Tomb Raider Legend Review (Xbox 360) By gashead

8 / 10
24 May 2006 at 18:59

Review by: gashead

10 years ago, Eidos and Core unleashed probably the most instantly recognisable video game characters in history, one Lara Croft. Well over 25 releases later, she's back and back with a bang. After Core runied the series with the diabolical Angel of Darkness, Eidos knew things had to change. Step forward Crystal Dynamics the team responsible with saving the Tomb Raider series and they may well have done that.


Let me start by saying this. If you're a fan of the old Tomb Raider's (1, 2 and 3 in particular) then you're probably going to enjoy Tomb Raider: Legend. If you didn't, well its probably best to click “Back” before reading on. I am, however, quite happy to say that Crystal and Eidos saw sense to take Lara back to the actual tomb raiding which is a relief.

So how does it play? As you'd expect, Lara must navigate her way through a number of tombs finding certain artefacts along the way. But there's always someone else who wants to find those artefacts as well. Controlling Lara can be a bit of a challenge a first. It occasionally feels as if the controls are a little too responsive. However, after a half hour or so, it feels really simple and intuitive to use. The camera can be quite irritating though. You can control the camera yourself, although it seems to have a mind of its own, constantly moving and causing you to fall to a painful (looking) death.

The combat is pretty poor as well. It never really feels as though its taking all your effort into each battle. Admittedly, its probably difficult to match the free-following combat of something like Prince of Persia with the heart-pounding action of Resident Evil 4. But nonetheless it feels like its lacking something.

Visually, its lacking something too. Sure, it looks better than the current gen titles, but not by much. Some of the environments look fantastic, but when you get up close, everything looks very “old-gen”. Sorry Crystal, but this just won't do. Graphics aren't everything, but when you splash out a heck of a lot of cash for a brand new next-generation console, you expect better than this. I mean, you don't even see Lara's mouth move when she's talking!

The audio department have done a reasonable job. It's not mind-blowing edge of your seat stuff, but its certainly not going to make you reach for the “mute” button. The voice-overs, something I found to be dreadful in Perfect Dark Zero, are pretty good. All the voices are done well and they really give you a sense of the characters feeling. Special praise to Keeley Hawes, aka Zoe from Spooks, for her performance as Ms Croft herself.

At this point, I'd usually talk about Multiplayer aspects of a game, but since Tomb Raider doesn't have any, I'm gonna talk about something else. Croft Manor. What's happened to it? Why's it all different. I was so looking forward to a revamped Croft Manor from the old Tomb Raider's but instead, Crystal decided to go with the naff Movie version.

So there you have it, the latest in the Tomb Raider series. It's not incredible, but is not terrible at the same time. As I said, Tomb Raider fans will enjoy it, but everyone else will probably loathe it. Crystal Dynamics have just about get Lara Croft back on her feet, here's hoping a new Tomb Raider title isn't that far away

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