I've always liked the Tomb Raider first person shooter games. I have nearly all of them from the early PC versions to the latest releases for Wii and PSP. Having received a new PSP for my birthday, I decided to purchases a few games to play when I got tired of Rock Band Unleashed, which is awesome by the way.
I came across Tomb Raider Anniversary. It had good reviews, and many players reviewing the game mentioned that the designers had made the game much easier to play. Cool I thought, just what I was looking for. I had recent memories of playing Tomb Raider Underworld on the Wii platform. I had thoroughly enjoyed that release, and was lead to believe that Anniversary contained the same changes. I assumed too much to a point.
The good... Tomb Raider Anniversary story line picks up where Legend left off with Lara having lost her mother. So those gamers who have been playing along will be familiar with this story line, and who the enemies are etc. Graphics are incredible, and awe inspiring. They have come a long way from the old days that's for sure with the pixel graphics and square edges on everything. Waterfalls so realistic you think your actually going to get wet if you approach them. More realism in the scenes, and the action of machines and moving objects. Game play interaction features are very well done and worked well for the most part. Game play is generally easy to figure out as it should be, its a seek and find, climb, and puzzle solve game. Designers in recent versions have been much better at giving us players the subtle hints we need, to see where to go next. Ingenuity in some of the paths and contraptions is generally well done. However, there are some levels that are just so large and complex, you must use a walk through to find out where to go. There are several excellent walk through's out there on the web.
The bad. The one thing that used to infuriate me with the original releases of this game were the insanely idiotic puzzles or impossibly hard timed challenges. These were pleasantly missing from the Underworld release, at least for the Wii platform. The Anniversary release however is, not that changed. I don't mind a good challenge one bit, but I also loath dying 2500 times and never making it even half way to the objective over a 3 week period. A BIG part of playing this game on the PSP platform is being familiar with the controls for the game. If you have been playing a PS1 or PS2 or even an X-Box with the standard console controller, you should be fine once you learn what buttons do what. If your not familiar with the PSP, doing the Croft Manor level in the beginning until you can do ALL of the moves in your sleep is highly recommended. Anyway, I'm here to enjoy myself and play a game, not get ticked off at some impossible area. I'm also not opposed to taking a hint after a few hours of trying on my own. Although improved from earlier versions of the game, I found some levels very difficult, even with learning and being familiar with the PSP control. I found the Tomb of Damocles trap room to be difficult, the Pillar Room in the Midas level very difficult, and the Great Pyramid ledges 3 and 5. If you can get past them you can win this game easily. If you are comfortable with the PSP style controls and are good with them, you will still find yourself frustrated by the only other problem in this game, getting Lara to obey your control commands. This area is MUCH improved over earlier versions of the game, at least on the PC platform. But you will still have some complex moves that take precision, and that precision will be lacking due to the character not obeying your commands. An example would be in the Temple of Damolces, to exit the trap room, you need to traverse across pillars and alcoves to a ledge to work a crank that opens the door. Half way to this ledge you have to do what they call a grapple. This is where Lara jumps from a ledge or handhold and immediately uses a grapple to snag a hook on the ceiling or wall. You then swing back and forth doing what is called a wall run. When Lara is all the way left your supposed to pull back and press jump to get Lara to jump back onto the next row of pillars. NOT! She will always jump in the direction she was swinging, and drop to the floor. There are several instance of this type of querky control in the game, but you have to figure out how to place the camera angle to get Lara to do what you want correctly, and it differs from platform to platform. In the instance above most walk through's will say to either place the camera directly behind Lara or to her right. For the PSP you must place the camera all the way to her left before swinging. Anyway, other that those issues that's it for the bad.
The beginning of the game, Peru, was gorgeous as far as the breathtaking scenes, and sounds. Game play was well done, and a challenge without being too hard. There is a boss level at the end of the levels for this location. Its hard, but boss levels are supposed to be, and there are many ways to defeat the T-Rex, it just takes time. There is a new feature in the game called the adrenalin dodge aka Max Payne. At least for the PSP, it is not very easy to learn at first, but you MUST learn it to complete the game. Its not that hard of a process, as you need to do a few nimble button moves and time it exactly or it will not work. The designers placed too much emphasis on the player using this move to get past the bosses. Bad move if you do not know how to do it. In the end, though, Peru was a pleasant set of levels and should have set an example for the rest of the games locations.
