Level reviews

"Not only a strong feeling of deja vu (this might have been one of those several levels I'd once started but not made far), but very mixed feelings towards these levels. On the one hand, my bias towards Peru is quite obvious and in that regard I quite enjoyed the atmosphere and looks of this release, which feels like a concoction of areas from TR1, from TRA, from the then relatively rare footage of TRAE, and some brand new areas added in (with one room very similar to the initial area from TR1 Tomb of Tihocan added in for kicks). Ah, yes, there's a manor level too. The deal-breaker here ultimately was the custom animations. I don't really mind when new moves are added in, but when you change Lara's basic moveset for no reason other than just because, it's a rather big issue. For instance, your one step forward is replaced by a two step animation for whatever reason, and the hop backwards doesn't go as far back as one tile - and nor does the run up for a running jump, so I found myself missing a lot of jumps I normally wouldn't miss and it got aggravating. I was happy I chose the "easy" version which has the save anywhere feature enabled as the checkpoint crystals were spaced very apart from one another. As for the new moves, they're ok for the most part but I suspect they could be a problem in the version without saves enabled as you will be doing lots of jumping off ledges, either upwards or backwards, and the camera isn't telling you if you're properly aligned, so you might find yourself jumping to your doom. A quickload will mitigate that, so by all means stick to the "easy" version. I got stuck in a save/reload loop after the ending cutscene. Some of the things felt a bit exaggerated here (the massive entrance doors, the 16-click high push blocks etc) but overall, visually this was quite endearing, just not exactly fun to navigate. 120 minutes, 15 secrets. 06/22" - Treeble

"Well, I actually quite enjoyed this one, despite my usual opinions on remakes and the relatively low scores of some of the reviews. I did choose the easy version because that's what I've been accustomed to pretty much since I started raiding, but the game really isn't that difficult, so if you do choose the hard version with the save crystals, it shouldn't become too much of an issue. I also never encountered any crashes to the desktop despite dying a few times throughout. The gameplay is very similar to both TR1 and Anniversary, but the new moves do add a bit of a frisson to the tried and trusted formula. You might want to either practice at Croft Manor or have the walkthrough for reference as they aren't explained in the readme file. Enemies are placed well (although the T- Rex is as easy as ever to take down) and there's enough ammo to dispose of them, despite the Shotgun being the only additional weapon. Secrets are mostly well hidden although it was a shame that your total didn't carry over from the Croft Manor and you essentially have to start from scratch with those. The only things that I wasn't fond of were the somewhat out of touch FMVs which did drag the experience down slightly and the fact that the aesthetics were rushed in a few places. But overall, I had a ball of a time for around the two hours time it took me to successfully get through." - Ryan

"While I liked the concept of this level, it kind of fell short on it's face (in some parts). Let's start with the new movies, some are pretty standard NG Editor stuff, but, there is some new moves here. The problem is some of them are either to "OP" (like the sprint jump and the wall back flip that you can do) or feel like pandering (like the ledge one). Other thing that is very mixed is the level design and atmosphere, while some rooms look very pretty, others look very empty and some of the texturing feels a bit rushed, some parts of the level also weren't adapted for the new moves, so you can exploit it in some places. Overall it is a decent ride, this is a pretty okay level set if you want to play somefin' similar to TR Anniversary." - SeniorBlitz

"Years after playing I only remembered manor shields, a spider trap and a shaft with new move, in a nice game which could look better. It made me think again about the point of creating things other than masterful. One day all undefined corridors will collapse, all ordinary chunks will blur, all typical rooms will be forgotten. I re-evaluated further. This wasn't one of these games with redundant passages. I replayed it to realize a lot had fled my mind - a pole puzzle, a new T-Rex death, curious horn pickups... I normally remember such things so why didn't I this time. Why of all new moves I only remembered a problematic shaft? How could no trace of perfect cog machine flyby remain in my head even though I'm oversensitive about cameras? Why didn't I even remember Greenkey's tutorial as I normally enjoy them? If so much in this game makes sense, the content is creative and nostalgia-generating, shouldn't it produce a memorable experience just like the original game did? Is it true remakes are the most difficult class which is doomed to flop unless it's like, let's say, twice as good as the original game? Do we live in a happy world where everyone can create anything, or is it a sad reality with little point to even try? Well, I don't know. What I know it COULD have been of better remakes but it's as always the lighting which stands in the way. In one place it's so absent I couldn't even see the ledge I was supposed to jump to, it just blends with surrounding walls. Exclusively monochrome, save from the blue crystal tint, constantly flat except from basic dusk of caverns, shadeless scenery will always feel unfamiliar to the brain which will spend time on trying to figure out what is really in front of player's eyes, instead on focusing on the actual game. If you think about it, some of original Core locations were made of few shaded textures but invoke nothing to complain about, but here even with multiple nicely arranged textures, I got tired because they were unshaded. Many of our builders seem not to realize how serious it is - and it's even hard to downrate JUST the lighting because it affects the entire game all the time. It could be why I didn't remember much from this game. Can't be much of anything else cause after replaying it I found no other problems except from weird savepoint locations. For instance such crystal was the last thing I found in the village - it would be better to place at least two of them on opposing edges of it, so no matter what direction is taken the player doesn't risk a long replay - in my case, 17 minutes. Identical thing happens in the dinosaur valley - if one progresses through it bit by bit the crystal will come really late and in the meantime various things can happen. I don't only mean player things when a player can fail but what if there's a blackout or if the game crashes from the broken screenshot key. You just need to allow a player some comfy headroom for such occasions. SUMMARY: A lot of nostalgic nostalgia, but it's hard not to feel sorry for that project. It could have been so much better if it only was - yes - finished, because it actually isn't. I hope the authors will find some time in the future to return to this project, cause I'm not even supposed to shade it - they should." - DJ Full

