Tomb Raider: Legend

"Hopefully the beginning of a new legend."

The Tomb Raider franchise has been around for about a decade now, and while it has seen its share of sequels, its innovation has always been lacking. Back when it was the only game of its kind, the Tomb Raider franchise stayed on the top of its game (pun not intended) churning out more of what the fans wanted. With the new generation of consoles back at the turn of the century, the technology demanded more and more of games, and Tomb Raider tried to reinvent themselves with Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, considered by many to be a colossal failure. Now, with that console generation being nigh over, and the 360/PS3/Revolution generation dawning on us, Crystal Dynamics, creators of one of Tomb Raider's greatest rivals, the Soul Reaver series, bring us the newest Tomb Raider adventure, Tomb Raider: Legend. In this new adventure, Lara goes back to doing what she does best, raiding tombs and ruins, taking you around in all sorts of exotic, varied places, nicely topped off with one or two more "urban" enviroments.

Graphics: 8/10
Considering this is a port with achievements, the 360 version of the game, of course, looks much better than the PS2 version, and slightly better than the Xbox one. The graphics are very sharp, but nonetheless the textures themselves are nothing more than Xbox textures, high res. Despite those shortcomings, the game is graphically impressive, nothing being distracting, or detracting from the gameplay. The enviroments shine with beauty, the water effects are impressive, there is no slowdown, and the lighting is miles above that of the PS2 version. Lara is looking at her best, and has gotten more "human" looking, the most noticeable of this being that she actually has thigh muscles now. Lip-synching is acceptable, if not GREAT, and characters animate very realistically. My only complaint is Zip, who looks like a high res PS1 blocky man. What's WITH that guy?

Sound: 9/10
The audio part of this game, in my opinion, humbles the graphics. Since Lara is back to doing what she does best, raiding ruins, the music is mainly slow, tribal beats and all sorts of choirs. The music is VERY good and VERY fitting, definitely being a high point of the game. It also switches to some action packed tunes when there's, well, action to be had, but it always keeps a fitting central theme depending on the stage you're in. Character voices are passable as well, nothing special, Lara sounds like, well, exactly what you'd expect Lara to sound like, the supporting cast is voiced decently as well, delivering witty banter and jokes that Lara hears on her headset as she's adventuring. Some are a bit cheesy, but genuine, and never detract from the experience.

Gameplay: 8/10
Despite a relatively new outing, the core gameplay of Tomb Raider: Legend, is not all that different gameplay-wise from its earlier outings. Gone are the grid based controls and horrid detection issues of the early Tomb Raiders and Angel of Darkness, respectively; however, Lara remaining much untouched otherwise. She runs, leaps across chasms, and catches on by the skin of her teeth. She leaps from ledge to ledge, pulls her twin pistols out, shoots some baddies, and pulls on levers. Reading that, you may think that there isn't anything NEW at all, but you'd be mistaken. Between the classic elements of the game, Crystal Dynamics has added a ton of contextual moves, QTE style cutscenes, a few driving sequences in which Lara is on a bike and shooting at baddies (as fun and as awesome as it sounds) and some new tricks up Lara's sleeve. Taking some notes from a certain prince (of a certain Persia), Lara now swings off of horizontal poles, shimmies on vertical ones, hangs on and shimmies on to ledges, leaping from one to another. She's also got the adventurer's best friend, a sort of grappling hook with a magnetic hook on the end, which Lara uses to bring baddies closer to her, pull items towards her, and solve puzzles; and is basically what Indy would use if he was in the 21st century. The puzzles themselves are varied, involving physics, the magnetic hook, and the good ol' classic levers and timed switches and water and huge metal balls and, yeah, you get it. No puzzle is alike, and they're all fun, if not terribly difficult, to solve. You get a pair of binoculars that identify items you can interact with, if you're ever well and truly stuck, but they're hardly ever necessary.
The combat portion of the game has gotten an overhaul as well. Lara has her trust y twins with her in this adventure as well (no, not those!) and shoots them as well as ever. She can also pick up a secondary weapon, although the variety in those is sadly lacking. You've got a submachine gun, a machinegun, a grenade launcher, and a shotgun. Chances are you'll stick with the machinegun the whole time though, since it's the only thing that can actually hit enemies your guns are too far to accurately target. She's also got a melee kick for close up enemies, a magnetic grapple to bring them closer, and can even jump off of her enemies putting her into a temporary bullet time of sorts where her fire is super accurate while she's in the air. Rounding those abilities off are a sliding tackle, which lets you shoot an enemy on his back, grenades, some weapon emplacements, and a certain weapon you won't get until the end of the game, but once you do...well, let's just say hell hath no fury like a lady Croft scorned.

Storyline: 7/10
Would have gotten a higher score if it was a bit more fleshed out, because it's a very good story. It basically starts over from scratch like Angel of Darkness did, ignoring the previous games. In this story, you follow Lara as she tries to piece together an ancient mystery, while an old friend from her past turned villain tries to kill Lara at every turn. You start out knowing or understanding very little, but as you go farther in the game you learn more and more about Lara's past, and who the people in her life are and were. You'll delve very deep in Lara's past and find out how and why she started adventuring, and things about her parents. At the same time you realize some of the world's most popular legends are, in fact, real.
How'd that song go, "Heaven isn't too far away?"

Replayability: 6/10
Not much to say here. There are 3 different types of artifacts in each level, bronze, silver, and one gold. Finding enough of these artifacts unlocks viewable models of items in the game, achievements, different costumes for Lara (a LOT, actually), and character tidbits. There is also a time-trial mode for all levels which will unlock some achievements for you, as well as some bonus goodies. The Croft Manor, while not as cool as the other Croft Manors, notably Tomb Raider 2, is basically its own level with its own set of hidden things to uncover, as well as its own set of artifacts to find.

Overall: 7/10
Lara is back, and she's rockin'. This is what Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness should have been like. The game's good, even though it's short, albeit there are unlockables and such to heighten replay value. Prince of Persia:Sands of Time was just as long though, and no one complained then. 60 dollars is a rip for this game, sure, since the PC version is 20 dollars cheaper, and out of all the versions, this one gives the least bang for the buck, but that doesn't make it a BAD game. Should you buy this game? If the 360 is the only console you own and your PC won't cut it, I'd say so, if you're a fan of the series waiting for its comeback. Everyone else need not apply anything but a rental, however, as the game can be 100 percented in a diligent week's work. Let's hope that Crystal Dynamics gives us some content for the 360 version using the Live Marketplace.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/06