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Tomb Raider - Chronicles (Mac version)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Tomb Raider series of games are first person, single player games, with multiple levels of increasing difficulty. Its family rated and one of the first games to feature a female lead, which has now been made famous with the two Angelina Joelie "Laura Croft" movies.

The story lines are weak, the animation is poor by today's standards, but the computer requirements are minimal. You can use the keyboard and mouse, or a game controller you have one. There are nice transition from time to time, with videos that continue the plot line and often include previews with clues. So, it's addictive and compelling, despite the simple graphics.

Kids from 5 and up can easily operate the game, but some of the advanced moves like jumping, swimming and climbing will require practice and a skill level of a teenager. They include a practice room to learn those skills - you don't have to call a friend. And you never have to call customer support - these games are time tested and they continue to provide excellent value and lasting entertainment.

I can't give it a 5 star because it's is old technology and it's based on the Quicktime engine. That's fine - it's universal, but it has a limited set of routines.

Hint: There are plenty of cheat books available. I was very disappointed with the official books from PRIMA (Primagames.com) - they are very difficult to read and follow. They do have the most important hints, but have to really study the book to figure out what they are describing.

One of the things I have always like about these action games vs the playstation and typical Arcade games, is that it requires critical thinking skills - planning, strategy, and memory are required to advance
in the game. Using the cheatsheets or game books is OK, too. The rewards are worth the work. But, if you screw up - jump too far and fall down, your player dies and you have to start over. These are real consequences. Even though the graphics are limited, the mazes and hidden treasures are still a lot of fun to hunt, even when you have to repeat a level several times.

Tomb Raider:Chroniciles

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I somehow passed over this game, so it was nice to go back and complete them all.

A Building Block, if Nothing Else

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The last Tomb Raider to use the "tiled world" engine, Tomb Raider Chronicles gives out 4 short adventures for you to experience. It also includes a CD with the Tomb Raider Level Editor, which lets you build your own tiled worlds with the Tomb Raider Last Revelation game engine.

First, the game itself. There are 4 storys, each with about three levels. The level design I thought was enjoyable, with new experiences, such as a giant bell for you to shoot to open doors, or a flock of bats shredding away at your health bar, or sneaking up behind a guard and choking him. You can also press the jump key when crouched at the end of a crawlspace to flip off the ledge - so you don't have to turn around. As usual you get that fresh Tomb Raiding feeling.

However, in this particular game the feeling leaves quickly. This is due (in part, at least) to the lack of continuity. After a story you loose ALL of your items and are given new ones for the next set. Say good-bye to that Uzi that you had JUST found in the previous level. The level designers should not have saved weapons for the last of their levels (there was one designer for each story) because you barely have any enemies to use them on before you loose the weapon! Unless they did not know about the whole "reseting the inventory" thing. Either way it was a bad decision to reset the inventory.

To add to this, you loose your weapons in the second level of the second story (because Lara gets her guns taken from her), the third story does not have any weapons at all (you're young lara), and the fourth story only has the HK Gun. So you don't get to have much fun with the variety of weapons.

And once you get to the end of the 13 levels, you feel that it was too short. Of course, you can always go back and try to find all 36 secrets to get to the bonus features in the options menu. Those bonus features I feel are the only other good thing going for this game besides the new experience, and perhaps some of the cutscenes. However, it could be used for inspiration for the Level Editor (more on that later).

The real deal of this package to me is the Level Editor. Core provided all the files "as is" and does not support them, but there are plenty of people on the internet who provide help, and are coming up with new ways to make the editor more flexible. Of course you need to know how to use the editor first. There is a tutorial provided in the manual to get you used to the many features of the editor. Once you're familiar with how the editor works you can start making Tomb Raider...the way you want it to be.

Even though the editor uses the TR: Last Revelation game engine, Tomb Raider Chronicles can be used as a sort of inspiration for your level series. For example it is possible (with the help of unofficial tools) to have Lara swing on parallel bars in your level, or have her tightwalk on ropes or poles. There is even a way for Lara to foward flip out of crawlspaces in the TR4 game engine (I discovered that myself). You just need to improvise a little. And of course you can create your own animations and/or objects, and you can create your own outfits for Lara or download some from the internet.

So basically the editor provided lets you structure and run your own worlds, and unofficial tools provided online let you make it your unique creation.

In this fashion Tomb Raider Chronicles, while not so great of a TR game itself, serves as a new source of inspiration for adventures created by Tomb Raider fans, and I like it just for being inspirational, if nothing else.

doesnt measure up to past trs

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

tomb raiders are among my favorites, combining the best mixture of shooter and puzzle games. generally, they are satisfyingly challenging, and the "engine" is still the best there is. no other games i have done have such natural running, jumping, and swimming. also, mac versions are better than windows. for example, the windows trilogy, in tr I, has lara a bunch of speckles rather than a well defined figure.

all this does tr 5 little good. it is made of four different segments of 3 or 4 levels each, with each segment comprising a different unrelated story. these segments are like rejects from past potential levels, as if they were tv pilots that didnt make it into series. for example, "rome" is reminiscent of "venice", but without the charm or inspiration. the sinking sub is like the maria doria levels. the irish island section is admittedly spooky, but, annoyingly, the action keeps being taken over by cut scenes. also, it is more implausible than dinosaurs and atlantean monsters. the last levels, von croys headquarters, are hard, but nothing else. they are deus ex like, but without the mission choices, the stealth, and the sense of purpose. also there are bugs. tr 5 is the only one i couldnt get through without cheating, but it turned out that when i became stuck, the problem was related to saving bugs. i wonder whether this was done on purpose to make the game harder. medkits are rare and there is an impossible shooting range. however, none of this lends to the appeal of the game, as these levels are pedestrian and have none of the attraction of the nevada levels. the level editor seems too complicated to be useful; i doubt many people edit levels.

in summary, this game is typically tomb raider, but without the inspired levels of the past. no hidden valley, no barkhang monastery, no madubu gorge, no train. i would buy the other trs first, and only buy 5 to have the complete set. i hope #6 reverts back to the style of the the first four.

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