Play this instead

Damn it, Ori. Now you made me pick Tomb Raider Legend back up and order Tomb Raider Underworld. I don't know if I left off halfway, two thirds, or three quarters of the way through but I'm now in Kazakhstan. There's just something so wholesome and relaxing about Tomb Raider's platforming and puzzles with only scattered enemies.

Raid well, my friend. :beer:

In the old games, Lara isn't even gonna bother shooting anything if it isn't an endangered species.

http://www.catagar.com/load/Final_packshot_TRA.jpg

I was expecting this game to be like Legend, since it was made by the same devs just a year later.

Yes and no.

Legend is focused on a very tight and fun linear experience. Besides a few puzzles that make you run around for a solution, you almost always know where to go. Ledges and ropes are always easy to spot, and the camera is always sort of peeking towards the next spot you should jump for.

Anniversary is way more like an old school adventure game (probably because it's a remake of one). Right off the bat, there's all kinds of **** way up out of reach, and you're like "Woah, how do I get to that ****?", expecting the game to eventually take you up there when the time is right, like in Legend. But nope, as you keep going, you find out that all that cool **** was totally optional, and you just didn't look hard enough for the way up.

Instead of just health and ammo dropped by enemies, items are now scattered all over the environment, and you have to platform to get them. There's more of an inventory system, with key items (like literal keys) hidden around that you'll need to find.

Oh yes, and the platforming is trickier than Legend. Not because the mechanics are different; they're almost identical. It's the layouts. Namely, the way the environments are more open, with different ways to get around. Things are bigger and more branching. In Legends, like I said, you almost always knew where to go. In Anniversary, that certainty is diminished. You start asking yourself "Wait, does the game really want me to make that jump? Can I even make it?"

The answer is maybe. You'll just have to try and find out. The checkpoints are forgiving enough that you don't get slingshotted back to the start just for experimenting.

Anniversary is still a fairly modern game, with pretty modern conventions. It just has an old-school flavor, it doesn't go all the way. But still, just that little bit of added difficulty and uncertainty is already giving it some fun tension.

For example, I found a huge open room with a waterfall and some big wooden wheel contraption, with tons of ways up and around. I used a gear on part of the contraption to shift it around and make another way up. I screwed around for a bit and ended up in a corridor, expecting to find another gear or something, but instead get caught in a trap where the floor gives out (actually, I stepped back in time to avoid it, but then immediately accidentally moved forward and hit the jump button like a moron :laughing:) and ended up in another huge place, banged up and surrounded by ****ing raptors. Yeah, raptors. I guess they like raiding tombs, too.

And then a ****ing T-Rex came out.

I assume at some point, the game is gonna take me back to that contraption with the gears. Maybe. I don't know. There was a cool looking path at the top of the waterfall I could've gone down. Maybe that's the actual way I'm supposed to go, and the wheel is just a side thing? After killing the T-Rex, there are now some other ways I can go, and maybe I can't even get back to where I was. Maybe that floor trap totally ****ed me. I'm not really sure. Isn't that awesome?

I really wanna try the original Tomb Raider after this.

Played some Crash Bandicoot 2 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on the PS2 lastnight.

I hear that nintendo is going to release an N64 Classic with built-in games to counter the PS1 Classic that is coming out.

If you try the original Tomb Raider there's a secret place you can get to where you can shoot the T-Rex with impunity.

I need Anniversary too. Once I get Underworld, Anniversary will be the only 360 Tomb Raider game I don't own. I've played a bit of it on PC but not that much.

*puts on shades*

*loads pistols*

THIS IS FOR DINO CRISIS, YOU ****ING LIZARD!

*blammity blam blam*

One thing that terrifies me about Anniversary is remembering how freaky the raptors were in TR1 as a kid. I never got to them in the reboot and I'm sure they'll make me **** myself. Bringing up Dino Crisis is not helping.