"While it is quite admirable to see Teeth and PH attempt to mix elements from both Core's canned TR1 remake(which would have intended to be designed more in-line, with how Capcom remade the original Resident Evil on the Nintendo GameCube back in 2002) and Crystal's released attempt in the form of TR Anniversary(which was designed as a more dumbed-down, Americanized interpretation), into the original TR1 design philosophy, I have to say the final presentation feels very messy and rushed(coming off more like a Frankenstein's monster if nothing else.) Level design generally looks very empty and boxy, objects and character/enemy models are inconsistent in quality(with a standout example being Lara against Larson and Natla in the opening cutscene), textures are repeated constantly in the worst ways and the new moves in Lara's repertoire, don't really add that many benefits to the general gameplay, with some like the wall-run coming off more as a hindrance. So in conclusion, more ambitious in comparison to your average remake of TR1. But unfortunately in retrospect, it's abundantly clear that the builders forced this one out the door, before it was completely finished. Like, why is Lara voiced by a different actress here(which is Greenkey2, in admittedly one of her more weaker performances as the character.) But not Larson or Natla(which use ripped audio from TR1, instead of being voiced by different people too?). Missed opportunities like these are a constant throughout the entire levelset and it really serves to hurt the overall experience in the long run. Truly a shame that we'll never get to see Greece, Egypt and Atlantis expanded under these two talented builders. But perhaps this may serve as a blueprint for future designers looking to remake TR1 in future, in terms of what you should and shouldn't do, to re-imagine a classic game for a new generation." - Ceamonks890

"I think this remake is quite good and I enjoyed it a lot. The graphics respects the environment and are nice (except maybe at the 1st level when textures are less beautiful in the background) The level correctly reminds us of the first Tomb Raider game with some features form Tomb Raider Anniversary. A lot of new moves which I guess were not necessary but it adds some more gameplay so why not, but some where just abusive (like the jump when you sprint ; You jump way too far, or when you jump from a corner ; Lara jumps too high and she cant grab the same corner and will jump fall) But except those things, the level is generaly good and it can be recommanded to any Tomb Raider fan that wants to rediscover a 19 years old game with an advanced engine than the original one." - Hedteur

"This seems to be an attempt to combine Tomb Raider 1 and Anniversary and fix/add together the content of both. At least based on this first part (and I'm not sure if it's still in production) the execution here is a bit all over the place. There's decent architecture and detail here, but it's REALLY dragged down by the lighting. At the times with badly-lit objects and overdone ambient lighting I almost thought the lighting looked worse than TR1; while that is using a very limited engine it also makes use of shadows and colourful textures to convey it's art and is also consistent, whereas this mostly takes the pretty drab Anniversary textures and then bathes them in white light that does them no favours at all, and when other texture sets are used their vibrant colour sticks out oddly in comparison (especially in Tomb of Qualopec). On the bright side I really like certain areas, such as the first area of Vilcabamba (which does a great job combining TR1's more complex layout with Anniversaries feeling of being an actual village and scale), and there are some cool object uses too, such as some bushes that sway.
The gameplay takes a combination of TR1 and Anniversaries areas along with a couple of new ones, then combines them with several new moves that change things up quite a bit. There's also an optional save-crystal system as a reference to the Playstation version, which I used and wasn't too bothered by (as, while quite a bit more difficult than the original game it's not especially hard), on the other hand I could have done without the tune when you use one, which cuts out whatever music is playing. The new moves were okay, but they feel a bit odd and clunky at times, especially when running into a wall always results in Lara running up it (and frequently leads to visual bugs in confined areas). The worst is the animation when Lara gets out of water; it takes control out of your hands and also leads to ridiculous situations like getting chomped by a T-Rex while Lara is doing her Baywatch reboot audition. As far as level design goes I thought it actually did a good job with the mix, and is only brought down by the visual issues and some of the oddities the new moves causes, although I did apparently get pushed into a wall by enemies at one point (this may have been a one-off though, and I only saved a few seconds back). The exe also seems to crash when you go back to the title, although this wasn't much of a problem for me as I only died a couple of times. This is a decent enough remake attempt, but be ready for some major clunkiness and inconsistent visuals." - Mman

"This levelset seems to literally have divided the reviewers, as the review range from 5 to 10 shows, but even if this is not quite a perfect level, in my opinion the incredible amount of work that has been put in the objects, animations, cutscenes have to be done justice - the "10" in the EOS category is pretty much deserved especially due to the fact the builders succeeded at creating believable non-blocky landscapes using rounded squares and this worked pretty well. The gameplay seems to be centered a bit too much around the new kind of moves but as the Croft Manor level included a well made tutorial on how to use them, and so it was plain and unpretentious fun to use them even that often. The Anniversary theme is pretty well transformed into the world of TR 4 as it seems the builders didn't had any limitations while building and everything seemed to be possible. The atmosphere is pretty well done in every level with the mentioned architecture, brilliant camera and sound work, but there are a few things that I didn't like so much - the wrongly applied horizon in the manor level; the start of the Peruvian Mountains level; the last cutscene where Larson spoke way too unclear; some end-of-the-world moments. The texturing was good throughout with here and there a couple of mistakes and partly bland lighting but all in all I found the visuals to be convincing enough to not disturb the great technical achievements in this level, but not overly great to be one of the highlights of the game themselves. Found all 17 secrets in the 1:45 hours I spent in this levelset but at the end only 13 showed up in my list - due to the fact Croft Manor with its three secrets wasn't connected to the other levels and the ultimate secret didn't register at all - is this an allusion on TR 1?" - manarch2

