TOMB RAIDER: ANNIVERSARY

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Crystal Dynamics, Buzz Monkey Software And Nixxes Software

Publisher : Eidos Interactive

Engine : Tomb Raider: Legend

Genre : Platform And Modern Action-Adventure

Release Date : June 5 , 2007

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 Processor / AMD Athlon64 3000+

Memory (RAM) : 1 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 6000 Series
ATI : Radeon X1900 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 4 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

In 1945 New Mexico, a bomb explodes, engulfing a town and revealing a strange structure, from which a winged creature flies out. In Calcutta 1996, Lara Croft is approached by Larson Conway, who introduces her to Jacqueline Natla, who wishes for Lara to find a piece of an artefact called the Scion, located in the Peruvian mountains. Lara, having searched unsuccessfully for such an artefact with her father in the past, agrees to go. In the Peruvian mountains, Lara finds a tomb belonging to a god king Qualopec. She discovers that he was one of three God Kings (the Triumvirate) who ruled Atlantis before it sank. Lara leaves with a piece of the three-part Scion, but notices movement from what had appeared to be a statue of Qualopec before the tomb collapses. Shortly after, Lara is confronted by Larson, who attempts to take the Scion piece from her. After knocking him out, she discovers that Natla has sent Pierre Dupont, another archaeologist, to find the next piece. Lara breaks into Natla's office that night and finds evidence that the next piece of the Scion is in Greece. Lara departs to Greece, and finds the second piece of Scion in the depths of a tomb. While observing the empty coffin of Tihocan, the second member of the Triumvirate, Lara is told at gun point to give up her piece of the Scion by Pierre. After Pierre takes the piece Lara tries to take him by surprise but he escapes with the Scion piece in hand, only to be killed by guardian centaurs outside of the tomb. After defeating the centaurs, and assembling both pieces of the Scion, Lara has a vision that reveals the location of the third and final piece of the Scion: Egypt. With Lara in a trance from watching the vision, Natla steals the Scion, and has Lara restrained by her three henchmen. Lara escapes and follows the departing Natla on a motorbike, managing to sneak onto Natla's departing boat. Lara follows Natla into a desolate mine, and kills Larson when he tries to stop her progression. Visibly shaken, Lara then confronts Kold and Kid, who end up killing each other in the skirmish. Lara then travels to the top of the Atlantean pyramid and confronts Natla.

Not long into the confrontation with Natla, Lara realises that Natla's plan is to resurrect the army of Atlantis. Natla attempts to convince Lara to stop opposing her, and become immortal like she is. Lara shoots the levitating Scion in response, and is then tackled by Natla, who falls into the molten liquid while Lara uses her grappling hook to survive. Lara, thinking Natla dead, tries to escape, confronted by a giant mutant along the way. She is soon confronted by an angry Natla, scorched in appearance, but unimpeded in ability. After a confrontation, Lara collapses a pillar supporting the pyramid onto Natla, trapping her under the collapsing pyramid. Lara escapes and sails away in Natla's boat. She'll need to exercise each and every one of these abilities to their absolute limit in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which features no shortage of ridiculous acrobatics. The game is essentially made up of a series of gigantic, unique set-piece puzzles. Sometimes the puzzles are traditional find-the-key, flip-the-switch-type affairs, but more often than not, the real puzzle is figuring out how to use Lara's ability to get from point A to point B. What's more, the puzzles are often nested several layers deep. While your overall goal may be to find four keys to open a door, you'll first have to figure out how to get to the bottom of a gigantic, crumbling tower, after which you'll have to figure out how to access four different doors, after which you'll have to figure out how to actually open those doors--and, of course, behind each of those doors lies a series of tricks and traps that you'll have to traverse before you'll get to the keys. Solving one of these overarching puzzles can be an involved process, with some of them taking well over an hour to complete.

The environments are your biggest adversaries most of the time in Anniversary, though through your exploration you'll regularly run into some antagonistic fauna like rats, bats, wolves, bears, tigers, gorillas, raptors, and the occasional Tyrannosaurus Rex. Combat is limited to gunplay, which operates with a simple lock-on system, and Lara can also tumble and flip through the air while keeping a bead on an enemy. New to Anniversary is the adrenaline dodge, which at specific moments allows Lara to dodge a charging enemy in slow motion. What keeps Tomb Raider: Anniversary engaging throughout is the strength of the gameplay, as well as the quality of the presentation. Even though you're basically just going from one tomb to another, they feature enough individual detail to make them unique. The environments are also huge, using the occasional curvy hallway to mask load times, and aside from some minor gameplay contrivances, they feel pretty real. Lara looks great and moves with a natural grace that makes her incredible acrobatic feats look feasible instead of ridiculously superhuman, and the various wildlife you confront also moves convincingly. The acrobatic action is consistently exciting and challenging throughout, and despite being a remake, the experience feels new and fresh. This is the best Tomb Raider game in years, and for the first time in a long time, that actually means something. Tomb Raider: Anniversary's success is twofold; it does well by the memory of the original, and makes a dynamic action adventure game that's fun to play in 2007.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Tomb Raider: Anniversary Trailer :-