Tomb Raider Anniversary PS2/PC - Review
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PS2 & PC RRP: £29.99
Out 8 Jun
Buy PC for £17.98 >>
Buy PS2 for £23.98 >>
It’s fair to say that Tomb Raider is one of the most important games ever made. Back in 1996 when Lara burst onto our consoles it was a revolution in 3D gaming. The controls raised the bar in sophistication and the lush environments were eye-bogglingly nice. The Peruvian jungles, Egyptian tombs and the incredibly imaginative ancient ruins were brought to life in huge, complex and breathtaking levels.
Fast forward a decade though and Lara’s triangle boobs and the big square rooms have become the ancient ruins of gaming legend. With this fact in mind, developers Crystal Dynamics have recreated the game with the same locations, plot and layout but using the modern Tomb Raider Legend engine. The game looks beautiful and Lara’s controls are smooth and have been updated to current expectations – but does it bring back fond memories or should the ancient relic have been left in the past?
We can honestly say this is the greatest Tomb Raider adventure yet. As you leap around the new organic environments, tussling with T-Rexes and making death-defying leaps across cavernous gulfs, everything you remember about the game is still here – but so much better. There are a few new controls such as “bullet time” in combat (aka “slowing things down”) and use of a grapple to swing across otherwise impossible-to-reach areas. The platforming puzzles are more fiendish than ever as you try to work your way across tiny ledges, over spiky pits and through locked doors. Lara is dwarfed by massive environments and it’s this sense of scale that shows just how ambitious the game was a decade ago – and how brilliantly that feeling has been captured for this remake. Well worth celebrating, and well worth the money.
9/10
Review by Kirsten Kearney