"Having not played TRA , I don't know is this a total remake , or if the authors have added their own ideas in this game which globally resembles TR1. So I will judge the gameplay from a TR1 perspective. The first 2 levels did nothing to stimulate me , but the last 2 I enjoyed , with the added gameplay in the lost Valley -these extra actions are quite fun at times with the new moves- the only thing that is a bit regrettable is that -if you don't choose the most optimized course- you 'll have to redo some long parts of the level, also the shotgun should be more visible. As for the Tomb of Qualopec, it was good to not have always the same things than in TR1. This could have been a good remake and a pleasant game, given the new objects , the high-res textures , and the well made cutscenes , if it was not for the things that let it down quite a bit. I will not speak of the strange animations as I don't really mind that , but the looks are sometimes below average with places with no lighting at all , many cracks in the texturing , and objects disappearing of sight or not lighted as they should. And by all means , the new moves should have been explained by the authors , and I should have been able to exit the game properly when it ended instead of using the Tasks control panel of my PC to stop it. The authors certainly have talent, if only they had shown consistent care for every thing and every room they have shown in some places. Still recommanded for some unique things." - eRIC

"TR Anniversary Retold is like the Core TR Anniversary that was never released. I have to say, this anniversary is better than Crystal's TR Anniversary. I played this three times, so far, and I am wondering if the second one is going to come out. I've played the prequel one, but I want the next one. I hope that PH and Teeth release the next one. I've seen the footage of the Greece in a trailer. EXCELLENT PLAY! -L" - TombRaiderFan

"I spent the better part of two weeks playing this in bits and snatches, and when it was all over I had nearly three hours of net gaming time and a thoroughly enjoyable raiding experience. I'm amazed that this five-part compilation is not rated higher than it is, because it's a marvelous adaptation of the early TR1 levels. The only thing that put me off was Lara's mermaid-style swimming animation, but that was a minor distraction. No, there was one more thing. Every time I ran into a wall Lara would attempt to climb it, sometimes with unfortunate results. Jose has provided an excellent walkthrough that points out the new moves that Lara has to use in order to progress. A later segment was released - a prequel that I've not yet played - but I'm disappointed that a follow-up with the subsequent TR1 levels has not yet appeared. The lighting here is superb, and I could see everything around me with no difficulty. The only advanced weapon you get is the shotgun, but that's more than enough to handle the enemies you meet along the way. There are also plenty of shells and medipacks to pick up as you progress. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a release as much as I enjoyed this one. High recommendations." - Phil

"The fact that tomb raider anniversary is my favorite official tomb raider game means it was almost guaranteed that I was going to love this game. The graphics were amazing! I loved every second of this game + peruvian levels are among my favorite :D. I can't believe the score for this game is so low! Some things like the swiming annimations or the sprint jump (Lara can already jump inhuman lengths without it), I thought were a bad idea. But other things such as the way to kill the T-rex or the poll you have to stick in the wall were pretty good! All in all I loved this game and can't wait for more TR Anniversary retold:D!!!" - Bradley

"I had this on my play list for quite some time and finally got around to it. Since I always liked the builder's style and having already played most of PH's levels, I was really looking forward to it, but I did keep my expectations somewhat low after reading some of the rather mediocre reviews and the rather low rating. Well, I have to say I really was positively surprised and enjoyed this level-set a lot, but there were a few things that did bother me. I had to play the hard version because the easy one only gave me a black screen and therefore I was stuck with the predetermined saving points. I do like to save a lot when I play Tomb Raider and this magic crystal saving system was somewhat of a pain. The other thing I didn't like were some of the moves, especially the running up the wall move and climbing the horizontal swing pole move. OK - now to the positive things: I didn't mind this being a remake of a remake at all and revisiting all the original and not so original places was a nice treat. Generally the game play was fairly easy, after I got used to the new moves. Everything was straightforward and familiar looking and I only checked with the walkthrough to see if I missed any secrets. The atmosphere was great, just like the original and it felt very nostalgic entering the Lost Valley again, hearing the footsteps of the raptors as they approached. The T-Rex fell after one or two shotgun blasts and therefore I never go to use the spike trap for it. The flybys were beautifully done and I really liked the cut scenes in between, although the just played in a tiny little square in the corner of my screen. The Tomb of Qualopec was quite a pleasant surprise with all the bright colors. In general I found the looks and lighting excellent throughout the whole game and I thought it had a very professional and modern look to it. No matter if you have played TRA or not, I think this is a great set of levels and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. I also feel the game is quite underrated when looking at the current rating and I sure hope part 2 is going to be built at one point. (2h 30mins, 10/17 secrets found)." - Blue43

