'Kay, so for the unwieldy fortune of $9, I finally bought a copy of...
... and it's basically the same ****ing game as Anniversary, only worse. I'm not just talking about graphics and gameplay, because I love PSX games, and I can deal with the clunkiest of the bunch. I'm talking about the raw level designs and layouts. So much less care was put into the product, with less consideration for the player experience.
An example:
Early on, you find a big locked door. In Anniversary, you have to get up high and platform around it, swinging on poles and ropes and ****, quickly flipping two switches and getting back to the door before they both reset. In the original game, you simply go in the one direction that the game allows you to and hit one (non-timed) switch. Boom.
The remake takes all of the dead space of the original and fleshes it out with cool mechanics and deadly challenges beyond just "jump real good, shoot wolf, hit switch".
With the assets and control scheme at their disposal, Core Design could have done so much more with the game. Even randomly generated levels in games like Daggerfall have more heart, with corpses and weird decorations thrown all over the place. They could have made way more interesting levels and traps.
I'm still early on, though, so I'm gonna give the game more of a chance to grow on me before I **** on it. But the first impression is a big "meh".
It reminds me of what Mic was saying earlier, about how a game with life and mystery to it, even if it's a flawed game, is way more exciting than a game that is solid but lacks soul. Anniversary is packed to the gills with huge levels, reflex testing traps, jumps-a-plenty, and gorgeous environments with way more detail put into them than was necessary. It takes every opportunity to test you. The original is hilariously empty in comparison. It really seems like Crystal Dynamics just cared more about what they were doing, going above and beyond what was expected of them in that console generation, while Core Design simply did the bare minimum that was acceptable for the time.
And there's also how Lara is an actual, fleshed out character in Legend and Anniversary. In the original, she's a painful and boring cliche of the times (right from the intro cutscene, she has mirrorshades that reflect green glyphs running across her laptop
).
The controls are alright, though. Not optimal, considering that other PSX tank control games (for example, Nemesis) feel
waaaay smoother, but they work pretty well once you get used to them. You really have to mash that ****ing jump button to make it work, though. This game is not for the weak of thumbs.
Now that I think about it, Lara controls a lot like the guy from Silent Hill. Which isn't a compliment. Running works fine. But turning and fine tuning your position feel like you just **** your pants.
Right now, I'm just gonna say that Anniversary is the better game, because (similar to the REmake), it's clearly the way the game was meant to be from the very beginning, only the limitations of the times (and certainly the limitations of the developers) were holding it back. It just has so much more to it on every level. I can get why some people might prefer the original, especially if they have memories tied to it, but for someone just getting into the series, the remake is way more interesting and challenging. And beyond that, it's simply more fun.