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Good and very fun, but why can't Tomb Raider rock like I know it could?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge Tomb Raider fan. I was hooked by the first game, and enjoyed the next few titles. However, with every game on PS and then PS2 this series has been going down the tubes to the ultimate bottom in "The Angel of Darkness." This game (I got the Xbox 360 version) is definitely a step in the right direction. It reminds me of the fun I had with the first game. I solved the game quite easily on the hardest setting, "Tomb Raider," and I didn't find any complicated puzzles that took me a while to decipher. That was disappointing. I loved some of the first games creative puzzles, and I don't think they were quite improved upon with any of the sequels including the newest title. I enjoyed this game, and I hope that Crystal Dynamics does do a remake of the original for the 10th anniversary of the game. I also hope that this series will get back to the days of the first game where I played it over and over and over, because I loved it so much. I can dream...I just don't think it's going to happen...

On the right track....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having played the original Tomb Raider when I was about 9 and loving it (but hating almost all the rest) I was very excited when I purchased this game. I missed the old Lara and the tombs...after all it is TOMB raider so why in "Angle of Darkness" etc. was there not a single TOMB???

This game lived up to my expectations....except for a few things:

1. The combat is not fun, it does not feel real at all and you fight more humans than you do anything else. They should have things like Tigers and snakes in Tombs not machine gun weilding men!

2. The "Croft Manor" portion of the game was not as fun as I remember it being in the original. In the original there where MANY more rooms AND an outside. In this game there are only a few room's that you cant do anything in at all except get Lara's guns and things (not like she need's them for praticing, you basically just run around and stare at the wall and your butler who never moves nor talks). I loved being able to go into the kitchen in the original game and have the butler (who always followed you) go into the frezzer and then lock him in there.

3. I dislike the "push this button right now or die" cutscene's they are not fun and you end up missing the cool things Lara does after you push the button because your paying to much attention waiting for the next one.

4. This game is WAAAAY to short. I hardly ever beat game's because they are to long but I beat this one in about 2 day's (not as bad as the game "Deamon Stone" though, beat that in one day...never buy that game).

Other than those thing's this game is great, but I would reccomend renting it before you buy it...because chances are you'll beat it before you have to take it back to the store anyway, no point in spending $[...] to own it when you can pay $[...]and just beat it.

Not bad, but not great either.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: July 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The short and sweet of it: Great graphics, very nice looking, but too short. The mini games are silly, the motorcycle also silly. What could have been an awesome game feels under developed and misguided. If you are more than a casual gamer, rent this one, you'll beat it in several hours. I really wanted to like this one, what a shame...

A good, fun game, with a few minor flaws

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I last played Tomb Raider (the original) on the PC, so after not seeing the game in over 10 years, this is a quantum leap for me.

This sports really great graphics -- the immense levels (caves, caverns, etc.) are endless and really give you a sense of grandness. The detail is amazing, and the locations are beautiful. At times, though, you get the sense that you're playing a last-gen game, because there are things that look 3-dimensional, and you think you should be able to jump onto a ledge, but it turns out to be 2D without any ability to jump or grab onto things. The cinematic cut-scenes are great, and the voice-acting is excellent. The balance of cut-scenes within the game is great, and helps move the story along. Finish a puzzle, and you get a great cutscene.

Lara moves and responds excactly as she did in the first Tomb Raider, and I was really comfortable jumping back into her role. At times, the controls seems a little sluggish, especially when she needs to wind-up when swinging on bars. Her character animations are excellent, though, and I feel the interface between the controller and what you see on the screen is really smooth. She's an easy character to control, but sometimes lining her up in 3D space on a ledge can be tricky. And there are times when you can't judge how far away she is from something, so expect to die along the way here and there.

The load times are acceptable -- when you first start a level. However, if you die, the entire level loads again, which seems odd and slows your progress. You would expect Lara to respawn immediately, but that doesn't happen. If there is a cut-scene at the reload point, you'll start at the cut-scene, which can be skipped. In essence, it's hard to keep the action moving, especially when you want to get right back in and correct your mistakes. You get stuck waiting for the reload.

