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Triumphant return for Lara and Tomb Raider

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tomb Raider:Legend returns the Tomb Raider series to its original glory by giving players what originally made the game fun and interesting, namely - absorbing gameplay involving a blend of exploration, acrobatic movements, puzzle solving and combat. The game takes adavantage of modern processors and graphics cards, Lara herself looks absolutely amazing and the game levels are beautifully rendered and look better than any other Tomb Raider game to date, actually as good as the more recent Myst games.
The controls are different now, and take some getting used to. Basically, the mouse is used to move the camera in relation to Lara, while the keyboard controls how Lara moves with respect to where the camera is aimed i.e. left, right, towards the camera or away from it. It sounds confusing, but turns out to be actually useful, as the player can put the camera exactly where needed to insure proper alignment before attempting a difficult jump.
The game can be played at several levels of difficulty, and will sometimes offer hints for which keys to press in order to make a particular move or accomplish some other task.
The levels themselves are very large, and involve a mix of various ancient ruins in tropical and desert settings, and modern cityscapes. Some of the vistas are simply breathtaking. Great attention to detail has been given, with lots of small things like rocks crumbling, plant stems waving in the breeze, insects crawling or flying around, etc, which add to the immersive atmosphere.
Speaking of breathtaking, Lara herself looks absolutely stunning. I have no idea how many polygons she is composed of, but the number must be in the thousands. She isn't quite photorealistic, but primarily because real women in photographs don't look quite so good. Details are amazing, if you look at her eyes, they appear to be moist. After she swims, her clothing looks wet for a while, then merely damp, then dry. Her skin similarly has a sheen of moisture which slowly evaporates. Her abilities have always been a bit above those of most humans, in that even in the first game she could push or pull a cubic stone block taller than herself, which must have weighed tons. She still does such things, now sometimes jumping vertically along a sheer cliff face or wall to the next handhold a distance of three or four feet, or diving off a cliff to catch a handhold on a precipice across a chasm. Because Lara executes her moves with the grace of an Olympic gymnast, it is astonishing to watch as these events unfold in front of your eyes, and thrilling to be a part of them.
I liked the game very much, and will be looking forward to more like this!

Back to the Basics - a good thing!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tomb Raider! What a blast that game was, when it came out I played it till my thumb just about fell off. After TR1 the franchise just started going downhill and after TR3 it got plain terrible.

Lara Croft was dead and we all shed a silent tear for one of our favorite games.

But wait!
Here comes Crystal Dynamics! Apparently someone at Crystal Dynamics knew what Tomb raider was all about, cool puzzles, places to explore, secrets to find and jumping into a forward flip while you draw your guns and blow some guy off a cliff. Excellent.
TR Legend hasn't really totally gone back to what the original was, it's very short and while the levels are loads of fun it feels a bit more linear than I would expect. Levels could've been a bit larger. The best one is probably the Mansion and it's a training level.

But dont get me wrong, the game is fun, and it's got plenty of secrets and unlockables for die hards.

The "Next Gen Graphics" (a phrase thats starting to annoy me) aren't really as "next gen" as some other "next gen" games I've played, and with out a relatively beefy graphics card your not gunna get a high frame rate with them turned on. That struck me as odd because other games I have that look A LOT better than Legend run smooth with all settings on high.
But graphics dont make a game, they're just a part of it and I really couldn't complain about the graphics much, they look great, have some style (dont expect realism) and add enough to the game to make it immersive.
The game play is a blast, it's pretty much what you'd expect from Tomb Raider, the motorcycle stages are a bit annoying at first but once you get the hang of em they're actually a lot of fun.
Puzzles are there and they're good, but the new clue system makes solving them kinda easy, which was a bummer. I remember obsessing over some of the originals puzzles for days, you wont have any of that here, maybe 15 minutes max.

Lara's got all of her old moves (swan dive and the handstand are back) and a couple new ones so that she can do some extra butt whoopin.

I'd recommend this one for young and old and especially fans of the Tomb Raider Games, good to see someone getting the Genre back on track.
Lets hope the next one really takes the game to new heights.

Started off well but the save system will screw you...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: July 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Unless you have mad button pushing skills, skip this game. It's an excellent return to clasic Tomb Raider form... like TR III the save system ensures that you will hit some obstical that you will do over and over and over and over and over again until you are ripping your hair out with frustration.

Poor controls and camera angles

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The graphics in this game are great. They have made a lot of progress in the controls but the PC controls are very very poor! The grapple control is completely impossible to aim!!! The camera angles are frustrating. You end up looking at the back of Lara's head when you want to look at where you are trying to go. I love the tomb raider series but this is a disappointment.

Tomb Raider Legend Opinion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been into Tomb Raider from the beginning. After reading the negative reviews of TR Legend, I got a copy anyway. I agree with all the positive/negative reviews posted here. However, any TR fan WILL Want to add this edition to his/her collection regardless of the negatives. Hopefully the creators of TR will heed the users' suggestions to improve the next edition. And that's all I have to say about that.

Annoying controls

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I do love love love this game, but the new controls are so awkward. The camera angles also get in the way.

Not as bad as some say

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game certainly puts a whole different spin on Tomb Raider games. If you're a DIE HARD Laura Croft fan then this game is for you. I haven't played any Tomb Raider's since Tomb Raider II on Playstation 1 and I STILL liked this game. Most reviewers say it was a horrible game, but I certainly enjoyed it. I like solving puzzles in a sense that you become part of the puzzle and this game does exactly that.

Good game, great way to revitalize a franchise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game was fun, all the way through and pretty gentle on the hardware. Graphics look awesome, and there's lots of replay chances with awards and extra outfits. Solid title, especially with the price. Nice to have played a good game, that's actually a game, not a murder simulator.

A CLEAR IMPROVEMENT

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Unfortunately Eidos never could appreciate the what a gold mine the Lara Croft series could have been. The Legend is clearly a major improvement in the Croft series with stunning graphics and story line. The keyboard has also improved from 4 flats to retreads but still needs work. Parts of this game still involves more fighting with the keyboard to get things done but is more the exception than the rule.
The second game in this video is Croft Manor which is separate from Legend and gets extremely high marks if you like puzzle solving and critical thinking. This section will keep you pleasantly hooked from the getgo. The fact that Angelina Jolie turned this series into blockbuster movies is a testament to the success of the Croft concept. Had EA or Vivendi Games had this series from day one, the Lara Croft games would have surpassed Halo, Doom and Call of Duty in a heartbeat to be the best series in video history. The Croft series needs to be remade with the serious investment it requires at the very least. Lets hope Eidos gets bought out!

What a comeback!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After playing tired sequel after sequel in the TR series, this one finally delivers. Some thought it too short - I say short and sweet. Or difficult to control - what was the problem? Best Tomb Raider in a long time and very enjoyable play here with spectacular graphics. Strangely, Crystal Dynamics also produced Tomb Raider Anniversary that I found to be somewhat difficult and annoying. Maybe they will use Legend for inspiration on the next one.

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