"Welcome back Lara."

There's no denying it. The Tomb Raider series steadily declined in popularity and quality as the sequels piled up, and after Lara's last adventure in Angel of Darkness, it seemed like her glory days was over for good. However, after she packed and moved to developer Crystal Dynamics and left Core Design in the dust, she suddenly found herself well taken care of and in good hands. Despite Lara's acrobatic tricks and treats, this is the best move she has ever done.

Plot
After some breathtaking stunts by Lara(much to the dismay of her friends Alister and Zip who keeps communication with her through a headset) in the stunning scenery in Bolivia, she arrives at location to seach for a mysterious stone that resembles an object she saw as a child. However, she encounters mercenaries and suddenly finds her self in dangerous situations as the stone seems to be wanted by more than her. Lara is never the one to give up, and goes on a journey to discover and recover the stone, and the truth about it.

Gameplay
Like the previous games in the series, you see Lara in third person view, and control her with the standard Keyboard and Mouse that now has become more or less an industry standard for these games. While the previous Tomb Raider became slightly infamous for their weird control scheme, it's all gone in Legend. Lara controls like a dream, with fluid, precise and swift movements, and wether you are running into a gunfight with a group of mercenaries, or climbing narrow ledges and taking dangerous jumps, you feel like you have control over her.

The camera is also usually quite cooperative, but it does hiccup at times, and sometimes causing quite a problem when it prevents you from seeing the jump ahead properly. This isn't as big problem as you think, and it happens rarely enough to not become a problem with the game, only with a few instances. Due to the forgiving nature of the game and the way it handles jumping and grabbing, the camera is actually not a big problem.

The game takes you around the world, from the high cliffs in Bolivia, the skyscrapers in Tokyo, the snowy mountains of Nepal and other exotic locations. Each of them are well designed with lots of nice scenery and environments, and Lara usually manages to end up in the worst and dangerous parts of the locations she visits, usually filled with conveniently placed ledges and objects she can use to get from point A to B. Yes, it is true that at points the game feel a little on rails and artificial since the level seems to be more designed and convenient than a real life location, but if you think of it as more of a playground than a realistic real life scenario, it's impossible not to have fun as you climb, shimmer, jump, slide and run around in the wild and fantastic locations.

At certain points, you're treated to an interactive moviepart, where you watch Lara in a dangerous situation where you have to react quickly by pressing the right buttons at the right times. These sequences can take you by surprise at first, and it's easy to miss a few times at first until you nail it. They are fun to watch too, as they show a "What if" scenario followed by the demise of our beloved miss Croft. However, it would be in all our best interest to see her alive and well, and these events are not long so it's easy to get past them.

Along the way, Lara encounters several puzzles, often using physics and logics, combined with lots of fancy looking acrobatics. The first time through, these puzzles are tons of fun, as they require both skill and brain to solve, and each new room can be analyzed and planned. Logics have alot to say, and you almost always feel that you solved the puzzles due to logic thinking and timed acrobatics instead of mindless combinations or boring, drawn out sequences.

Occasionally, you'll encounter various enemies including Mercenaries and wild life, which is best taken care of with frenzied gunfights. And dare I say it(unlike many other reviews of the game which often critize it), these fights are absolutely fantastic. With full freedom, Lara can jump and spin and do saltos, all while blazing guns onto locked targets. You can even jump on top of enemies, and doublejump off them to send Lara into bullettime, which slows everything down while Lara's damage increases and things look spectacular. This is one game where I found myself looking so much forward to the gunfights that it at times overshadowed the fun of exploring and puzzles.

And in all of the above mentioned scenarios, the game plays like a dream, Lara looks and moves absolutely stunningly and it retains such a strong sense of an epic adventure that it's hard to let go. The game is short though, although it does have unlockables and time trials that lengthens the lifetime of the game.

Graphics
The game looks great, with some exceptions. Lara of course, is the star of the show, and she's modelled with great care. She has never looked better and it is hard to ignore her visual power. Graceful animations, highly detailed textures, perfect curves, she is a virtual dream.

The rest of the characters looks decent enough, but they look more cartoony and their faces look kind of strange, almost out of place. It's almost as if they were taken from another game, but then again, it is highly unlikely that secondary characters would be given as much attention and details as Lara.

For the environment, it looks great. From the first scene when she arrives on top of a cliff in Bolivia, allowing you to gaze out in the distance, to the actually impressive rooftop locations in Tokyo, to swandiving into a huge lake and a dusty small town, the game is a marvel to look at. It is quite heavy on the requirements, but if you got the power the game will reward you with the next best thing to actually being at location.

Sound
Charming, Snobby, Dry, Sophisticated, Wild, Adorable. They hit Lara dead on in terms of voice. She's a pleasure to listen to, and so is her hilarious friends who constantly drops in and chats with Lara during her adventure. The voiceacting is top notch on all levels, just as realized as the rest of the game. The characters have charm and personality that lasts long after the credits have been rolling.

The music, it was good enough. It wasn't the most noteworthy score I've heard in a game, but it worked well within the game. As long as a soundtrack doesn't annoy or detract from the experience, it has filled it's purpose, although a good soundtrack will help improve a game.

Conclusion
It took Lara ten years to retake her place as one of the best videogame heroines, after slowly being pushed of the throne by newer and better games and characters. With Legend, Lara has finally returned, better than ever. Enough praise cannot be given to Crystal Dynamics, they have managed to resurrect a franchise that was limited to badly received sequels, aging game mechanics and questionable character developments. Not only did they resurrect it, they improved it in every single way, made it look fantastic while being a blast to play. Old ruins and ancient traps, beautiful landscapes and lots of action with an epic plot and the most lovely videogame heroine ever makes Legend one of the best adventure games in newer time.

Welcome back Lara.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06