|
|
  | | |
|
» Game Reviews » Technology Features
| GAME REVIEWS Tomb Raider Legend
How do you define a legend? It's a loaded word, so there was undoubtly a lot of debate over calling the next, and potentially final, Tomb Raider game exactly that. If Legend ended up being terrible, it would sink the franchise completely and Lara Croft would become just that – a legend in the history of gaming, but one of a series that spiraled into complete disaster. It's debatable when the stakes are higher: following on the success of a previous game or its complete and utter failure. In the case of Tomb Raider, the entire series has brought upon itself a legacy of mediocrity. The original title was ground-breaking in many, many ways and in terms of gaming Lara Croft has a much more endearing pedestal than the notoriety and popularity of her cleavage. For this reason every successive Tomb Raider title became more painful. The second game was competent, though didn't ignite the same flame. Beyond that, though, it is complete darkness – the sixth game was even aptly names Angel of Darkness. It was so bad that publisher Eidos removed Core, Tomb Raider's original developer, from the picture and gave platforming stars Crystal Dynamics a chance. I recall visiting the developer last year in San Francisco as it was finishing Legend. As part of a European press tour, we got given a good look at the game's potential. But my confidence in the project started long before that. It started, in fact, with the very announcement of Crystal's involvement. The team is best known for Soul Reaver, but their resume sports a lot of top titles. On the wall of a hallway in the SF offices all Crystal's games are framed and hanging from the wall - another one of those timely reminders that to make it big, you need to have at least made it a few times before. Regardless, Crystal's pedigree as a game developer stood. There has also been the matter of evolution since the first time Lara Croft took to the tombs. One of Core's prime failings with the series was not taking it further. The series rested on its laurels for far too long- when it launched it was a pioneer. But the platforming genre has evolved a lot since then, most notably the monumental Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. But there are many milestones in-between, including Crystal's own titles. Tomb Raider's engine changes were nominal. The first major change Crystal made was to scrap everything the series had done before. The second was to return to the source. In a way, Core's fumble removed a lot of pressure from Legend. The game didn't need to re-create the genre, which would have been the case for any of the last three games to even have hoped of succeeding. It simply had to bring the series into today. That's no small feat, though. Legend demanded the introduction of heavy cinematic styling and high-precision acrobatics, not to mention a play style that engages both fans and a new audience. Perhaps I'm being cynical, but I suspect that in the case of Lara Croft, appealing to the core fan base never was that important for Legend. The brand is substantially more prominent than that and in today's market a blockbuster title needs to have enough flow to keep a mainstream player entertained. Sands of Time, despite its incredible achievements, was slow to reach its success status. Baffling as it may seem to some, the lack of combat and heavy focus on acrobatics didn't seems to ignite impulse buyers. As such, Legend doesn't aspire for the level of ledge-grabbing and beam-vaulting that any of the Prince of Persia games did. In fact, Lara's repertoire will be somewhat limited to fans of POP, but this thought hardly crosses your mind while you play. That said, she's much more agile than she's ever been. The days of screaming at Lara in frustration as she falls into a deep crevice after missing the ledge by a hair's bredth are pretty much gone, though the controls aren't perfect. But you can look past such problems. Ninety-nine percent of the time Lara does what she is supposed to and you only have your own clumsy fingers to blame. When you spend more time upset at yourself than at the game, you are having a good time. That is the key to a great gaming experience. In his book Everything Bad Is Good For You, Steve Johnston has a peculiar way of describing gaming. He calls most of playing a game an exercise of frustration, because the fun lies in what you achieve. For instance, reaching the end of a level is an achievement. The trick is to make the ability to do that lie with the gamer and not be kneecapped with a rotten control interface. Legend sprints down this tightrope with confidence, perhaps a bit too much. It's not a big challenge – in fact, it's quite easy to complete. Combat sections still flow with the flurry of the original and Lara auto-locks on a target, regardless of how you move her. Boss characters are easy to beat as well, since they have easy patterns. Yes, you die often, but overall the experience is fairly fluid and stumble-free. This aspect is disappointing – if anything Legend is far too easy. Still, it carries a lot of bang for its buck. And to be honest, I don't really care if it's too short. You can call Pulp Fiction a lot of things, but it is indisputably the movie that launched Samuel L. Jackson and re-launched John Travolta and Bruce Willis. Legend is the beginning of the new Tomb Raider. The fact that it got this right and actually brought us a new dawn in the series cuts it a line of slack a mile long. There is plenty of traveling and adventuring. The art direction is nothing less than stunning and Legend's low point is its own shelf-life. Salted gamers will breeze past all the obstacles and I doubt beginners will struggle too much either. But it's the kind of game that you live in the moment, plus it's quite gratifying completing it a second time. END | | |
| |||
