Tomb Raider: Legend

"Way too short"

Now, like most I have played all of the other Tomb Raiders to death (excluding AOD) and my favourite for a very long time was in deed TR2 but I have to say, what Crystal Dynamics has done with Legend is very impressive indeed and is on par with TR2, totally restoring the series reputation after the woeful Angel of Darkness.

GAMEPLAY

The core game play of the grid based system is once again gon as is the awful controls and physics of AOD. Instead Crystal Dynamics has made a totally new physics engine for Legend which allows Lara to be controlled with ease and allows for overall faster based gameplay and to a degree more realistic movement in what she can do whilst raiding tombs. Yes, that's right. Actual Tombs instead of the Back alleys of Paris. Lara now Jumps, leaps runs and swims with an incredible amount of ease and now you won't be spending ages positioning trial and error jumps and shooting wildly at a target you don't want to be aiming at. Now when you jump Lara doesn't have to be bang on the point and you can quickly hit Triangle to recover from any particularly bad jump placement and now the swimming is alot easier with the X button making you swim up and the Circle Button swimming down. This allows for swift movement in the few watery areas and you won't be drowning as easily as before. The combat as briefly mentioned has been much over-hauled after 6 games of much of the same. Now Lara can lock onto an enemy and flicking the right analog stick will make you circle through the targets. The cross hairs will also tell you whether you're in range of the enemy with the weapon of choice being either Red (in range) to a faded red (in range but behind cover) and gray (not in range). This means you wont be wasting ammo shooting a target you can't reach, letting you save ammo. The only real problem with the combat is the range of your weapons. The standard (and upgradable) pistols have a VERY poor range which is bad but when you have to get close to your enemy, moving you into a more dangerous surrounding you can pull of one or two new moves such as the power Kick or the sliding tackle or even one of two Matrix-esque slow-mo moves. It's good that these new moves aren't unused but the range of your pistols is awful, and they'll be what you use the most seeing as you can only have two weapons equipped and the pistols have infinite ammo.

Score: 8/10

GRAPHICS AND MUSIC

For the PS2 the graphics are superb for the surrounding areas and tombs. Just looking at the lush design of the opening of the Ghana level really shows you that the developers tried on this game and their work has not gone un-noticed. This is one of the most graphical games on the PS2 and you won't be seeing corridors that look the same as the last like in previous installments as every floor/wall/tomb has had an awful lot of attention to detail to make sure everything is accurate and life like. The character models aren't bad either with Lara looking better than ever and even having her clothing change as she enters water, looking wet and damp with her hair the same as well. The water itself however is also very graphical, looking very realistic, rippling and flowing very much life like and adding to the atmosphere of the whole new Tomb Raider feeling.

The music to the game completes the atmosphere adding great background tunes that suit the situation at all times with action packed music playing during heated gunfights and boss confrontations and soft melodies play as you go exploring through the different tombs. So all in all very good

Score: 9/10

LIFESPAN

Now this is where the game fails the most. Each of the 8 levels is about and hour long, meaning you'll spend 8 hours trying to finish the game. The only real incentive to replay through the levels is to gather all of the unlockables but this really only limits to pistol upgrades and outfits. The rest you really can just ignore as miscellaneous stuff that you probably won't read/care about anyway. If you are on of these 100% completion perfectionists than replaying the levels and completing the time trials will be a great thing for you. Otherwise unless you want to do the game on a higher difficulty setting there isn't much to look forward too after finishing the somewhat short game. It feels like as soon as the story properly kicks in it ends all too soon. This is the shortest Tomb Raider game but definitely improves upon all of the series mishaps from TR2 onwards.

Score: 7/10

Overall Score: 8/10 Alot more could have been done, especially in the lifespan department but this really is one of the best Tomb Raider game since the glory days of the series pinnacle, TR2.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06