Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is the eighth video game in the Tomb Raider series, the second game in Crystal Dynamics' "Legend Trilogy". It uses themes from the original Tomb Raider using an improved version of the Legend game engine, and it reimagines some of the original environments from Tomb Raider. It is a prequel to Tomb Raider: Legend.

The game was co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey Software for the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows and Wii. Eidos announced 1 June 2007 as the European release date for the PS2 and Microsoft Windows version, with the North American release to follow on 5 June 2007. Additionally, the subscription PC gaming service GameTap announced that the game will be available on their service on the same day as the game went to retailers. The game is also available on Steam (although most of Europe is excluded). The PSP version was released on 9 August 2007 in the United States and on 26 October 2007 in Europe, with the Wii version released in Europe on 7 December 2007. An Xbox 360 version was officially announced on 18 June 2007.

The Mac OS X version of the game was published by Feral Interactive and released on February 15, 2008.

Plot
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. Natla reveals she has found the location of one of the three pieces that comprise the Atlantean Scion, a mystical artifact buried in the heart of an ancient city, and she wants Lara to retrieve it for her. Lara, sitting back leisurely, leaps from her seat upon hearing this revelation. Lara, having searched unsuccessfully for such an artefact with her father in the past, agrees to go.

Fueled as much by her, and her father's, desires to find the artifact, Lara travels on commission by Natla to the icy mountains of Peru to search for it in the lost city of Vilcabamba. Through the Lost Valley teeming with thought-to-be-extinct dinosaurs and numerous booby traps, she enters a desolate tomb, belonging to the God King Qualopec seemingly undiscovered for millennia. She discovers that he was one of three God Kings (the Triumvirate) who ruled Atlantis before it sank according to inscriptions in the room. As she peers closely in awe, one of the beast-like creatures suddenly roars at her, before falling laboriously to the floor. Realizing this tomb is not uninhabited after all. 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 surfacing from the pool outside the tomb entrance, Lara confronts Larson, who attempts to take the Scion piece from her as Natla knew she would never part with it. After defeating him, Lara 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 St.Francis Folly in Greece and solves three puzzles related to the gods Atlas, Damocles, Posidean and Hephaestus in order to navigate past the Colosseum. She then finds the second piece of Scion in the depths of a tomb located under a small cistern and a palace devoted to the Phrygian king Midas. 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. She defeats him, but he runs 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.

Lara travels to Egypt, and successfully retrieves the third piece of the Scion in the Sanctuary of the Scion located in the City of Khamoon in the Valley of the Kings. After assembling all three pieces, Lara's earlier vision becomes much clearer. Two of the three Triumvirates, Tihocan and Qualopec, are sentencing the third one, revealed to be Natla, to banishment in Lara's vision. Natla, after releasing Atlantis' own army against itself in an attempt to bring about the seventh age, is imprisoned in a crystalline structure for a thousand years before revealing that she will return to carry out her goals.

