I hum this music a lot.

There are a ton of video game musics that I will hum as soon as I see pictures or posts that involve them. There are also small number that I just end up humming randomly, because they have latched onto my brain and make me feel good.

Super Mario Brothers 2 first level, the early version of Jungle Challenge from Yooka-Laylee, Planet Wisp from Sonic Colours, The End of the World YorHa edition from Nier:Automata and from up above, the theme to Tomb Raider 1 are all such examples of the latter.

The music of the first Tomb Raider game is the reason why I completely and utterly fell in love with this franchise. The early ones (1-Underworld) have such striking music and I sought them out specifically for this.

As games they are definitely more than just a few tracks! However, my love of this series is inextricably linked to what I did in my efforts to listen to it and how the music has impacted other things that I do in my life. So here, have a one hour version of what I believe to be the very best track in all of Tomb Raider. Put it on in the background while I attempt to explain why Tomb Raider Anniversary is so incredibly high in my personal greatest games of all time list.

The first Tomb Raider came out in 1996. It was on the short lived Saturn as well as the long lived Playstation. It would be a true revelation in gaming to young me. At that particular time I was still playing 2D platformers and side scrollers on my MegaDrive while occasionally dipping my toes into Wolf3D and Space Quest 1-3 on my old 386 PC.

My very good friend, D, had gotten a PlayStation about a year earlier and because most of my weekends would be spent at his house, this was the only way I could experience the modern games.

His Dad was always ahead of the curve with tech. (I remember the day he showed me cable TV, a powerful laptop and both his apple mac and big tower PC. We even rented DVDs because his big tower PC had a DVD drive! We would sit on uncomfortable chairs in the hallway and watch them enthralled that we were doing what we had seen on sci-fi programs! That the local video store only had a few to choose from did not deter us. One weekend we rented Sphere and Nothing to Lose. Nothing to lose indeed).

My experience of modern games (until I got a playstation a few months after this event) were only the kinds of games that D liked. He and I differed quite drastically when it came to this. Back when he had a MegaDrive, he would loan me his games that he was gifted for birthdays. He hated them but knew I would love them. (Justice for Kid Chameleon).

When our gaming aligned, however, it really aligned! This is where Tomb Raider comes into the story.

I had arrived at his house and he told me he had a game to show me. I still recall, vividly, getting up to his room, him turning on the TV and it booting up to the menu. He had to go grab something from downstairs, so he left me alone while I sat and listened to the opening theme. That violin opening followed by the full song blossoming was enchanting. It captivated me completely and remains one of my all time most favourite pieces of music from a game.

Why that specific piece of music more than others?

It links back to a particularly dumb story.

In 1993 I was 11 years old and had just discovered a way to get our ancient video recorder recording. My parents were not tech savvy and we were not well off, so both their lounge TV and my bedroom TV were connected to the same aerial and our VCR was an old top loader whose remote control was wired. We only had four TV channels so there was not a lot to watch and I would occasionally set my videos going at 8:00pm and leave them recording until they finished and then watch random stuff for fun. I discovered a program I can no longer remember the name of, but was highly invested in at the time and had watched parts 1 and 2 a few weeks earlier.

The final part was on one evening, but being only 11 I had two videos I used over and over and little space to record the whole evening like usual (as I had been saving things and waking up at specific times to get more programs). Part 2 I am sure ended on a wild cliffhanger so I needed to see the end of part 3. The day came and I made sure to get my video ready and an alarm to wake me to set it at the right time so all would be well.
I woke up late. I frantically ran to the VCR and hit record and managed to record the credits of the last episode. For a number of years that was all I had. The first two parts and then the end credits, with no closure whatsoever.

It sort of haunted me that I missed the end of the show and back then it was not easy to find or do anything about, so aside from remembering the music I let go of it and moved on….until the day I walked into D’s room and heard the theme to Tomb Raider 1. It sounded so similar I immediately wondered if there was a link. Alone I listened to that awesome theme. It made me want to play the game.

And play the game we did. D had a habit of buying a game, playing through it, and then getting me to play it when I came over. He would sit and watch me stumble or succeed. Tomb Raider was one of the few times he was stuck and wanted to see if I could figure out the path.

So that Saturday I sat down to play what would become one of my most favourite games of all time. To say I was unprepared was an understatement. That opening level entering the Tibetan tomb was the first time I realised Games could be this way. It sounds ridiculous now after 25 years of gaming, but it genuinely propelled me to the certainty that I had to get a PlayStation and I had to get this game.

The long hallways, the traps, the whistling winds and creaks of the old tomb, the secrets hidden amongst outcrops, everything about this game was unique to young me. You could hold onto the edges of blocks and shimmy along. You could jump or run jump and you could make different kinds of leaps.