"Despite the most of the other comments here, I will try to proof that this game is unique in its kind. It presents one of the best Remakes yet and at the same time its special on its own way. I like the fact that the authors had the courage to try new things, although not always very successful. I played the Hard version and had no bugs and I liked a lot the savegame crystals. The new animations were also a nice addition and mostly fitted (except the hair drying animation apparently which could be fixed with a bit of work in the animation editor) I personally prefer to have some fresh and new features (even if they might be not perfect) than to play a custom level in the very classic raiding routine. Level:1 Croft Manor I noticed 2 bugs in this level: ¤ The crate before the Croft Manor could be pushed to the maze and so you could jump over there and arrive areas which shouldnt be accesible ¤The Bike wasnt fitting to me as you could go into static objects with it and therefore you could break inside the Manor. The level was very relaxing and I liked to be inside the Manor because of the many new moves you could try out. The music was also fitting. One minor thing I didnt like was Winstons face. Level:2 Peruvian Mountains A little part of the game where you need to open the entrance to the caves. The large jump was hard to figure out for me but I did it in the last. I like the fact that this was included as a level and not a FMV. Another positive aspect is the short cutscene. Its based on the Anniversary one but is remade very well in trle. The atmosphere was also very good and not that blocky. Level:3 The Caves At the start I didnt like the appearance of this level at all. Large empty and blocky rooms where you have nothing to do than to cross over them. But later it went more interesting. I liked the paths to find the Secrets.They were very unique. Also the room with the sunken ship was awesome as it was something which is based on TRAE. I liked alot the last rooms where you have to open the gates by avoiding the boulders and crossing the rooms sides while killing several wolves. I found it very difficult to figure out the polerope jumps and the upside jump at the jumpswitch though. The lighting wasnt very good in most areas considering that you were in a cave which should be way darker. The use of Meta2TR has been in some cases where the rooms were already filled with detail and objects and in other cases where rooms were empty and blocky it has been left out. Level 4: City of Vilcabamba That was my second favourite level. Everything was in its own place and the little village was very beautiful and well built, including some good aspects of both TR1 and TRA. The lighting could be with more contrast and reflexes though,but still its better than in The Caves. The highlight of the level was for sure the Spider Pit. It scared me to death when I wanted to pick up the Golden Idol and the BAM a giant spider catches Lara into the pit. Very awesome and special part of the level. Level 5: The Lost Valley Like in the Caves,this level seemed to me very boring at the start, considering that it was like TR1 and with not many new aspects. Especially the big and high cave was very empty and blocky. The ceiling and walls were mostly flat. Why dont use Meta2TR there,especially because Lara couldnt arrive these places? But after I crossed the caves inside and arrived outside, my mouth fell open. The Valley was filled with plants and other beautiful details that I stopped every few steps and pressed the look key to explore the area. It was one of the most impressive areas I ever saw in custom levels! While being there I forgot at all that I needed to find 3 Cogs but climbed all around over the rocks to have a better overview on the Valley. Another plus point is the little area with these stone columns where Pteorodactyls are attacking you. Its a little area, but enough to show that the level is unique in its self I found it interesting that you need to trap the TREX into the spikes, so you needed to be carefully, whenever you went outside by avoiding the TREX. All in all I just loved this level. Level 6: The Tomb of Qualopec A very well made and constantly good level. It had very awesome parts like the big room where you decide which way to choose. I liked also the room under the collapsing tiles where wolves suddenly attacks you. It was nicely done. One thing I didnt appreciate was the long pushing and pulling of the high crates to the right places though. Like in The Caves,this level lacks of realistic dark lighting in many places and that strong orange color is getting boring when you stay long in one of these areas. Last but not least, defeating Larson was way too easy. After defeating the TREX I awaited an epically boss battle.But hey, it was still nice to shoot some bullets at this rowdy. All in all, despite what all other say, this game is a masterpiece to me and it deserves a place in my TRLE memories." - Laras Boyfriend

"I was put off playing this level on its release by the negative comments like 'its a remake of a remake'. And on the face it that does seem rather pointless. But then, on a wave of nostalgia, I downloaded it. To my surprise I found it to be fresh, original and great fun. In fact I enjoyed it more than TRA on my Xbox. It has a more authentic TR ambience. I liked the look of it, the new moves, the gameplay, everything. I didn't want it to end. And I became excited by the propect of playing Part 2. A big thanks to the builders." - Tim

"I will be brief and give a rating out of 10 for each level in Tomb Raider Anniversary Retold. Croft Manor 4/10 Not too much going on here, your average manor from the original Tomb Raider 1 with new textures, some new rooms and new objects such as the motorbike, the other thing to include is that there is mix of TRA and Tomb Raider Xtra textures. Improvements The only thing I can think of improving is the lack of textures used in some parts of the level as the same texture is used quite a lot such as the outside garden, which gives the game a plain, unattractive feel. Mountain Caves 6/10 I liked the fact already at the start of the level you must work yourself to get the doors open instead of watching a simple FMV. The level is a cross between TR1, TRA and TRAE which gives the level it's own unique atmosphere, a few puzzles and new areas have been introduced aswell as the mix of TRA and Tomb Raider Xtra textures again. Improvements The thing I dislike most about this level is the fact of how the beginning of the outside part of the level looks as though it was poorly rushed, I would recommend a complete change in textures and horizon for the outside part of the level. City Of Vilcabamba 8/10 This level I think was kept more like the original TR1 than any other level in the game and I enjoyed the raid quite a lot, a few new areas involved and the little quest to find the two Golden Idol's was a nice change, the only other thing to mention is that again TRA and Tomb Raider Xtra textures were use in the level. Improvements The only thing I can see that could be improved is how much the TRA textures clash with the Tomb Raider Xtra ones as one moment you feel like your in a ruined city, the next it feels like the city has been cleaned and washed over, so i would say to change the textures, if anything to John Capon's ones as it would fit with the rest of the level. The Lost Valley 7/10 This level was based to TRA more tha anything and it worked quite well, your average 3 cog puzzle from the original is here aswell as your T-Rex friend who is immortal for some reason (Natla must have something to do with it) also a lot of changed throughout the level, again TRA and Tomb raider Xtra textures were used in areas. Improvements From what I said about Croft Manor, throughout the level the same texture is used which makes the level plain and boring, the architecture in the levels can also be worked on to give the level a more "Cave" feel to it. Tomb Of Qualopec The level which works you up to getting your prize, the Scion Of Qualopec. The level is a cross of TR1 and TRA, the three trial rooms have been worked on and expanded, introducing new traps along the way, other than that the only other thing here is again TRA and Tomb Raider Xtra Textures have been used. Improvements The start area on the level feel's spaced out and blank through the lack of textures and work made on the architecture, if the main rooms are made a little smaller and worked on more, this level would be perfect, just keep it in mind for the full release. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I am waiting for Part 2 of Tomb Raider Anniversary Retold to be released as the Greece levels are my favourite in TR1 & TRA. Good work." - TombRaiderTim

"The level was fantastic! I enjoyed every level. I can't wait until the full part 2 comes out. The Lost Valley was my favourite level. The Tomb of Qualopec was also a nice level. The enhanced textures were nice. It's cool that the authors put in rooms and puzzles from both TR1 and TRA. It has a nice TR1 environment. I liked to shoot all the raptors in the last 2 levels. I think that Larson should have had more hitpoints. He was down in 10 - 15 seconds, unlike the TR1 where you had to shoot Larson for about 2 - 5 minutes. It was a nice levelpack! Thanks :)" - Dempsey

