Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) (VG)

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Director:

Toby Gard

Writers:

Toby Gard (writer)
Matt Ragghianti (writer)

Release Date:

5 June 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

Sometimes To Understand Your Present, You Have To Go Back To Your Past.

Plot:

A remake of the original game released in 1996, Lara Croft world known adventurer has been hired by a mysterious woman named Natla to find a lost and very powerful artifact known as the Scion. |

Plot Keywords:

Lara Croft | Remake | Greece | Atlantis | Dinosaur

Cast

Keeley Hawes	...	Lara Croft (voice)
Grey DeLisle	...	Jacqueline Natla (voice)
Dave Wittenberg	...	Larson Conway (voice)
Jim Ward	...	Pierre DuPont (voice)
Philip Tanzini	...	Jerome 'The Kid' Johnson (voice) (as Phil Tanzini)
Dave Fennoy	...	Kin 'Kold' Kade (voice)
Alastair Duncan	...	Qualopec (voice)
Steve Blum	...	Tihocan (voice) (as Steven Jay Blum)
Alan Shearman	...	Winston Smith (voice)
Edward Hardwicke	...	Richard Croft (voice)
David Berón	...	Guide (voice) (as Dave Beron)

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:T

Company:

Crystal Dynamics

Trivia:

The Lara model has been upgraded with over 7,000 polygons and has inherited a few new moves: a pole-hopping move where Lara can balance on narrow surfaces; she can "perch" or balance on small platforms and not lose her balance; she can run across walls while swinging from her hook grapple; with the grapple she can now go up on the walls.

Goofs:

Continuity: In order to open the gate to the chamber containing the final (Egyptian) piece of the scion, Lara places the other two pieces of the scion in the two halves of the locking mechanism. Later, despite the fact that she did not go back to the locks to retrieve the first two scion pieces, she is shown to be in possession of all three.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Jacqueline Natla: My company has recently turned its focus on the study of ancient artifacts, and I am lead to believe that with the right incentive, you are just the woman to find them for me.
Lara Croft: I'm afraid you've been mistaken. I only play for sport.
Jacqueline Natla: Which is precisely why I've come to you Miss Croft. This is a game you've played before.

Movie Connections:

References Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

A near perfect remake

The Tomb Raider series has always been high on my list of favorite franchises. That's why I was so sad to see it go the way it was going before Crystal Dynamics stepped in and injected some life back into the series.

I had high expectations for the remake considering Crystal Dynamics was doing it. Thankfully all of those expectations have been met and then some. This game has now taken the place of the first one in my opinion. Some people may disagree, but there's no more need for the original now.

Crystal D managed to take what we all loved about Tomb Raider 1 and refine it without destroying the atmosphere of the first. Pretty much everything has been upgraded over the original. If you've played Legend you should be used to this. It uses the same engine.

The graphics are the most obvious thing. What was once a closed in cave with a black cover over it is now outside like it's supposed to be. All the environments are wonderful. Which makes navigating them that much better.

The controls are fine. The combat is a bit more in depth than in Legend. Although you'll spend more time jumping around and solving puzzles than fighting. Which is what the original Tomb Raider was about. I do have to praise the difficulty. Not many games have a well balanced realistic difficult challenge anymore. The story is better written, but keeps the same elements of the original.

My only complaints about the game is the camera, no blood, and slight framerate problems. The camera can be a bit of a hassle sometimes when trying to make jumps. Thankfully it never gets bothersome too much. I was disappointed that there wasn't any blood what so ever in the game. I didn't want geysers of blood, because the series has never been about that, but a little blood when she gets stabbed or pricked would have been nice. The original even had blood. The framerate chugged a few times, but it was hardly noticeable. The mansion is the place where it happens the most.

Overall a great game with plenty of great unlockables and I can't wait to see what Crystal Dynamics can do with the series from here.