Tomb Raider Legend Soars Above Recent TR Titles and Above Many Other Adventure Titles
The Tomb Raider series is a long running adventure series that started way back in 1998 and has spawned countless sequels to the original Tomb Raider. When the plethora of squeals came out, they were a mixed bag of quality. Some of them were excellent while others never needed to see the light of day. Recently a few horrid Tomb Raider games were released which made the Tomb Raider franchise the laughing stock of the gaming industry. When Crystal Dynamics announced that the studio was working on Tomb Raider Legend, no one knew what to expect from this game, they could only wait. Luckily for us gamers, the wait was all worth it in the end.
STORY
The story for Tomb Raider Legend follows the path of looking into Lara Crofts past and the legend of King Arthur. Lara’s parents were archeologists who would dig deep into ancient ruins to search for interesting relics. Lara’s mother decided to take Lara on one of her digs at Ghana. On the plane flight to Ghana, a strong wind caused the plane to crash at an ancient ruin that held many mysteries. When little Lara pulled a strange sword out of a rock the ruin started going haywire. Lara’s mother got Lara out of the way just before something in the spinning storm of stones took Lara’s mother away from Lara forever. Lara never knew what had happened to her mother that day at the ruins but she was determined to find out what happened. With this as the basic plot to the story with the added dimension of the King Arthur legend, the story turns out to be one of the most memorable in recent gaming history.
The story starts with a phone call from one of Lara’s friends that a temple in Ghana was uncovered which turns out to be where Lara went with her mother when she was small, and the same place where her mother was killed. At the site where Lara’s mother died, Lara meets up with a new nemesis name Rutland who is set out to stop Lara. After Rutland escapes the ruins Lara finds a piece of a sword, the same sword Lara messed with that got her mother killed. Lara needs to find the rest of the sword to unlock the secrets of the sword and her past. Her quest to solve the puzzles of the past takes Lara to Ghana, Tokyo, Peru, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, England, and Nepal.
Lara meets up with some interesting and shocking characters from her past which all end in violence and more mystery. Crystal Dynamics put great time and thought in the story telling in Tomb Raider Legend which makes the game that much more enjoyable. One of the best parts of the story telling is when Lara thinks about a dig with her and some of her friends, which the player can control Lara, and all the terrifying events that proceed.
Overall the story is a highly memorable fiction story with many twists and turns. The story telling is near perfect with great cut scenes and very helpful dialog. Turning on the captions can help the story go along smoother by letting the gamer see every word said. All in all, the story in Tomb Raider Legend is one of the most memorable since Halo Combat Evolved.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in Tomb Raider Legend is one of the most entertaining parts of the game. With Legend being an adventure game there are naturally a plethora of puzzles to solve. The puzzle difficulties range from easy to insane with some puzzles that seem impossible before the gamer sits and thinks about the puzzle. The objects that are used for a puzzle flash every few seconds with a glow around that object. Most of the puzzles involve switches or putting a heavy box on a pad to open up a door. While the puzzles may be interesting in nature, the presentation of the puzzles are anything but. Legend shows no effort to explain the basics or the puzzles, for better or for worse, leaving the player sometimes running in circles not knowing what to do. The puzzles in Legend show up frequently and overall are pretty well done.
The weakest part of Tomb Raider Legend by far is the gunplay aspect of the game. There is a small selection of guns in Legend but dual pistols are always available. There is an automatic targeting system in the game that can cause some very infuriating moments in the heat of battle. For some odd reason the gun’s bullets shoot out with a stream of blue color which makes the guns much less enjoyable. Luckily the only time you have to use the guns is when Lara is fighting the paid mercenaries, which doesn’t come often because the puzzles greatly overshadow them. The guns in Tomb Raider Legend are terrible, and slow down the overall gameplay.
Ms. Croft has a myriad of impressive moves that she can extricate throughout the world. Lara can twist and flip in ways that are unimaginable to the average human. These elegant can help out in combat and are there just for looks. If Lara is to hit a mercenary with one of these extravagant moves the mercenary flies up in the air, giving Lara a few seconds of free shots. The beautiful moves that Lara pulls off bring a graceful aspect to Tomb Raider Legend.
Tomb Raider Legend has a few bosses at the end of a select few of the stages with some ranging from epic to boring. The bosses range from a regular guy to a giant serpent type monster. There are a few boss battles are with regular humans and both are boring with nothing epic going on. The boss battle with the serpent is epic and interesting with Lara having to use the environment to her advantage. The bosses in Legend are fun but underscored by the preceded level.
