The Review Post

First of all, my Silent Hill review is already up at GameAxis and available for viewing here.

And second of all, much to my surprise, I ended up finishing Tomb Raider: Legend last night, and so my thoughts on the game are ready to fly.

As a game, TRL is very solid and competently thought out, showing a real sense of craftsmanship in the controls and level design. The levels, strangely enough, while much better looking than their PS1 ancestors never seem to reach the same sense of scale. I’m thinking in particular of the massive Greek ruins that caused so many open mouths in 1996, while TRL sports nothing on quite that same level of scale.

On the other hand, the game does look great. Lara is finally looking recognizably human, rather than a massively stylized rendition of one, the environments are brimming with nice effects such as shafts of light streaming from the roofs of ruined tombs, and even little touches such as when Lara climbs out of the water after a swim, her skin is shiny with water, and her clothing is actually a shade darker to reflect the water absorption.

Lara’s voice acting–as well as that of her allies and enemies–is another quality act. While some of the characters occasionally come off as seeming somewhat cliche, they are at least performed competently, with no bad voice acting anywhere. Keely Hawes, a British actress, does a fine job of giving the class and wit you’d expect from someone raised and educated as a Countess, but also manages to show the kind of fire and anger in Lara Croft that would make you believe that perhaps she really is tough enough to be a Tomb Raider despite her Genteel upbringing.

The controls are probably the one area where improvement has been desperately needed for years and it’s finally happened. Although the camera control–as is true for nearly all 3D games–can occasionally get in the way or be a little difficult to “tame” the rest of the controls operate almost intuitively, letting you perform a huge range of complex moves quickly and easily. The addition of a “rhythm based” enhancement to movement (You tap the triangle button in time to Lara’s moves) to increase the pace at which she swims, scales walls, or climbs ladders is nice touch for people that want to keep things moving and have the motor control to handle it. Levels–while not as expansive as previously mentioned–are still well thought out, and, unlike past Tomb Raider games, don’t rely on the “fetch quest” of finding a door or lock at one end of a gigantic environment, being forced to retrieve an item at the far end, then having to navigate to another unlocking mechanism way out at the other end, only to have to drag yourself back through the massive environment once again just to finally pull the lever and open the door. Puzzles, while still requiring some thought, are usually self-contained, so if you can’t seem to overcome an obstacle, it’s not because you’ve forgotten something 2 kilometers back, you’re just not seeing the solution built into the environment you’re currently in, and that’s a very, VERY welcome change.

On a story note, I’m happy to report that the story of this game is indeed pretty well done. Lara Croft–in a strange twist of irony–is becoming more and more human even as her cinematic counterpart Angelina Jolie becomes more and more unreal and superheroic with her feats of derring do. The story of Tomb Raider Legend is, surprisingly, but also obviously, once you think about it, the story of Lara Croft herself. The game actually takes a cue from a critical event mentioned in the offical Croft bios, the fact that she supposedly survived a plane crash in the Himalayas and how that experienced transformed her from mere dilettante to obsessed Tomb Raider. How that event, subsequent flash backs and a new adventure in the present tie all together gives a much clearer–and more sympathetic–picture of Lara Croft as a person rather than just a super hot badass with guns.

This is also where I have to lodge my largest complaint with the game. While as a pure gaming experience it is a joy to interact with from start to finish, that finish comes FAR too abruptly. It feels like just the train hit top speed, it ran into the side of the mountain and you are left shocked and not quite believing that it’s over. It ends on what amounts to a cliff hanger (Which is annoying in itself) but also ends after less than ten hours of game play, and that is when you’re taking your time. Dedicated, hardcore gamers that try and get through the game as quickly possible can finish the game in 5-6 hours. It can be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view, but the ride ends far too quickly. Just as it’s getting really, really good, in fact.

So although it’s incredibly short, it’s an amazingly fun game. I actually have a kind of difficult time being able to reccomend it as a game to buy because of its short length, but if you’re the sort of person that rents games, this is one that you HAVE to rent as it can be easily finished in a weekend. With any luck, Crystal Dynamics will be making an announcement about a new Tomb Raider game at the E3 for the PS2, since it’s obvious this story is meant to be continued, and now that the engine is in place, all that really needs to be done is design new levels and get the voice actors and musicians in for another round. The foundation is there to quickly get the sequel and resolve story, and, by God, they’d BETTER resolve this story, because I really, REALLY need to know how this ends…