"Well, I have to say that I enjoyed this series much more than I expected. I chose the 'easy' version which allowed me to save as usual and I did not run into any bugs or crashes, except for an occasional one when on exiting a level it would crash and not come back to the title screen.
Croft Manor (15 min, 3 secrets): Looks great and is quite useful here to practice the various new moves that you will need throughout the game.
Peruvian Mountains (5 min, 1 secret): Just a quick climb to open the main doors. I am not sure about the FMV addition, as the low resolution really spoils the effect big time and given we all know the story anyway it may have been better to just exclude them entirely.
Caves (20 min, 3 secrets): Not such a strong actual start into the adventure as the rooms all seem too big, too square, too empty, despite the use of some cool 'round' objects. I thought the picking up and use of the pole was a nice addition.
City of Vilcabamba (20 min, 3 secrets): It is all too well known to be still interesting and the next gen looks did not change that feeling much her, but the big spider that drags Lara in is still one of the coolest death animations out there.
Lost Valley (45 min, 4 secrets): I think if Teeth and PH had cut a little lower on the hype and then only released this part as a single level, they would have had much more raving reviews and scores. This part is very well done, fun to play and looks really good. The new moves are leveraged nicely, the T Rex is always fun and introduced really well with a quick animated scene. The hunt for the three cogs was great and the secrets are fun too. Everybody should play the set for this part alone.
Tomb of Qualopec (30 min, 2 secrets): The second secret did not register here and I probably missed a third. Again we have just played Qualopec one too many times, so gameplay is not really fun anymore, but I did like the strong orange colours in this one.
At the end you are treated to some more cut scenes/FMVs and credits as Lara runs into Larson and the first part ends. As said above, a little less ambition to do it all and a little more focus on what the builders can do really well and the patience to refine this to the best it could be before releasing it would go a long way here. I would rather play something fresh and new from these talented builders than playing through continued versions of remakes, but this set was entertaining nonetheless." - MichaelP

"Well first I have to say that this is a very incomplete levelset. I think remaking Tomb Raider 1 is a huge project (even though this is a remake of Anniversary, so its a remake of a remake?) and it really isn't anything that great and it has a lot of problems. I am going to speak about Croft Manor first. If I rated Croft Manor separately, I would give it 7,8,8,8. Croft Manor is gorgeous and so big and luxurious in this levelset and I love it! But other levels aren't as great. This has been said in practically every review, and I just have to say it here as well, what is up with that horizon!?! I did like that pretty outside area in front of the caves, it was built well but the horizon ruined it! X_X I gave gameplay and puzzles a 6 because even though it was a remake (which I would give 5) it had some new elements like the spider and lots of little new rooms and additions. I would have given it a 7 but the save crystal system was the WORST choice Teeth and PH could have ever made! =( It was so annoying and at times you had to repeat up to 15 mins of work just because the crystals are placed very far apart in later levels. Enemies/objects/secrets I gave a 6 because enemies were well placed, and secrets weren't too hard to find but some objects imo looked horrible and they had stretched textures. (the biggest issue) I do like the meshes, and the moving plants in the valley were amazing but other objects are just like one long 16 click high face with one tiny wood texture stretched along it and it doesn't look too great! Also what was up with that weird new move Lara had when you jump on a small platform and she boosts up like its a trampoline or something? o_O Atmosphere sound and cameras I gave a 5 to because the atmosphere was very poor, the atmosphere alone I would give a 3 to because the areas were so gray and bland and not realistic at all. However cameras were used quite well as was sound. Finally... lighting and textures! The looks of this levelset are by far the weakest point. I thought texturing was very sloppy, it was clear the texture ceiling, floor, and walls buttons were used more than once in the Peru levels. The lighting was so bland and boring, and the textures were squished, stretched, or just applied wrong! The same rock texture covers an entire mountain!? OMG! Meta2TR was also used and I think it was a bad decision, because it didn't make anything look more realistic considering the rooms were lit poorly so the Meta2TR is just the icing on a bad cake, and it made these weird cracks and stuff everywhere. ...and I forgot to mention, many objects were not lit properly or not lit at all. So you enter a large, dark area, with objects which are so bright!!! Like overall, it's a good levelset and you will enjoy it. But it's let down by many bugs, glitches, and lots of other things! And finally, a note to the builders. Next time, just skip the FMV's all together considering they added about 200MB to the download and they are bad quality and in the corner of the screen. Focus more on the looks and gameplay of the level rather than fancy FMV's and fonts and Meta2TR'ing." - Victoria

"For a long time I was expecting that my first review would be something really simple, not much to debate over on my head. However this part one of Anniversary Retold was more mixed than I thought at first. I have to say that in some parts I'm even somewhat disapointed. There were great areas well planed and worked out while there were others that the game could have passed well without. Most of these are in 'Caves' and the 'Lost Valley', from which I expected much more. The saving system was something really interesting in most areas, while in others (such as the waterfall in 'Lost Valley') it was a complete mess, very frustrating infact. Has for textures I found some wrong positioned ones without even have to hunt for them, that could have been easily corrected. As for the new movements, the backflip while going against a wall turned out to be incredibly frustrating, whenever one just wanted to go against a wall an stop to climb it. As I said before this is my first level review so I have no idea if these ratings are correct, that's something only time will tell, but I can tell you they are honest. Once again: I expected more from this." - Just Croft

"Although it's another TR1 remake, for me was good. The only defect I found was that the author doesn't explain the new moves in the readme file. Yes, you can learn the moves in the gym, but if you are not an english speaker it can be difficult (it's not the same to hear or to read). Easy and well-known gameplay with some new rooms and puzzles, good animations and cutscenes, I liked the musics too, a new engine with some new kind of of movements, nice environment with a good architecture, well ornated rooms with a lot of new objects... the best I liked were the atmosphere and the textures, although the sky in the first level is not very good. Good work for a debut. We'll see what this builders can get better in the next part. I'll play it." - Jose

