Tomb Raider: Legend (6 years late!)

To celibrate my recent membership of the LHSRA Reviews I have written this: my first review. Its more of a practice really, as Tomb Raider: Legend was first released in 2006, and in anticipation of the upcoming Tomb Raider! So yeah, it's a pretty old game now. I shall review it by 2006's standards because it would be unfair to compare it to more recent games(at least graphically).

    Well this was the 7th console Tomb Raider and the first one for the PS3 & Xbox360 era, and after the abysmal Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness(PS2), Legend had a lot of making up to do.
    After the obligatory opening cut-scene which recaps young Lara's traumatic childhood experiences(a plane crash in the Himalayas, the loss of her mother, etc)Legend then opens with Lara Croft in Bolivia exploring the ruins of Tiwanaku, the real-life capitol of a real-life Pre-Incan civilisation. In her explorations Lara stumbles across another expedition, manned by identical looking armed goons, and before you know it Lara is doing what she does best: killing men(and occasionally woman), endangered animals and then falling off things.

    The plot of Legend is the typical Tomb Raider quest for X artefact(s), which has/have been carelessly left in different locations across the globe. This time X artefact is the legendary Excalibur, which, it turns out is actually now in several shards and needs to be re-forged(much like Aragon's sword in LOTR). To be fair to the writers, they have done some research into the Arthurian Legends and merged them with myths from other cultures to explain Lara's constant globe-trotting(a Tomb Raider game set exclusively in England would not be much of a game). Along with all this, it turns out that both Lara's dead parents, and her(assumed) dead friend Amanda - SPOILER: she's both alive and the main villain) are all caught up in the quest for Excalibur, and so making this particular adventure more personal.
    The dialogue isn't great, often cliched and Lara now had a slightly annoying team who talk at her via a wireless headset. Lara's team consists of an uptight English historian called Alistair and a stereotypical wise-cracking black American named Zip, who acts as your tech-expert. Whilst this makes it easier to get plot ideas across when playing without having to suffer a hundred cut-scenes, it does detract from some of the locations. It's hard to feel the isolation of being 100 feet under a mountain when your team keep nattering on and calling Lara crazy when you make a tricky jump.
    The writers seem to have taken on board some of the many observations of Tomb Raider fans, trying to make her seem less psychotic(I don't think anyone actually minded her being psychotic). The first time you have to kill an endangered species Lara expresses her regret at least. She still goes on to kill several more rare jaguars later on in that level, but who cares about wild life when you're desecrating an ancient tomb looking for loot? But whatever Lara thinks of wild animals, she blatantly doesn't give a damn about her carbon foot-print. At one point Lara travels from Bolivia to the UK and then straight to Peru for a five minute conversation. Baring in mind these countries share a boarder. Hasn't Lara heard of Video Conferencing? She should talk to Zip about that really.
    I still find it amusing the designers still call Lara an archaeologist though. As much as Lara expresses her love for ruins, tombs and ancient cultures, if there's a priceless relic blocking the door she's quick enough to smash it into shards rather than come back with a survey team and Tony Robinson for moral support.
    Over all, the plot is what you expect from a Tomb Raider game, i.e. A knock-off Indiana Jones story with a highly sexualised woman. Saying that Lara herself seems totally asexual. I get the feeling that she is neither straight nor gay, but instead has a highly usual sexual attraction for crumbling masonry, or possibly mummies.

    Now for the actual game! Graphically Legend is pretty decent for the time it was released in(2006). The ruins and scenery look pretty lush but on levels in modern locations the small details often look quite ugly.
    The locations within the game are varied and interesting if a bit short. You get to explore parts of Bolivia, Peru, Tokyo, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Nepal and, most shockingly of all, Cornwall! There is a good mix of ancient foliage clad ruins, modern areas and vehicle sections in which you get to ride a motor bike at break-neck speed and watch Lara crash into walls. Saying that, the motor biking sections are actually really fun to play, and as a seasoned TR fan, watching Lara collide with a rock spire at 90 MPH is still fun the tenth time you see it. As usual with a post Tomb Raider 1 Tomb Raider game there could be a few more tombs and a few less city inspired levels, but Legend has a much better balance than Tomb Raiders 2,3,5 and Angel of Darkness.
    The game play is a large step up from AoD. Crystal Dynamics have pretty much fused the controls of Tomb Raider: Last Revelation(i.e. TR 4) with those of Prince of Persia. Lara can climb, roll, swim, shimmy along ledges and swing on vines much more freely than in previous game, and now she has a magnetic grappling hook for those ruins in which the ancients forgot to leave handy ropes dangling over large chasms. It is also useful for grappling handy out of reach item.
    The best thing Legend brought to the game play is the ability to think your way around death-traps. I spent ten minutes on one level trying to time a jump through some vicious swirling blades only to realise that the fork-lift truck I used to smash through the wall could withstand the whirling blades much better than Lara.
    Combat, as always in Tomb Raider games, is the worst part of the game play but with the auto-aim on it's not very difficult. My major concern was the fact it was hard to switch between targets, so I was shooting at the goon with a pistol 30 feet away whilst there was a goon with a shot gun 5 feet away. All in all though the combat is still quite fun and with new close-quarter moves and obvious exploding set-pieces can make you feel like a bad ass. Probably the best combat in any Tomb Raider game before it.
    Many people might moan about the camera, which often veers off in the wrong direction during difficult jumps, but I see this as a regular part of Tomb Raider and should be embraced.

    I was actually quite surprised by how much I enjoyed going back to Legend. It has quite a few faults(most of them to do with historical accuracy if I'm honest, and blatant sexism at times - Tokyo level being the worst for this) but the game play still feels slick after 6 years, there's plenty of jumping from precarious ledges, falling into pits, getting hacked up by swirling blades and actually raiding some tombs.  I give it a decent 7.5/10. But saying that, if Legend had been a few hours longer I would have rounded up to 8.

- Mike