Hi there. I wanted to address some of the common themes in the comments: "Resident Evil 3 was worse than Tomb Raider." - Probably. For me, my connection with the original TR is stronger than my love for the original RE3, so TRA is, personally, more insulting than RE3R was. "This is a reimagining, a new game, not a remake." - I agree. I explain and acknowledge that at several points. I still think this new game, inspired by the original, misses the mark though. "They had to change these things to make it fit with Legend and Underworld." - I'm aware of and explain this. I also explain why I think that making it part of that trilogy was a bad idea. "Well, *I* liked Anniversary." - Cool. I'm glad. I don't enjoy disliking games, I would have much rather this remake been something that I liked. As it is, I had a bad time with this game and I spent 90 minutes explaining my reasons why. "You're too hung up on the original." - Maybe. Towards the end of the video, I quote Game Maker's Tool Kit on how Resident Evil 2 (2019) was successful because, despite being a significantly different reimagining, it evoked the same emotions and responses as the original game. I agree with him. RE2 was my personal GOTY for 2019. Tomb Raider Anniversary doesn't achieve that. Its design brings about entirely different responses, which I explain at length throughout the video. "This must be click bait." - I can see why you might think that, but I respectfully disagree. To me, this is the worst remake I have played, and I have 90 minutes of receipts as to why that is. The title and thumbnail have certainly been effective, this has quickly become one of my most popular videos, but that's also just kind of how KZfaq works. Hate the meta game of the platform, not the uploader.

Strange. I enjoyed the hell out of Tomb Raider Anniversary. To me it's the best TR in Crystal Dynamics name.

Anniversary is one of my all time favorite games. I also love the original Tomb Raider. They're two completely different games. And I love them both. Sad you didn't enjoy this one.

I have never a control problem with Lara in Anniversary. Really enjoyed the game.

Anniversary and Legend were prime Tomb Raider for me. Fluid Gameplay, Combat that isn’t completely shitty and Lara was the goat. I don’t get why people can’t enjoy both games, they were both brilliant in their own right.

Complains that you can't see the final goal the moment you step into level one - complains that you can see the final goal the moment you step into The Lost Valley. Complains that boss fights don't use environmental puzzle elements - complains that the T-Rex fight does have environmental puzzle elements that are "mandatory" (they're not, you can just shoot it till it dies). Complains that weapons get taken away - complains that weapons get given back because it's not the "right" way. Complains that weapon isn't given back because it requires the mysterious and arcane game mechanic of checking the enemy for loot just like every other game in existence. Complains that the T-Rex fight copies the Bane fight from a game that came out four years later on a different console generation! Just stop.

One of the better remakes... I'd love to see the rest of the series in this style.

"a game of chess against level designers where each of us was trying to outdo the others in a way that felt personal and engaging" - slowly walks into an unmissable gigantic blade and keels over

Strange, it is my favourite out of the Crystal Dynamic Games

Absolutely love Anniversary. I recently played the Legend trilogy and loved every minute of it.

I love Anniversary and it is in my top 3 Tomb Raider games. Agree to disagree, I suppose!

Although I generally agree, limited saves were never a good thing and I'm glad that even the original TR got rid of it in later games and the PC versions. It's just a holdover from the dying arcade era that drained your quarters.

This video could very much as well have been a critique of how gaming and games has changed between 1996 and 2007. There's no manual saving because it was seen as very backwards in 2007. There's no backtracking because backtracking is now seen as an example of bad game design. I personally don't agree with either of these two but Its just me. Semi manual aiming was also very much a product of its day, but I see it as positive change. To me Anniversary is one of the best proper remakes of any games. It keeps the spirit of the original (in my opinion) but updates it to modern technology and gameplay concepts. I love this game and I would definitely recommend it as entry game for anyone wanting to get into Tomb Raider. The fact they managed to get the story to fit within the Legend-Anniversary-Underworld continuity is just an added boon. And as far as that Sanctuary of the Scion puzzle, I actually solved it manually. I copied the pattern on a piece of paper and solved it in school during a break between the lessons. It was super rewarding to do it that way, actually.

Having replayed both the original game and the Anniversary version in the past year, I think Anniversary is a great game and it honestly only drops the ball in a few areas -- mainly in tone, atmosphere, and difficulty. And some slight cuts to the size of the game. The level design is really good though and it feels good to play with better controls and the addition of the grapple hook.

