Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary

The Tomb Raider series has always been high on my list of favorite franchises. That's why I was so sad to see it go the way it was going before Crystal Dynamics stepped in and injected some life back into the series.

I had high expectations for the remake considering Crystal Dynamics was doing it. Thankfully all of those expectations have been met and then some. This game has now taken the place of the first one in my opinion. Some people may disagree, but there's no more need for the original now.

Crystal D managed to take what we all loved about Tomb Raider 1 and refine it without destroying the atmosphere of the first. Pretty much everything has been upgraded over the original. If you've played Legend you should be used to this. It uses the same engine.

The graphics are the most obvious thing. What was once a closed in cave with a black cover over it is now outside like it's supposed to be. All the environments are wonderful. Which makes navigating them that much better.

The controls are fine. The combat is a bit more in depth than in Legend. Although you'll spend more time jumping around and solving puzzles than fighting. Which is what the original Tomb Raider was about. I do have to praise the difficulty. Not many games have a well balanced realistic difficult challenge anymore. The story is better written, but keeps the same elements of the original.

My only complaints about the game is the camera, no blood, and slight framerate problems. The camera can be a bit of a hassle sometimes when trying to make jumps. Thankfully it never gets bothersome too much. I was disappointed that there wasn't any blood what so ever in the game. I didn't want geysers of blood, because the series has never been about that, but a little blood when she gets stabbed or pricked would have been nice. The original even had blood. The framerate chugged a few times, but it was hardly noticeable. The mansion is the place where it happens the most.

Overall a great game with plenty of great unlockables and I can't wait to see what Crystal Dynamics can do with the series from here.