Tomb Raider: Anniversary
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Tomb Raider Anniversary
Developed by Crystal Dynamics Published by Eidos Interactive Lead Designer: Toby Gard Written by: Toby Gard & Matt Ragghianti Music by Troels Brun Folmann Platforms PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Windows, Wii, Xbox 360, Mac OS X Release date(s): Europe: 1 June 2007 - North America: 5 June 2007 Rating: ESRB: T - OFLC: M - PEGI: 16+ - BBFC: 12 |
Inspired by the first Tomb Raider video-game, originally released in 1996, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a totally new 2006 adventure for Lara, faithfully preserving the elements which made the original Tomb Raider such a classic, selling over 7 million copies worldwide.
Using an enhanced Tomb Raider: Legend game engine, the graphics, technology and physics bring Lara Croft's adventure and pursuit of a mystical artefact known only as the Scion right up to today's technology standards and will offer gamers a completely new gameplay experience.
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Background
Lara Croft's mother Amelia went missing in the aftermath of a plane crash, leaving 9 year old Lara as the only survivor (as seen in Legend). Lara's father Richard, a renowned archaeologist, was convinced that Amelia was still alive and he became obsessed with finding out what happened to her. He took Lara with him on expeditions searching for the Scion, an artifact that he believed contained a vast library of information from Atlantis which might somehow explain how Amelia disappeared. He was widely ridiculed for believing that Atlantis was the foundation of all ancient civilizations, and he disappeared himself before he could find the Scion to support his theories.
Now, in Lara's "present day" (set in 1996 which is the year the original Tomb Raider came out), Lara is contacted by a business woman named Natla who hires Lara to find the Scion. She provides Lara with the location of the first part of the Scion and so Lara sets out to find the artifact and attempt to discover the truth for herself. Her search will take her through Peru, Greece, Egypt, and even a remnant of the Lost Island of Atlantis.
Story
The story's prelude begins in 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico; a mushroom cloud engulfs an abandoned town, uncovering a crystalline structure, sending an unidentified winged creature flying out. Fifty-one years later the game sends us to a cutscene set in Calcutta, India, in which the main story opens: Lara Croft, daughter of Lord Richard Croft is hired by renowned businesswoman Jacqueline Natla through an introduction by her long-time adversary Larson Conway. Natla reveals she has found the location of one of the three pieces that comprise the Atlantean Scion, a mystical artifact buried in the heart of an ancient city, and she wants Lara to retrieve it for her. Lara, sitting back leisurely, leaps from her seat upon hearing this revelation. Fueled as much by her, and her father's, desires to find the artefact, Lady Croft travels on commission by Natla to the icy mountains of Peru to search for it in the lost city of Vilcabamba.
Through the Lost Valley teeming with thought-to-be-extinct dinosaurs and numerous booby traps, she enters a desolate tomb, seemingly undiscovered for millennia. In a further cutscene, Lara finds the corpse of Qualopec. Observing the inscriptions on the wall, it reads that he was one of the triumvirate of god-rulers of Atlantis before it fell beneath the waves, watching over his piece of the Scion even in death. As she peers closely, one of the beast-like creatures suddenly roars at her, before falling to the floor. Lara then takes the Scion and the tomb begins to crumble. Lara makes a run for and looks back just in time to see Qualopec rise from his throne before being trapped behind a wall of fallen rocks. Lara escapes surfacing from the water to find Larson ready to relieve her of her hard earned work. Refusing to relinquish the artefact to him, they engage in a pulse-raising fight, Lara naturally coming out victorious. After giving Larson a good beating, he reveals that another archaeologist has been sent by Natla to look for the second piece, prompting Lara to pay a visit to Natla Technologies to search for more information. A video communication clip reveals Natla knew Lara would never surrender the artefact to her anyway. She instantly recognises the other archaeologist as Pierre Dupont who is standing before the St. Francis Folly, in the Greek Isles.
In Greece she races against the rival archaeologist Pierre Dupont. Lara uncovers the Tomb of Tihocan, the second of the three god-rulers where she finds his empty coffin, the whereabouts of the body unknown. Pierre then catches up with Lara, threatening to kill her unless she gives him Qualopec's piece of the Scion. Lara refuses, attacking him until he flees from the tomb. Once outside the tomb entrance however, two centaurs then awake and trample Pierre to death. After escaping Tihocan's tomb, she leaves for the Sanctuary of the Scion located in Egypt for the third and final piece. As soon as she obtains it, she leaves the Sanctuary and connects the pieces. She has a vision about the god-kings stood in counsel over the third ruler, revealed to be Natla herself. She is being expelled from their sacred order and condemned for unleashing Atlantis' own armies against it and trying to usher in the Seventh Age through the use of the Scion. She is then encased in the crystalline structure which was later uncovered in the blast in Los Alamos.
