Reviews// Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2)

Singing Lara, Lara, Lara!

Posted 10 Apr 2006 09:00 by
Do we really have to go into that whole introduction of the series shtick with this one? You all know who Lara Croft is. You all know what the Tomb Raider series is all about. You all know how much is riding on the release of this latest outing for Lara.

Or do you?

Let's take that first one, "Who is Lara Croft?" Surely, as the introduction to the original game's manual states, she is the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft, who as a 21 year-old girl survived a plane crash, and the two week trek to the village of Tokakeriby, with a love of adventure that caused her family to disown her, forcing her to take up writing travel books in order to fund her expeditions? Not so says the manual for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend. Lara is the daughter of an archeologist, Earl Richard Croft of Abbingdon, who survived a plane crash at the age of nine - that claimed the life of her mother - and the ten day trek to Kathmandu, while the death of her father when she was eighteen left her with several estates and a personal fortune that allowed her to roam the world.

Obviously, things have changed in the world of Tomb Raider. This is apparent as soon as the game starts and the "inspired by" James Bond title sequence plays to introduce you to the game. Honestly, all this sequence needs is to start with Lara viewed down the barrel of a gun and you could be mistaken for thinking that MGM had decided to make a film about Jane Bond this year. The source of all of these changes becomes apparent the moment you take a trip to stately Croft Manor, that staircase, those balconies, that glass-walled room, surely the last time we saw this place it was inhabited by Arnold Judas Rimmer and the new Mrs. Pitt?

The Tinsletown influences don't stop there either, Lara is now supported in her Tomb Raiding by her assistants back at the Manor, who advise her over the camera-equipped satellite communication headset she wears.
It seems, however, that Eidos were unable to license back the characters that Paramount created for the two movies, since we now have help from Zip and Alistair, the techie and the bookworm advisors respectively, not from Bryce and Hillary. Admittedly, Zip made an appearance in Tomb Raider Chronicles, but everything else seems to have been revised or created to fit the movies. Indeed, Winston the butler hardly makes any impact on the proceedings at all, gone forever are the slippers, body armour and shotgun that Mr. Barrie so sportingly used in the first film, replaced with a typical "It's not my place to say, but.." speech.

Another thing that has changed is the voice of Lara Croft. Keeley Hawes, probably best known as Zoe from the BBC's Spooks (MI-5 in the US) [perhaps even better remembered for Tipping the Velvet - Ed.] follows Shelley Blond, Judith Gibbins and Jonell Elliott in the voice acting stakes. Ms Hawes does a good job with Lara, with the right mix of aristocratic tones and playful love of adventure. The same line "I've missed Ghana" said twice, after a swim in a lake and after a run through a set of traps, gives the perfect glimpse into Lara's character.

But enough of this background and influence commentary, what about the game? Read on, adventurer, read on...
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Comments

ohms 11 Apr 2006 08:03
1/11
A very generous score, I'd have given it a B I think, as enjoyable as it is to play, it's still lacking in many areas. (tedious boss battles - AAARGH!!)

I hope the inevitable sequel, that the game's ending points to, has less gunplay and more of the puzzle solving and climbing/jumping in exotic locales that made the series great back in the day.

tyrion 11 Apr 2006 12:05
2/11
ohms wrote:
A very generous score, I'd have given it a B I think, as enjoyable as it is to play, it's still lacking in many areas. (tedious boss battles - AAARGH!!)

I found the boss battles to be much less frustrating than usual. If you go back and play the abomonation from the first game, now that was a tedious battle, with much falling off and just blasting away.

I won't go into specifics to avoid spoiling the game for those that haven't played it, or got to the bosses, but I found the battles in Legend quite good, some of them were inventive, but best of all they were usually quite short.

ohms wrote:
I hope the inevitable sequel, that the game's ending points to, has less gunplay and more of the puzzle solving and climbing/jumping in exotic locales that made the series great back in the day.