I agree with almost all points except the level art design. Great video btw! I think many ppl who never played TR1 don't understand the core differences between the two titles and why TRA gets criticized by so many. Let me give a quick sum up how I would describe both titles: TR1 feels like an immersive adventure with platforming and some action. TRA feels like a video game inspired by hollywood movies: - Based on the presentation: Why is every big or new opponenet announced by a cutscene? It kills the moment of suprise and reminds the player of a video game - The level design feels like a parkour park for the most part which kills the immersion. For example the monkey bars. They don't fit the environment and were only implemented to have a new mechanic in the game. - The smaller level desgin in many places. It kills the immersion of beeing so small in such a big world. - The combat headshot mechanic and slowmo effect.

As a kid who got the original TR as a birthday gift and one wasn’t skilled enough nor had a save card I replayed those first lvls on repeat but sadly never got past lvl 4. But I cherished anniversary as with added age + the ability to save I got to go back and finally complete the story I started a decade before. Not sure why your not a fan as I love both but for me it was one of my all time favs, and I own them all.

Anniversary is my favorite Game in the TR-Series followed by Legend. The music, the gameplay, the visuals. Perfect to me.

what are your thoughts on the newly announced Tomb Raider 1-3 remasters? i think they look really exciting and i'm definitely gonna look into picking them up!

Anniversary takes place before legends. It's pretty common knowledge. Larson was supposed to be her first kill. But good indepth analysis

That remake is one of my favorite games PERIOD. I've never had any issues with the controls playing it on PS2 and PS3.

I own the Tomb Raider Collection (Xbox 360 version) on my Series X. These three games are MASTERPIECES in my opinion. I completed Anniversary, Legend and Underworld 3-4 years ago. Looking forward to REPLAYING all three titles either this year or next

It was released when games starting catering for casual play. Am just glad games are becoming challenging again like the souls like games and hundreds of old school Fps games like prodeus, and metroidvanias. I just hope for tomb raiders 30th anniversary on 2026 will have a crash bandicoot type remake of the original

Nah, this game is great. Sure it has its shortcomings but I still come back to play it every other year. I always thought its controls were great, when playing it with keyboard and mouse. I can‘t go back to the original tank controls.

I think it's a great remake and a great game overall. From the first Crystal Dynamic trilogy, it may be my favourite. It has a few frustrating moments, but it's really good.

Also can I just say, they mauled the aesthetic of those last few levels. The original had some really cool like... flesh pit stuff going on but Anniversary? Just... mostly generic ancient building stuff... such a letdowj

This has got to be one of the hottest takes I’ve ever seen for tomb raider games. I think anniversary being the worst remake in gaming is a stretch, while not being the most faithful remake the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

This is actually one of my favorite remakes ever, next to RE2 and 4. I played the original game when it first came out and loved and when I played this version I loved it too, even with many things being changed I enjoyed it. I think it would have been boring for me if it had been the exact same thing. I did enjoy listening to the commentary tracks. they had this guy who designed the levels and he was saying how he originally intended the levels to be. but because of the way the game loaded areas up, they were unable to make the levels work right. They had originally intended for Lara to find the doorway that you can see the exit of the first area beyond and then you had to find the lever that would open it. Then she would have had to come back and run through avoiding the darts that were flying across the path. I think they were calling it the gauntlet. For some reason the loading in the game preventing this from happening. it was unable to render certain areas properly. So they were forced to make it so Lara worked her way around. He hated that now there was a medipak that Lara could get if you decided to run past the darts to the closed door. Of course no one really cared to get it since at this early point in the game you probably had enough and didn't need more. Then there's the village where the bear comes out of that barn. People had no idea it was supposed to be a village. I think they said that it was based on a real location that no longer existed. so they just designed the area the way they did. It looks like it's within a cave. Then the place that it was based on was discovered in real life and looked nothing like they had designed. So they designed it after the village that was discovered. Or at least what it used to look like. The cistern in the original was a huge area. you could get lost in there. I think they said that they got rid of the whole thing because players weren't really fond of the area. so they just left the part where you had to lower and raise the water level and tiny areas around the room that reminded us a little of those larger areas. I was actually happy they got rid of the cistern.