The puzzles are the best challenge of the TR series. They are hard enough without being frustrating. However, it does get tedious at times trying to do things over and over again, especially if you get close but then die. Figuring out a puzzle without using a guide is very rewarding, however, and in this game, you really feel like you're doing something...you're in the adventure and playing the role of Lara.

This is more than a shooter -- it's a great story with great controls and great graphics, with just enough puzzling to keep your mind going. There really is nothing like Tomb Raider, and this is a good outing for the 360.

Fun Platforming - But Quick

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: May 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Legend member of the Tomb Raider series combines both traditional platforming and shooting along with some Dragon's Lair style button pressing timing.

I'm very pleased that Lara Croft has moved beyond being a "huge cleavage woman that male gamers simply like to watch" and turned into a legitimate action heroine. Yes, she's still quite busty, but she's actually admired now for her ability to shoot, think and puzzle her way out of solutions.

Many of the puzzles she faces are traditional. You climb up pipes and walls to reach higher areas. You push boxes in order to block spinning fans of death or to cross flaming passageways. You kill off bosses in a variety of ways.

In addition, you have timed sequence actions. These are much like Bond Moments from James Bond games, or the gameplay of the old classic Dragon's Lair. In these games the game makers would create gorgeously fluid sequences of animation and you would be instructed to hit buttons at precise moments in order to keep the animation flowing. I always found this style of gameplay to be a bit hokey - it took you out of the 'immersion' of the gameplay - but on the other hand it does mean you can view some fantastic cinematics when you get the timing right.

The game is relatively quick on the first pass, but there are plenty of secrets and items to find to get you to go back and replay a number of times. Still, for the high price you pay for 360 games, I really would have expected this to be MUCH longer. On one hand, you have games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion that you can literally play for months and months and enjoy it. On the other hand, you have games like this where you could play through in say 6-8 hours and be completely done. Surely there was plenty of room on the DVD to fit more levels.

The graphics were quite impressive - from the lighting to the flickering flames and dark tombs. The way in which you light up your world as you look around really added to the feeling that you were down in a dark world, with perhaps new secrets lurking just around the corner. Little touches like the swing of Lara's braid added to the realism.

The sound was reasonably good; the voice acting wasn't Drama Movie quality, but it certainly did well as a fun action game atmosphere.

I would really recommend renting this one first to see how much the game grabs you. If you're a real Tomb Raider fan, you might be thrilled to have this in your collection. However, if you're not sure, it's best to give it a quick try before you pay out the full price for what amounts to a weekend game.

Laras back, but is it a good thing?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: August 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In this edition of Tomb Raider, Lara Croft finds herself traveling & exploring one exotic place to the next in order to piece together her past - and more specifically - what happened to her mother with the help of her two pals Zip & Allister.

Its your basic Tomb Raider game with a lot of jumping, flipping, swinging from ropes, sliding down ramps/hills, grappeling onto objectsand shooting things. You get a few weapons like a shotgun, SMG, assault rifle, grenades & grenade launcher, and the infamous dual handguns with the bottomless clip. Also, there are a bunch of "rewards" hidden throughout the levels and if a lot are collected you unlock new outfits and areas in Lara's Mansion. Oh, thats the other thing - you can run around Lara's Mansion.

Whats good though is that this game places you back into ruins and tombs instead of trying to make Lara some special agent (Angel of Darkness anyone?). So you'll find yourself in areas such as Ghana, Bolivia, Nepal, Lara's homeland of England, and many other areas. Each level looks absolutley beautiful - especially the jungle looking stages. The water effects are magnificent, and the lighting is beautiful. The character models are alright, nothing spectacular with the exception of our main heroine herself.

The music was superb. I can't really explain it.. it was just really good. Each stage has it's own song which fits beautifully with the level's culture and design..sso for instance in Nepal - a really empty & voide of life snow stage - it has gegorian chants which help intensify both the beauty AND the lonlieness of the level. You just have to hear it for yourself. The voice acting was GREAT and there are some really interesting and funny conversations between the characters at points.