Most of the levels in Tomb Raider Legend occur deep down in a cave or ruin. With these environments being so dark, Lara carries around a light on her shirt to keep the area lit up. Lara is also packing a grappling hook that can help her out big time. When an object is shining Lara can hook her hook into these objects and swing on the object or pull the object to get to the next area. Lara also comes equipped with binoculars complete with a RAD mode that highlights things that can be moved or objects that are fragile. Lara came packed and ready for the mission in Legend and she has the tools to prove it.
There are hidden “rewards” throughout each level of Legend that Lara can collect to get achievement points. There are 3 classes of objects, bronze, silver, and gold. There are varying amounts of bronze and silver awards in each level but only one gold per level. The bronze rewards are made to be found fairly easy, while the silver rewards are harder, and the gold rewards are made to be found only by master treasure hunters. These rewards add a great hide and seek aspect to the game.
Overall the gameplay is a tremendous aspect to Tomb Raider Legend and brings the game together despite the feeble gunplay.
GRAPHICS
While the gameplay may be exquisite, the graphics outshines the gameplay by at least 2 notches. Tomb Raider Legend is a shining example of how to port a current gen game to a next generation console. While the current gen Legend looked pretty well, the Xbox 360 version looks bounds better.
The textures in the 360 version of Legend are overall pretty well done. The objects scattered throughout the game world look polished if not a little current gen. The boss battles that include something other than a human all look very good. The creatures look like they were well thought out and well implemented in Legend.
The character models in Tomb Raider Legend look good in detail but uncouth in design. The models look fine from a distance but once Lara gets close to them the real unearthly design comes out. The models look like they have too many wrinkles on their skin that just kills some of the cut scenes. Of course Lara looks amassing all the time but her helper Zip looks awful. The mercenaries look all the same but that model doesn’t particularly look bad. One person from your past, which if the name is said part of the story will be given away, and her partner both look pretty well done as they are a main part of the story. While some character models look great others look ridiculous.
The background and environments of the Legend levels have a level of detail unparallel to any other 360 titles. The level of work put into the backdrops must have been hours upon hours of hard labor to get these beautiful vistas to appear on the TV screen. The water is by far the most intriguing water every to grace the Xbox 360, along with the highly detailed mountains and old ruins. Sometimes Lara will fall off a tall ledge because the player will be admiring the beautiful scenery. These are the best backgrounds that I personally have ever witnessed.
Overall the graphics are extremely polished and the best-looking port the Xbox 360 has gotten.
SOUND
While the sound may be above average in Tomb Raider Legend, the soundtrack supplies nothing much memorable. The basic gun sounds in Legend are a disappointment at best. All the guns sound basically alike, which can cause some confusion on what gun Lara is currently wielding. Besides all the guns sounding alike, they all sound weak which puts an ever more hamper on the already unstable gunplay.
Unlike the gun sounds, the voice-overs are top notch. Lara sounds just as good as ever which his sexy English accent. Lara’s helpers all have nice voice over work but all their rambling about Lara not being careful can get a little tedious after a while. The mercenary voices are all the same and usually say, “There she is!” and “Get her!” The boss battles that Lara fights humans are annoying in the state that they always say the same thing over, and over. Overall the voice-overs are good but they can get dull and repetitive after a while.
The overall sound in Tomb Raider Legend is good but provides nothing memorable.
CONTROLS
The controls in Tomb Raider Legend are smart and well designed which helps the flow of the game. Most of the buttons on the 360 controller pad which seems like it could become confusing but it doesn’t. 2 or 3 buttons are used to help the guns and only 2 are needed at a time. A button is jump and the thumb sticks are used to move the camera around. Overall the controls are nothing to worry about because they are easy to learn.
REPLAY VALUE
Tomb Raider Legend’s single player campaign is short; personally I completed it in a little over 8 hours. There are no multiplayer modes what so ever. The game will provide entertainment for a couple of weeks. While the praise is high for the game in this review, the short length kills part of the game. There are time trial modes but that is just rushing through a level again. The replay value in this game is pretty bad, but the ending set up perfectly for a sequel.
CONCLUSION
Overall Tomb Raider Legend is a short but greatly enjoyable adventure game for the 360, with great graphics but short single player.