"TRI is the first game i played among Tomb Raider games. I was fond of that atmosphere, that is why any remake is calling in me that sense. It's like to step into the same water twice. Playing TRA.Retold I immersed in that world again: locations, textures and music - all of this I liked. It's not so realistic as TRA, but realism is not what I want to see in the virtual world. Anyway, The city of Vilcabamba, for example, exist on the top of mountain, but not in the caves. TRA.Retold contains combination of locations from TRI and TRA and they are sometimes as large as in the TRA and so bright as in the TRI. Some secrets I could find in the places from both original parts. But there are some innovations: on the last way in the Tomb of Qualopec there is small field like in the lost valley with red dinosaurs. I think it was right inclusion. So, atmospheric component of the game turned out brilliant. Also there were some thing which I didn't like: new acrobatics - the strange mix of the TR Revelation and TR Anniversary movements. I'm not against new movements, for example: polling up on the pole is a good innovation, but they shouldn't look abnormal. I didn't like such as wallrun in the TRA and I don't understand run on the wall and turn back in the TRA.Retold. There many bugs in the game also. One of them is in the lost valley in the cave path between waterfall and green valley, where I should jumping front and back, and moving left to jump on the wall (but may be there was one new movement, which a didn't understand?). Anyway this try of remake was very good, I'd like to see continue, and I hope that this project would survive." - Oleg

"Well I don`t really know... Ìn the levelbase forum I commented early on this rather incomplete and not really well worked out issue and found a rather severe response to my comment as everybody seemed to like it thinking this is just a great game ! Finally I do not agree to this point of view . Having in mind to create a top class TRLE custom game is all what we could ever wish for but releasing it in a minor beta tested state does this surely wonderful promising game no good ! Maybe Gerty has put it down a little bit too much but I agree to her ratings : Practice before you preach, dear Teeth & PH." - Ruben

"In this first installment (first 4 levels plus Lara's mansion) we are presented with this group's interpretation of how they'd like to have seen TR1 made. It is in large part a remake of many of the rooms we are well familiar with in the original TR1 with some additional influences drawing from Tomb Raider Anniversary and paying tribute to the unreleased Core Design Anniversary game. There have been a number of TR1 remakes released in the past ranging from single levels to a complete remake of TR1, some of which were very good. If you read and believed the wave of self-promoted hype that accompanied this project you'd have been expecting something pretty special. Sadly this offering does not live up to that hype. Positives are that the game features several new moves for Lara. Some of them are quite well done, others are not so good. I liked the ledge jump up and the wall run/backflip. It does take some practice to get used to them, so you are well advised to give Lara a good workout in her gym in the mansion level before departing on your adventure. On the downside, some of the transition animations and state changes are really poorly animated, which for me resulted in many frustrating deaths for Lara due to unexpected behaviours such as Lara letting go of ladders when she shouldn't. The game's save system utilises Save Crystals - which provides something different, but is probably not a good decision for attracting entrenched PC players who are used to being able to save at will. I certainly fall into that category, and although it provided a more challenging raid, there were a few places where I had to walk away from the game for a while as it became too frustrating. There is a patch released since writing this review for saving anywhere, which should make players happy, however it was unusable for me when I played the game as it conflicted with a bad bug in the exe that caused all textures to turn black and white. Most of the gameplay will be familiar in one form or another if you've played the original games, but there are some interesting paths to explore via combinations of wall run flips, swing pole and ledge jumps. Pleasantly, I didn't think there were any 'cheap shots' in the form of unmarked traps. Enemies were good looking but didn't provide much combat challenge, however I never felt they were over-done. I thought the T-rex kill was a good approach as was the Big Spider trap. The audio choices made were good and suited the game. I'll not go into details of individual level gameplay as there are some tried and trusted routes to follow. As a bonus you get FMV footage from TR1 and TRA spun in at suitable junctures and recreations of the original game cutscenes with new skins for the characters. However, the flyby at the the start of the manor level was very poorly executed. Meta2TR has been used to add more curvature to wall and ground surfaces. The use of this feature was a good attempt, but it also led to missed and more below-par texturing. Unfortunately much of the games good features are let down by poor texture application and bland lighting. Even with the support of some high quality textures and some excellent 3D plant objects the game just doesn't look polished. As a result the atmosphere is somewhat lacking throughout the game. In spite of this and a bunch of faults that become too numerous to ignore, like odd sound sample choices, incorrect scripts, crashes to desktop, an awkwardly ugly 3D horizon, Lara's swim-like-a-seal animation, pistols that sounded like clashing cymbals and a surprise of finding Larson walking on the bottom of the pool when Lara returned from Qualopec's tomb, the game is a reasonable offering. If you are not bored by some of the predictability of playing TR1 over one more time and can endure the challenge of the Save Crystal system then give it a go. Possibly the game's worst enemy is the massively over-hyped status that it has generated due to the goings on in the game's forum thread. If you hype your release as being the greatest thing since sliced bread, and it falls short of reaching that goal, all you are going to do is disappoint people. I think that's pretty much what has happened here. So if there are lessons to be learned by the authors from this preliminary release, it is don't believe your own hype, spend a lot of time studying how the texturing and lighting is done in some really high quality custom levels to create great atmosphere, spend more time thoroughly testing Lara's animations, and don't be pushed into premature game release without some rigorous game testing and critique from some experienced players." - EssGee

