Total Conversion:
Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider Anniversary

Lara's Totally Rad way to ride up an elevator is mostly intact, only instead of taking a blowtorch to the cables, she simply shoots them off with her handgun. In 1996's Tomb Raider she then proceeded to browse in an ancient book for some Atlantean lore, which has been replaced by her looking up files about the scion and her next adversary Pierre's task in a computer. Some things never change, though: Pierre is still a "Litterbug."

The entrance hall of St. Francis' Folly retains the same basic structure with two columns of large broken pillars enabling Lara to climb between the upper an lower story, although the architecture has gotten much more impressive, and the broken ceiling offers a look at the sky, breaking up the ever claustrophobic feel of the original, where one always feels like being deep underground. The switch on the bottom used to be easily triggered by a large block right next to it, whereas in the remake Ms. Croft first has to find and drop down a huge globe from above. A room full of wild monkeys (which aren't encountered until the next level) is replaced by a number of puzzles involving shooting star formations on a fresco. Pierre appears only in a cutscene, as opposed to the first of many fights that follow in the original game.

Lara then makes her way through a dried-up waterway - or does she simply run down a set of stairs? - to get into the huge vertical hall containing the four trial rooms of Thor, Atlas, Neptune, and Damocles. In the eleven years between, the floor has suffered a lot, and getting to the trials now involves a lot of climbing. Every room is also locked behind some clever double locks, which originally required switches getting pulled from both sides at once, so Lara has to find a new way of cheating the mechanism each time.

Originally, there wasn't much of a technique to avoid the lightning sphere in Thor's room other than running as fast as you could. (At least if there was a trick to it, it didn't work very well in execution.) In Anniversary, certain tiles of the floor get raised and lowered in intervals, determining the safe spots for passage. In the back room awaits a huge hammer that's simply a death trap in the original, but has to be put to well-timed use for some plaforming in the remake, and also serves to break open a block containing one of three statues that now need to be placed and aligned correctly.

Atlas' room was less than impressive the first time around: Just avoid the boulder and get the key. That left much room for improvement: Now the boulder is an enmormous burning globe falling from Atlas' shoulders, and there's a timed mechanism drawing a bridge to make things harder.

Neptune's chamber was equally boring in the original: Swim to the switch, then back. The later variant involves blocking and releasing waterspouts to change the water level, and navigating a raft with the grapple hook.

Damocles' challenge certainly was the most exciting in the old days: The ceiling is full of huge swords that just linger up there as Lara enters, but start falling down when she tries to escape with the key. While the key room itself used to be safe, the remake adds an impressive bladed chandelier just above the item. The falling swords are still there, but the center floor opts for knives coming out of the floor in intervals instead. This room is actually much less aggravating with the save everywhere mentality of the original (at least in the PC version), cause the auto save spots in the remake can get a bit annoying after a few tries.

The door mechanism with four bladed bolts that have to be removed by the four keys from the trial rooms remains the same, although the aesthetic design is more elegant: The door now is at the center with two locks each to the left and right, and the bolts that lock it come from alternating sides.

To get to the Coliseum, 1996 Lara has to dive through another pond of crocodiles, whereas 2007 Lara first encounters the rats, which not only appear much earlier than in the original game, but are also much smaller. Here Lara also never gets to see the Coliseum structure from the outside.

The inside originally never looked that much like a coliseum, especially because the engine didn't allow for rounded structures. While there always were a lot of lions and apes to fight in the pit, it used to be more of a hub for several puzzle rooms, but the remake makes the fight in the center a major event and quite difficult.

The VIP balcony with the beds and more attacking apes is gone, but this is made up by the opportunity to get all the way up the walls, making for a gorgeous view of the Coliseum. Pierre once again attacks and then flees in Tomb Raider, but is content with mocking Lara from off-screen in Anniversary.

The most typical change for the remake seems to be replacing swimming pools as level transitions by staircases...