[This review was done while playing the Windows version on Linux in Wine]
Some days ago I picked up Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the PC (yes,
thats the old one, not the new Underworld). Its a standard Windows
game, of course, but it actually works near perfectly under Linux in.
No hacks or cracks requires, it works out of the box. The only issue I
could find is that one has to disable reflections in the display
setting of the game, since they cause some graphical glitches. Those
aside the game runs wonderfully, it loads in seconds, runs fluently and
supports all kinds of resolutions and aspect ratios, gamepad support is
fine too and it doesn't even require a DVD in the drive.
Now to
the game itself. Anniversary is a remake of the very first Tomb Raider
game and as far as I can tell it stays pretty close to the original,
while upgrading the core gameplay with what was provided by Tomb
Raider: Legend. The core gameplay aside Anniversary however is quite
different then Legend, mainly due to its level design. Anniversary
doesn't follow a linear structure with lots of cutscenes like Legend,
but instead follows the style of the original game which has has a less
linear structure. The levels in Anniversary structure follow a
structure like this, you approach a main room, from which multiple
challenge rooms branch off. In these challenge rooms one collects
items, keys or other stuff that is then used in the main room to
advance or unlock other challenge rooms. While this feels a little old
school as first, it actually works quite well and makes things more
interesting when replaying levels the levels later. Another thing that
makes Anniversary different from Legend is that Anniversary is limited
to four scenarios, namely Peru, Greece, Egypt and Lost Island, with
each of those having three or four levels. In addition there is the
Croft Manor again, Tomb Raiders tutorial level, which is this time a
little larger then in Legend and features more adventure style gameplay
with item collection and use, which while using the same mechanics like
the rest of the game is quite a chance in basic gameplay.
One
thing missing in Anniversary is a form of light, Legend had a
flashlight and flares, while Anniversary has nothing. Its not a big
issue, since Anniversary is never really dark, but its a thing that
could have given the game a little bit more interactiveness. Gone are
also the binoculars and the quick access to the health pack, the later
can kind of be fixed by remapping buttons a bit, but the way Legend
used the Dpad felt more natural. The grapple on the other side is still
present.
Another issue I have with Anniversary is the swimming,
just like Mario Sunshine, it got changed from having full 3D control to
having a swim-up and a swim-down button. I assume this change was made
to simplify the gameplay, but I don't like it since it takes the fun
out of swimming. Also the underwater graphics are a little lacking. The
original Tomb Raider was very impressive due to the light effects it
had under water, those are lacking here, which makes the underwater
world look a little to much like the over water world. The water level
itself is also a little hard to see, making it hard to judge the depth
one is in. No big deal, but one of the few things that could have been
done better.
On the first play through Anniversary takes around
10-15 hours, which makes it a good bit longer then Legend. While some
of that length results from harder traps, some of which are quite
meanly placed, most of it is simply the result of more complex levels,
which require more exploring and don't follow the linear nature of
Legend. The harder traps, while they can annoy a bit at first, are
however never really a big issue, since one learns their pattern and
has plenty of fairly placed checkpoints.
Just like Legend
Anniversary features treasure hunting and a time trial mode. The
treasures are additional optional objects places in the levels,
sometimes quite will hidden. They are this time much rarer and much
more intelligently placed as in Legend, which makes hunting them more
fun and their rough positions easier to guess, i.e. when you have four
treasures in a level with four sub-rooms its clear that one treasure is
in each room. The time trial mode simply requires you to play through
the levels with a given time limited, which due to the non-linear
nature of the levels becomes quite interesting, since you have to hunt
for the optimal route before you can start a time trial. Finishing a
time trial or collecting enough treasures unlocks new costumes, artwork
and cheat codes, which then in turn can be used to ease other time
trial or treasure hunts. This constant stream of rewards makes the
replaying of levels quite enjoyable, since one actually ends up using
them while playing the game, which in turn chances the game a little
bit to keep it interesting. Anniversary also features audio commentary
for the levels that gets unlocked after the first play through and can
be listened to when tressure hunting.
Another little thing that
is worth mentioning is that Anniversary features, just like Legend, a
few "useless" actions, namely a series of acrobatic flips that one can
achieve by pressing the jump and roll buttons repeatable. While these
actions are useless for practical gameplay, they make the game
interesting in that they give the player something to play with when
the game isn't actively challenging him. This is very similar to the
double and triple jumps in Mario64, which also where in large part just
there to give the player a chain of events to complete while nothing
else was there to do. It is an interesting mechanic that one doesn't
see all that often in other games.
The story of Anniversary is
more simplistic then Legend and the game only features a handful of
cutscenes and misses the all the radio communication that Legend had in
the levels, which is a little bit of disappointment. But that little
bit of story that is there is actually interesting and its focus on the
morality of your action is something that isn't much seen in other
games.
Overall Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a highly enjoyabel
game, especially since it runs so well in Linux and thus doesn't
require all the dual booting. While some elements of Legend are missing
here, it has strength in different areas that were lacking in Legend.