"In the entire history of cool new moves for Lara I think the way she now smooths her hair back when getting out of water will have to share first place with the handstand in the 'useless but fun' category. There are indeed some new moves to practise and I highly recommend a workout in the gym before setting off on the adventure, because the pole swings in particular can take a bit of mastering and don't always work very well. There are also some equally clever and unusual animations going on. Despite my usual reservations about remakes, I found I quite enjoyed this game and I shall certainly be playing the next part when it comes out. It's hard to find a great deal to say about it though, as we've all been to Vilcabamba and the Lost Valley so many times before. Nice try guys, but how about something completely new next time, hmm?" - Jay

"Big thumbs up Teeth and *PH*! Didn't want it to end. The graphics may not be QUITE on the same level as a Titak, Stranger1992 or Cowboy set but the design, difficulty and new rooms/moves/puzzles/objects more than made up for any shortcomings in that department. I lose interest and don't end up finishing most created levels, but this one kept my attention the whole way. Not only did you include the trap door spider and save crystals from TRAE, but even the T-Rex trap as well. Icing on the cake! One note for people on the fence downloading this: DON'T HESITATE! This may be as close we'll get to playing Core's TRAE. Also, be sure to go to Lara's Home first to learn all the new moves. It will make the other levels much more enjoyable. This way you'll have no reason to complain about running up the wall when trying to vault up on a object. Be sure to press action just before you reach it (just like the other games) and you'll be fine. Very classy to include the "In Loving Memory of Core Design" message at the end by the way. I CANNOT wait for Part Two!" - yesrushdt

"Let's start with the fundamental problem here, it is a remake OF a remake. You can't get any more repetitive than that. TR1 wasn't my favourite game, nor was Anniversary so playing through Peru yet another time was tiresome. Having said that, I quite enjoyed this, but I believe it was entirely down to the new moves and the very few original sections. I had a lot of fun with the new moves and actually really liked the wall run. It opened up huge new possibilities in gameplay but its potential was only partially realised. I'm just begging for a new adventure with completely original sections, not another remake. This would have been so much better being a separate game on its own, not a rehash of all old areas. Caves was my favourite part of this actually, as it seemed to contain the highest proportion of new areas. But as I already said, it was not the gameplay that impressed me the most as it was all "been there, done that". The team here really had a chance to excel in the custom level world as they used the great tool 'Meta2tr' which enables environments to become much less blocky and well rounded. But it was barely used. When it was used it looked so out of place. Let's take one example in the caves level. There is a room early on which is completely a box shape with no geometry apart from a perfectly rectangular block in the middle to climb on. Then a face has been made in the wall which I really liked. But compared to the rest of the room it stands out like a sore thumb and looks odd. In some places it was used magnificently however. A crawlspace was padded out a bit so it looked really realistic compared to the usual rectangular hole. But, coming back to the previous problem, it was connected to a room which was boxy and plain. This leads me onto the lighting and texturing which has already been mentioned in other reviews. It's okay, but not great. The textures didn't really bother me (apart from on THAT horizon), it was the lighting. Most rooms seemed to use only a sun bulb which is okay but bland. There wasn't much contrast which is what makes a level look good. Though I felt the texturing improved during the game. Animations now and I have mixed feelings. Overall I liked them because it added something new and the new moves were loads of fun. I overlooked the bugs of some of them as I was just enjoying using them, but one I didn't like. She sometimes just jumps back off a ledge and dies when you try to look around when hanging on, and if you jump upwards from a ledge to see if you can grab something, she'll drop down and die if you don't. This combined with the awful save system, get rid of the save crystals PLEASE, means that you often have to redo the whole bit again. Not fun. It's adding cheap challenge. The swimming animation was funny and much worse than the original and performing a running jump has suddenly become more complicated than it used to be. There was a distinct lack of proper beta testing, or if there was it wasn't adhered to. Little instant bits that could be fixed weren't, such as there were no texture sounds in the caves level, and in the Larson fight there was the underwater door sound when he shoots. I believe if the niggling problems are sorted out for the next release, it will be much more successful." - TrueRaider

"Well, I wrote a review for this level on TRF.com so I am going to keep this one short... There was A LOT of room for improvement. There were some things the builders decided to include which SHOULD NOT have been included (animations which are unnecessary, unnecessary object retexturing...) An example of the not needed animations are when she grabs her hair after coming out of water. When this happened a raptor attacked me and I fell back into the water and I lost a LOT of health. Also the builders retextured the 3d horizon which look horrendous! I wanted to jump off the mountain after seeing that O: The lighting and texturing is very weak and there is very little atmosphere in the levels. The enemies and objects however are nicely placed. Gameplay is basically a combo of TR1/A/and cores anniversary edition. It's worth a try, and if you ignore the texturing and lighting in a lot of the areas. I was disappointed since I was expecting something a lot better." - God Horus

"I thought this was a pretty damn good attempt at the two seperate games (Core and Crystal), but I think it is definatly lacking polish and completness. It is a little buggy, but its a great little game here. Unfortunatly the FMV's didn't work for me, it was just a black screen, but the game was pretty damn good. There were some good parts like all the puzzles, and overall game was very fun, and very refreshing. I really liked how different it was from the Crystal game, it was much more unique, and it really felt real. But, it felt like Angel of Darkness with the bugs with the overall game. I think there was an overuse of animations, but its still a great game. I'll list some pros and cons here: Pros- -Very nice gameplay. -Extremely good effort on the game. -Some good textures. -Very challenging with new moves. Cons- -Very buggy. -Has slowdown (for me). -A little rushed. -The save system isn't really all to great. Overall, a very good game worth checking out, definatly." - Vaughnage

