Tomb Raider: Legend

"Man...If only all girls had such nice...hair."

The last couple of Lara Croft games have fallen below the standards I set for them. *cough Angel of Darkness cough* BUT happily this game manages to rise above the standards I set for it! My standards for it were low but only because I played Angel of Darkness before it. Which made this game all the more sweet.

Story 8/10

Oh. Another one of those King Arthur myths huh? Wonderful. As if THAT story hasn't been used like a billion times. Anyway, Lara basically goes around trying to find out the answer to a mysterious thing that happened when she was a little girl. The mysterious thing is that her mother disappeared when she touched a sword. Oh, and a bunch of things that happened to her in the past intertwine with the present so it's pretty cool. The story does one of those awesome loop things which makes it kinda trippy.

Graphics 9/10

Even though on PS2 the graphics look kinda shoddy they are still quite decent. After swimming in the water and getting out water drips off Lara's clothes for a while before stopping. Sweet. Also the background and tombs were designed well. It is really awesome to be running through a cracked tomb with sunlight creeping through the cracks and spilling over the floor. Very cool to witness.

Sound 4/10

Uh...The voice acting is good and the one-liners are funny as all hell but the music is bland and even the gunshots are pretty terrible to listen to. Too bad you listen to the gunfire a lot. (seeing how you basically have to shoot everything in sight)

Gameplay 10/10

If I had any complaint to make about the gameplay it would be the difficulty curve of the jumping. After you get used to it though everything is sunshine and lollipops. You have a couple of pretty awesome moves at your disposal. Sliding, shooting, kicking, somersaulting around like a crazy monkey and rolling. One of the greatest abilities however is the aerial attack. What is awesome about the aerial attack is that when you jump off an enemy everything goes into a matrix sort of form and the screen turns yellow. While flying through the air you can shoot the guy you bounced from in the back and then focus on everyone else before you land and everything goes back to normal.

While the moves are all very well and good one of the most noticeable things about this game are the interactive cut scenes. Basically sometimes Lara will get caught in a trap or be in a tight situation and you will have to pull off some well-timed button pushing to perform the correct moves to escape them. Now it sounds hard but it really isn't which is good. Because it would suck to die during an interactive cut scene and have to start all over again.

You can also explore Croft Manor which is an okay thing to do. The only purpose of visiting is to check out where Lara lives and be able to explore it (you should check out her room!) as well as picking up artifacts.

Replayability 10/10

In the above paragraph I mentioned artifacts. In each level (except for one) there are artifacts scattered throughout. There are bronze artifacts which are easy to find, silver artifacts which are harder to find and a single gold artifact in each stage that you REALLY have to work for to get. By grabbing the artifacts you unlock things like extra costumes, bios and level art to take a gander at. Pretty awesome stuff that will keep you coming back for a while. Trust me, it's not easy to get the artifacts. In fact, it is incredibly hard.

Final Recommendation

I suggest that if you own a PS2 that you go out and buy this game. Okay, it may be a bit on the short side but the artifacts and secrets will keep you coming back for a while.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06