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Old 12-07-14, 11:59   #31
Drone
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there were TWO such parts with sharks!! ... and the second one was REALLY deep and REALLY creepy! At times, I even forgot to breathe, hahahaha!
I played ps2 version, with no sharks
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Old 12-07-14, 12:59   #32
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I guess I disagree... Sorry.

I played TR1 first and I grew up on Core games and while I enjoyed them a lot and really loved the feeling of them, I prefer Anniversary over TR1. Some of the complaints noticed here are odd since a lot of the things that are mentioned as negatives are actually present in TR1 too.

Puzzles being endless and tedious? Oh, are you telling me you PREFERRED running to Point A to grab a key or pull a level only to run all the way back to the start of the level to go through a door while killing a few wild animals here and there? At least Anniversary revamped combat by adding the adrenaline rush feature (which I really like!) and switched things up with the puzzles a bit to add more variety (ie. with the ball puzzles and the shooting puzzle in St Francis plus many more).

Another complaint was the white ledges... Was I the only one that thought it was obvious where to jump in TR1? As long as you looked around it was pretty obvious especially since EVERYTHING else was flat and boring. Yes, the white ledges are a pain but TR1 was not better at hiding them. Anniversary adds pole swings, grapple, ropes, ramps, ladders, and more in order to add variety to the platforming greatly improving it. I call that a win.

Finally, a few mentioned that the color palate used was dull and gray. Sorry, what specs are you running it on? Sure, some of the levels can get a little dull like the Mountain Caves one but other than that? Hell no. They are gorgeous and very colorful. TR1, on the other hand, was pretty drab. Everything had the same texture, the same colors.

I guess I'm just confused as to how these things could be 'problems' in Anniversary when I think they are the problems of TR1.
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Old 12-07-14, 18:48   #33
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Puzzles being endless and tedious? Oh, are you telling me you PREFERRED running to Point A to grab a key or pull a level only to run all the way back to the start of the level to go through a door while killing a few wild animals here and there?
I enjoy having to explore the levels carefully to figure all that stuff out. Exploration is fun, and I think the levels in the original Tomb Raider are extremely well designed. Figuring out where to go and what to do is the whole fun of the game.

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At least Anniversary revamped combat by adding the adrenaline rush feature (which I really like!) and switched things up with the puzzles a bit to add more variety (ie. with the ball puzzles and the shooting puzzle in St Francis plus many more).
The adrenaline dodge isn't a terrible feature or anything, but I do find it a little too gimmicky for my tastes. The extra puzzles are fine, but they don't necessarily cover for TRA's weaknesses.

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Another complaint was the white ledges... Was I the only one that thought it was obvious where to jump in TR1? As long as you looked around it was pretty obvious especially since EVERYTHING else was flat and boring. Yes, the white ledges are a pain but TR1 was not better at hiding them. Anniversary adds pole swings, grapple, ropes, ramps, ladders, and more in order to add variety to the platforming greatly improving it. I call that a win.
I disagree but you're also missing the point. The levels in TR1 were generally much larger... sometimes it was obvious where to go, and sometimes it wasn't. But that's beside the point. The point is that in TR1, there was no need for white ledges because every surface that had a ledge was interactable. So there was a lot of variety in how you could tackle levels, even if you knew exactly where to go. A lot of times there'd be a quick way to get through a given area, and a slower and more careful way. There were also a lot of shortcuts that were probably not intended. The point is, because TR1's game engine is more organic, there's a LOT more depth in how you play.

It's nice that TRA tries to add more variety, but it tends to overuse it's new "features." Pole grabs and rope climbing is heavily overused. When there are poles everywhere, it really stands out in kind of an absurd way. Also the original TR1 did have ramps.

