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| Of course it's cherry red. What other color would a Croft bike be? | A very familiar pose. Business ends pointed at the other guy |
Happily the latest Croft offering, Tomb Raider: Legend, remembers its past, while embracing the present. For this offering Eidos Interactive has switched to the development skills of Crystal Dynamic who came in with fresh new game design and approach, while taking the time to research what Tomb Raider was all about and staying true to the heart of the original.
The story of Tomb Raider: Legend takes us back to the Croft family and the circumstances surrounding the mysterious Mrs. Croft. In the beginning, we're put on a plane with a much younger Laura and her mother before the plane goes down in a land of weird architecture and ancient ruins. An artifact opens a vortex in time and space and Laura's mother is dragged in, setting the stage for our crisis, before merrily plunging us into the kind of globe trotting adventure that has always had great appeal to Tomb Raider fans. Some of the locals that will be visited include the tomb of King Arthur and the cliff faces of Bolivia. The cut scenes are smooth and are paced well within the structure of the game without being overly drawn out or annoying. Crystal Dynamic has handled the pacing of the storyline very well and manages to add continued depth to the character of Lara Croft, which is a hefty order at this point in the game and following two movies, all of which have kept Croft on gamer's radars.
Graphically this game has come literal leaps and bounds from where it began the look and feel of the game smooth and inviting. Laura's figure is every bit as impressing, but with smoother edges and much better texturing that fits the current platforms and technology. The backgrounds are lovely and create an open pallet of interaction possibilities. Unlike the early games Laura can interact with most surfaces and doesn't rely on a predefined track of any sort, which makes the exploring even more fun, though I'll get to that in a minute.
I didn't have any complaints about the sound in this game. It didn't absolutely blow me away, but nor did I find it distracting from what I was doing. The dialog in the cut scenes is quick witted and the voice actors did a credible job with it, so no real complaints there either.
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| All about location. I love the water effect here | Gravity is a matter of perspective |
The game play of this chapter in the saga brought a combined sense of nostalgia and sigh of relief. The familiar feel of the Tomb Raider games was definitely there. From the platform jumps, which don't have to be quite so meticulously timed, to the animal encounters which still DO take 5-7 bullets a piece I found myself enjoying the play. In this game Laura is a much more nimble acrobat and many opportunities to take advantage of that have been put in place. There is definitely some strong Prince of Persia influence in her movements and some of her abilities, including the ability to run up a foe, flip over and shoot them. It's done with a sword in Prince of Persia, but Laura makes it look just as effortless with an automatic pistol and it's certainly just as lethal.
Laura can jump, walk, run, swim, climb on most of what gets in her way and shimmy around corners and across ledges. One of the fun extras, though, is the bit of flair that has been put into these usually normal moves. Jumps can become a series of back flips and the jump off of a cliff a beautiful swan dive adding that feel of nimbleness to Laura's movements that has long been awaited. I think in the end the difference is that controlling Laura is just flat fun, where as in some of her earlier incarnations getting just the right number of steps or angles made the movement blocky and not nearly as much fun for the player. So speaks someone who spent hours in the original game jumping from platform to platform and missing the last one every stupid time.
Before any review on this game can be complete a nod must be given for Laura's toys. She's given an abundance of fun things to carry around or ride on and I found myself loving the ingenuity. The motorcycle is one of the funniest new vehicles, though I didn't get to spend nearly as much time riding it as I wanted to. Laura now also carries a personal light source and a pair of binoculars that make several of the puzzles MUCH easier to see and work on. She also carries a multipurpose grappling hook that serves the roles of rope, swing, grapple and weapon. As a weapon she can use the grappling hook to grab enemies and bring them close enough to wail on, which is very satisfying. She can carry and use two weapons at a time, as well as grenades making her a bit of a walking arsenal. I personally liked the grenades though it took a while to get good enough with them not to have them back at my feet on the bounce. Fortunately Crystal Dynamic believes in abundant save points so I didn't lose much ground after blowing myself up, and there was always a chance to try one more time.
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| Preparing for the leap | Yes! She owns more than one change of clothes! |
All in all this was a very fun gaming experience. As I looked closer I could point out specific issues that I thought could be touched up or ironed out, but nothing stood out so far as to make me regret my time spent playing or how much bang I was getting for my buck. If you're a fan of the adventure genre, or an old fan of the Tomb Raider series Tomb Raider: Legend is definitely worth picking up.
TOMB RAIDER: LEGEND VERDICT
Preparing for the leap
Yes! She owns more than one change of clothes!
All in all this was a very fun gaming experience. As I looked closer I could point out specific issues that I thought could be touched up or ironed out, but nothing stood out so far as to make me regret my time spent playing or how much bang I was getting for my buck. If you’re a fan of the adventure genre, or an old fan of the Tomb Raider series Tomb Raider: Legend is definitely worth picking up.
