I'll be honest. Tomb Raider: Anniversary didn't immediately click for me. A huge part of that was the sudden silence echoing through the ruins. Going from a lively team dynamic to absolute, eerie isolation changed the game's vibe completely. I missed the friendly banter with Zip and Alister over the radio headset, and navigating these massive tombs entirely alone felt intensely isolating at first.
To make matters worse, that very first location in Peru felt noticeably underwhelming to me personally. Coming straight from Legend, where every single level whisked you away to a completely different, wildly distinct corner of the globe, adjusting to Anniversary’s structural choices was a bit of a letdown. Instead of a rapid-fire global tour, you are confined to just four core environments across the entire campaign: Peru, Greece, Egypt, and the Lost Island. At the start of the journey, I really can't say I liked that change.
But as I pushed past that rocky introduction, I adjusted to the fact that this is, after all, a faithful remake. Once I accepted the blueprint they were working with, I began to appreciate how well the developers modernized the classic world design. While the roster of geographic locations is limited compared to its predecessor, each individual setting is fleshed out to the absolute max. The levels themselves are meticulously crafted, massive in scale, and beautifully realized. Rather than feeling like video game corridors, these locations feel lived in and lost in time. Instead of rushing through them, the game encourages you to truly soak in your surroundings and respect the antiquity of the architecture.
One thing that completely anchors the experience, however, is the music. I completely forgot to give the soundtrack its flowers when writing about Legend, but the score there was stellar, and the musical streak continues flawlessly here. Anniversary's soundtrack is just great, trading the energetic, techno-infused beats of its predecessor for grand, sweeping orchestral pieces. The music swells perfectly to punctuate moments of discovery and heightens the tension during frantic combat, doing some heavy lifting to enrich the game's atmospheric tone.
Moving on, the puzzles were an actual challenge this time around. Where Legend kept things moving at a brisk pace with relatively intuitive, bite-sized brain teasers, Anniversary forces you to stop and think your way through complex, multi-layered rooms. You have to study the environment, pull levers, and manipulate massive machinery to progress. It gives your intellect a bit of workout, making the exploration feel more satisfying when the jigsaw is falling into place.
Helping you tackle these beefier temples is a small suite of new moves that expand Lara's mobility from the previous game. Lara can now perform nimble pole flips, balance precariously on top of narrow wooden pillars, and use her grapple hook to wall-run across massive vertical chasms. You will need every bit of that agility, too, because the enemy variety received a major upgrade. Instead of trading gunfire with an endless army of generic human mercenaries, Anniversary throws a menagerie of wildlife and mythic monsters at you, from rapid wolf packs and aggressive gorillas to giant prehistoric dinosaurs and supernatural Atlantean centaurs.
The narrative anchoring this gauntlet takes itself a bit more seriously this time. It certainly ain't Citizen Kane, but it completely drops the delightfully campy, B-movie tone of Legend in favor of something more somber and atmospheric. Thankfully, the still stellar voice acting holds it all together perfectly and grounds the emotional beats. The main villain, Jacqueline Natla, ends up being a pretty mid antagonist, but honestly, lackluster villains are starting to feel like a series staple at this point. Thankfully, the game isn't really about her anyway. It's about the journey. It does a solid job framing Lara's early years, showing her emotional weight and tracing the defining moments that shape her character. It works surprisingly well as a great follow-up to the narrative, even if it is technically both a remake of her 1996 debut and a chronological prequel to the game I just finished.
Now that I've successfully conquered the ancient world and found my footing with this more traditional style of tomb raiding, my chronological marathon is officially ready for its final stop: Tomb Raider: Underworld. It is finally time to boot up the grand finale, face my childhood gaming demons, and solve that damn puzzle in the room with the giant octopus.