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Finally, a few mentioned that the color palate used was dull and gray. Sorry, what specs are you running it on? Sure, some of the levels can get a little dull like the Mountain Caves one but other than that? Hell no. They are gorgeous and very colorful. TR1, on the other hand, was pretty drab. Everything had the same texture, the same colors.
Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. The color palettes in TRA were changed and some areas look noticably more drab, like the whole of Egypt. Yellows and blues were traded in for browns. The original TR1 actually had pretty good use of color in it's level design. Yes obviously TRA has better textures, but realism isn't everything.
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Old 12-07-14, 19:18   #34
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C) The Great Pyramid? What's so great about it? It's long, superfluous and boooring as hell.
Long? Half the reason the Atlantis section is so butchered is because 80% of it is cut and there's little left but gimmicky timed sequences.
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Old 12-07-14, 19:42   #35
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Whenever this subject is broached I always remember what some Crystal Dynamics person said about a key moment in the development process. When they first placed "their" Lara into the original game she scampered through it without peril like a monkey on crack. And why was this so? Because their Lara (and their system) is automated. The classic games were all about your expertise in controlling your avatar in an extremely perilous environment where one slip up of the controls meant death. In Crystal Dynamics C&C system many times you simply cannot die, even if you try to! The second-to-second C&C danger was eliminated and to this day they have not found a way to replace it.
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Old 12-07-14, 22:49   #36
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Long? Half the reason the Atlantis section is so butchered is because 80% of it is cut and there's little left but gimmicky timed sequences.
Maybe I am alone with this, but the Atlantis section in TR1 felt really underwhelming for me. Natla's mines was a good level, but Atlantis felt pretty weak with no real challenge but a ****load of enemies. The Great Pyramid was also very short and easy. At least after Egypt, I thought Atlantis was rather weak.
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Old 12-07-14, 23:14   #37
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Maybe I am alone with this, but the Atlantis section in TR1 felt really underwhelming for me. Natla's mines was a good level, but Atlantis felt pretty weak with no real challenge but a ****load of enemies. The Great Pyramid was also very short and easy. At least after Egypt, I thought Atlantis was rather weak.
I really don't agree. Antlantis is a very strong level, IMO. What's great about the TR1 levels is how strong they are design-wise. This is a super early 3D game, yet it has such a strong grasp of how to design memorable and interesting levels in a 3D space.

Antlantis is a good example. The central element of the level is a long vertical shaft. At the top of that shaft is the confrontation with Natla and a penultimate boss. Throughout the whole level, you are following a path that weaves around this central shaft, every once in awhile cutting through it. Along the way are a series of rooms with puzzles and platforming challenges that build pretty nicely on what you've learned through the whole game. But what's smart about this level is the fact that you are reminded of this central shaft by continually going back to it, each time further and further up. That's smart foreshadowing using only level design. That ties the whole level together and makes the player feel like the level is building to a climax.

This is smart, rock-solid level design.

The only problem with Atlantis is that it's not the final level. By all rights it should be, it feels like a final level, and in comparison The Great Pyramid feels a little anticlimactic. Unfortunately The Great Pyramid kind of drags the 3 Atlantis levels down. I think that if The Great Pyramid had been combined with Atlantis into one massive level, with the Pyramid being at the top, it would have made for a fantastic final level, but unfortunately they didn't do that.

Last edited by Flipsider; 12-07-14 at 23:15.
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Old 12-07-14, 23:39   #38
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That's true, I give credit to Core for the clever design and for being resourceful. Having said that, I still felt that level posed little challenge. The Maria Doria levels also had very well thought out and planned design that's not even obvious at first. But they also challenge you with several puzzles and exploration which make them great.

Another thing that came to my mind now is ammunition. We tend pick on Crystal Dynamics for being too generous with ammunition yet Core did exactly the same in the classics. I used only the Uzi's in Atlantis and I ended up with more ammunition at the end than at the beginning. Just how?
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Old 13-07-14, 00:32   #39
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Another thing that came to my mind now is ammunition. We tend pick on Crystal Dynamics for being too generous with ammunition yet Core did exactly the same in the classics. I used only the Uzi's in Atlantis and I ended up with more ammunition at the end than at the beginning. Just how?
I dunno if I'd say ammunition is a major problem with LAU games. As far as Tomb Raider 1 goes, I think they overcompensated because they were worried about the player running out of ammo. The final levels are designed with the player having uzi's in mind, so they'd be unreasonably difficult without them. It's the same with health packs, there's way more than you need because if you did run out of them you'd be kind of screwed. There's sections in the game where it's very difficult to not take damage.
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Old 13-07-14, 03:41   #40
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Also, while I enjoy Crystal Dynamics TR games as much as I enjoy Core Design TR games, I find them also quite lackluster. For example, while the Core TR games give you a chance to explore all the levels, Crystal TR games don't put much things to make any level sorta explorable. In fact, I kinda find them quite linear. Also, the Crystal TR games (especially Anniversary) always tend to have annoying bugs which are useless (like that bug where Lara is unable to grab some ledges only because of the "Full Screen Effects" ). Core TR games may have countless bugs, but at least they're very useful to finish the games. That being said, I still enjoy Crystal TR games as much as I enjoy Core TR games.
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