Lara controlled so well despite using an interface that lacked analogue sticks. The look button being on one of the shoulders while everything else revolved around the d-pad meant that the level design was accommodating of it and it worked in her favour. Areas were comprised of squares and arranged to best resemble the tombs the designers had envisaged. You could always figure out where and when to jump if you paid attention to the seams in the layout.

My very favourite level was St. Francis’ Folly. My bestie and I, upon first entering the room with the spire, gasped. It was the first time we had played a game where the level was so big the system could not render it.

We called it ‘The Room’. Even now we will occasionally say “Hey! Remember the room?” And we know we are instinctively talking about a level in Tomb Raider and not a film by Tommy Wiseau.

Looking down from the very top you would just see shadow that would eventually uncover as you worked your way down the tower. Each section had its own puzzle room relating to old mythology and the Damocles room evoked terror because of those swords in the ceiling. This whole level was simply a series of puzzles, bat fights and gorilla fights around a spire.

I had seen slowdown before, but deliberately making a level that stretched the rendering of a console was new to me and that dark shadow was tremendously effective in making me feel that there was a grandness to the architecture.

All the while, exploring these majestic areas and raiding expansive underground tombs there was the echoing footsteps, the ambient whistling of wind and the occasional but effective music. That theme had two more ‘versions’; one that was composed of the first half of the song and one that was the second half but edited in both the beginning and end so as not just a cut up pair of tracks.

That music use stuck with me. Never overplayed and always at moments when you knew something important or fun was going to happen; foreshadowed by the little spin of the CD in the PlayStation.

I did not complete the game while at D’s house in my first sitting, (unlike RE2 but that is for another ramble) however my parents bought a PlayStation for the whole family a few weeks later. Then a few months later on my birthday I got a copy of Tomb Raider for myself. From that point I became glued to the game.

You can imagine the joy I felt when I discovered that every single piece of music (including the voiced audio from cutscenes and the ambience of caves) from the game was stored as separate tracks on the CD. You could put the CD in any player and listen to the music to your hearts content.

I would.

I would put the PlayStation into music mode and play the theme song on repeat while I cleaned my room or did my homework.

Slowly over the course of a month I beat Tomb Raider – a few weeks before D did. He had put it down in the end Mines and said he was no longer enjoying it the way he had at the start. For me the game never let up. If I had made game lists back then, it would have been my second favourite game ever. Super Mario Bros 3 had the top slot for a few years and would take decades to be toppled but Tomb Raider made a valid case.

What does all of this have to do with Anniversary though?

Well, when I say I think Tomb Raider: Anniversary is the best Tomb Raider, I want you to know just how much I have given this proper thought. From Tomb Raider all the way up until Tomb Raider: Age of Darkness I got the newest game on or a few days after my birthday. I would then do nothing but play that game till the end.

I even played and completed Tomb Raider 3 while unknowingly having bronchitis. Me collapsing in my beanbag during the London segments got my parents to take me to the hospital. Not that I was ignoring my health, just that I thought I was tired and trying to stay awake to finish the subway levels.

I was stupidly obsessed with raiding tombs and each subsequent game was an attempt to capture the levels of excitement the original had stirred within.

All themes from Tomb Raider 2 onwards were good. They were slight riffs on that original theme, never quite straying too far. The gameplay also had the occasional beef ups like Lara’s hair moving, more weapons, better save points, revamped Croft Manor, bigger environments. However by the time they had reached Chronicles it was obvious that Core were burnt out.

Age of Darkness was a mess but an interesting one. The music was again riffs on the original theme but this time played by a real orchestra and while the story and gameplay was all over the place, the music again stuck with me. Oh to hear TR1’s theme played with as much gusto and care as Age of Darkness’ amazing theme.

Four years passed before we were given Tomb Raider Legend and amazingly it is a hit. This was not expected considering the diminishing returns brought about by almost all previous games but was true. It featured a better style of movement, more realistic looking environments, greater depth to the exploration, grander puzzles and the music was pretty nice. I liked it. I was excited to see where the story was going.

Then in 2007 we got Tomb Raider Anniversary.

Well.

I am usually quite wary of remakes. Usually it is just a fluff up, an attempt to give games contemporary graphics. However, graphics do not make a game and a strong art direction trumps whatever that modern style could be.

Mario Brothers 3 is still a fantastic game that pushes the NES to the limits of what it was capable of. Recreating it in the NSMB engine would do nothing for it at all.

I went into this game with apprehension. A remake of my favourite Tomb Raider better be stellar. There was so much to get right but so easy to mess it up.

