Total Conversion:
Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider Anniversary

In this stage the starting point is very different: The original has Lara entering from a narrow cave above the waterfall, whereas in Anniversary she starts below, facing it from the very beginning. The waterfall cave itself is structured rather similar, with a way leading up to the left, but the remake adds a huge contraption of cogwheels that lead to the other parts of the stage.

The machine Lara has to find three cogwheels for to open the way into the Tomb of Qualopec is still there, but turned into an inoperable wreck, merely providing a spare cogwheel for the machine in the waterfall cave. Lara also can shoot down the bridge leading to it now, to climb down the dangling ropes and find a new secret area.

The Lost Valley probably is an area where the new technology enabled the original authors' intention, as the pitch black cave it used to be didn't really mix with the lush vegetation found here.

The fight against the T-Rex might be the crassest example for the differences in mid-nineties and mid-2000s game design philosophy found in the entire game, even more so than the tank controls and save system. In the ugly, blocky game from 1996, it was just there lurking in the Lost Valley, attacking anyone who dared to intrude to far inside. He could be killed, but absorbed a metric crapton of bullets and was able to devour Lara with a single snap. He was simply a brute force of nature that completely owned the space of the valley, but also could be fooled by luring him close to the caves where he wasn't able to follow inside. In the remake, he is introduced through a sequence of quick time events where he's chasing around a bunch of velociraptors before focusing his attention to Lara. A "proper" boss fight in close quarters ensues, where Lara has to exploit the slow motion dodge & headshot combo against the charging T-Rex to make it run into conveniently placed spiked obstacles. The beast is then finished off within another quick time event.

In the original, it's also possible to just avoid the beast using the caves as cover, whereas its death is required to carry on in the remake - it falls head first into the temple building like an idiot, crashing the wall and opening a path inside.

The system of caves around the valley is very different in each version, aside from some rare common setpieces like the above torn-down bridge. Anniversary also only allows entering the caves from the temple roof, after defeating the T-Rex. It's also entirely optional, contrary to the original game, where most of the necessary cogwheels were hidden here.

The Indiana Jones inspired rock chase is much cooler in the remake, mainly because the boulder crashes down into the already demolished entrance room and tears out another patch of floor, leaving Lara with two movable pillars that are needed to reach the neighboring rooms.

In each game three doors have to be opened by throwing switches, with more velociraptors jumping out from around the corners.

The rooms that hold the switches are once again changed for the most part, with less finding your way around by observing big rooms and more jumping through destroyed corridors. For some reason the remake now decides to take out the swinging guillotine blades that were omitted from stage 2. One interesting difference is the trapped switch in one of the rooms - in the original it was just there to lure players on the falling platform, but in Anniversary the whole floor breaks down once again, and Lara is still required to pull the switch by jumping at and clinging onto it from mid-air.

Qualopec's chamber features an extended cutscene, with some exposition about the Atlantian lord and Lara approaching one of the mummies for a cheap jump scare. After taking the fragment of the Scion, she supposedly has to hurry out of the crumbling tomb, but in both versions the urgency is fake.

On her way out, Lara is approached by Larsson, who is sent by Natla to take the Scion by force. The remake actually gives the reason for this: Since it was the goal of her father's last expedition, Ms. Croft supposedly is obsessed with the artifact and thus not to be trusted. The fights against human enemies are by far the weakest part of the old Tomb Raider - all Lara could do was stand or run around sucking up damage with no means of evasion, firing away at the enemy as fast as possible. The revised version of the fight mostly revolves around hand-to-hand combat and is realized in another quick time action scene.