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JennStrummer's Tomb Raider Anniversary (PS2)
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| [February 5, 2008 03:57:30 PM]
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Log Entry: My Choice #2
Entry# 2
GAMEPLAY
My second hour playing Tomb Raider was even better than the first one because I am more used to the new key dynamics now, and I have progressed from being in Peru to now being in Greece, where Natla has sent minions to track down Lara. Even though the story is something that I am completely used to, I still think the story is great, the pinnacle of adventure games, so much of this game lies on the story for me to make it fun, I really get into the mood of being Lara Croft. It really helps since the graphics are so much better it’s more like being in a real place rather than being in a place with a bunch of blocks for you to jump on. One thing that I noticed that I sort of didn’t like was the fact that after you kill something, the body disappears, in the first one it just stayed there and I liked that better because it made it seem more realistic.
The longer you play this game, the more magical the setting seems to become, the architecture changes according to where you are, and what I neglected to mention in my first log was that in this game you can find secrets, as in the original which are generally just ammo or health packs, but now you also pick up “artifacts” from the location and it tells you a little bit about the item and the civilization it belonged to. I thought that was a great touch to the adventure/archeology nature of this game. I also felt that the new abilities gave Lara a lot more ways to die, she seems to be able to get herself into a lot more tough situations being able to climb and swing from ropes, go figure.
DESIGN
As I have mentioned, I feel like that blending of the storyline into the game is a great innovative element, it might just be the ancient history nerd in me talking, but this series is one of the only games I really feel submerged into the story. There are a lot of great design elements in this game, particularly the game level design which lead to this, they did a really great job of making the architecture and surroundings seem like the unfound ruins of civilizations, even though you often seem to be in some cavern with no light source, you don’t really question it. As I mentioned, the levels are varied thanks to the different locations you are in, and it also becomes more difficult as you must fight not only bats and wolfs, but you must also fight dinosaurs, and humans with guns.
This game’s challenges are really just being able to pay attention to your surroundings and figure out where you should climb or crawl to get to your next task, the fighting element of this game is probably the most weak element of this game, but I am not a big first-person-shooter type person, so I don’t really mind that it doesn’t play an integral part of this game, this game is a lot more about puzzle solving, and emersion into the world of Lara Croft.
This game world quite often feels very large, I think a lot of it lies in that whole driving down a long country road type thing, where it seems like it goes on forever, but it’s quite narrow. They also seem to perform some tricks, like blacking out the sky so it seems like it goes on further than it actually does. I’ve mentioned about the tone of this game world a lot, saying that it is very mystical, and mysterious, I think this is because so much of the ancient world feels that way, even in real life, and they really took advantage of that through their level designs. Eventually you end up fighting mummies and crazy centaur people, so the game progressively emerges you into this amazing fantastic, yet realistic world. The cut screens are also great, because then you can relax for a little while and enjoy the scenery.
Again, the reward system lies in finding “secrets” and “artifacts”, and finding these unlocks secrets you can access from the main menu, I haven’t really looked at any of these yet, but I do think that it’s a pretty cool idea, I am definitely obsessed with completing games 100%, so I sort of have my own incentives for trying to find all the rewards. That being said, I really am enjoying this game and intend to complete 100% of it.
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| [February 5, 2008 12:41:36 PM]
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Log Entry: My choice #2
Entry #1
SUMMARY
Tomb Raider Anniversary is basically a revamped version on the original 1996 Tomb Raider, with a twist. The original Tomb Raider finds Ms. Lara Croft in search for the Scion, a relic from the lost continent Atlantis. She has been hired by Jacqueline Natla of Natla Technologies but soon discovers that her employer my have alternate motives for putting her on this adventure. Rather than being hired for sport, as in the original game, this time Lara believes that using the Scion, which is supposedly a source of infinite knowledge, she can discover the mystery of her mother’s experience. Again, our heroine begins her journey in the mountains of Peru.
GAMEPLAY
The original Tomb Raider is one of my favorite games, I’ve probably played and beaten it over 10 times. I was really excited for this game because I’d always thought it would be cool to see it revamped, and I think Eidos did a great job sticking true to the first game, while adding on some great new abilities that weren’t technologically available in the first one. This game sticks to the same basic cut screens to get the story across, at the beginning there is a particularly beautiful shot of Lara in the snow laden mountains of Peru. It really got me pumped to play. I am a sucker for this type of game because I love ancient myth, and archeology, especially Egyptian, and although I haven’t gotten to that point in the game yet, it still has a very magical mysterious feel to it throughout the levels.
While I don’t think this game is an improvement on the first one, there are a lot more things that Lara can accomplish in this game then the original. In the original pretty much all she had was jump on platforms, shimmy across gaps, and shoot weapons. Now she can climb up ropes, and latters, she can slouch to crawl under things. There are a few mechanics that I had to get used to that they changed, for good reason, but it was a little distressing since I am so used to pressing L1 and having her walk. Oh well. They also changed the format for fighting big bosses, like the T-Rex in level 3, they cut screen and make you push a sequence of buttons (which I was surprisingly bad at) to escape from him, then there is a big fight where he has a health bar and aggravation bar and you have to lead him into spikes when his aggravation bar is completely red, which is definitely more difficult then the Rex in the original.
I really enjoyed playing this game, and had a hard time stopping. There is a definite flow in this game because the game is segmented into levels, and usually there is some sort of big door that you have to open to proceed to the next level. As I mentioned, this game is really a neat spin on the first one, the level designs are very similar, however revamped, and now Lara Croft doesn’t have triangles for boobs! Hurray!
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JennStrummer's Tomb Raider Anniversary (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 1 February, 2008
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