That is the main hope I have for the sequel too. It's really very illogical to have Lara fight her way through traps and hard to navigate rooms just to find a small army has been there before her and set up camp at the end of the level. The levels in Nepal and England handled this the best I though, Ghana and Bolivia the worst.
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SPInGSPOnG 11 Apr 2006 12:28
3/11
One thing, I'm sure we're all contemplating, is where are Shelley Blond, Judith Gibbins and Jonell Elliott now? IMDB tells us this...

Shelley Blond was in Episode 3.1 of Peep Show.

Judith Gibbins has only ever been in Tomb Raider (developer's cousin, anybody???)

Jonell Elliott has been in nothing since Tomb Raider.

As voice acting goes, being the "Voice of Lara Croft" seems to be as much of a career boost as being the "Face of Lara Croft" is for bimbo self-promotion girls.
ohms 12 Apr 2006 14:57
4/11
tyrion wrote:

I found the boss battles to be much less frustrating than usual. If you go back and play the abomonation from the first game, now that was a tedious battle, with much falling off and just blasting away.


yeah, man, how could I have forgotten that one.
actually, I think Legend was the first TR game were I never got to the point of throwing every expletive imaginable at Lara. That's got to be an improvement.


RIPRAW 13 Apr 2006 09:00
5/11
ohms wrote:


yeah, man, how could I have forgotten that one.
actually, I think Legend was the first TR game were I never got to the point of throwing every expletive imaginable at Lara. That's got to be an improvement.




But isn't that what make it a Tomb Raider game? I'll miss those moments...
Coxy 15 Apr 2006 21:47
6/11
It is a very good game, the environments look more believable, and the gameplay has also improved, all in all it's a solid title.

The only thing that spoils it for me is the voice acting, it can be god-awful in places, especially during the flashback.

The learning curve is also a mixed bag, some of the puzzles are relatively easy, but theres this one level in Japan I am completely stuck on (the one where you have to get the bike from under the glass roof, but I digress)

On the whole, its a great game and well worth the price.
kid_77 16 Apr 2006 09:06
7/11
It's by far the best Tomb Raider. At least now I can play it for 30 minutes without being put off by the UTTER S**TE "turn-on-spot", "side-step" control method of the previous games.
tyrion 17 Apr 2006 16:27
8/11
Coxy wrote:
The learning curve is also a mixed bag, some of the puzzles are relatively easy, but theres this one level in Japan I am completely stuck on (the one where you have to get the bike from under the glass roof, but I digress)

That sounds like a cry for help, I can hint if you post where you are stuck.
Coxy 20 Apr 2006 17:00
9/11
tyrion wrote:
That sounds like a cry for help, I can hint if you post where you are stuck.



It was a cry for help, but i've managed to solve it now, cheers anyways!
tyrion 20 Apr 2006 18:31
10/11
Coxy wrote:
It was a cry for help, but i've managed to solve it now, cheers anyways!

No problem, I can hint again later if you wish, to stop you having to read a walkthrough.

I personally hate having to see full walkthroughs because I'm always tempted to read ahead and see what I need to do next. Whereas hints just encourage you to think a bit for yourself.

Maybe we should gave a game hints forum?
LUPOS 20 Apr 2006 19:34
11/11
tyrion wrote:
Maybe we should gave a game hints forum?


Lost person: "hey, does anyoen know how to beat that weird water monster in kameo, it sure is a toughy"

Helpfull gamer: "god you noob, first off dont play such stupid fag games. secondly all you have to do to beat it is not suck DICK! powned!"

Inspite of what you may be thinking that was not lifted directly from gamefaqs, although it could have been. I dunno if having a hint forum on here would be nice cause we could potentialy maintaine a nice usefull forum, or if it would be terrible because it would infest these generaly pleasnt forums with the worst kind of people.

Either way im keeping my opinion out of that executive decision cause i don't want any part of it if/when you have to hire a full time staff just to ban assholes.

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