Lara Croft is back. And this time she means business.
Back in the late nineties, Lara Croft came on the scene in the game Tomb Raider. A female "Indiana Jones"-style character, Lara spelunked tombs in ancient ruins of Rome, Mexico, Egypt and Atlantis, fighting off creatures and bad guys while on the hunt for priceless artifacts and treasure. Rather than just shooting to kill stuff, Tomb Raider challenged the player mentally with a series of puzzles to be solved in order to progress through the levels. The gameplay was groundbreaking and Lara became a household name in no time.
Several sequels followed, each one tweaking the technology somewhat and bringing Lara to new destinations. While Tomb Raider II was as exceptional as the original, each subsequent sequel was found more wanting than the previous.
Hollywood gave us Angelinie Jolie as Lara in the Tomb Raider movies, exposing our witty and beautiful heroine to a new audience.
But after FIVE releases, development of the now-tired Tomb Raider franchise was turned over to a new team. When Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness was released a few years ago, it appeared to be the death knell for the game.
The first game in the series that I didn't care to finish, due to lousy controls and lame storyline, Angel of Darkness was a miserable failure.
But back in the hands of competent developers, I am pleased to say that Lara Croft is back!
Tomb Raider: Legend is now available for PC, XBox, Xbox 360, PS2 and PSP, and it is a truly incredible game!
The developers have brought Lara back to her roots of raiding tombs, emphasizing puzzle solving over combat, and atmosphere over the introduction of new elements (such as the silly dialogues in Angel of Darkness).
The game is, simply put, beautiful. The action is measured carefully and the puzzles are challenging without being frustrating.
In fact, there is only one down-side to Tomb Raider: Legend. It's WAY too short.
Previous Tomb Raiders have weighed in at approximately 15 levels each.
Tomb Raider: Legend has only eight levels, and one of them is the end-game level... very brief.
This release gives Tomb Raider fans hope for the series, and I hope the next edition can expand upon this success by providing a much longer game with larger regions and more levels.
Welcome back, Lara.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
