Tomb Raider Legend

Lara Croft is Back!

NA release: 14th November 2006
EU release: 1st December 2006
JP release: N/A
Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Nixxes Software
Publisher: Eidos
NGC Magazine Score: 81%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

While a few of the earlier Tomb Raider games from Core ended up on the Saturn and Dreamcast, this was Lara Croft’s first outing on both Xbox and Nintendo home consoles (there were some Game Boy games). However, the series had quite a few changes. After the previous few Tomb Raider games (ending with Angel of Darkness) being panned, Eidos decided that fresh blood, and took the franchsie out of the creators’ hands and gave to Crystal Dynamics. They decided on a fresh take. New gameplay, new Lara, new backstory – a complete reboot.

Lara no longer feels like a tank, and the platforming feels very good. Grabbing onto edges – something that has been a right pain in games outside of Prince of Persia – now feels smooth and seems to be the foundation that is also used by Uncharted, which released the year after this. Navigating the tombs and other areas is just a joy, and the platforming is even used well in the puzzles you face.

Combat also feels really good. Lara will lock-on to enemies, and can do flips and rolls to avoid enemy fire. Her pistols have infinite ammo while you can use weapons dropped by enemies (although there’s pretty much no variety). In many encounters, there will be additional objects you can shoot, and a quick tap of the Y button can cause a huge explosion or wreckage that can devastate enemies.

You will encounter quick time events, which as always, can be annoying, especially when you put the controller to take a sip of your drink when one starts. However, the buttons for these aren’t random and you can pretty much guess most of them in advance, as the action Lara needs to perform corresponds with the relevant button from gameplay. If you’re going to have them, it’s at least a decent way. There are also a few segments that can catch you out as stuff will start crumbling as soon as a cutscene ends, with the developers having to put an large Lara icon on screen to show you need to take control.

With an interesting story and characters (Lara has a headset linked to her mansion and her team there manage to not be too annoying) the game manages to keep you entertained throughout it, especially with varied environments and a couple of motorbike chases. It’s a great adventure that, even with a few niggles, still feels great to play.

The clunky control system, slow pace and pedantic insistence on pixel-perfect accuracy were consigned to the bin, and the acrobatic fluidity of Prince of Persia was borrowed wholesale. They adopted the interactive cutscenes from Resident Evil 4 and some of the polished presentation of EA’s 007 titles. The things that hadn’t worked for 10 years were chucked out and the whole concept was brought bang up to date. They even managed to flesh out Lara’s history and make her a character players could actually care about. In short, Tomb Raider Legend is arguably the best game in the entire series.
Martin Kitts, NGamer Magazine #5

Remake or remaster?

A remaster of the Legend, Anniversary and Underworld trilogy would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

Tomb Raider Legend is available on Xbox and Steam.