So whats Tomb Raider: Legends' downfall? Well for starters its extremley repetitive - you'll be doing pretty much the same thing in every stage. Secondly, its a pretty easy game. Thirdly, its very short; its only 7 missions long come on!, and lastly the gunfights are kind of lackluste r. The guns don't sound powerful, nor are they - I literally had to empty a clip with my assault rifle into a Jaguar before it keeled over - and they ae terribly inaccurate. Thankfully the targetting system is pretty right on.

The ending to this game was interesting to say the least. You wind up at the stone dias after beating Amanda in her beast form. From there you place the ancient sword into the stone, the dias starts up, and you see your mother in a parallel universe doing the exact same thing you are. Amanda awakes and begins screaming to your mother for her to pull the sword out so the dias explodes while Lara tries to silence Amanda. Anyway, the mom pulls the sword out, the dias explodes, and Lara loses a chance to re-unite with her long lost mom.. so in a rage she threatens to kill Amanda at gunpoint. Amanda reveals that Lara's mom is in Avalon, Lara is so heated she begins shooting basically right next to Amanda to freak her out.. then she pistol whips her so hard she KOed Amanda. Then Lara says a great line, "every breath you take from now on is a gift from me.", and proceeds to make arrangements to see if she too can get to Avalon.

To finish it up, Legend is a decent platforming game but really not worth the $50 price tag it carries. It's definitley worth playing, even with it's flaws. I suggest you rent it first.

Lara Croft meets Dragon's Lair!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've never been a "huge" big fan of the Tomb Raider series, and I don't like third-person games in general. But I picked up Tomb Raider: Legend on a lark, and now I'm addicted. I have completed this game on all difficulties and earned all of the Xbox 360 achievements for this title.

The game storyline dives into the Arthurian legend which reveals an interesting parallel to Lara's personal life as you uncover more about the story. It's an interesting spin and makes for a great epic adventure. To really connect you to the story, there's "Super Actions," which are parts of the cut-scenes where, as you're watching a predicament unfold, you're suddenly required to hit a specific button on your controller (to move, duck, jump, grab, or fire your grappling hook) or Lara will meet an untimely death. These Super Actions will remind older player's of Dragon's Lair, a game where you were required to match your button presses with the on-screen directions. In short, it's a great way to remove the monotony of cut-scenes and makes you really focus on the story, because it could mean the difference between life or death.

The rest of the game is a well-done adventure story. Navigating Lara through the adventure with a 360 controller is nearly flawless, a testament to the many years of experience behind the series. The only problem comes with inopportune camera redirects, such as the change between climbing on the ledge of a cliff and pulling yourself up above the edge. When you do so, the camera will spin around; changing the direction that pushing "up" on the controller will move you. This will cause you to occasionally direct Lara back to the edge of the cliff or, sometimes, to leap off entirely and plummet to her death. Aside from this flaw, most users will find that this is one of the best controller layouts for a third person game, which is something I'm always hyper critical of.

If you've read the other reviews, you know this game is short. In fact, I would say this game only has 7.1 levels, since the last level is nothing more than a glorified "boss fight" (usually the ending of a level where you face a super powerful foe) which could have been tacked on to the previous level. However, Tomb Raider: Legend does offer a considerable amount of replay-ability with the massive amount of unlockables and secrets the game offers. Hidden on every level are bronze, silver and gold treasures, often in unusual and interesting places. Bronze are easily found while gold treasures will require all of Lara's skills and a bit of ingenuity to find them all. The most exciting find may be the gold treasure hidden in Croft Manor (an extra level unlocked as you play through the single-player campaign.) The Xbox 360 achievements are tied to finding most (but you do not have to find all) of these treasures, as well as earning points for finishing each level and the game (with separate achievements for completing it at the hardest and easy or medium difficulties) and the time trials. There's also an incredible number of additional features (outfits for Lara, cheat codes, developer's content and more) for completing each level and the time trials.

