PSP Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary

December 23rd, 2006, 05:08 Posted By: gunntims0103

news via ign

A journey back into the tomb that started the phenomenon.

The first Tomb Raider sparked a revolution in the games industry. It mixed exploration and action with a level of sexiness unheard of at the time. Games had seen their share of vixens, sure, but never had one grabbed the imaginations of gamers as a legitimate hero. Add to this a truly remarkable rise to stardom - think Mario or Sonic - and Lara Craft is easily one of the biggest names in the business. So when Crystal Dynamics comes along and wants to put out a remake of the original Tomb Raider adventure, there's plenty reason to get excited.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary will follow the same basic path as the original. Players will assume the role of a young Lara Croft as she navigates a series of long-forgotten crypts to find ancient treasures. The developer wanted to make sure Anniversary distils the essence of Lara's first outing by focusing on puzzles and solitary exploration. And really, there's no better way to do it. Look at the commercial and critical success of Tomb Raider Legend, for example. It embraced the formula set by the first game and simply refined it. Crystal Dynamics will follow the same formula Lara's next outing.

Here's the shortest way to describe it: Anniversary will play like Legend. Everything that made Legend such an enjoyable game will make a comeback. This includes the context-sensitive sequences and flexible controls. Lara can now shimmy along ledges at different speeds and jump toward tree branches and poles with abandon. There's no need to stand in the perfect spot to make a jump since Lara can latch on to several surfaces and hold on for dear life. And really, this is precisely what made Legend so fun. It didn't tease players with lush environments by not letting them explore it the way they wanted and neither will Anniversary. Players can set their own pace as they find their way through jungles, caves and forgotten structures.

The brief demo shown to IGN saw Lara exploring ruins near Peru in search of an artifact known as the "Scion." One of the first things Lara encounters is a reworked version of the classic gears puzzle from the first game. Instead of simply placing a few cogs in to get it to work, Lara now has to use her new abilities to scale the massive gears and explore the nearby environment for parts. The puzzle makes real-world sense, too. Solving it is a matter of logic, just the way a puzzle should be. Later in the demo, Lara showed off one of her new moves: perilously hopping between a series of narrow poles. It's a risky maneuver that helps add a level of uncertainty, according to developers. Lara also retains the grapple she used in Legend, so players can expect to swing through certain locales as well.

Players will also recognize the combat. Lara can now flip and twirl around her enemies far more gracefully than in the first game. And while the demo didn't show it, there's a good chance the slow-mo aspect from Legend will appear as well. Speaking of combat, Anniversary has all the bats, raptors and bears that players fought in the first game. Only here, the look a whole lot better. The demo showed a few combat sequences that took place in a lost jungle, complete with packs of nicely-modeled raptors. Unfortunately, the demo ended right when the T-Rex stomped on the scene. It didn't even offer a glimpse of the thing - the screen just shook and there was a roar - but it's probably a remarkable sight, like the rest of the game.

In short, Anniversary looks very promising. It looks to offer everything a Tomb Raider fan could possibly want in terms of presentation and gameplay. The PSP version of the game will mirror the console release in terms of content, though it will add several multiplayer modes. It's also a good thing that Crystal Dynamics decided to build the game from the ground up and not settle for a rehash with better visuals.

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