The Tomb Raider franchise have been a success in the last ten years, as we’ve seen sequels, spinoffs, merchandise, and even a successful Hollywood live action film version starring Angelina Jolie. When the first game was released in 1996 it changed the video game industry in terms of gameplay by making it immersive and giving players a chance to explore their environments.

The key thing that made the series a huge hit was the main character Lara Croft. Before this game’s sexy and tough heroine, there were no strong female leads in video games prior. Other than being a pinup girl for many teenage boys, she was well loved over the years, as she became a role model, spokesperson for video games, and became an icon in video game heroes joining Mario and Sonic. Her popularity and character would spawn more strong female heroines in video games today.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the original game, as it celebrates and thanks the fans for all the success of the franchise in the last decade, but modernized in graphics, and uses the game engine from the recent Tomb Raider: Legend. The game’s story is the same, as we are introduced to Lara Croft, who’s an archeologist adventurer that explores ancient tombs and lost cities from Egypt, Peru, Greece and more. She is very nimble and acrobatic, from running to swimming, as she has to jump and climb mountains and ledges. The entire game is set up like a puzzle, where players have to figure out where and how to jump and climb from one end to the other, climbing and jumping from vines, rocks and ledges.

Lara battles Raptors, T-Rex’s, bats, bears and more using her twin handguns where she can specifically lock on to enemies using the L1 button then firing with the R1 buttons. Lara can draw or put away her weapon at any time using trigger buttons.

There are new features introduced, such as the adrenaline dodge, where time slows down as targets will move toward the enemy, requiring Lara to shoot while dodging the enemy a la bullet time. If shot at the right moment, it can cause a lot of damage or instantly kill them. It adds some intensity and drama to the moment.  Another is the use of interactive cutscenes, taken from Tomb Raider: Legend, where players have to react quickly to an onscreen button cue to keep Lara alive. It’s our way of yelling to the hero onscreen, “Run! Get out of there!” but having the controls to do so. 

What makes this game so appealing is the visual presentation quality. The huge environments are beautiful and real. Lara looks so gorgeous this time around. It’s so amazing to see how far she’s evolved in the last decade from a blocky 3D low polygon model to the sexy, smooth, life-like model today.

Despite being a remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary feels like a fresh new experience. This is a great game to introduce players to the franchise who haven’t played the original games, where they can learn about the puzzle-like gameplay and Lara Croft, which made Tomb Raider the smash hit it became ten years ago. On the other hand, fans that have played the original will appreciate this game too, as they will feel like they’re playing a whole new Tomb Raider game, with the updated graphics and new controls, and feel nostalgic too.

Deno’s Rating: 8/10