Greece is the second location. St Francis Folley starts out well, and is a fun and interesting level as well as the largest and most complex. It gets progressively more difficult as you play into it, but if you think you can get the job done, your wrong. Just when you think you've made it, your character finds themself in a massive 6 story tall room with a broken structure in the middle. Along the walls at different levels, places and heights, are 4 switches that open 4 different doors. Behind each door is a challenge puzzle, and the reward is a key which unlocks a door all the away down on the bottom. It's at this point where the designers went completely off track as far as good hints as to where to go and what to do. There are dozens of handholds on the walls and main structure, grapple rings everywhere, traps, pull blocks all over the place, and its all spread out everywhere in this massive room. Your first question is where the heck do I start?? I have NO idea how the people who post walk thru's ever figured it out. Its litterally impossible to work this entire area, and obtain all 4 keys without a walk thru. In short, the puzzle was far too large and complex, and may be a turn off to all but some hard core experts. I peeked at the hints only when I had to just to find out where to go, and was able to figure most of it out on my own once I knew which way to go and how to get there. Sadly, this was a harbinger of things to come. This four doors room as they call it should have been in one of the very last levels of the game if they HAD to include it at all.
The next level is the Coliseum. The level starts out normally with the usual attackers and some puzzle solving. This area was a good challenge, and not too hard at all. One grapple maneuver was a bit difficult, but not impossible. A checkpoint (Auto save spot) would have been a good idea half way across the last area. I was relieved and hoped that the four doors room was just one of those puzzles, and they would be very few and very far between. I was wrong.
The next level in Greece is Midas's Palace. Getting in was fairly standard fair. Then you'll encounter the most idiotic puzzle I've ever seen in any game in my 28 years of gaming. The object of the game is to secure three lead bars to place into specific openings on the Midas statue. The first one is obtained by entering a room of pillars and spears. At first they are all low, and you have to get up into an alcove above to obtain the lead bar. You figure out how to gain access to an area with a switch that's above the pillars. When pulled the pillars and ramps rise up out of the floor.
The object is to figure out which way to go jumping, turning, climbing and flipping so you can get to that alcove. That would have been fine, but they made this puzzle so hard by making it so that when you touched any one of the pillars, they all started to recede back into the floor. You have to make 24 moves of turns, jumps, flips, pull ups, and leaps perfectly and in quick succession to make it to the alcove. Did I say you needed to be real good with a consile style controller? I can tell you from experience, it cannot be done easily with the PSP. The console is too small, the console is too smooth to hold on to properly, and the controls are not large enough or responsive enough to make it through this puzzle/challenge unless your an expert. Normally, you can obtain a Save file from a web site, and just move on. But PSP save files are almost non-existant. (This will be changing in a few days.) There are 4 in total exactly, After the T-Rex boss for US and UK, and after the Centar's boss for US and UK, and a game Totally Complete which to me is a total waste. But it does allow you to go back and play any level from any point so I guess it has a purpose. For most other platforms you can find Save files for the beginning of each level, and ones for after hard puzzles and challenges. Not for the PSP (Yet). If you have them, send them to a web site that offers them (I did), there is one real big good one for everything Tomb Raider, send them in.
My son, who is 19 now and in college, has been playing a PS1 or PS 2 all his life bailed me out of the Midas pillar room. I had pretty much given up on the game, and told him I could not get past this part. I asked if he wanted to give it a try and he agreed. So I loaded it on his PSP and he had it within 5 minutes. UGH!
As with most games the levels get larger and more complex. As you gain experience with the PSP and its controls, the game will become easier in that regard. That's not to say there are not hard areas left. The Great Pyramid is another huge level and you have to go from the lowest level to a 6th level. No big deal you say, well you have to progress by making some of the most difficult double and tripple grapple moves of any game all while fending off flying mutant beasts that hatch from throbbing pods on the walls. The higher you climb the harder it gets. Then just when you think you can rest, your confronted with having to outsmart yourself. You will approach a room where another you called a doppleganger mimmicks your every move. The problem is that you need to flip switches and step on pads to get the exit open, but while your opening them, your opposite is closing them. So you have to make moves that trap her so you can move on. From that point on its a big boss fight, more climbing and traps, and finally a monster boss fight at the end. In all honesty, I thought the final boss was easier than some of the earlier ones. BUT, the key as knowing how to do that adrenalin dodge.... learn it!
In all I have to say I am happy with this game. Because of poor design regarding the some challenges, and the issues still present with the control of the character, I think a little more work needs to be done. In all fairness, whats been done is a VAST improvement over Tomb Raider Legends. I would recommend it to anyone with a PSP, BUT you'll not likely finish the game until you learn the adrenalin dodge, and become expert with the PSP controls and controlling Lara. Or you could wait until the PSP save files became available first. This has happened, as the largest Tomb Raider site has them and has completed the process of adding them.
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