Finally we reach "How much is riding on this game?"
Well to be frank, this game possibly has the futures of Eidos, SCi and the British games publishing industry resting on its well proportioned shoulders.
SCi recently won the MCV Industry Excellence Award of Unsung Hero, recognition for keeping Eidos, and by extension Lara herself, in British hands.
These awards are voted for exclusively by members of the UK games industry and represent the feelings of developers, publishers, marketeers, distributors and retailers. Lara is loved within the industry, and well she should be, it was Lara who got gaming the recognition it deserves in the UK mainstream press and beyond. SCi expects to hit its profit target for the year, but it is relying on sales of Legend and the upcoming Hitman: Blood Money to reach that target. If Eidos drops the ball as badly as it did with Lara's last adventure then, this time next year, the UK games industry may be lamenting the loss of its Unsung Hero.
So, does the game stack up to the challenge? Has the move to developers Crystal Dynamics proved to be a good decision? Has Toby Gard managed to give Lara back some of her original appeal? Has the Angel of Darkness finally been laid to rest?
The short answer to all of those questions is yes... yes indeed!
Legend is such a better game than Angel, it hardly bears comparison.
Whereas Angel was a confused, half-completed game that lost its way and tried to remove the focus from Lara, Legend is a confident, well-planned game with a coherent, and interesting, storyline that can easily re-invigorate the series if you, the games-playing public, give it a chance. Crystal Dynamics has delivered a game that plays as well and as fluidly as a Tomb Raider game should. The graphics are fantastic, the sounds are great and the whole thing makes use of physics and lighting to deliver a rewarding experience that will keep you coming back for more.
Despite the gripes and niggles we have outlined above, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend is a return to form for the series. If not a return to the cerebral joy of the first game, then at least to the mix of action and adventuring that the second brought us. We are definitely seeing an end to the slump that the previous game exemplified. The decision within Eidos to give Crystal Dynamics not only the development responsibilities for this game, but the time to complete them (this game could so easily have been rushed out for the recent Christmas silly season) has born the sort of wonderful fruit that a new set of brains can bring to a game series.
Think of Legend as the Tomb Raider version of Batman Begins, the series has been re-started by whittling it back to its fundamentals and adding in only what needs to be there.
Lara Croft will return.
SPOnG Rating: A
Despite capitulating with Hollywood to make Lara who la-la-land thinks she should be, Eidos has produced a true successor to the adventures that captured our imaginations on the Playstation just in time to see Lara take her place in the games roster of the Playstation 3.
SCi recently won the MCV Industry Excellence Award of Unsung Hero, recognition for keeping Eidos, and by extension Lara herself, in British hands.
So, does the game stack up to the challenge? Has the move to developers Crystal Dynamics proved to be a good decision? Has Toby Gard managed to give Lara back some of her original appeal? Has the Angel of Darkness finally been laid to rest?
The short answer to all of those questions is yes... yes indeed!
Think of Legend as the Tomb Raider version of Batman Begins, the series has been re-started by whittling it back to its fundamentals and adding in only what needs to be there.
Lara Croft will return.
SPOnG Rating: A
Despite capitulating with Hollywood to make Lara who la-la-land thinks she should be, Eidos has produced a true successor to the adventures that captured our imaginations on the Playstation just in time to see Lara take her place in the games roster of the Playstation 3.
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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.
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.
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.
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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