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Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Lara Croft is back in more ways than one. While Tomb Raider: Legend felt a bit rushed in some ways, it refreshed the Tomb Raider franchise to the next generation, learning a lot from the smooth acrobatics of the incredible Prince of Persia and ditching the clumsy control system of the horrible Angel of Darkness. Tomb Raider: Anniversary re-uses the game engine from TR: Legend and puts it to good use, returning to the very roots of the franchise.

Once again Lara gets to actually do what she does best - raid tombs. However, instead of an all-new adventure, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the very first Tomb Raider game from 1996. TRA is not a simple graphical upgrade though - instead it concentrates on telling the same story with the modern means available today. Lara is chasing the three pieces of the Scion and solving the mystery of the lost city of Atlantis, just like she was doing back in 1996 on the PC (with optional Voodoo Graphics GLIDE 3D acceleration!) and the PlayStation (the very first one, from the dawn of time).

As the story progresses, Lara visits the same familiar places - Peru, Greece, Egypt and the Lost Island. Since computer technology has advanced in the past ten years, separate levels within each country have been merged together as a seamless journey. When you reach the end of a "level", you get a prompt about it, but the game then proceeds on to the next area without loading screens. While most of the memorable play areas have been reproduced, all the detail is new. As an example, in the original game you had the puzzle where you had to recover four lead bars and turn them to gold on the hand of the statue of Midas to proceed. The same puzzle is present in Tomb Raider: Anniversary - you have the lead bars and the statue of Midas (and it's still a bad idea to touch the hand), but the rest of the puzzle and the related rooms have been redesigned with Lara's modern skills in mind.

If you have played the original Tomb Raider, it sure helps if you remember the original solution to the problem at hand - in many cases the solution is still generally the same, but the way to reach that solution is usually completely new. So, all in all, Tomb Raider Anniversary tells a familiar story, but does not limit itself to the old details. Some of the past bits have been cut and in some places the path is a bit more streamlined, but there is still well over 20 hours of Tomb Raiding here for a seasoned veteran. There are also many added incentives to re-visit the levels in the form of unlockable bonus features.

The Croft Mansion is also present and allows you to train your skills before setting out for the adventure. The place is based on the version we saw in Tomb Raider: Legend, but it does take into account the fact that this adventure is set prior to the other Tomb Raider games - the pool room is a construction yard, stacks of unsorted ancient artefacts litter the main room and many other details are different. The mansion has many hidden items and passages, and it could be considered a level on its own to be solved, as fully exploring it unlocks some of the bonus features as well.

The Croft Mansion, with plenty of puzzles to solve for an introduction.

Relic gallery of the Croft Mansion - gotta collect 'em all.

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