Tomb Raider: Anniversary
It was 1996 when in videogames world a 3d title showed up for first: Tomb Raider. It was the first time we found ourselves in front of a 360 degrees world, surrounding all of our senses. The hero, or better, the heroine of this amazing game was Lara Croft: archaeologist and hidden treasures discoverer. A character who will lead us until nowadays and who will give life to the cinema series' character, interpreted by Angelina Jolie. The most recent episode of the series was Tomb Raider: Legend. I personally guess that Crystal Dynamics' guys made excellent titles, maybe except for Angel of Darkness. Tomb Raider: Anniversary takes us back to the far 1996, retrieving a title now become legend and fitting it for modern video gamers.
The plot is exactly the same than the first episode: Lara Croft, as her father before her, is hunting the Scion, artifact divided in three parts with mysterious power. Also the levels of the game are totally the same alike Tomb Raider but with a graphic (recovered from Legend) surely better that won't keep you away from playing it once again. The spoke will be put during your research by the evil Jacqueline Natlas, appearing to be a ruthless business woman who, in the end, will reveal to be much more dangerous than previewed. You'll explore old graves and missing cities in Peru, Greece, Egypt and other beautiful countries, making stunts to go through the dangerous traps in the levels. There will be several moments in which you'll have a déjà vu sensation that will take you back to the first episode of the series, but nothing of everything you'll see is simply copied, everything is greater, bigger and more passionate. The setting were got bigger and better in the details and the enigmas were revisited and took to an higher difficulty level. The game experience is really good and sincerely more than a simple remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary looks like a brand new game.
This sensation is mostly due to the use of movement control of Tomb Raider: Legend. Unlike the first episode, in Anniversary Lara can grab at the protrusions, jump from one to another one, jump from a lower to an higher one. She can sway on some ropes and on some horizontal bars, make some alusive movements to avoid bullets and vertically grab on the walls. All these stunts look like being absolutely natural and quite simple to execute. The error range is, in fact, minimum; for example, if you can't precisely calculate the jumping time towards an horizontal bar, Lara will be hung by one single hand. If then, you totally fail the jump, Lara will fall down in the dark or she'll anyway get an high damage. The starting training level will help you get your stunt skills better.
The game is composed by simple enigmas such as pushing a button or lowing a lever. The real difficult is the one to be able to move from A to B points. The surrounding architecture study is essential to under stand the standing places you'll be likely to use. Very often these levels are unlimited and the buttons to be pushed or the levers to be activated will be more than one for one single enigma. To make your job more difficult you'll get the traps through your route. Each enigma can have a variable duration depending on the difficult, but we've calculated on average one hour per enigma. During your explorations you'll be likely to face animated enemies such as rats, bats, wolves, bears, tigers, gorillas and even T-Rexes. Fighting is only limited to the use of the guns but also here you can make several stunts to avoid the enemy, keeping shooting. The pointing is automatic, so it makes your job easier. An element not new in the fps but never used in a Tomb Raider before now is the adrenaline dodge. A sort of slow motion ( F.E.A.R. Extraction Point style) that will slow the scene and will give you the chance to better study your future movements. The pointer will move more precisely and if you shoot at the right moment, the shock will be fatal for the enemy. Anniversary uses the same kind of cutscenes as Legend, where you need to quickly click a sequence of keys to pass the final scenes.
What makes always passionate this title is the gameplay, starting from the gracious movements of Lara, making impossible (to imagine) stunts by flawless simplicity and physique, to the details that color everything, such as the water effect on the character's skin, the way lights are reflected under water or the sensible weather difference from one setting to another one. By Tomb Raider: Legend developers tried to shine again one series that, by Angel of Darkness touched its own deep. Tomb Raider: Anniversary represents a further step forward in this meaning. Plaudits for Crystal Dynamics' developers who awaken old sensations in us, by a remake which perfectly fits nowadays' graphic. A must. |
FrancescoPontillo - 13/08/2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Title: Universe At War: Earth Assault
Platform: PC
Release date: January 2008
Genre: Strategy
Author: zsinger
Vote: 7.6
|
Universe at War: Earth appears to be, at first sight, an attempt to deliver and old style RTS game, with some innovations. Petroglyph developers have introduced three new alien races, two of which never seen before in RTS gaming.
Plot
“And the earth stands on the brink of destruction…” it’s the year 2012 and the alien forces called The Hierarchy have descended upon the planet earth destroying everything in their path. As human force prepare for strikes back, a new mysterious alien force arrives: the Novus. Novus are sentient machines whose only will is to destroy their nemesis, The Hierarchy. .... |
|
|