If I recall, the Magnums are actually hidden in a secret in the Mines. I don't recall Knife-Guy dropping them, but I could find the Magnums on a secret ledge behind you at one point in the Mines. That said, there is no more opprotunities to grab the Magnums if you missed this secret in Anniversary in the final 2 levels, I do feel like there should have at least been a pick-up for them before the very final boss incase you missed these. While I do still enjoy Anniversary as a faster-paced version of TR1, I do agree with your complaints. The Headshot especially is bad, I've easily beaten the PSP version of Anniversary pistols-only due to it.

literally had no idea that cowboy in the ambush FMV wasn't Larson till today

This is actually my favorite TR game along with the original. Really enjoyed the new areas as well. I could do without the QTE thought but it wasn't too bad, and the adrenaline dodge added some depth to the old gunplay style.

I started TRA and was impress how they made the level design and wanted to compare to the original. I never played TR before and tried TR1 for the first time. It was rough at first but I forced myself to at least reach the T-rex section (I stopped there with TRA). I ended up completing TR1 without noticing. Jumped in TR2-5 before going back to TRA. Played all TR since and a big fan my favorites are TR1-3. The first TR are almost Tactical Platformer with the square base layout, something no other platformer did since.

This video has TOTALLY nailed how it didn’t click with me..I played the original in 1996 and it was breathtaking..I was excited to play this but remember I lost interest an hour in..it dropped the ball entirely and I believe all the positive comments are from people who weren’t around to play the original on release

This game definitely has a... complicated history. After Core Design was booted from the series, they began working on a project, Tomb Raider Anniversary, which Eidos lightly accepted. After Legend was complete, Crystal Dynamics wanted to do Underworld. But then they caught wind of what Core Design was doing. Crystal did very well on Legend, and the idea of having to compete with Core, the original developers remaking their legendary game, was scary. But adamantly Eidos wanted an Anniversary game for Lara's 15th Anniversary. Core's version was around 80% complete, so Crystal rushed a polished, playable opening level as fast as they could. Both were presented to Eidos, and Crystal's was picked for looking for looking cleaner and more presentable, as that was their only way to win. However, this meant Crystal had to prioritize Anniversary, a game they didn't actually want to make. It had to be out first, and it had to be out soon. If they screwed up Anniversary, the success of Legend would mean nothing, and Underworld, would not be made. They had to split their team in half, and Toby Gard was brought in despite vocally being against remakes as a concept. He had no interest in the game, he did it for the paycheck, as he was needing it at the time. The sales for TRA are the lowest in the series, even now. Missed the 15th Anniversary by a year, and the game tried to advertise a remake of TR1... exclusively to new fans. Anniversary and Underworld both suffered a lot, in some different and some similar ways, thanks to the split of staff and the situation. Core Design died, unable to get their foot in the door and being forced to scrap their almost-complete remake of Tomb Raider 1. It all happened because Crystal was scared of losing what they had just gotten, and Eidos still being the ever-awful Eidos.

I fondly remember this game. I loved at the time as a pre-teen just as much as Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld. The lonely and eerie atmosphere to all the environments as you explore them was very well done. The graphics were fairly decent on the PS3 too. Exploring Croft Manner was a treat as well, I remember the music from that part of the the most.

I loved Anniversary as a love letter to the greatest game of all time, but there’s no question they did some levels dirty! Looking at you Colosseum, Cistern, and Sanctuary of the Scion. Oh and all of Atlantis.

The Cistern level didn't have an unintended softlock. That only happens because you can drop yourself without dying into the spike pit. That said, I utterly detest how that level was done in the remake. Exploring the side rooms was the entire point of the level.

Remasters are essentially the same gameplay code but with new or heavily reworked art. What you described was a port. If the game code and graphics code and art assets are a straight rip from the original, that’s just a port no different than a port from PS2 to Xbox. That said I think the Jak remaster for PS3 was a remaster because they redid a lot or all of the art assets I thought. Those are not the same character models found in the original game. Those were new models specifically created for the remaster.

It's a mid-tier remake. The first few levels were decently remade but they totally dropped the ball on Atlantis. It looks nothing like the original. They switched from sci-fi body horror to high fantasy design and I hated it! The Atlantis section was my favorite. By the way, the Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remakes are also re-imaginings by Capcom's own words, so they're in the same boat as Anniversary. Only the Resident Evil 1 Remake from 2002 is in fact a true remake, as both re-imaginings also changed a lot of things.

