For years, when people talked about great remakes like the 2002 version of Resident Evil, I would advance Tomb Raider: Anniversary as another contender. Having replayed both the 1996 original and Anniversary this year, I retract that statement. I've played this game countless times, and am fond of it. But a great remake is one that surpasses the original. Anniversary, despite being more accessible to a newcomer, doesn't do that.

Anniversary is fairly faithful, and recreates a lot of the environments that are now as familiar to a veteran raider as the house they grew up in. It's hard to find many flaws in the first half, and having played it across the PS2, PSP and PC, I must say it looks very good on all three platforms.

Would that the second half were as enticing. My thoughts on the second half can be summed up with one sentence I spoke to my sister while she was watching me play it 13 years ago: "These games always get buggier and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the longer they go on, because developers aren't really expecting most people to play that far." The slippery physics result in Lara dropping off ledges she's already climbed for no reason, and she sometimes doesn't register that you want to grab a ledge, especially in the later sections with moving platforms, because they haven't moved into just the right position yet.

The combat is also downright awful, and was egregiously so on this run as I played on Hard difficulty. I highly recommend playing on Easy - there's no shame. It won't make the puzzle-platforming sections any easier, and they're the point; it'll just make the awful combat more bearable. Holy ♥♥♥♥, this combat. Nearly every single enemy except mice and bats force you to do this Max Payne-style dodge to get a headshot on them, and it's an unwelcome gimmick because they become invincible when they bum-rush you for it, resulting in wasted ammo and repetitive combat. Lara goes flying into the air at the slightest provocation, so when you're fighting 3 flying enemies while standing on a tiny platform, expect a lot of unwarranted deaths because this gorgeous woman can't keep her feet on the ground.

I feel the PC version is far worse than the PS2 and PSP versions, which I would rate higher. The biggest reason for this is the controls. Playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the PC is a handicap in itself. Despite its Steam page promising full controller support (and LAU Tomb Raider is meant to be played with a controller), this game does not have true analog control. Rather, it feels like eight directions mapped poorly to your analog stick, and the results range from irksome (coming to a standstill in combat because the game didn't register a sudden change in direction) to infuriating (falling to your death because the game thought you wanted to jump backwards rather than sideways). There also seem to be serious issues with the auto-targeting system that I've never encountered with the console versions.

Even the graphics get worse, feeling hurried in the endgame, and this is really disappointing. If this is the case, there have been more Tomb Raider games that suffered from being rushed than not. Being rushed is the constantly haunting bane of this series. I was disappointed in the designs of the last few levels. The living walls of flesh and less-defined, more-horrific enemies in the original were a lot more inspired than the generic sci-fi designs they went for in the remake. I understand their desire to convey the Atlantis aesthetic, but it doesn't have to look like Disney dictated it did.

Lastly, while the story is mostly enjoyable, the daft attempts at characterization around Lara's first murder would have been better left out. If you took two shots of vodka for every time she looks uncertain and stares at her hands in the endgame, your liver would spontaneously combust. Sometimes it's better to leave things unsaid. The 2000s were not the age of subtlety, but this is gratuitous.

Now that I'm done tearing the game to pieces, it's time to tell you that I do sincerely love it. For all its flaws, it's still a good alternative for newcomers who can't bear the outdated graphics and tank controls of the original. There's a lot of detail to it, right down the soundtrack changing based on the enemies you encounter. There are moments when the puzzle-platforming simply clicks, which is the essence of Tomb Raider: the riveting cycle of climbing and jumping and solving puzzles in a wonderfully isolated, zen-like state. But please, for the love of God, only play the PC version as a last resort, despite the fact that it goes on sale for pennies. And once you're done, consider developing Stockholm syndrome for the original like I did. It'll pay off, I promise.

As a Tomb Raider fan, I love it.

Kocham Larę <3