with the terrible game standing as her public meltdown and her descent into B-list obscurity. Suddenly she was a washed-up has-been, and it looked like the world had seen the last of Lara Croft.

A star is reborn

But then came 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend, a fine return to form that got great reviews and excellent sales, and went some way toward re-igniting Lara’s star. Yet still there were those who doubted. Thankfully, the naysayers should be silenced by Tomb Raider: Anniversary, an excellent game that stands as Lara’s undeniable comeback.

Rather than a 100% faithful remake of the original game, Anniversary is a re-imagining that has been developed from scratch. It is built on an updated version of the Legend engine, with the same modern approach underlying its design. While the same four areas of the original game are included, many levels and puzzles have been completely redesigned. Some content has been removed entirely, whereas brand new content has also been added. The end result is that Anniversary really isn’t a re-hashed product, but rather a new and fresh Tomb Raider title that just happens to honour and celebrate the original game. And it’s in celebrating the original that Anniversary excels. The action-heavy approach from the later games has been dropped for what made Tomb Raider great in the first place: platforming, puzzle-solving and adventuring.

Anniversary follows the exploits of heiress and archaeologist Lara Croft, on a quest to obtain an ancient and legendary artefact supposedly linked to the lost civilisation of Atlantis. Her search takes her to ancient ruins in South America, Greece and Egypt, as well as a final location which I won’t reveal here.

Puzzling ingenuity

When Tomb Raider first hit, it was acclaimed for the involving complexity of its level designs. More than a decade later, Anniversary has the same impact. The basic premise of the gameplay is simple: move Lara from Point A to Point B in order to collect Object C. But this basic formula is given depth and substance through some truly inspired level designs. Levels are expansive, multi-tiered and riddled with all manner of obstacles, and moving to any given point in an environment is never a straightforward task. Added to this are incredible mechanical puzzles involving gears, levers, platforms and water, often spanning across entire levels. The way the developers managed to integrate the level- and puzzle designs is marked by the kind of ingenuity rarely seen outside of a Zelda game. Adventure fans will find themselves happily at home.

It’s not all just pulling levers, though. Tomb Raider Anniversary’s gameplay is further enriched through a robust and diverse platforming system. Lara spends a great deal of time climbing, leaping and swinging to get to her next checkpoint, and her moveset has been expanded from earlier games to incorporate mechanics such as running along walls (with the aid of her grapple hook) and perching atop poles. While the platforming mechanics are not quite as impressive as those of, say, the last three Prince of Persia games, it still dwarfs those of most other action-adventure games, and will satisfy the cravings of platforming enthusiasts. One problem though is that the controls can sometimes be a bit unresponsive and imprecise, especially during wall-run sequences. It’s nothing game-breaking, but it does cause some needless frustration.

A one-woman army

As stated earlier, the focus of the game is most definitely on the adventure elements, rather than combat. But combat is still to be found. In most areas, Lara will have to face off against both real and mythical creatures in order to advance. The combat system, mostly consisting of gunplay, is nothing to really get excited about, although the moveset for dodging attacks helps to hold off any potential boredom. A further new gameplay mechanic allows Lara to pull off cinematic, one-hit kills under certain conditions, and this serves to add some spice to the combat encounters. Fortunately, these encounters are not too frequent, and never come close to overshadowing the game’s adventure aspects. Bosses appear in each main environment, and luckily the developers took a more puzzle-solving approach with these. The end result is combat that is enjoyable enough and which never outstays its welcome.

The developers also did a commendable job of bolstering the game’s long-term appeal with great replayability. Three difficulty levels are available, although even on Hard mode the combat is not particularly challenging. After completing the game, players have the option of attempting speed runs through all the game levels, in order to unlock achievements and other unlockables. The environments are all peppered with a wealth of hidden collectables which also unlock further game options (such as character models or costumes). The most interesting additions though are commentary tracks by the developers of Anniversary as well as the lead designer of the original Tomb Raider game. In these tracks, which become available once a given level has been completed normally, design decisions are discussed and explained, and long-time enthusiasts of the franchise will be delighted at this inclusion.

Weak script

If the game has one glaring weakness, though, it’s the story. Most adventure game fans will agree that this is one genre where a great story and well-defined characters are essential, and unfortunately Anniversary comes up lacking. The story is barren and underdeveloped, and told in meagre snippets that are far too infrequent. Part of the problem is that Lara is completely alone in her adventure. In Legend, she made use of a headset to constantly communicate with her assistants, a superb touch that worked wonders to bring our heroine alive, but that is missing here. She doesn’t say more than a few words during the course of the entire game, resulting in a character that never really develops into anything more than a bunch of polygons. It’s a pity, as the back-story definitely has potential. While this doesn’t affect the gameplay, it does noticeably detract from what could have been a near-perfect adventure experience.

The visual presentation is another weak point, although it fares better than the story. The art direction and design is consistently excellent, and the developers did a great job of creating beautiful environments that are engrossing and authentic. The exception is the final environment, which seems dull and bland in comparison to the others. However, even at its most impressive the art direction is let down by the technical quality of the graphics. The game was clearly not developed with an HD console in mind, and the graphics are put to shame by those of other action-adventure titles such as Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed or Heavenly Sword. Still, it’s not a fault that detracts too much from the overall experience, and the art direction goes a long way towards providing a beautiful, moody presentation. This is complemented by an excellent orchestral score and overall competent audio design.

In closing

Despite the insufficient story and last-gen graphics, Anniversary is an excellent game that is highly recommended to fans of the action-adventure or platforming genres. It is a perfect starting point for newcomers to the series, and should also be played by long-term fans. Underworld, the next Tomb Raider adventure, is mere weeks away from release, so this would be a great way to pass the time until then. Most importantly, though, Anniversary unquestionably proves that Tomb Raider is still a relevant and exciting franchise, and that Lara Croft is once again a star.

Pros: Excellent level and puzzle design; great platforming mechanics.

Cons: Greatly lacking story; graphics not on par with other recent games; occasionally spotty controls.

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Contributor:	Mark

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