Follow Genre: Action, Adventure
Modes: Single Player
Released: 12 May., 2011
Audio: Stereo
Publisher: Eidos

OnLive: Tomb Raider Anniversary Review

January 4, 2012 - Oscar Langford

OLF Score

8.0

Good: Fantastic puzzles, Fun combat

Bad: Frustrating at times

User Score

8.8

(4 votes)

Click to vote

Ah, Lara Croft – it’s been a long time since we last enjoyed each other’s company. As anyone who grew up in the 90s will understand, Lara was the only thing male adolescent PlayStation fans seemed to talk about. In fact, the obsession that surrounded her, coupled with the glut of photoshopped images “proving” a nude cheat existed within the game code, was the main reason I avoided her first adventure for so long. When I finally got around to buying it, I discovered that it wasn’t just a way for sexually frustrated geeks to get their rocks off, but actually a fun, challenging, puzzle-filled action title that deserved praise for many reasons other than the attractiveness of it’s title character.

Over the years, Lara appeared in numerous sequels, none of which lived up to the brilliance of her first adventure. It was because of this that I jumped at the chance to re-live the glory days with Tomb Raider Anniversary – a remake of her earliest journey into the ancient temples of civilizations passed. Don’t expect a thrilling, Indiana Jones-style story to guide you through, though, as the plot is extremely minimal. Essentially, you are tasked to travel to various locations, find and collect the rare and important artifacts along the way, and bring them back to the folks who employed you. To say any more would spoil the little story that exists, but don’t expect this aspect to keep you on the edge of your seat.

This is not to say that things aren’t exiting, though. On the contrary, Tomb Raider has danger and excitement around every corner, in the form of brilliant puzzles and fun combat. It seems that the ancients built their temples to be filled with traps, complicated machinery, and many large beasts – all of which mean certain death for the unwary explorer. And you will die. A lot. Folks who throw their controller across the room in frustration may want to avoid this title, as it’s impossible to navigate through the dangerous tombs without succumbing to death by falling/spikes/bear attack every few minutes. It never feels cheap, though, and each time you hear Lara’s scream, followed by the sound of breaking bones, it teaches you a little more about you current environment and helps you avoid such future disasters.

The puzzles are really the main draw in Tomb Raider, and most of them involve figuring out and successfully navigating around the complicated tombs and temples. While the solutions aren’t identical to the PlayStation original, everything still feels familiar enough to evoke a good deal of nostalgia. One new aspect is the inclusion of a grappling hook, and although it can only be attached to specific ring-like structures, it still adds an extra dimension to the exploration. The combat will also feel familiar to previous fans, with it’s simple lock-on-then-jump-around shooting mechanic, although Lara has a new slow motion dodge move that can only be activated if your timing is just right. As with the grapple, this new element seems to work well and doesn’t overpower Lara or change the feel of the game too much from the original.

Tomb Raider Anniversary comes to Onlive with an excellent port: Graphics are crisp, frame rate is smooth, and latency is minimal. Sure, you’ll fall off ledges and accidentally jump to your death, followed by a flurry of swearing at Lara’s incompetence, but this has nothing to do with the Onlive system – it’s just an unfortunate aspect of Tomb Raider games that fans have always had to deal with. I spent the vast majority of time playing on a controller, but mouse and keyboard will do the trick as well. While I like the analog control that allows one to walk as slowly as desired around thin ledges, jumping across gaps can be frustrating if you don’t push the stick in just the right direction – a slight tilt one was or the other can lead to broken legs very quickly. No touch control has been implemented yet, and there is no DLC for the game, but the main story is long enough to keep you going for a while.

So if you’re looking for an adventure title that will test both your mind and reflexes, Tomb Raider Anniversary is well recommended. Fans of the original will get a great deal of nostalgic pleasure without having to dig out their old PlayStations and suffer through graphics that haven’t aged well; Newcomers will have fun discovering the joy that so many of us felt when we first spent time with the spicy heroine. Oh, and if anyone ever figures out that nude cheat, you know where to find me…..