Topic: Tomb Raider: Legend

[JonLeung]

I'll make a Gaming Board category and move this into it.



After finishing Silent Hill 3 this weekend, I took on Tomb Raider: Legend.  (Hey, I'm allowed to play games when I really can't update the site!)  Since Lara Croft was never on a Nintendo system (except for the Game Boy Color game), and I wasn't interested in the past games while they were new or didn't have a decent computer then or whatever other reasons I'm not sure about, this is the only Tomb Raider game I've truly played.



The main game took me eight and a half hours on normal difficulty.  I still have many secrets yet to go back and find.  Shorter than I had hoped, thank goodness for the replay value.



The game was decent, but if you've played the recent Prince Of Persia games (I'm recalling Sands Of Time, as that's the only one I've played so far), you'd find the mechanics more than similar.  Hanging on to ledges, jumping onto and swinging from horizontal and vertical poles, etc.  (I know the GBC Tomb Raider game is similar to the 2D Prince Of Persia games, but I don't know how similar the previous "main" Tomb Raider games are to Prince Of Persia, so I don't know if I should be surprised or not, actually.)



The story was supposed to be epic, and it is in the world-spanning and discovering-something-that-ties-back-to-Lara's-past sense, but as I said, way too short.



There are scenes with something similar to "Quick-Time Events" in Shenmue, or like Dragon's Lair, where you push a direction or button at the right time to avoid death.  The PC version, which I played, was limited to just directions.  I deliberately failed these over and over to see the often painful-looking deaths.  As the game is rated T, they look about as painful as you can get without spilling blood, but it's still a little crazy to see Lara get smashed repeatedly by a train or bending backwards farther than he spine should allow.



Apparently most Tomb Raider games have "Croft Manor", this one is no exception.  Too bad it was easy for me to find everything hidden within without having to consult a walkthrough.



Fun game for a first-time Tomb Raider.  Nice "reboot" of the series otherwise, I heard the recent games before this were going downhill.



Has anyone else played it?

[TerraEsperZ]

The only Tomb Raider game I've played by myself was the first one, and me and a friend played for a good part of the second one and the beginning of the third. While the 2nd was an improvement, the third felt really old and tired compared to the other games on the market at the time. I can only imagine the rest. Hopefully they've got it right this time and will stay on the path of quality.



I've heard they've toned down her bust size, finally. Does she finally look like a human being or is she still stuck in "huge breasts and lips" mode?



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

She looks more human, and attractively so.  The most distracting thing about her previous forms was not so much her chest, but rather her face, IMO.



The box art is deceiving.  Now while I can't access the mysterious "Next Generation Content" menu thing with my current video card, I don't think she looks as good as she does on the box and advertisements, no matter how good a video card you may have.



I didn't talk about the above-average voice acting, the simplistic gunplay, or the very smooth animation and control, but then again I'm at work and don't have time to write a deep review.  It is fun, though some people complain that she's becoming less Indiana Jones and more James Bond.

[bustin98]

Even though this game was announced for the Gamecube, I'm hoping it gets moved to the Revolution. I've heard the original creator really wanted the first game on the N64 due to the unique controller at the time, but Sony dished out the cash to make it exclusive. Now that he's been brought on board as a consultant, hopefully he sees the potential of the Revmote.



I've played through the first two games on the PS1 and part of the third. I enjoyed them enough. I couldn't stand the pixels though. Get too close to a wall and you have no idea where the heck you are. For me that was the challenge of the third game. It started in a jungle and there were so many leaves close to the camera that all you saw were giant green blocks. I hate the PS1 for its lack of aliasing.



While I've heard the game is short, I may pick it up once it hits the GC (Revolution).

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Cool beans

[Grizzly]

I played all six predecessors of the game. And I only really disliked part 5 because of how the puzzles had been made - the exploring type was almost completely left out of that part. I liked all the others because you had to find out where to go and how to reach it (with jumping and climbing) - that's how I got to know Tomb Raider and why I love it.

I haven't played the new Legend part yet, but will check it out soon enough. And if it has got the large explorable areas of parts 1,2,3,4 and 6 then  I surely will like it