Total Conversion:
Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider Anniversary

The first half of the FMV that originally shows Lara getting into the Peruvian ruin is made playable in the remake. It serves as a brief tutorial for those who skipped the Croft Mansion, introducing all the climbing mechanics. Ironically, Lara would climb the giant portal with a grappling hook which wasn't actually in the original game, but gets frequent use in the remake.

As soon as the doors are opened and the wolves attack, though, it's back to self-running cutscenes. Despite a much older-looking mountain guide, the sequence is reproduced almost shot by shot. Until the actual fight, where Lara used to just stand there and shoot at the incoming beasts, but she's changed to pull off all kinds of acrobatic stunts to outmaneuver them.

A few screenshots from the first couple rooms show how the basic level structure is retained. However, almost every room has some small new element, like the added wooden bridge in the second screenshot, or the metal ring for the hook to grab onto in the fourth.

The room with the wooden bridges and wolves holds the first real surprise for series veterans: It used to be so easy to just stand on the first bridge and shoot down, but now the rotten ropes break, an Lara finds herself facing the wolves in direct combat.

The protruding rocks at the bear's cave are gone, but someone had the courtesy to hang a rope above it for Lara to swing over to the other side. In both games it's necessary to climb down and face the bear to find a secret item, though.

This room is changed completely: In the original, Lara has to throw the switch to the far right, then get up to the stone block with the door as fast as possible. In the remake it's a narrow corridor with the floor broken down, with bars, pillars and ledges leading to the other side. Be prepared to meet many, many variants of this setup throughout the game.

The final door of the first stage. In the original Lara actually approaces it from the balcony to the left, after seeing it teased from a wooden gate that blocks the front corridor. In Anniversary the way is wide open, but instead opening the door is made more complicated: Lara has to get up to hang onto the weights that pull up the huge stone bolts that keep it locked.

When playing Tomb Raider, it's easy to miss that the second level was supposed to be an underground town, with the rooms just built into the mountain structure. In the remake there are a few actual straw roof houses, although he interior remains mostly the same. Once Lara falls into the pond in the middle in Anniversary, she cannot just get back out, but is forced to swim to the other side.

Moving around blocks is now much easier and less stiff, which is represented in the graphics by a much smaller wooden cage. Lara pushing around solid blocks of granite that are bigger than herself was a bit silly even in 1996. The remake also allows dragging it out of the building and use it to get up on the roofs.

The basic structure of the final building is fairly similar, although the classic Prince of Persia style falling floor plates are gone. Gone is also most of the center room, which used to contain swinging guillotines, an additional pool and a bear attacking. In the remake it's much simpler, but in turn the door mechanism is once again realized more impressively.