Right well this is my first post of the new year so I might aswell start off by saying a Happy New Year to you all and this will be the 250th post on this blog, which is not bad in itself that I've done that many over the space of the last two and a half years since I started it back in July 2012. Time does indeed fly!
So moving on my first ever post of 2015 it will actually be fairly similar to one that I had previously done at the end of 2014 as it will cover another Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider Legend. So with that let's gear up and have a look at this un.... (and for a change this year I thought I might add a pic for each post I do taken from the film, TV show, game etc. So I've started with a nice one of Lara Croft in TRL).
So a bit about the story which follows Lara who is on a mission to find a stone dais and she travels to Bolivia where she encounters some mercaneries who she fights against and she finally discovers the dais, which was is similar to one which she and her mother, Amelia, once found years ago in the Himalayas after they survived a plane crash. Lara then confronts James Rutland, a rich adventurer who tells Lara that the dais is the same as the one she found back in the Himalayas and mentions the name of a friend of Lara, Amanda Everett who supposedly died during an expedition years ago. Lara then overcomes Rutland's men and then travels to Peru, the location of the expedition where her friend, Amanda, apparently died. The story then flashes back to the expedition when Lara was a teenager and her team were excavating a tomb but where suddenly attacked and killed by a demonic entity. Amanda apparently managed to trap the demon but she herself became trapped under falling rubble, which apparently left her for dead. Lara also learns during her reinvestigation of the tomb that Amanda did in fact escape and that the artefact she is looking for is linked to the Excalibur, part of the legends of King Arthur. And from this point on Lara makes her travels to find the artefact where she must fight some deadly foes along the way....
Tomb Raider Legend is an excellent reboot of the franchise which marked a big improvement after the dull previous game, Angel of Darkness, which featured some poor controls, movement and a rather turgid story, which really veered the series off what is should be. In TRL however we get the series back to the spirit of the original games and it also brings the game neatly up to date into the 21st century, where at last Lara has become a more fluid and free flowing character rather than the rather sluggish controlled games we had previously seen. The game's release also marked the 10th anniversary of the release of the original Tomb Raider and in terms of graphics and gameplay the series by this point certainly had moved on and in many ways for the better aswell.
Getting onto the gameplay TRL is a pleasure as the movement is now far faster and smoother than the previous games where Lara moved at times like she was in quicksand (well in TRIII she was literally!). Lara can also now carry out some new moves as well such as her ability to climb ladders and shimmy faster than before, she also has a melee attack as Lara can kick enemies when they are close (which admittedly isn't much use!). And this also introduces another new feature in the gameplay which is Lara's adrenaline meter which builds up as she fights her enemies, she can use it to pull off moves in slow motion. Lara can also use a slingshot rope to allow her to pull objects such as wooden rafts or even crates over to her and she can also use it to swing over to other areas. And another feature in this game is that Lara at certain points requires the player to press a specific button in order for her to perform an evasive action, a la Resident Evil 4 style, which if not pulled off correctly will result in sudden death for her. Another addition to the game is that Lara now can use a flashlight instead of flares, which holds a charge for so long before it goes. Ammo wise Lara as access to the usual guns, i.e. her dual pistols but she can also use different weapons such as shotguns, sub-machine guns aswell as assault rifles and sniper rifles and a grenade launcher, however she can only access two weapons at the one time but Lara can pick up the used weapons from her dead enemies. In terms of vehicles, things are bit limited here but Lara can drive a Ducati motorcycle and in the cut scenes she drives a jeep but it isn't drivable in the game. The game also features unlockable content as the game is played you can access new outfits for Lara, pistol upgrades and cheat codes, although Lara wears several different outfits during the the game. Puzzle wise there are still a few to be found and some of them do require a bit of thought although they aren't overly challenging like some of the previous games puzzle could be.
Graphics wise TRL is also a big step up and it shows that in just 10 years how far the series has come as while the game was not officially the first HD game of the series, it was the first one that would properly utilise next generation effects, particularly in the PC and Xbox 360 versions. Graphically the game looks great for its time and the character models are also a big improvement with Lara looking the best she had looked up to this point in the series and given that she has access to different outfits also adds to the visual appeal of her character (particularly in the Tokyo level where Lara wears a rather revealing dress, which conceals her dual pistols but also shows her fine figure!). Again the game is set in different locations which provides the game with plenty of graphical variety as Lara travels from the sweaty jungles of Peru, to the icy slopes of the Himalayas, and the snowy setting of an abadoned military base in Kazahkstan as well as the sophisticated skyscrapers in Tokyo it adds up to a pretty impressive visual feast for a game that is now nearly 10 years old.
Music wise the game is also pretty good as the Danish composer of the original score, Troels Brun Folmann returns and provides an atmospheric and adventurous sounding score for the game which couldn't more suited. The game is also notable for featuring some excellent voice acting as Lara finally get's a voice makeover worthy for the franchise as Keeley Hawes (previously known for her role in the BBC series, Spooks) provides an excellent voice acting performance as Lara. Keeley also get's some good dialogue to deliver and she enjoys some witty banter with Lara's team mates, Alister (voiced by Greg Ellis) and Zip (Alex Desert). As Lara, Keeley has a good line where she arrives at a site in Bolivia where she looks through her binoculars and she says "Isn't she beautiful!" and she spots some mercaneries and she then says "And here come the bloody tourists to ruin it all!". The game also makes a neat in reference to the fact that Lara has been guilty of playing her part in contriubting to making several animal species extinct in the previous games as she used to kill gorillas, leopards, tigers and birds by the dozen and how the game itself aims to be a tad more animal friendly than before. And this is noted in a cut scene where Lara has to kill a leopard which attacks her and Alister says "Why big predators attack prey larger than themselves is a mystery!" and Lara replies "And a pity".
As for the game's flaws well there are one or two niggles, and the game's main problem is its length as there are only eight levels in total in the game, although they are reasonably big levels, the game is much shorter in comparison to the previous games. Another issue arises from the fact that Lara can only hold two weapons at once unlike the previous games where the player would access an inventory menu and Lara would access one of many guns as opposed to just two. This was however probably done in an effort to make the gameplay a little more realistic than in the past. And this also goes the same for medpacks as Lara can no longer hold 50 or 60 medpacks, she can only pick up a maximum of three, taken from enemies she has wasted, although to be fair this does highlight just how ridiculous the previous games were that Lara could stash rocket launchers and 50 or 60 medpacks in her rather small backpack! Another slight issue with the game is the auto-aiming which is OK when using it against enemies but Lara when she draws her guns takes a bit longer to put them away again, but this was resolved in Tomb Raider Anniversary. But these are pretty small snags overall.
So that's it for my look at Tomb Raider Legend, which is a very entertaining video game which saw the series get a well deserved reboot and gave it an excellent graphical overhaul and also provided the franchise with its best voice actress yet in the part of Lara Croft.
And with that I shall bye for now and goodnight!
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