Adventuring in hot pants
Nevertheless, Tomb Raider Anniversary does have an intuitive system in place for jumping from ledge to ledge and it's one that showcases just how far we’ve come since the days of the PSOne. There’s now an enhanced version of the next-gen Tomb Raider Legend engine, demonstrated by the smooth and flexible animation of Lara as she swings from vines, shimmies along cliff faces (you can now also press the Y button to speed this process up) and leaps from one ledge to the next in her search for the mysterious artifact.Lara’s puzzle solving exercises start off fairly easy, with you simply finding a way to the top of a mountain, but as you progress through the levels they become increasingly difficult and you often need to use a mixture of environmental interaction and Lara's plethora of moves in order to work out the correct pathway to your next destination.
The action sequences in the game will be familiar to any Tomb Raider fan, so you won't be surprised to hear that you'll need to keep an eye out for grapple rings to latch onto with your grappling hook so you can swing between ledges. You’ll also find yourself clambering up columns, swinging from ropes, branches, poles and vines and working your way around numerous traps where you'll need to jump, roll, duck and dodge.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThere's a new addition to the game in which Lara can leap onto the top of a narrow pole and balance expertly before leaping onto the next ledge and at certain points in the game you can trigger actions, such as shooting a pile of rocks to bring them tumbling down a cliff face or pulling a number of levers in a set sequence to open a door.
There are also plenty of cog turning puzzles and a fair amount of pushing and pulling blocks to open doorways or to reach a higher places. It's what we've come familiar with in Tomb Raider games and as a result anyone who has ever played any of the titles will realise that the challenges require an element of exploration to solve.
If you’re a Tomb Raider veteran you'll almost immediately know where to search for the answer for many of the puzzles. For example: There's a cog missing on a wheel and it won't turn, so obviously you need to find the cog. It's then simply a matter of leaping around examining all the nooks and crannies until you find it and then heading back to place it in position.
