[Terramax]

TOMB RAIDER LEGEND

As Lara quips on the first level “death by irony is always painful” I later couldn’t help thinking the joke was on her.

Now with the Tomb Raider franchise taken over by the Fabled Soul Reaver team, Crystal Dynamics, Legends addresses the one major problem that all fans criticised for - the control scheme – yet produces new problems and deduces established elements of the first iterations nobody wanted to leave.

Dropping the gun battle issues, which I will get onto later, Lara is a dream to handle, something we all would like to hear.

The controls depend on the angle of the camera. If the Camera is facing to the side, jumping Lara in a certain direction will be a different button combination than when the camera is situated behind.

In theory so long as you have patience in lining up the camera in your preferred direction Lara will be hassle free. That’s in theory. Truth is when you’ve limited time to climb and jump before Lara is to be hit by an object or falls it slowly becomes cumbersome. As locations get more isolated camera gradually becomes more inconsistent, fidgety and unreliable making calculated harder than they should be.

Contrary to popular belief, Tomb Raider wasn’t just a pretty face. It was a technical achievement. One of the things that made the game so memorable (or even notorious) was the ingenious and highly evolved puzzles. For all those who found the puzzles in previous iterations easy, be prepared to be insulted. The puzzles within Legends are about the same level as that you would expect in a Spyro game.

Most make use of Lara’s trusty new grappling hook (isn’t that original) which she can use to pull objects to her, or in some cases vice versa as well as allowing her to swing from platform to platform Zelda style instead of jumping at a ridiculous ten feet in the air.

Though not the most unique item I’ve seen in a game, it brings in a little more depth but generally the simplicity of the puzzles make this a missed opportunity.

Now pushing and pulling was most certainly the case with previous games but what made them so smart was the use of gigantic locations where a box would have to be delivered what felt like half a mile to the other side, climbing over and under caves and mountains whilst fighting weird and wonderful creatures along the way.

Considering Lara Croft Tomb Raider has always been about the exploration of Tombs and that Crystal Dynamic’s love-child franchise also had its fair share, it boggles the mind why there doesn’t appear to be much of it in Legends.

Lara and co call them tombs, I call them caves with the lack of size they have. Locations are so small and isolated it’s impossible to make any puzzle ambitious. A good 95% of the time a puzzle revolves around a very small room, and never require Lara to leave for another section to find the missing link. Instead of arenas, we get one-way roads. This is not something that a game competing with the likes of established franchises as Grand Theft Auto and Oblivion need.

This would not have been a problem if this were a clone or rival, but on the context that Tomb Raider held king for being bigger and better than the competition I find this almost unacceptable. Short but sweet doesn’t work for Legends.

Though the more closed in surroundings can sometimes count as a plus. Compared to the enormous games previously mentioned, the locations in Legends seem a lot more full than most I’ve played.

Credit to the varied locations, even if achieved by some pretty cheap plot elements. You get from freezing Russia, urban Tokyo nights, tropical Bolivia and England.

Having been able to play the game with full specs with minimal slowdown I can happily tell you that graphically the jungles, deserts and tombs are some of the most
visually stunning locations in any game. The detail is immense with the lighting and water effects some of the most involving I’ve ever seen.

Branches and weeds stick out the grounds and ancient walls, water flows from every direction, surfaces are uneven and believably ruined looking, dismissing the shiny, plastic surfacing now seen in most next gen console games replaced by more realistic dusty and rougher looking surfaces. This is how Tomb Raider was always meant to look.

However the urban settings have more to be desired. Japan is as clichéd as it is boring, bland and with nothing within story or scenery to justify its place. As stated earlier, the only reason I can begin to tell the urban settings are ever in the game are an excuse to show off Lara’s figure in various revealing outfits or show off some of the more [forced] action scenarios.

What gets me most is one of the major criticisms in previous Tomb Raider instalments were the use of urban environments and yet professional reviewers have been light handed with Legend’s even though urban is the majority here.

Lets face it; Tomb Raider has never been known for its deep plot development. And why should it be? We play the Tomb Raider to venture into the beautiful ruins of
ancient civilizations thousands of years ago. If anything, surely the story behind them should speak for themselves. What we have here is an attempt to ‘dig up the past’, something that goes as far back than Lara’s teens in Last Revelation.

Frankly, who cares? And although the story does allow it easier for her to dress into some of the sauciest outfits seen so far what it also allows for is overtly boring and sometimes confusing storyline, mainly unfolding within cheesy conversations between Lara and her Yankee comrades watching from her home mansion.

Their main objective is a scapegoat to explain a rather detached story, instead of having a decent plot cleverly integrated into the level design, as well as many attempts at ‘humor’, but in this case, the U isn’t the only thing missing from it.

Not only is the voice acting annoying but also it’s also obtrusive. Crystal Dynamics have a knack for programming dialog whenever I’m rushing from boulders, calculating a complex jump, or enjoying the surroundings.
The developers have cunningly integrated the worst times for Lara’s pals to speak.

I’m sure there was some very humorous jokes in there somewhere if only I could hear them over the gunfire, also resulting in possible key plot elements being missed.

Further more, how many times do we need the co-actors to emphasis how much Lara enjoys climbing – Lara: Tonight is a good night for going out in the fresh air. Radio: Uh Oh, you know what that means? – YES, we do, so you don’t need to make the point for the 10th time.

During one segment of the game, Lara lost all radio contact with her crew. For the story, this was supposed to create suspense. I felt like punching the air, praying that they would never retain contact. Unfortunately it isn’t for long, and Lara spends the next few corners anxiously calling them again and again.

I also noticed that Lara, both her voice and looks, have dropped the girl with attitude she had in original games. Her lines are quirky and occasionally cute (obviously to make her seem more approachable than past games). Despite few sly remarks here and there, there isn’t anything that forceful or powerful about her presence. I guess it’s up to the individual to decide if this is for better or worse.

And the interactive cut scenes are a waste of time too. Anyone who’s played Shenmue, Sword of Berzerk or Broken Sword 3 knows what I’m talking about. It requires the player to press the direction buttons within a small space of time or else Lara dies in the cut scene. To me this is a cheap way of avoiding involving the player in the action with any freedom.

Another tedious task were bike action scenarios. Again, they weren’t difficult as you just switch between shooting one man on a bike to another like some rail shooter, this time however Lara’s guns are as reliable as a vampire working honestly for the red cross.

Ah, and the gunfights. How tedious and unprofessional. Whilst running up to an enemy, and using them to jump a number of feet high in slow motion is fun to begin with, accidentally jumping down cliffs whilst focusing on the battle, leaving you contemplating jumping out the window isn’t.
Neither is spending about 2 minutes trying to kill an enemy from afar as, whilst Lara is the best at athletics, she is the absolute worst at aiming.

Zooming in does very little to make distant shots more accurate. Had there not been unlimited ammo for the pistol, it would’ve resulted in hand-to-hand combat to beat anyone. This nightmare worsens with the jumping around when trying to outperform a Leopard that takes about 40 machinegun bullets to kill. Luckily, 95% of enemies are humans. Did I say lucky? I meant unfortunately. They did nothing to enforce this was a game about exploring jungles and tombs.

Once you’re locked on to someone, it’s incredibly frustrating to lock onto something else. When there is an enemy behind you, chances are you’ll have to just keep jumping about until the game automatically locks on itself

Why there wasn’t the choice of an intuitive free aim control scheme instead (or maybe just skipping the action altogether, as most of the time it’s pretty darn limited and frustrating)?

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