Hey Sam. This is the first video of yours I've watched, but I'll definitely be watching others and I've subscribed. I don't agree with everything you've said in this video, and I think that's to be expected. We're both human. But this is very well produced and put together video and I really enjoyed it. I hope to see more like it in the future!

I enjoyed Tomb Raider Anniversary exceedingly and would even call it one of the best games for the PS2. It was my first Tomb Raider experience, introduced me to Lara Croft and what got me hooked to the franchise. Devs were clearly passionate for the remake of such classic property. In short, a legendary title and my personal favorite TR game.

One of my faves of all time, because it was one of my first, so I'm heavily biased 😂. Not having played the original also influenced my opinion of it I'm sure.

As an old-timey tomb raiderer myself, I see where you're coming from. Someone hit the nail on the head saying it's just different nostalgies at play, if we want to talk about the nostalgia angle. I remember when the Legend came out I was in the team of the disappointed gamers, who saw the entry as being a dumbed-down version of what tomb raider used to be, albeit a fun one. We used to say yo mama hid the secrets in Legend. But as time passed by the Legend trilogy has grown on me. It's the 2013 reboot forward games that I simply couldn't get myself into. One thing I have to say is that the somewhat simplification of the gameplay (and I'm not talking simply about the tank controls, because frankly, those overstayed their welcome as it were) was a sad necessity to be implemented one way or another. TR had a reputation for being ridiculously hard back then, when the era of casual gaming was starting to roll. I can see why they did it, I think it's fair to look at it at something that they needed to do to save the franchise after the lovable, but visually and gameplaywise obsolete classics and the unfinished AOD disaster that followed. And the quick-time events... sadly, it's a product of its time. A lot of games had the QTE's back then, with various developers copying the mechanism into their games without second thought. I think it's also meant to better showcase some relationship between Lara and somewhat favourite knuckleheads of the franchise, mainly the himbo-fied Larson. The outpour of the fanfics and theories back in the day was intense, I took it as a nod to fans. Especially with her kneeling on his chest, I mean come on! I agree though that there was place for a proper fight somewhere between sneers and unrealized sexual tension between the two. TL'DR great video, reminded me of why I was very skeptical about the Legend trilogy back in the day. The TRA remake certainly underlines the main issues in red, making it an excellent example. Lots of love!

Defending the crystal save system is unbelievable

Finally someone who gets it! Anniversary was not a bad game, and I quite liked it, but it's a shadow of what the original was. I was so hyped for it and then.. it was underwhelming.

TR Anniversary is legendary. Love it.

I kinda don't agree with you in terms of how you say the precision is lost in Anniversary. It's still very much there. You just have to be a precise player. I have zero issues with controls in this game. Just gotta have good quick judgment, and be very responsive. I think it's a fantastic remake, and my only real complaint with the game is that they didn't make the Atlantians nearly as frightening as I had hoped. I was also kinda hoping they would make a boss battle out of collecting the first Scion piece. That "statue" awakened and was buried by the rubble. I would've loved to have seen that as a battle, either in that moment, or later in the game.

Gaming's worst remake? Very far from that. Check Resident Evil 3 (2020). Ah, I really love Anniversary btw. In my opinion one of the best remakes I've ever played.

that is why I prefer more remasters rather than remakes.

The whole "reimaginig" trend is just stupid. Long time fans of the OG games loved the OGs for what they were, not for what they could've/should've been. Faithfulness and respect to the OGs is a concept that back in the 2000s was always an obvious thing to have in a remake, it used to come with the package, to a point you didn't even have to think about that, while nowadays you have to PRAY the developers' team to stay faithful to the source material, pray that they don't mess it up.

Would say the dead space is a notably good remake adding in a new scare system and the gameplay improvements from 2

Aa far as saving goes, maybe you managed the drama in your deaths for maximum effect, but most players I knew just saved constantly, before every chancy jump and before every fight, with backups in case we mismanaged our resources. I'll take frequent autosaves over that hassle. The other design choices mighr not be ideal, but the saving is a quality of life issue, and doesn't do anything but cut down the hassle of doing it manually.

This was the hardest of all the Tomb Raider series for me up until this point. I don't recall the controls being the issue but maybe that was it, there were a couple of wall swinging sequences that drove me nuts before I got them. Lara died 10,000 deaths. Literally.

