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

The good, the bad and the extremely pretty

Posted 10 Apr 2006 09:00 by
Another update to the series that is long overdue is the ability to move things freely about the levels. The first game introduced us to the skill of moving blocks by pushing or dragging them in straight lines.
This feature was kept the same throughout the entire series of games to date. Now with Legend, Lara is able to move things about very freely, turning by the slightest angle to push crates into exactly the right position. Rolling boulders has also been added, suddenly the historical enemy has become an ally. The boulders move as specified by the physics of planet Earth too, so do many other things that Lara can move by dragging, pushing or even by administering a swift kick from her shapely feet. Enemies drop convincingly, explosions throw debris through realistic looking arcs and we have yet to find any objects embedded into walls or floating in the air.

Tomb Raider II introduced Lara to vehicles for the first time, Legend continues this popular addition in a slightly different way than older games in the series.
Previously vehicles were only used to get around levels in ways that Lara could not do on foot. Here, vehicles are also used in special stages. During these stages, Lara is attacked by yet more mercenaries, riding and driving alongside her in an attempt to bring their guns to bear on our plucky heroine. We are forced to guide Lara between boulders, over jumps and through crates in order to reach her goal. Of course, she can fire back at the nasty men as well. These sequences are amongst the weakest of the game since they feel almost bolted on to give a different aspect to the gameplay.
They work well in and of themselves, but they don't integrate well with the rest of the game.

There are a few more niggles of course, it wouldn't be a SPOnG review if we only pointed out the good things. No matter how much is riding on the success of Legend, we need to be objective and fair.

The main issue is mentioned above, Lara has continued her move towards being a character from a John Woo film. The human body count on Legend is quite high and that is not what we at SPOnG see as the point of Tomb Raider games. Granted we don't like the killing of endangered animals either, but a middle ground could easily be reached. Indiana Jones managed quite well with a six-shooter and a whip, why does Lara need grenades, sub-machine guns and rifles?
To make another movie-related analogy, compare the difference between the television version of Mission: Impossible and the movies that have spun off from the series - more flash and bang than think and plan.

Another gripe we have involves more retro-gaming inspired action that has found its way into the Tomb Raider experience. In several places throughout the game, we are asked to guide Lara through a difficult situation by quickly pressing buttons at the right time during what looks like a cut scene.
This gameplay technique harks back to the original Dragon's Lair for inspiration and is just as frustrating when you get it wrong or don't react in time as it was in that older game. A similar issue occurs when you get to what we like to call a "Run Lara Run" sequence. These involve escaping from a pursuing threat such as a helicopter, boulder or supernatural enemy by just running and dodging obstacles. You have very little warning that you have entered one of these sequences and you can be killed after only a couple of seconds. Again frustration, and re-loading, can occur frequently.

So has it all worked? Has Eidos saved Lara from the second-hand basket at Gamestation? Turn over and find out...
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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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