Total Conversion:
Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider Anniversary

Tomb Raider Legend fans who hoped for a playable motorcycle scene at this point will be disappointed. Those who feared it can breathe a sigh of relief, as the ride is still only a cutscene, albeit of course an in-engine one instead of a grainy, interlaced FMV.

The opening of the stage is rather similar, with an initial cave and some much deteriorated ruins in the sand. In both versions Lara has to push around boxes to get on.

New in Anniversary are these scarab ledges, which start sinking down as soon as the heroine grabs onto them, bringing another element of time pressure to the platforming.

The mummy enemies where changed to look a lot more scary and are introduced in an added cutscene which places them in immediate attack range of Lara. In the old version, it was still possible to just shoot down the first specimen from afar.

The sphinx is in quite better shape in the remake, and the pond with the (also better preserved) obelisk has been placed in front of it instead of being tucked away at the side. Originally, Lara could find a key by climbing up the back side of the sphinx, which was changed to a lever.

In the 1996 game, the above statues were just ordinary platforms, but in Anniversary they have to be moved closer together by flipping a switch for another timed platforming challenge. In both version, panthers swarm the ground level of the room.

Once again the remake went with a more central placement of the room's important elements. The floor around the cat statue eventually gives way in both versions.

This is followed by another vertical room where Lara has to get up, in the original by moving blocks (very well visible in the uppermost screenshot thanks to a clipping glitch) and changing water levels, in the remake in a climbing sequence with many moving scarab ledges. Getting back down is quite tricky in the original and involves sliding down several slopes, in Anniversary Lara can count her grappling hook.

In this room several panthers can be disposed of from above, but eventually Lara has to go down and confront them directly. Anniversary is even a step meaner, because it forces the player to actually free the beasts from a very close position, in order to raise the altitude of the scarab ledge.

This time the mummy has to be confronted directly and appears vaguely at the same position in both versions. But only Anniversary has the giant scarab statue, where Lara first has to clear up a blocked mechanism and then replace the fallen weight with her body, which involves more pole hopping.

The City of Khamoon used to end with a simple locked door, but later an elaborate puzzle where Lara has to raise five obelisks and turn them around to match patterns to wall paintings in several adjacent chambers.

Before getting to the titular obelisk in the Obelisk of Khamoon stage, the original frontloads a whole sequence with swimming areas, keys and a room where Lara has to push blocks away from many doors, several of which hide attacking animals. This entire part was excised, and instead Lara starts directly in front of the obelisk.

To get to the top of the obelisk, Lara has to do a lot of climbing in both versions, although the remake can make use of much more naturally looking crevices and some subtle hooks for the rope, whereas the technological limitations of the original game forced Core Design to put huge cubic blocks protruding from the walls. Both versions end the ascend with a mummy fight and a vertiginous look down.

The next challenge with several switches that turn slopes into stairs and vice versa is also present in both games. In 1996, they would just miraculously change out of view, but the remake actually shows a cutscene with the mechanism at work.

Between the individual chambers around the obelisk, Anniversary adds some more of its standard filler sequences in trap-filled corridors.

The next sequence is a long climb over a room far below, where the remake adds a few moving blades and timed switches to make things more interesting. In the original, a sarcophagus in plain view would hint at the dangers that would await when Lara finally got to the bottom, whereas the area is a bit more drab looking in Anniversary.

This room with a few bits of interesting Egyptian furniture didn't make the cut. It didn't serve much of a gameplay purpose, but was a neat way of communicating that these ruins weren't just all traps and monsters.

The entire purpose of the Obelisk of Khamoom stage was for Lara to collect four symbols that could then be fitted into matching slots of the small obelisk back in the City of Khamoom. That was all it took to complete the stage originally, but Crystal Dynamics decided it needed a bit more action, so Lara is attacked by more centaur creatures.