You'd better do a video on the proper remastered versions of the original 3 games coming out this year😊 maybe those will be worth getting

I played the remake on the 360. I loved it. I say this as someone who still has his copy of the original Tomb Raider for PS1. It's a good remake. A bit buggy though. I had to return it 3 times due to the same ledge on the first level begging out. I couldn't grab that ledge on 3 separate copies. The fourth copy worked fine.

Playing this game right now on my ps2. I think it looks impressive on the console. Runs great through opl too.

The only two games that I concider "Remake" as in "It improves and extrapolates elements without taking away the mood of the original experience" are : -Metroid Zero Mission -Resident Evil on Gamecube

Definitely right about the cheap deaths. In the original a running jump measured running 1 tile then the jump tapping backwards moved back 1 tile etc and the rules of movement were strict but fair.

I played this on the PS2 back in like 2007, after being really atracted but frustrated by the originals as a kid. I loved it.

Loved the original but skipped on the anniversary because of people like yourself crapping all over it. What a big mistake that was. I finally got around to playing it a few years ago, and it was awesome. In my top 3 TR games

To me Anniversary is the perfect remake. It fully respects and stays faithful to the original, recreates everything the original had, but also improves all that could be improved. Not just graphically, but also by adding depth and complexity to every level. Compare the Neptune level in the original, which was just an underwater tunnel, to the beautiful water puzzle room in Anniversary. Or the Atlas room which was just a boulder trap to how it was expanded in Anniversary. All in all it's my favourite Tomb Raider game to return to today, closely followed by Underworld. It's also criminally underrated, and sadly the entry that had the worst sales in the franchise, which I blame on a failure in marketing.

Absolutely. Tomb Raider Anniversary is the only TR game I actually rage-quit on. And remember: I've completed Angel of Darkness from start to finish not once, but twice.

Anniversary is great, as is legend. A logical evolution from the originals, not like the dumb 2013 "I want to be like Uncharted" trilogy

I like that I still enjoy replaying the original and its remake like Tomb Raider/TR Anniversary, FFVII/FFVIIR & RE4/RE4R.

This was a phenomenal remake!! and as someone who recently played the Original, both are good and the latter is a much more streamlined experience

I live in Brazil, games used to took a long time to arrive here in the 80s and 90s. I had an SNES when first played a Tomb Raider in my friend's house, it was 3 on London stage and if blew my mind, i obviously never maneuvered 3d in game and i couldn't do it. Well, a couple years later i moved with my brother and he had a ps1 i played all sorts of games, had TR3 but never finished it. Some time later we had a ps2 and shared the time with it, he only played sports games, buying the year version until we started recording ourselves. Sometime later i moved and for years to come my only videogame was a psp. Got a ps3 after i got married and christaldinamics trilogy of tomb raider was one of the first games i got for it, finished it all and anniversary was my favorite. I quite like anniversary, aside from the quick time events.

It's a great game. Yes it isn't quite what I would have liked but it's still damn good.

I used to adore Anniversary but in recent years my opinion on the game has soured. This video hit every point on why I think this game is inferior to the Core Design classic. The controls are imprecise at the most trickiest platforming moments. Cut content left and right because the game designers didn’t want to bother was the biggest issue. This game is up there with the RE2 and 3 remake, has the heart in the right place all fail compare to their inspirations. All the time and effort these games used to make these pointless remakes could have been used for a brand new game with brand new ideas. But because the gaming industry is creatively bankrupt, we get these inferior reinterpretations of classic games.