"I really enjoyed the gameplay... or at least the idea of it. Jumping onto the poles was a nightmare when it didn't have to be: if they don't work, *fix* them or take them out. I don't know why this issue wasn't addressed. The pickups, puzzles and enemies were fabulous, but hindered severely by quirky/buggy controls (but I loved the level design enough to give it a 7). The atmosphere could have been good, but all of the bugs (clipping, Lara always running up things, and too many random things to name here) were the attention of about 50% of my time. I'm a newbie, so I could be wrong, but a BETA release as levelset one isn't exactly what TRLE.net is for. There should have been several bug-fixes that are not so much as noted in a readme. I hope that by the time the final release comes around, these problems will be fixed. But I enjoyed the sound and music (which was a nice combination of the original and TRA's music). Most of the camera angles were fine (I didn't encounter anything I haven't already had to deal with in a Tomb Raider game before). I understand what the critics were talking about when they complained about the lighting and textures. I'm a newbie, and I will notice wall-paper texturing. That doesn't bother me nearly as much as the awkwardly stretched textures that you see from time to time. I have no issue with the lighting. It would be extremely nice to have more of a variety, but I can't say that I care that the variety isn't there. Overall, it's worth a play, but I sincerely hope we something twice as good come the final release. If nothing else, a boatload of bug-fixes would be good." - awsumpossum

"A remake is a remake and stays a remake, no matter how much work is put into it. The original TRA was a remake and even if the graphics were terrific, it still was a remake. That said this isn't a bad one, although riddled with bugs so gameplay isn't as smooth as it should. A pity though after all the hype that went on, way before this level came up for downloads. There are nice new moves and animations, handy however is, that apart from a house level to practice, that it should be written down in the readme so you could have a peek every now and then. Also I found some of them utterly useless. Like the stretch that Lara does when coming out of the water, the swimming is hilarious and what is that all about the way she holds her arms when running with her trusted guns? The swing-pole is very, very buggy and when I see how much time Titak spend on her new moves in her upcoming new level I wonder if these boys ever consider it to implement the time and effort that it takes to get it working properly. There were ransom crashed to the desktop when dying, as well as with the reloading. Lucky me, the F5 key worked at my end. Why keep the saved crystals? Most people don't like them and seeing in this game they are either not there when you need them or way far apart. Who needs to play a part over and over again? People, who want to, can do the same with saved games and let the rest of us not being annoyed by those crystals. For the rest, there were not enough flares. Paying a bit more attention on the textures as some were just plain NOT right and were right in Lara's face. Also very irritating was that you cannot see what Lara picks up. Another irritating part that I got stuck too many times in an object and couldn't get out. I also disappeared behind a wall of some kind near a cogwheel pick up and had to reload. Now we wait if these builders indeed will fix the bugs. It will be also interesting to know what the builders made themselves and what they used from different sources. And my final word is: When do people learn that new is not always better?" - Gerty

"While I have heard talks recently about uploading a version with the ability to save anywhere rather than via the use of save-crystals, the latter version is the one that I have played, and therefore the one that I will be reviewing. After an opening FMV that just can't seem to decide just which graphical style to stick to, we begin the game and are immediately thrown into a flyby of the Peruvian landscape, replete with masses of wallpapered texturing and a dizzying horizon. The visual aspect of this level has a lot to be desired, and the trend continues throughout most of the entire game, with texturing and lighting ranging from"acceptable" to"terrible" in equal measures. The atmosphere is also of a rather low quality due to the above issues, and the occasional cracks in the environment that stemmed from Meta2TR-ing just beat it down that little bit more. Another thing that strikes me almost instantly is just how buggy the game feels, and the amount of animation-altering that has taken place has obviously done something horribly wrong to Lara's jumping abilities. Gone are the simple running-jump mechanics of the olden days, and in its place is a version of Lara that just doesn't quite run the length of a full block before taking off, meaning that almost pixel-perfect timing is needed throughout if you aim to grab a far-away ledge. Aside from the jumping issues, the other new animations often cause troubles as well. Lara decides to run up walls every time she bumps into one, pose for a second every time she gets out of water - leaving any nearby enemies to happily take a chunk out of her, as well as a couple of other annoying problems here and there. However, it is disappointing that these problems exist, because the gameplay throughout is mostly quite solid and enjoyable, with a variety of interesting new acrobatic abilities available adding new ways to traverse the environments - it's just a shame about the odd few problems that cause more annoyance than enjoyment. The objects used in the levels are also generally well placed (and in the case of the new custom objects, nicely created), though the frequently bad lighting on many objects throughout lets the side down a bit. Secrets are also hidden in generally the same places as in either TR1 or TRA, but a number of new locations do add some variety. Audio placement is well thought out, with the usual TR1 and TRA themes taking most of the spotlight. Camerawork was also mostly well done, and while it would have been nice to have another camera or two here or there, I mostly got by with minimal problems. Overall, this is a good attempt at a remake, with a number of interesting cutscenes dotted about to keep things more interesting than the average remake project. However, the overall poor visual aspects of the levelset, coupled with the unfinished and buggy feeling are what prevent this from - in my eyes - becoming something more memorable." - Spike

"Being one of the remake members, you might expect a certain bias from me. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. First off, the Lara's Home level was quite good. However, some of the TRUB Remake audio was reused, meaning you could tell the difference (mainly is GreenKey's vocal tone, and the fuzz over the TRUB tracks). The mansion was beautiful but there were glitches, including the ability to go outside the mansion, something that reminds me of TR2. Lara's moves are also questionable. Lara grabs the pole sometimes, a small way below or above the pole, giving the illusion of hanging in midair. Some levels (including TRSearch) have it perfect, perhaps the team can use this as an example. The FMVs are quite large in file size, but not in resolution - both 640x480 and 1280x960 didn't make them fit. Now onto the main game. The exterior to Caves was AWFUL. THe horizon was something I would not even have expected from a TR1 beta. And the textures were repetitive. It's harsh, but sometimes you have to be. Otherwise, I have no complaints about Caves. I had the pleasure of playing the betas of the City of Vilcambamba through Tomb of Qualopec, and I must say things have improved - including the TRAE way of killing the T-Rex. Larson was good too. All in all a good start, I look forward to seeing the rest (although I won't be reviewing that - I'm building in it :P )" - ggctuk