The occasional blind leap of faith might not be the most logical answer to a puzzle, but for the most part, a little forethought and observation will get you to even the most out-of-reach areas. And there are often several methods of achieving the same goal - again, an improvement over Legend.

Our walkthrough ended at a large puzzle room with four pillars in it. Not only did it take several minutes to complete even when we worked out the room's biggest secret, but there was another bonus to be had here too, requiring a completely different use of the same puzzle's mechanisms. The development team has obviously had a lot of fun in this way, squeezing the most potential for exploration from the classic environments. And it looks like we might be having as much fun playing through them.

Above: Switches are weighty, allowing you to use them as a brief platform to get extra height

Having only seen selected levels from Tomb Raider: Anniversary, we can't say this will definitely be the game fans have been hoping for. But if the quality of what we've seen is sustained (and the team has sorted out that awful final level from the original), we could be looking at one of the games of the year. It's so promising, we simply daren't get our hopes up too much. So keep your fingers and duel magnums crossed - not long to wait now.

If you missed any of our Tomb Raider: Anniversary  coverage this week, click here to explore the rest - and be sure to hit the Images tab too for the full-size screens.