I agree with pretty much all of your points here. The only things I disagree on are: Egypt is the worst location in the whole game compared to the original with Atlantis either tying with it outright or a close second. Used toilet paper aesthetic, all rooms are separated with boring hallways (some trapped Prince of Persia SOT Trilogy style) like a movie set or theme park attraction, too many traps especially in Obelisk of Khamoon and a bullshit ambush in a narrow hall at the end. I do like some puzzles like the retracting ledges near the Bast temple, scarab scale for the sand trapdoor, the moving statues and the Horus & Set statue room’s water puzzle but that’s it. I really like Peru minus some missing rooms like the timed door, big explorable village & bear pool. Some textures look crap but the levels aren’t too bad. In fact, the only Peru level I hate and don’t count in this praise is Tomb of Qualopec. The valley isn’t as open now but I do like being able to climb higher in the canopy, something that Core’s TRAE tribute mods like TRA Retold did as well. Speaking of TRAE, will you do a full video on it, its history, it’s leaked alpha (both platforms and all playable builds including discord exclusive updates by Ghostblade that fix shader, transparency & some crashing bugs on the latest playable patch) attempt at a restoration project ala DNF 2001, Core’s plans for it back then and TRLEs inspired by it? I’d watch the hell out of it as I’m dying to play a fully playable finished version, fan game like DNF 2001 or otherwise. For the TRLE’s inspired by it, I highly recommend the unfinished TRA Retold by Joe “Teeth” Mudd which is pretty damn fun if rather janky (he went into detail in Steve of Warr’s discord exactly why he stopped and has effectively disowned the project entirely due to those reasons), and Tomb Raider Redux by AngelofDarkness which is complete (more or less as it took so long he rushed two specific parts near the end). Both are two of the best TRLEs ever and the former not only got me into them but was my exposure to the Legend Jenni Milward, fan voice of Lara and author of the AOD book adaptation. I don’t know if you got one of the physical release copies of TRAE while Ash was doing them, but that may be worth looking it too if you did or can get one.

There's a difference between a game being more challenging skill-wise, and a game being more challenging due to frustration. This was what irritated me about Anniversary Edition. Yes, the grid based design of the original levels was far easier to follow, and meant that things were strict in terms of jumps and grabbing ledges, but this one had so many frustrating niggles when traversing ledges, timing jumps perfectly, and the annoying way the camera lined you up with jumps you weren't even aiming for. I honestly don't heavily dislike it, and it's definitely not the worst remake of a game I've played, but on a personal level I felt they were always going to struggle to replicate the impact of the original one. Heck, I don't think even TR2 and 3 managed to have that effect on me, despite being more polished. TR2 was too combat heavy, 3 was closer, but I just didn't take to the vehicles, and whilst TLR and Chronicles were underrated in my opinion, I felt they were running out of ideas by that point. At least Anniversary Edition does its best to stick to the original format. All the bow and arrow stuff in the Survivor games I just couldn't get into, sorry. I know I'm not going to be popular for saying such things. I don't normally give sales much clout when it comes to judging how good a game is, given how well the FIFA games always sell, for example, but the fact Anniversary sold about a seventh of the amount that the original did is no great surprise.

As I haven't played through the original Tomb Raider game, I can't really compare it to Anniversary. But playing Anniversary relatively recently I enjoyed it quite a lot. Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot more than the recent Tomb Raider games, which are IMHO too action oriented.

What an unusual set of opinions. I can believe they are genuine, even if I disagree with most of them, although the question in the title does seem like pure clickbait. There are also some things that were even explained by the devs in the commentary track and ignored by you in the video, like the way everything seemed grander in the original due to the novelty and technical limitations, including that bridge and the t-rex. About the t-rex, I don't think there's anything remarkable about it at all beyond the theatrics of encountering it for the first time. It's just another basic enemy with the same AI as the rest, only bigger and with more health. It would have been a very lame enemy if left unchanged.

I don't believe that we will have a group of game developers that want to create a game players will learn to love and enjoy their way. Its as though the joy of making a game you want to make for the sake of making a good game has been exchanged for making sales figures.

Anniversary was fun, I hope they do 30th 2026 edition, and they include original 1996 version as a bonus.

I enjoyed this remake for what it was (especially the updated puzzle rooms in St. Francis Folly,) but I'm certainly not blind to its issues and still wonder what could have been. And one only has to look at Core Design's ill-fated version to see that. Imagine if Anniversary had been a collaboration between Core Design and Crystal Dynamics, each company playing to eachother's strength (for the former: Level design, platorming, atmosphere, lack of reliance on QTE's and tight controls. For the latter: Fluidity in the controls and camera, and graphical fidelity.)

EXCUSE ME! Tomb Raider Anniversary is by far the best one of of them all! sure better than the modern trash we have now!