With Lara in a trance from watching the vision, Natla steals the Scion, and has Lara restrained by her henchmen. Lara escapes and follows the departing Natla on a motorbike, managing to sneak onto Natla's departing boat. They soon dock to an island which is a remnant of Atlantis, where Natla has mining operations. Inside she meets Larson again, holding a key trying to stop her from continuing further. Larson taunts her, betting she will not shoot him. Insistent on impeding her path, he tells her she would never shoot him because, "that's just not who you are." Lara replies, "I'm not who you think I am". This resulted in Lara shooting him three times in the chest. Larson falls to his knees, and lays down to the ground gasping for air, his hand reaching out to Lara for help. Lara rests her hand on his chest and turns him over, taking the key from his pocket. Looking at her hands horrified at what she has done and completely forgetting that she thought that it was for the good of all man, she vigorously dusts off the imaginary blood on her hands, greatly remorseful from her first human kill thus far. As she continues through, one of Natla's henchmen stands guarding the next chamber wielding a knife. Lara warns him, telling him he will end up like Larson if he does not let her past. Another of Natla's henchmen "Kid" emerges from the shadows with a pair of uzis. Lara shoots them in her defense, however, Kold stabs Kid so he can kill Lara himself. Kold pins Lara against the wall by her throat, but she is saved when Kid kills Kold with his uzis from afar before dying of the stab wound. Lara finally catches up with Natla who has activated the Scion, along with the pyramid buried beneath it. Natla tells Lara she has reached the top, that it takes three to rule, that Tihocan and Qualopec were too weak to destroy what stands in the way of the Seventh Age, but Lara has the strength to claim the seat beside Natla's rule. Not long into the confrontation with Natla, Lara realizes that Natla's plan is to resurrect the army of Atlantis. Natla attempts to convince Lara to stop opposing her, and become another immortal queen to rule the world alongside her. Lara looks at her hands then apologizes to her father before shooting and destroying the Scion. Natla charges at her in rage, pushing her off the platform, with Lara pulling Natla down with her. Lara grabs the platform on the opposite side with her grapple, Natla falling to her doom beneath the depths of the lava. Natla later confronts her in here true scorched appearance, still alive, accusing Lara of having a heart as black as hers, after the blood she has spilled. Natla clutches Lara by her throat, stating she cannot be killed, and that she is immortal. The final boss battle is against Natla herself, which ends with Natla slapping Lara's pistols out of her hands and asking Lara what she has accomplished by coming here, and she has only accomplished "a temporary stay of execution for your kind". Natla tells Lara that this pyramid is only one remnant of Atlantis and that there are others, that she will find another remnant of Atlantis and continue her plan but Lara has lost everything. Lara goes for her pistols, shoots Natla in the eye and pins her under a falling pillar. Natla screeches in agony as Lara looks at the fallen pillar and tells Natla she hasn't lost anything. Lara escapes the now crumbling pyramid, the island violently erupting. Reaching the shore, Lara dives into the sea and gets into the boat she used to get to the Lost City. She looks back at the exploding island, then at her bloodstained hands as she leaves the erupting island behind. Lara smiles, realizing that what she had done really was for the good of man, and that she wasn't what Natla had said she was.

Xbox 360 episodic content
On 18 June 2007, Eidos announced an Xbox 360 version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The game is split up into four episodes on Xbox Live. The Croft Manor level is available as a free download for each set of episodes. It was the first time a full retail game was made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The disc version of the game was released on 26 October 2007.

Wii features
When the game was released for the Wii, various features were added to take advantage of the Wii's unique pointer capabilities. Simple switches from the other versions have been expanded into puzzle minigames. In one type of puzzle, Lara now has to find a cog and place it, along with smaller gears already in the mechanism, in the proper position to make a working switch. Another type of puzzle involves making a charcoal rubbing of 3 images then turning a stone mechanism until it matches the rubbing. Lara can also make drawings in crates of sand. New rewards and clues for the new puzzles have been added that require the player, as Lara, to dig for them using the Wii remote as an archaeological tool such as a shovel or pickaxe. Other new features include a flashlight (along with darkened corridors in which to use it) and a new room in the mansion that holds items found during the course of the game like keys, rubbings, and weapons. The room also contains hunting trophies from animals that Lara has killed (including dinosaurs and Atlantean creatures). The new Wii controls also feature special movements for using the grapple, where the Nunchuck is flicked, and to guide the target for the weapons and the torch, again using the advantage of the Wii remote's pointer abilities. Also, instead of repeatedly pressing a button, Lara can speed up while swimming, shimmying across a ledge and climbing up ladders and poles by the player constantly shaking the Nunchuck, and the adrenaline dodge can be activated in the same way.

Trailers, gameplay videos and demo
As of present, nine official trailers and four developer diaries have been released. The first (21 December 2006) revealed an FMV sequence, in which Lara slid into The Lost Valley, battled several raptors and suddenly turned at the sound of the T-rex approaching. What followed was then several seconds of gameplay footage from that famous level, including combat against bears, wolves and bats.

The second trailer (23 February 2007), showed one of the opening cutscenes (Lara's guide being attacked by the wolves) and gameplay footage from Egypt. A new move, in which Lara ran across a wall whilst gripping onto the grapple, was shown during the video. It also showed some mummies attacking Lara. Some of the moves they included was a fireball throw, unlike their original counterparts, which didn't use fireballs (however, the unmummified versions did), and another part of the trailer showed the mummy standing up to look around, another move inherited from the original counterparts. The trailer revealed also that the game was planned for a May release though a 38-second trailer released on 14 April 2007 indicated a June 2007 release.

