Lara returns for a fun quickie.
The story centers on the disappearance of Lara’s mother when Lara was a child. It’s barely coherent, and there are plot holes big enough to fly a plane through. Whoever wrote the story for this game must have penned it in junior-high. But if nothing more, the story serves its purpose as it just gives you an excuse to explore more tombs.
GAMEPLAY
The controls have been greatly improved from past games. Controlling Lara now feels very natural, and you can perform amazing jumps with just a couple button presses. The camera can be adjusted manually, and for the most part works well. However, when hanging from ledges, it switches to a fixed camera that doesn’t always allow you to see where you’re trying to jump to.
The puzzles are fun, but not very challenging. Most of them involve pushing a block onto a switch to open a locked door. The real fun comes from the platforming, and exploration. Some of the best puzzles are the ones where you need to platform your way through a room to get to the exit.
The downside to the game play is that the gunfights are boring. Granted, it’s not the main focus of the game, but it’s still a lacking element. Enemies are dumb and take too many bullets before going down. The weapons all do about the same damage. It’s just not fun. It’s almost like they were going to put some gimmick into the combat system, but forgot to put it in for the final build.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are bland in some spots, and very nice in others on the 360. There are a lot of objects with shiny surfaces, and high-resolution textures. But the polygon count seems low, and the shadows are very pixilated. There are some places where lighting effects don’t seem to work well, or at all with the Personal Light Source. The new Lara is easy on the eyes, while still being more realistic than her previous incarnations. Her movements are very fluid, and lifelike. In general, the graphics aren’t up to par with 360 standards. It’s more like they took the Xbox version, added some reflections, and called it a day.
SOUND
Much like the graphics, the sound is also hit-or-miss. Lara’s voice acting is well done, but everyone else seems sort of half-assed. The gunshots and explosions sound halfway decent, but no other effects do. Background music is rarely noticeable, and forgettable when you do notice it.
VALUE
Despite having some uninspiring elements, I found Tomb Raider: Legend to be very enjoyable. The environments are well designed, and there’s a fair amount of replay from the numerous unlockables, and time trial modes. The main story is a little short, and will take most players around 10 hours to complete. But for those that like exploring until every last hidden item has been found, TRL will keep you busy for many more hours after that.
Overall, there’s just something fun about Lara’s new adventure. There are elements to it that aren’t fun, or even annoying. Yet I found myself compelled to continue playing just by the sheer fun of Tomb Raiding again. It didn’t last long, but it was fun while it lasted.