Tomb Raider Legend

Lara Croft’s story is similar to that of anyone who’s fallen from grace. She rose to stardom with the first two Tomb Raider games, and was the pin-up girl for more adolescent gamers, but slowly her career came spiraling down and by the time we reached Angel of Darkness, she was beyond any help. Eidos (the game’s publisher) on the other hand still felt there was some life left in that franchise and they handed over development of Tomb Raider Legend (TRL) to Crystal Dynamics (the people behind the Legacy of Kain series) and not only have they managed to revive Lara, but they’ve also managed to churn out the best Tomb Raider till date.

The game starts off with an intro extremely reminiscent to that of Mission Impossible II (remember Cruise hanging from a cliff?) with Lara doing what she does best; (no not that sicko), exploring stuff. The first level serves as a tutorial of sorts where you’re introduced to some of the game’s new mechanics like her grappling hook, the new and improved combat system, the GOW inspired mini-games (more on that later) and more. Now if you thought she was athletic in her previous games, the way she moves in this game will totally blow you away. Sure, she’s no Prince (or princess for that matter) but watching her jump all over the place is like watching poetry in motion. One word of caution though; if you’re planning on playing the game on the PC, I strongly suggest you try and hook up a controller because the default control scheme (mouse + keyboard) sucks harder than Paris Hilton’s reality show and even though there’s a lot of mapping to be done on the controller; it’s worth it in the long run.

The Tomb Raider franchise isn’t well known for its plot so don’t expect one here too. We have some stuff about King Arthur, Lara’s dead mother, Gem demons and a dead friend, who by the way is not dead actually, so pardon me if I totally tuned myself off after the fifth level or so, not bothering about anything or anyone anymore.