So, if you love scouring levels for secrets and unlocking special features, this game is for you and will easily quadruple the amount of playtime you get from this title. If you're a fan of the Tomb Raider series, you'll be absolutely delighted with this well-executed and exciting episode that will, most certainly, leave you excited for the next installment of the story.

LOOKING FOR HER MOTHER

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Lara Croft the pistol wielding somersault shooting fanboy fantasy is back for a new adventure in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Legend for the XBOX 360 and the result is an enjoyable but at times frustrating game. Lara Croft opens in the jungles of South America at the ruins of an ancient civilization, but the relic Lara is after has another taker, James Rutland, a rich spoiled brat who's used to getting whatever he wants. Lara will find out that the piece connects into a larger picture that involves the long ago disappearance of her mother through a strange Stargate looking portal. Lara will have to travel around the world through many different environments trying to put the puzzle together of what really happened to her mother.

I guess I'll address the positives about the game first, and there are a lot. First, the environments are breathtaking, especially the first level, where you encounter steep cliffs, and real-life beautiful flowing waterfalls. Even when you use the binoculars to zero in on faraway horizons, the picture is crystal clear. No corners were cut in terms of the graphics. You can see around yourself in a 360 degree angle which really makes you feel as if you're really there. Jaw-dropping to say the least. In terms of Lara, her model is juse as sexy as always and the ragdoll effects when she gets hurt are great, and she always moves in a sleek and elegant manner. I don't know, but she seems motion captured. Another thing that reminds me of the old games is the sense of exploration you get from the game, as if you ARE the only one exploring the ruins in the game and are the first human to walk there in centuries. I also liked the fact that the game is not that difficult. It's more for a casual gamer than for someone that ones to memorize every move for hours before they can advance to the next level. I thought the storytelling in the game was a notch above previous incarnations and the fact that she's looking for information about her lost mother really makes it personal.

Now, for what I didn't like about Legend. There are scenes in the game where the game takes a bit to load up because of the Dragon's Lair type mini-games where you have to get through a sequence that requires pushing certain buttons. The problem is that the first couple of times, you die and then you have to wait for the long loading time over and over again. These semi-passive sequences, while exciting to watch, are not that exciting to play. Another aspect of the game that got on my nerves were the "boss" battles. Boss battles just seem out of place in a game like this that works more on atmosphere and feel and should be reserved for Mario Brothers. Especially when you cannot concentrate on fighting your enemy. As the boss is basically slaughtering you, Lara has to be flipping a switch or shooting a jewel or pulling a lever to keep the boss from continually healing themselves. Instead of making it essential to the story, these distractions come off more as a gimmick to make killing the boss more difficult. Which brings up the sorry targeting system of your firearms, which makes it very hard to divide your attention, especially when you have multiple enemies. Any time you have more than one target, it's very hard to select the one you want on the fly. Lara also drives a motorcycle in parts of the game which was enjoyable in some of the earlier Tomb Raiders but here it makes you feel like you're playing an old Atari game. It just doesn't FEEL like you're riding a motorcycle as you pick off the bad guys. And if you try to avoid the villains, then the motorcycle levels just repeat in an infinite loop until you kill them off.

Tomb Raider Legend has a lot going for it. I know that some fans believe that Tomb Raider before this was on its last legs, but I beg to differ. To me, all of the Tomb Raider games were pretty much the same and didn't suffer from a serious decline in terms of quality: Except for Last Revelation which required a lot of backtracking. So to me, the only difference here in Legend is the improvement in graphics. Most of the positives and negatives of the old games are still here, including a camera that even with improved control is still a little limited. It just looks better. So don't buy this game thinking you'll see a Tomb Raider you've never seen. Why does a game have to continue to "improve" anyway and what does improve really mean? If it's only as good as the last game, which was great, why change things? As far as length, Yes, if you sit for hours a day for several days, it won't take you long to finish Legend, but I'm more casual and just played a little each day and it took me about a month. The game is meant to run on HDTV 480p/720p. There were some small framerate problems running it on 1080i, but hardly noticeable except in the beginning level where you had the highest graphic content.