Natla then calmly takes the now complete piece away from the still shocked Lara, clutched by Natla's henchman "Kold". Lara asks her what the Seventh Age was, Natla asking her how far she would go to find out. Natla orders her henchmen to kill her quickly. "Kid", another of Natla's henchmen goes to shoot Lara, but Larson pushes him out the way, purposely missing her with his shotgun. Lara escapes, diving over the edge of the cliff into the lake as Larson fires. Lara pursues Natla on her motorbike, managing to infiltrate Natla's boat undetected. They soon dock to an island which is a remnant of Atlantis, where Natla has mining operations. Inside she meets Larson again, holding a key trying to stop her from continuing further. Larson taunts her, betting she will not shoot him. Insistent on impeding her path, he tells her she would never shoot him because, "that's just not who you are." Lara replies, "I'm not who you think I am". This results in Lara shooting him three times in the chest. Larson falls to his knees, and lays down to the ground gasping for air, his hand reaching out to Lara for help. Lara rests her hand on his chest and turns him over, taking the key from his pocket. Looking at her hands horrified at what she has done and vigorously dusts off the imaginary blood on her hands, greatly remorseful from her first human kill thus far. As she continues through, one of Natla's henchmen stands guarding the next chamber wielding a knife. Lara warns Kold, telling him he will end up like Larson if he does not let her past. Another of Natla's henchmen, Kid, emerges from the shadows with a pair of uzis. Lara shoots them in her defence, however, Kold stabs Kid so he can kill Lara himself. Kold pins Lara against the wall by her throat, but she is saved when Kid kills Kold with his uzis from afar before dying of the stab wound. Lara finally catches up with Natla who has activated the Scion, along with the pyramid buried beneath it. Natla tells Lara she has reached the top, that it takes three to rule, that Tihocan and Qualopec were too weak to destroy what stands in the way of the Seventh Age, but Lara has the strength to claim the seat beside Natla's rule.
Lara looks at her hands then apologises to her father before shooting and destroying the Scion. Natla charges at her in rage, pushing her off the platform, with Lara pulling Natla down with her. Lara grabs the platform on the opposite side with her grapple, Natla falling to her doom beneath the depths of the lava. Natla later confronts her, still alive, accusing Lara of having a heart as black as hers, after the blood she has spilled for her own purposes. Natla clutches Lara by her throat, stating she cannot be killed, and that she is immortal. The final boss battle is against Natla herself, which ends with Lara pinning her under a falling pillar. Natla screeches in agony as Lara escapes the now crumbling pyramid, the island violently erupting. Reaching the shore, Lara dives into the sea and gets into the boat she used to get to the Lost City. She looks back at the exploding island, then at her bloodstained hands as she leaves the erupting island behind. Lara smiles and sails off into the horizon.
Locations
- Peru
Mountain Caves, City of Vilcabamba, The Lost Valley, Tomb of Qualopec.
- Greece
St. Francis' Folly, Coliseum, Palace Midas, Tomb of Tihocan.
- Egypt
Temple of Khamoon, Obelisk of Khamoon, Sanctuary of the Scion.
- Lost Island
Natla's Mines, The Great Pyramid, The Final Conflict.
Characters
Gameplay Elements
Anniversary features all of the abilities from Legend (running, jumping, swimming, ledge-hopping, grappling, pole-swinging, climbing up and down poles, swinging on ropes, pushing objects, etc.) and also introduces new abilities like the perch (in which Lara can balance on the top of a vertical pole) and the wall-run (in which Lara can use the grapple to run along walls). Additionally, due to all of the combat in Anniversary involving animals, Lara's bullet-time combat maneuvers from Legend are replaced by the Adrenaline Dodge, during which an enraged animal charges at Lara and she can dodge to the side and deliver a fatal headshot.
The controls and save system are the same as the ones in Legend. The player has the freedom to rotate the camera and must move Lara based upon the camera's point of view. There are frequent checkpoints and the player may save anywhere but will appear at the last checkpoint with full health when the game is loaded.
Lara does not have a headset or PLS flashlight in Anniversary. She does have a journal which the player can access for vague hints throughout the game, but it is purely optional.
