Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I feel short changed.
Well, so this is the new Tomb Raider....after all those sequels which were derided for apparently lowering the quality of the game every time (I actually quite enjoyed most of them, with only a few exceptions), Tomb Raider Legend has been lauded as the return to form. Well in my opinion, it's more like an expanded demo of a potential return to form. However it looks great, and as I started playing, I was hoping for the thrill of the very first game to come back to me. I played the original PS1 Tomb Raider game again recently and I couldn't believe how well it had aged. The levels were long, the explorable areas were huge, and the puzzles were multi-layered, often built out of smaller component puzzles. The game as a whole had a good solid length and satisfying difficulty curve. This is a game that is now a decade old, and I'm still impressed by it.
So how far have we come? Well, Tomb Raider Legend has definitely played true to the original spirit. It has enhanced the character of Lara Croft, as well as re-invented the control system. I'm very happy about the former update (Lara is still beautiful, upper-class and indomitable), but not so keen on the latter. It came as quite a shock to me to find that the definitive control system had been completely re-worked and, with no option to customize it, I was initially bewildered. X is now jump? Triangle is action? No walk button? No sidestep or sidejump? No backstep for those tricky jumps? It took some getting used to, and I'm not sure whether it's an improvement or not. The grid of jumpable distances and calculations that all TR fans will surely recall has been dumped, and instead Lara behaves like all other platform game protagonists...if you want to jump across a gap, just run at it and leap when you think the time is right. The game does the rest...in fact here it does a bit too much. If the gap is deemed as passable, the game will compensate for any small miscalculation on your part and make sure you end up on the other side. This seemed a bit odd to me, and I found that I missed the feeling of knowing whether I had accomplished anything or not. This new scheme also allows you to perform acrobatic tasks like jumping directly upwards from hanging off a ledge to another ledge about 6 feet above, which is surely physically impossible! As are sideways and backwards jumps from ledges and poles that magically dump Lara safely on another ledge or platform if the game deems that that was the way to progress. Does this sound picky? I know that in the past Lara could do cartwheels while firing her guns, and do a backwards somersault to land on a platform higher than her own head, but I didn't seem to mind that as much! I think it's because the game does not present enough physical challenges anyway that I felt further hand-held throughout the exploring phases by this new scheme.
Another thing, is that the weapons mode is a real let-down. The old auto-aim has been replaced by a targetting mechanism that only stays locked on target intermittently. This is very obvious on the final boss, where Lara's aim is constantly lost when she runs to dodge any long range attacks. I would have liked a way to lock-on, and then strafe while firing, but this is seemingly no longer an option - unless I missed it. But in bizarre opposition to the boss fights, regular gun fight sequences are incredibly easy, you only have to run around wildly firing non-stop and the enemies will all drop. I never came out of a hugely out-numbered fight (say Lara against 6 or 7 goons) with damage more than about one medipack's worth, and that's when I wasn't being the least bit careful.
I've got still more gripes - you can't stockpile anything. One additional gun at a time is all you get, and a maximum of three medipacks!! Thats just criminal. Mind you, with the game this easy, arriving at the last boss with 20 stored medipacks would be a pushover! Oh well, Lara's previously bottomless rucksack was always a bit far-fetched, I suppose.
Ok, I've left the worst till last, and that is undeniably the games length. I finished it in about 4 days, and that's unheard of for a TR game. Short levels, few puzzles, not enough secrets, not enough booby traps or variety of enemies. Every level is like a taster for what the development team are obviously capable of. They just needed to make them all 3 times as long. At least. The levels look great (time for some praise at last, now!)...they are leafy and organic, dank and spooky, or full of ruined temples as and when required. I could have done with some larger and more awe-inspiring architecture, though, and the sense of immense scale has not been maintained. I don't recall many of the towering structures and giddying drops that made climbing so perilous in the earlier game. Fans of TR1 will surely recall the Atlantis level - a constant climb through a kind of giant floorless shaft ending up on a platform where the boss appeared - one slip off the edge meant a fall down through the entire level to a final sickening thud on the floor. There's nothing like that in this game, and I think what I miss the is the sense of realism you get when you can see where you've been climbing from and it's dizzyingly far down. Tomb Raider Legend doesn't play with layered or cyclical environments, and all the levels are pretty standard: start travelling from Point A and keep going as far you can and you'll get to Point B. There are two motorbike riding leves but they are very arcadey and almost impossble to lose.
Tomb Raider Legend is a wonderful taster, passed of as a full length game. A lot of care went into design and execution, but it's still a bit glitchy (although with nothing like the game-halting problems of Angel of Darkness, thank god!). I look forward to another game from this team, and let's hope it's a biggun next time.
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Product Description:
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend brings back the gaming world's sexiest and most intrepid adventurer. Follow Lara down a path of discovery as she travels the globe to remote, exotic locales in search of one of history's greatest artifacts that unleash unwelcome figures from Lara's mysterious past. Use her skills to explore vast, treacherous tombs, riddled with challenging puzzles and deadly traps. Physics, Water and Fire systems bring the perilous environments of Lara's world alive, and challenge the player to improvise solutions to obstacles. Jump into the future of adrenaline-fueled adventure.
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