A return to form and then some

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Oh, Lara how I love thee. Only not really. Truth be told, I could never get into the series from day one because of the clunky controls. I appreciated the step in the right direction with the original Tomb Raider but I regard it as a catalyst for what third person games are now as opposed to a great game. The following games all had the same controls, but the gameplay devolved into the horrific Angel of Darkness.

Now, we have Tomb Raider: Legends and man is it nice. Having passed reigns to Crystal Dynamics, the creators of such games as Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver, the gameplay was scrapped to create an entirely new property that, mostly, washes off any malingering stink. In place of controls that are based on a grid system (creating improper jumping controls among other issues), the new movement feels fluid and is easily manipulated much like the new Prince of Persia games.

Action takes the side seat as the game focuses mostly on Lara and tombs (what a novel concept). When action does take place, Lara can easily lock onto a target and then switch from target to target via flicking the right analog stick. It's pretty simplistic, but it is fun and easy to get into. Sometimes, there are context driven situations where instead of shooting at an enemy, a possibility will open to shoot an exploding can or a precariously balanced ruin that will take out multiple foes. While the gunplay isn't difficult, it does create some scenarios that feel like they would fit in perfectly in an action movie.

The action is also broken up with some motorcycle based missions. These mostly involve getting you from point A to point B, with plenty of chasing enemies in the middle. Again, much like the combat, this isn't the focus of the game. I won't go so far as some reviewers to say its needless, filler and poorly implemented, but I do think it could have been strengthened a bit more. It makes sense, in the context of the game, to be driving. It never feels tacked on. However, if you're going to do it, you might as well make it as exciting as possible.

All of this is dressing for what really counts: the Tombs. They are really fun. Figuring out how to get from point A to point C, with a step at point B, is most of the fun much like it is in Prince of Persia. The game touts "physics based puzzles" and it's true. But, I don't think the physics engine is all it's cracked up to be. A lot of times, items don't feel like they have the weight they should.

A story involving Lara's past and a search for a sword rounds out the action, providing a context for what you're doing. It's pretty decent as far as these games go and of course can't live up to excellent stories like those found in Dreamfall, but it's okay.

As far as value goes, you're spending about $60 for about 10 hours of gameplay. That's a problem in my book, not because of the length (although I do prefer longer games), but because of the HUGE price differences between the systems. If you're looking at just consoles, then yes I would recommend shelling the extra $10 for the 360 version over the others. But, Xbox 360 games are costing us $10s more, blah blah HD age/next gen blah blah, but the game looks better on the PC, has better resolutions and doesn't have as much frame rate issues as the Xbox 360 version. And its $20 cheaper. So, if you have a computer top lay it, plug in a Xbox 360 controller into your PC and you have a game that's cheaper, plays just as well and looks better. You tell me what the best deal is.

Great game, but not very re-playable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was a big fan of the first Tomb raider when it came out. The series went down hill and it was a fairly poor franchise for a while. But this game is a great return to Tomb Raider's roots.

The graphics for the 360 are very pretty. The lighting and textures are good, better than the PS2 and x-box, but not as good as other x-box 360 titles.

The game play is intuitive for anyone who's ever played tomb raider before. The camera is a little tricky, but in a game like tomb raider where you're constantly moving up, down, left, right, forward, and back - it's pretty hard to have a standard camera angle that would work all the time. The opening level has a tutorial so it walks you through how to jump, swing, shoot, etc.

The major downside of this game is how short it is. The game could easily be beaten in under 5 hours (especially if you set the difficulty to easy). There are lots of hidden "treasures" that you can collect to boost your "achievements" score; but it gets a little tiresome to find all of them. There's also a time-trial to beat levels under a set time (and it is VERY hard to do, I might add).

But the time trials and hidden treasures don't really add much to the game. There's no reason you couldn't pick this up, play it over the weekend, and beat it and return it. Overall, I thought it was a lot of fun, and then I returned it to the video store.

And, of course, if you have x-box live, you can download a demo of this game on the live marketplace.

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