After TR: Legend, my all-time favorite, I had high hopes for TR:A. They were dashed. It has to do with the Boss level designs these games share, where you have to spam a particular trick several times before actually tackling the boss directly. TR: L teaches you the Adrenaline dodge trick against a bear, then throws you at the reimagined T-Rex fight where you have to spam it AND lure the lizard into four traps. That battle stopped me _cold,_ I just couldn't coordinate it all with my forty-something year old reflexes. Never finished it. My reflexes were good enough to earn all the speedrun achievements in TR:L and I finished TR:U.

I have never played the original Tomb Raider. I got Tomb Raider Anniversary as a free game with my graphics card. I found it one of the best Tomb Raider games ever. It feels better than TR: Legend to me. Not to mention later incarnations.

I heard Sam is really happy that they have announced remasters/remakes for these games not long after this video 😢

TR1 was a genuinely challenging game that felt like a huge maze to navigate and find where you needed to go, the developer trusted you to have some ability to discover and explore, Anniversary is as 1-dimensional as it gets; go here, go to next room, go to next room; go back one room; do this; go to next room; pretty much all of the exploration was heavily eroded away. The remake overall seemed much smaller. The path to proceed in Anniversary was always very obvious, requiring no deduction or experimenting either. I completed the game in a few days, whereas the original took honestly weeks to complete as I got stuck in sections pre-internet without a guide of what to do next. This is maybe not the quick experience gamer's look for nowadays but I think we lost something along the way and replaced it with the quick thrill of speedrunning through the temples, rather than taking the time to decipher the places enjoy the experience. Similarly TR1 controls required work and skill to master, its a bit of a relic of its time tbh and not in the good way tbh. Anniversary should have kept some of that challenge while making the controls more up to date, but instead its like the easiest controls possible, jumps that were previously dangerous run killers, were now possible by just pressing the jump key repeatedly with almost 100% chance of success, making them laughably easy. Don't even get me started on the grappling hook, Lara Croft may as well be Spiderman in certain sections of the game removing almost all the challenge, it could have been made harder requiring some skill but I think that is not what they were going for. Quick time events inserted into fights to make them instantly winnable are another skill reduction mechanism, previously fights with the enemies and animals were something that could end a run, but now almost 100% of the time you just need to wait for the circles to align press shoot and instant kill. The removal of the more tedious block based puzzles is a good thing I think, some of those were slow and not very enjoyable, so the remake did do some things right. Overall, I couldn't agree more with your conclusion, and I'm pretty sure its not just nostalgia tinting my memory. I'm saying this all knowing the risk that I'll sound like someone who say's 'back in my day, games were better', but I really think they've removed what made the game a unique title. It looks like Tomb Raider 1, but it doesn't play like Tomb Raider 1 in my opinion.

The new "remasters" are coming out next year. Would love to see your take on those once those exist!

Legend, Anniversary and Underworld need more love, underappreciated imo

Glad I watched this video since I wasn't sure when the annoying as hell QTEs started showing up in the games and I'm glad I dodged the bullet. The originals, while a product of its time, still allowed enough freedom of choice on how you wanted to tackle basically every problem on your own and when you finally figured a way to get through that problem, and then suddenly your friend showed you a different way to resolve it... that made for great times. QTEs have their time and place, but sticking it on boss fights like the T-Rex just really ruins the memories for me. The other aspect was like what you mentioned, the whole exploration just got lost in the newer games. The first time in Egypt on top of the giant Sphynx and doing that blind jump into the air with my friends watching in horror... until you landed right on the invisible platform, it can't be replicated with the Anniversary's engine. Some areas just felt HUGE because of how the ps1's visual limited how much you can actually see, and there's a lot of times you had to use the look around option to try to spot that hidden pathway that's not obvious to the eye from a few angles. I don't think the linear design is bad, just it robs you of what made the original game's blind explorations feeling like you're actually finding something you weren't meant to normally find in this out of the way niche on a ledge or that panicky blind swim underwater and not knowing if there's anything at the end. The last thing was the limited save points also was a factor in making you subconsciously THINKING about how much you're willing to risk vs the reward of a guaranteed safe point in your progress. Do you push on just a bit more and risk having to redo your last hour of progress, or take the safe bet and hope there's another save crystal later on? When you mastered that level or section, you can replay the game and just breeze through and bypass all those save crystals knowing full well where and when the next "critical" save crystal will be and that feeling's just awesome (until you forget to hold the grab button on the long jump and Lara failed to grab the ledge and you fall to your death...)

personally I never saw this game as anything other than TR for a generation who don't have the patience for the original. That being said I totally agree the controls felt floaty, which was an instant turn off. The rigid nature of the original's control scheme was what made the whole thing work.