Several more trailers came out such as the Folly, the Coliseum, and a new one that shows the first footage of Atlantis including shots of mutants and the giant mutant. Gametrailers and GameSpot released gameplay videos mostly from the Peru section of the game.

A demo of the "Lost Valley" segment from the Peru levels was released on 25 May 2007. 

Reception
According to the review aggregate site Metacritic, the PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360 versions of Tomb Raider Anniversary have met with "generally favorable reviews",   while the Wii version has met with "mixed or average reviews".

Core Design: Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition
A video game trailer showing footage of a new Tomb Raider game was distributed on the Internet on 8 June 2006. The titles and logos of the trailer claimed that the title was Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition, a PSP game by Core Design. The trailer featured Lara Croft (Legend Timeline) in familiar yet remodeled environments from the original, Tomb Raider, complete with new animations, and interactions which were much more elaborate than what was in the original release of the game. The footage from the trailer was running on the PSP hardware, using the Free Running engine, though it would most likely have made its way to the PS2 platform and PC. Video game discussion forums had been speculating about the veracity of the trailer, because it featured a recognizable film score (Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) that caused some viewers to question whether it was a real project. Core has since admitted the trailer was from a cancelled project. The video is now difficult to find across the Internet, since it infringes copyright and was not supposed to be revealed to the public.

The next week, Eidos Interactive announced that it would be making Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition for PS2, PSP, and Windows. It would be designed by Crystal Dynamics, an American game development company that replaced Core and went on to create the seventh entry in the series, Tomb Raider: Legend. In addition, Buzz Monkey Software would provide the development effort.

Rather than a 're-imagining,' as Crystal considered their version of the remake, Core felt that their anniversary edition was instead a faithful remake of the original, but with several additions, and overall a game that was better than the original in every aspect. When creating the Free Running engine, the team played with a Lara model and suddenly developed the idea of creating a remake of their 1996 classic. They suggested the idea to Eidos, who agreed and allowed them to continue. Early on, Core decided that the game would have to be graphically similar to Tomb Raider: Legend, so they gave the Lara model facial similarities. New to the game was the idea of pole swinging, absent in the original. It also had the concept of 'ledge-hopping,' as was seen in Legend. Coincidentally, Core introduced cross-hair targeting, which they later discovered was also being used in Legend. Core were also including a brand new extended final level, where Lara would battle a Huge Atlantean War Machine as Atlantis crumbled into ruins. As special features, a documentary, concept art, FMVs and character models from the original game would have been included. Nathan McCree would have developed a new score, and Core had originally planned on using Jonell Elliot to voice Lara, though they never reached the recording stage. 

Music
The score for Tomb Raider: Anniversary is composed by Troels Brun Folmann. It took 5 months for Troels to compose, and is in the style of electronic orchestra. The majority of the album contains his original scores and themes. However, recognisable themes from the first game (composed by Nathan McCree) such as "Time to Run," "Puzzle Theme," and "Puzzle Theme II" have been recreated.

The main theme for Anniversary can be described as a celebratory version of the original theme from TR1, as similar chord and instruments are used in the piece. The song starts off with a heavy crescendo of woodwinds and low strings playing the famous Tomb Raider melody, and then breaks off into an almost playful arc, featuring parts of the original harp composition from the TR1 theme. Pizzicato strings, cascading pianos and celeste, chimes, and glass instrumentation are prominent throughout this version, implying the fresh and modern twist that Folmann and Crystal Dynamics have placed in Anniversary.

Troels Brun Folmann's work for Anniversary is different from that of Legend, as it has no underlying techno beats or electronic effects. Anniversary's score resembles that of a combination between the original Tomb Raider and a typical movie score: entirely orchestral and choral. Folmann uses more complex instrumentation and composition in his scoring, acquiring more woodwinds, instrument articulation, and ambience. Folmann leaves somewhat of a trademark in his Anniversary music by adding a significant amount of chimes throughout the score.

As a bonus, the special edition release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary features a CD with tracks compiled from both Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Legend.

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 * Tomb Raider: Anniversary Walkthrough