The inventory is much more similar to the TR1 inventory because the player can collect multiple weapons (four throughout the game) and save up medipacks and ammo. In addition, the inventory is structured in rings similar to the inventories from TR1-3. However there is a limit on the amount of ammo the player may carry, unlike TR1 which had a truly unlimited backpack.
The stronger non-human enemies from the original Tomb Raider game were transformed into traditional bosses where Lara must fight them in an arena and cannot leave until she has defeated them in a certain way. Conversely, all of the human bosses from TR1 were taken care of in Interactive Cutscenes in which a button prompt appears during a cutscene and the button must be pressed in time to save Lara.
The level design reflected the philosophy of focusing on the "memorable" moments from the original game and expanding upon them whilst cutting out intermediary portions of the levels. Many puzzles were added or expanded compared to the original game while the actual level layout itself became simpler and less convoluted. The focus of TRA was on solving central puzzle rooms rather than exploring intricate passageways. This resulted in a different gameplay experience compared to TR1.
Bonus Features
Easter Eggs
There are a few Easter Eggs in Croft Manor, such as various books lying around the house which Lara can read out loud. Many of these books refer to events, locations, artifacts, or characters from the previous games in the Tomb Raider Series(e.g. the shipwreck of the Maria Doria, the Isis Stone, the cataclysm of Atlantis, the Dagger of Xian, the foundation of Vilcabamba). The Camouflage outfit, based off of the outfit from Angel of Darkness, has blood stains on the hands reminiscent of a render released for AOD in which we see Lara's reflection in a pool of blood as she looks at her bloody hands. Near the stairs there is also a painting of Human Kain from the Legacy of Kain series, another series developed by Crystal Dynamics, and the unlockable Wetsuit outfit has Raziel's symbol on the chest.
Commentaries
Upon completing each main location in the game, the player unlocks the ability to replay those levels and to turn on commentaries. When commentaries are on, floating diamonds appear at various parts of the level (very much like the save points in the PS1 version of TR1). When the player activates a commentary marker, then some dialogue plays in which Toby Gard and Jason Botta discuss their inspirations for that particular piece of the game.
Hidden Secrets and Artifacts
Anniversary has a system of hidden relics and artifacts.
Upon finding each relic, the player unlocks a hidden outfit which can be worn in the Manor or while replaying a level. The outfits are a tribute to the entire series with an outfit from every game, plus several fun outfits based upon Anniversary itself. The outfits are:
- Anniversary (the default outfit inspired by the main outfit Lara wore in TR1-5)
- Croft Manor Sport (based upon the gym outfits Lara wore in her mansion in the first three games)
- Wetsuit (based upon the TR2 wetsuit with the word "Sola" replaced by Raziel's clan symbol from the Legacy of Kain Series)
- Catsuit (found in both TR3 and TR5)
- Camouflage (based upon one of the outfits worn in Angel of Darkness)
- Legend (the main outfit from Legend)
- Golden (inspired by what may be the most memorable death in the series when Lara steps upon the hand of the Midas statue)
- Doppelganger (based upon the creature Lara meets in Atlantis)
- Scorched Natla (Natla in one of her alternate forms)
- Classic (an attempt to recreate the original blocky Lara from TR1)
Upon finding secret artifacts, the player unlocks various bonus material including character biographies, concept art, and comparison screenshots of TR1 and TRA. When the player has found all secrets in the game, a bonus mini-level is unlocked. This small Style Units level was just a practice ground for the artists to place textures and there are no enemies or puzzles, but there are some artistic designs not actually seen in the main game (such as the nostalgic dolphins in the pool of the Greece section).
Time Trials
In addition, Anniversary has time trials in which the player may choose to replay any of the levels with a time limit. Upon successfully completing the time trials for all of the levels in a given location, the player will unlock cheats which may be activated from the menu at any point while replaying levels under that profile in the future (even while doing other time trials).
Wii Version
The Wii version of Anniversary has many extra features which take advantage of the motion-sensing Wii controls. These features include a flashlight and an archaeological toolkit which are necessary to reveal clues towards the redesigned puzzles in this version of the game.
Switches are made more complicated by having to find and place small gears before the switch will function. There are Cryptex puzzles in which the player must uncover a combination somewhere in the level and twist the dials on the Cryptex to show the proper sequence. There are also puzzles where the player must discover a simple shape and then trace it onto another surface using the Wii remote.
The Wii version also has an additional room in Croft Manor which contains trophies from the main game. As Lara kills enemies and discovers keys, the trophy room gains souvenirs of her progress.
The time trials are given the same time limits as the other versions of the game despite the Wii version having more complicated puzzles which require extra time to complete.
