Tomb Raider: Legend

Arguably the most recognisable video games character of the last 10 years, Lara Croft was viewed upon by many as one of the main stars behind the success of the Playstation and the introduction of video games to the mass.  Gaming was once seen as a geeky hobby enjoyed only by ‘nerds’ and their ‘childish’ characters.  Lara Croft was portrayed as quite a ‘cool’ character though, attracting fans of all sorts as she went from her debut on the Sega Saturn to two Blockbuster hit movies.

However in recent years Tomb Raider games have certainly dwindled in quality, and to a lesser extent popularity, as a pinnacle of mediocrity was reached in PS2’s ‘Angel of Darkness’.  In an attempt to breathe new life into the series, developers reinvented the series as they departed from traditional Tomb Raider into a new dark, stealthy style.  Unfortunately, unlike the success of the revamped Resident Evil 4, more of a lacklustre ‘Metal Gear Solid’ was achieved.  In a make or break decision, publishers Eidos handed the series back over to developers Crystal dynamics for Legend.  As a result, for Legend, Lara has been taken back to her roots.  Tomb Raider used to be about exploring, tomb raiding and of course shooting man eating tigers with your cool dual pistols, thankfully this all returns for the latest instalment, and they’ve even thrown in a few more ferocious monsters while they’re at it.

The game begins with a look into Lara’s past, as a cut scene shows Lara as a small girl with her Mother on an aircraft.  Of course, trouble is never far away and the plane crashes.  The pair survive and come across an ancient artefact with mysterious powers, which the curious girl activates resulting in her Mother being ‘sucked’ into it. Without explanation, the game cuts straight to modern times with Lara based in Bolivia.  This opening scene is the basis for the whole story, of which I will of course not go into.

The first level (most of which is available to download for free as a demo on the Xbox Live marketplace) sets the scene for the adventure and introduces most aspects of the game in a sort of implemented tutorial.  The main concept of the game is platforming; climbing, jumping, swinging; mixed with gun combat and of course puzzle solving, while staying in contact with ’Zip’ via headset.  This is really the first game of such a genre on the Xbox 360 and is best likened to Prince of Persia.

The platforming side is satisfying and rarely frustrating.  Your character can climb onto ledges, climb along cliffs, jump onto ropes and swing, spin on branches and the like and climb up poles.  A good thing is that if you fall to your doom, it is your fault and not the game’s.  While many such games leave you feeling frustrated as you unjustly fall to your death, with Tomb Raider Legend (TRL) you know it was due to your own carelessness and that you mustn’t let your concentration drop next time.  A very well implemented feature to keep you on your toes is that with further jumps Lara only catches on with one hand, and you must quickly tap Y to make her grab with her other hand to keep her safe.  This way you never let your guard down and it maintains a good sense of urgency and deters from complacency.  To avoid monotony, players can tap Y in rhythm when climbing (or swimming) to make the character go faster, again which just enhances these sections.

Much of Tomb Raider’s identity is in it’s famous dual pistols and of course they’re always by your side in Legend.  Some levels are very combat heavy while others barely feature it at all, but it’s always present to some extent.  It has a very arcadey feel as players lock on and fire.  The enemies come in numbers rather than in power, as you’re often swarmed by easily picked off soldiers that provide little challenge.  It is disappointing that there is so little variation in the combat section.  Most enemies are near-identical in appearance (apart from the odd tiger) and only a small range of weapons is shared between them, this means that such sections can sometimes become tiresome and a bit of a chore.  To make it a little more interesting some environmental objects are interactive, meaning for example, you can shoot boulders that fall and crush soldiers, or simply classically shoot fuel barrels with satisfying effects.  The pistols have infinite ammo and players can pick up enemies dropped weapons, although only one ‘extra’ can be carried at a time.  Besides, I found there is something more satisfying about using the dual pistols anyway, even if they are sometimes less effective.  In your back pack grenades and up to 3 health packs can be carried too, with most enemies dropping health you rarely have too many problems with it.  Some ‘combo’ moves can be pulled off, including a slow motion ‘jump and shoot’ but there is really few occasions where they’re necessary.

As always, puzzle solving serves an integral part.  They often involve boxes, pressure pads and ancient mechanisms and thus usually lack originality in that sense.  However, the latter point is not necessarily a negative, as after all the point of this edition is to return to classic Tomb Raider, and thought has gone into the puzzles.  They may initially reek of simplicity whereby you think “Well I just put that box on that pad”, but as you look closely, you realise a significant amount of thought is going to be required just to figure out how to get the box up there (for example).  Each puzzle is stimulating enough to produce a sense of achievement, without crossing that line into infuriatingly difficult, often it’ll seem so obvious when you’ve done it.  So as to avoid a feeling of utter bewilderment prompts are provided in the way of significant or interactive objects emitting a slight glow, whereby you can use your goggles to get a small amount of information on the object such as “This can be moved”.  As well as ‘major’ puzzle sections, small puzzles are implemented throughout the levels to keep you thinking.

While the predictable ‘end of level’ boss format is not adopted in Legend, several boss sections do make an appearance.  These sections can be somewhat mediocre, so it is fortunate that they’re not a prominent feature of the game.  The battle are often clichéd, underwhelming and lame.  One boss in particular (a giant serpent) while hardly original could’ve made for a memorable section if it were not blighted by a major isolated control issue, whereby the grapple just would just not go where I told it to go!  Despite these boss sections not adding much to Legend, they do break up the action and bring in some welcomed variation to the gameplay.

Also to mix the action up, a couple of motorbike driving sections play a part.  These fast paced areas are simple, arcadey and genuinely fun.  You and Lara spend much of the game using your brain, so letting her hair down and taking part in some mindless driving and shooting is perhaps Lara’s equivalent to the average woman’s retail therapy.  Some swimming sections are integrated too again.  Originally used in Shenmue and most recently in Resident Evil 4 ‘action’ cut scenes make a welcome debut.  These are basically a twist on your average cut scene, meaning instead of just watching the action unfold, you must hit on screen commands in time to e.g. make Lara jump from a beast.  They’re thoroughly enjoyable to take part in, keeping you as involved in the game as possible and I only hope more developers implement them, instead of having you watch most of the game instead of taking part.

The main story mode takes around 10 hours to complete, which some used to lengthy RPGs and the like may find too short.  However, 3 difficulty modes are on offer, with an extra achievement for completing the game on hard.  Also, throughout the game, gold, silver and bronze awards are found.  To find all these and gain their respective achievements you would have to play through at least once more.  Various other unlockables are available such as new outfits, but more importantly every level can be played through again in time trial mode.  This can prove quite a challenge but an achievement is rewarded upon completion as an incentive.  The Croft manor is available for exploration at any time too, including the butler, who will undoubtedly bring a tear to the eye of many, as they remember locking him in the freezer of the original games.  Croft manor is rather large with lots to do, and must be explored to gain all of the rewards.