(Obviously, me writing all these rambling passages is a confirmation that they did but I love a little dramatic flourish.)

I love this game. I love everything it does, everything it enhances and everything it modifies. All those aspects of TR1 that were dear to me still remain, only here they have been improved.

The Room still exists, complete with almost non viewable bottom floor. (I think that was the second thing I was desperate to see!) It has the same structure as the original in both level design and plot but it runs a bit wilder with them. Rather than just slapping a new coat of graphics, it makes tweaks and changes to flow and story befitting the Legend engine.

Lara’s movement is fantastic. All those moves your brain would make you see in the blocky world of TR1 are more refined. Climbing is no longer a case of running up to the wall, making Lara ‘oof’ as she faceplants, and then pressing jump to grab a ledge and pull yourself up or shuffle sideways.

Those walls you saw 10 years previous have been redone to allow for the Legend engine to let you climb around them. To make you the master of the terrain without losing the opressive atmosphere of natural caverns you should not be traversing.

The story is still the same plot from TR1 but it has now been given some light trails that tie it in to Legend and the subsequent game Underworld. They do not compromise the standalone makeup of the story, being completely avoidable if you never played Legend or Underworld. However, these additions do make it a part of a really great trilogy of story seeing Lara through the ages. I would call it the best trilogy in the franchise.

Dialogue has been changed a lot, the original incredibly sparse. The new voice actress playing Lara (Keeley Hawes) absolutely nails the role. Of all the voices Lara has had, she is my favourite.

While I can recall quite vividly those lines from the first and am sad a few no longer exist (“You have my total attention now. I’m not quite sure I’ve got yours though. Hello?”) the increase dialogue means that Hawes has more of a chance to show off her range and ultimately shine in a far more cinematically developed tale.

I think the temptation to go really all out and completely revamp everything that was great about TR1 was present in Crystal Dynamics work documents. Somehow they remade with restraint and I appreciate it more and more. Keeping the rough structure, the barebones story and adding onto it with secrets and a slight rejigging of some of the later levels works super well for me.

TRLegend saw great success with Lara having permanent voices in the characters of Zip and Allistair on constant comms. They could have reworked it, bringing them both in and fleshing out Lara’s adventure but they did not. That loneliness and isolation still permeates throughout the game. Playing Legend immediately before enhances the fact that for a while Lara really was alone in the grandiose structures untouched by humanity.

Lastly, I need to talk about the music.

If you did press play on the YouTube video I suggested at the start and leave it playing the whole time you read this positive jumble then,
a) Wonderful! I hope it was as relaxing for you as it is for me and
b) This is how I spend my hours writing both creatively and for work.

When booting up Anniversary for the first time, I had hoped upon hope that the music was present. It was allowed to be enhanced, but not altered. That memory I shared earlier is one of my most vivid in relation to gaming and I did not want Anniversary to have changed it too drastically.

Hearing an orchestral version of the TR1 theme rendered almost exactly as it was, sent the younger me soaring. I did not think it possible to take that piece of music and add onto it whilst still retaining everything I loved about the original. The little flourishes and added notes bring me complete joy. If I had to have a piece of music replace the original, then this was that piece of music.

Croft Manor, the 1 hour extended version I linked up above, turned out to be the pinnacle of the whole Tomb Raider soundtrack.

Croft Manor had always been a fun extra alongside the early tomb raider games. It was a tutorial section inside Lara’s stately home. A load of crash mats to learn the movement, places to walk around and the occasional secret. (Even a quad bike course in TR3!)

Croft Manor in Anniversary was more than that, almost another game entirely. It had the tutorial sections and the outside assault course but it was packed with secrets to find. There were hidden doors and corridors spread throughout the mansion making it feel just like another tomb. And all the while, while you searched the mansion completely alone, that music track played.

You know when something clicks and you struggle to articulate exactly why?

Exploring the secrets of Croft Manor in Anniversary was one of my game clicks. The layout, the secrets, the traps, the music, the movement, the graphics, everything came together as one and showed me why I had followed a game series for 10 years.

Every little thing it did pushed every other little thing upwards in tandem until I realised I had lost hours messing about in an area that was not even the main game. All accompanied by music so beautiful that it helped open my creative thoughts. There are few games I have played where I lose time in such a fashion.

I use that track (my own looped and extended MP3 that I created) at home whenever I need to be in a specific kind of zone. I have played it hundreds of thousands of times and it never wears itself out.

Without Anniversary I would not have a piece of music that matters so much in how I work. I would not have a tangible link to the way an old game made me feel. I would not have one of the best remakes of all time.

Anniversary means something very personal to me and if these tangled sentences have conveyed even a percent of how I feel about it, then I will consider this tomb, raided.