The "magnetizing" issue you're describing in the controls section of the video can be fixed by playing with manual grab on, which gives you more control and also aligns more with the fans of the original TR games, as manual grab was the only option back then.

I found the grappling hook to be a bit stupid. Like: This isn't Spider Man.

All I can say is I loved TR anniversary

Man, such a good game which is easily ruined with some issues. I remember playing this way back when on PS2 and trying Egypt's timed trap part few dozen times. It was so frustrating! And grabbing ledges demands you to be so precise how you approach them. Come from tiniest angle, you will fall. Jump 0.001 second too early, you will fall. Fighting enemies was done well in original game, this one relies WAY too much on Adrenaline Dodges. Mess it up and it will take anything between 3-5 shotgun shells to kill one enemy on close range. And maybe it just me, but somehow some of the levels feel way shorter than they were in original.

Thank you! I feel like everyone's praising the remake but they had none of the exploration and challenge of the originals. Everything was linear and boring. I do understand that the 5 OG games are of acquired taste these days since the clunky controls and "what the heck am I supposed to do?" are the main draw. The remake wanted to make everything more fluid and such stripped everything that made the original special.

Lost Valley is in a cave and I will die on this hill.

Finally someone actually talking about this game, i have seriously wondered if the game existed at all and maybe my memory of it was just my mind playing tricks on me since nobody ever talks about it, when i picked this up in a bargain bin at a Gamestop over a decade ago i had high hopes of it being good since i loved the original on ps1, i quit playing it in less than a week, i loved the enhanced graphics but everything else was just horrible.

have the original game for pc since childhood.... never got past the first level cause the tank controls where to hard for me and overall the level design was kind of scarying e (I was very young), also had tomb raider 2 but all I did there was putting the butler in the freezer. XD Last year I discovered a demo of this game on steam and after playing it got the whole game and honestly really enjoyed it and now considering giving the series finally a go after all these years, so I guess this game at least did something good for new comers. ;) Its kind of odd, cause in a similar manner I got into resident evil thanks to resident evil 6 and the resi 1 remake. XD

Anniversary: if she were a spice she'd be flour.

I believe the "fudging" of laras movements is caused by holding a directional down at the time of landing or reaching a ledge within a specific window of time after jumping. Could be mistaken though

This guy seems to be just a "remake bad" bot.

Agree. No feelings of exploration, it felt like a guided tour of artificial places.

I always knew Crystal Dynamics from their PS1 platformers like Pandemonium... bouncy, jumpy whimsical colourful things where your character jumps about 30 feet in the air and feels light as a feather... Very strange that they've transposed these cartoon physics onto Tomb Raider where you could just believe Lara was at peak human physical performance. I can understand why some people would like that, but for that and story reasons the Crystal Dynamics TRs lost me pretty early on. Thank god for the remasters eh

16:06 Kold doesn't actually have them on his body: you remember the secret shotgun in Natla's Mines guarded by a lava boulder along the river you could find to get the gun back early? The magnums now take its place on a small platform directly under the starting one by the TRA version of that lava river. Unlike the original, if you miss this technically not a secret, you never get them back for the rest of the game. I learned that the hard way both on PC & PSP back in 2007/2008.

Thanks for this video. I remember playing the PS3 version years ago and it was a fun game. Problem is, when you are doing the time trials (for the platinum trophy), it's when you start finding all these "nickpicks" a serious annoyance. You don't mind if the T-rex animation triggers once or twice when you know you did it right; you don't mind when you jump off a pole when you aimed correctly... but when the time is so stricted, you can't miss once or twice, you have to start all over again and pray next time everything will work as it should...

Thanks so much for a shout out. Just wanted to clarify I didn't extract anything. I merely spent 10 years searching for the source files of the cancelled Tomb Raider: 10th anniversary edition by the original devs. Eventually it was sent to me and I published it. With help of the community, it was turned into "playable" version we have today. It is officially the last game ever made by Core Design, the creators of Tomb Raider and I dedicated all my efforts to ensure it's preserved. Job isn't done though as I hope to find more assets eventually

I can't stand how freaking dark this game is.