Tomb Raider Legend: Play by Play *Completed*

I started playing Tomb Raider Legend yesterday, as that was the winner of the poll in the "What to Play?" thread. I acquired it semi-randomly, since it came in a bundle I purchased on Steam last year. I thought I might chronicle my adventures with this game here; a criticism thread, if you will. I'll probably write mostly about my complaints with the game, because, frankly, that's more fun, but I'll try to keep it fair.

As of this posting, I am probably about halfway through the second "mission."

To give you some background, Tomb Raider Legend was released in 2006, but I probably would have guessed it older, based mainly on the graphics and a bit on the gameplay. 2006 also gave us the likes of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Hitman: Bloodmoney (both of which I played through), and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (which I played a bit of). All three have superior graphics, and the latter two, which have similar gameplay styles, play much more smoothly. So, what's the deal with Legend?

Graphically, things are alright, but everything looks a bit chunkier than 2006 games had to be. Maybe they didn't have the budget, but you'd think by the 7th game in a series, they'd be getting some good money to throw at it. The environments look alright and the water actually looks pretty good (in pools and on our heroine).

What irks me most was the cut scenes, though. I'm fine with cut scenes having the same graphics as the game, but I expect them to be carefully animated at least. In the opening scene, Laura is climbing along cliff ledges, and her HANDS ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROCK. And at the end of the first mission, Laura and a character I assume to be the main antagonist were WADING THROUGH THE BRIDGE. There's no excuse for that kind of thing in a cut scene.

Promotional art is significantly better than the graphics.


The game play is giving me more trouble than the graphics, though. Between a character who does not move like the lithe athlete she's supposed to be, a camera that just wants to look at her butt or the back of her head, and a rather unconventional keyboard control layout, there's been quite a steep learning curve. This is a pretty big problem for a game that relies so much on precise movements for cave navigation, puzzle solving, and combat.

I can do most of the rock climbing stuff fine, and I'm getting the hang of gunfights, but some things just need a little more wiggle room on the precision, like dangling vines and ropes. Pretty rough on the depth perception.

The camera doesn't always like to help much, either. During gunfights, sometimes the camera thinks a closeup on Laura's ponytail is the best way to see the guy you're shooting at. During the first vehicle section (motorcycles), I took our buxom heroine through a winding tunnel. The camera decided a side view of the bike would be appropriate here. Very cinematic, but it didn't help me see where to steer at all.

And it's all even more complicated by a keyboard layout that uses all the regular bindings plus ones like Delete, Home, and Page Down for necessary actions. Some can be changed easily, but the weapons, gadgets, and health kits all need their own button; there's no handy menu for that stuff.

Then, there's the quick time events. My first reaction to a cut scene is to take my hands off the controls and sit back to just watch. Here, that works until a little icon pops up and suddenly, Laura dies. Oops, should've ducked, I guess. The first time it happened, it was just a minor thing, and then I knew to watch for that. The second time, the icon was a silhouette of Laura leaping to the left, hands outstretched, and guns blazing. I did that, and fell off a bridge. After watching the three-minute cut scene preceding the QTE again, and dying again, I just looked online to see what I was supposed to do. Evidently, that icon just meant "run forward and jump." If you're going to use an unclear symbol, at least don't make me watch a lengthy cinematic each time I die.

So far, I've been able to handle this madness. Hopefully I'll get the hang of things, but I feel like learning curves shouldn't be based on how to overcome a game's flaws.

Now, on to story. I really like the storytelling aspect of games, and so far, this one seems pretty interesting. It seems to be going in the direction of a formula Bond story with a bit of Indiana Jones mixed in, but I can go along with that. A good story doesn't have to be something new. The structure relies a lot on flashbacks, which can be effective or not; the jury's still out on that. I did think it was interesting to be able to play one of flashbacks. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for further rants, and feel free to chime in.

Notes from playing this evening. I finished level two and am part way through the next level. Calling them levels feels strange, but they really aren't missions, since Laura only works for herself.

Graphics: Walking or running, Laura's hair streams out horizontally from her head. Maybe she has an invisible fan in front of her at all times.

Gameplay: Quite a few puzzles require moving large objects onto pressure plates, but the physics seem to follow rules more based on a vehicle pulling/pushing a trailer than a human pushing/pulling an object. Also, I encountered another motorcycle, and once again, the game took over complete camera control and made me look at what was next to the bike and not in front of it.

There was somewhat of a plus on the gameplay side, though. Instead of jumping into a new area in adventure gear, we start at a party. It's interesting to change up how a level starts and interesting to have Laura dressed all fancy (I assume they were going for fancy, but in all honesty, she was dressed like a hooker.) and be without weapons. I think it could have been pulled off better, though. While it makes sense to walk calmly through a party, not being able to run made the whole sequence pretty dull, especially when it just required Laura to talk to a bartender to tell her where someone was. The scene would probably be better suited to a cut scene, but I appreciate them trying to change things up.

As I play, I keep thinking of how a new Tomb Raider game could benefit from recent developments. Think of how great it would be if they could take the climbing/parkour elements from a game like Assassin's Creed and use them for running through ruins. Or the great gameplay elements of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Or the open world style that worked so well for those two games and countless others. If game designers get on some of this, the Tomb Raider series could have a bright future.

Edit: Well look at that, according to Wikipedia, the next Tomb Raider game will be open world. It's set for release this year some time and is supposed to be a reboot. I'm not always a fan of rebooting things, but with 15 years since the first game, it may be time.

Plus, this Lara Croft looks more realistic and badass and less pornstar.

I just realized I have been spelling Lara Croft's name incorrectly. Maybe that's why she refuses to cooperate with me.

Actually, I have been drawn into the game more. I just wish the difficult controls would let me get through the story more easily. There was one section I played over and over today because I couldn't grab a stinkin' rope. There are way to many dangling ropes and vines in this game for it to be so stingy on how the player grabs it.

I also wish the bad guys weren't so hard to kill. Each one can take something like 10 rounds from an M16. And using the zoom aim to get headshots doesn't make a difference.

One thing I'm really interested in is exploring Croft Manor. I like the jumping around and collecting secret shiny things aspect of the game best, I think. I'm looking forward to unlocking more of the house to explore.

New Lara Croft is going to be significantly more badass. I read the article in Game Informer and I'm quite intrigued how it's going to pan out. They're adding some interesting elements both gameplay-wise as well as Lara's character.

Anyways to stay somewhat on topic, yes. Exploring the mansion is fun and will take a little while to do so. All I can say is have fun figuring out the pool.

Let's talk about the character of Lara Croft for a moment. As I said before, I essentially see her as a female mash-up of Indiana Jones and James Bond. She's an archaeologist (kind of), British, is constantly headed to different countries, and kills the people getting in her way. It's that last part that is really getting to me. Indiana Jones is always up against either Nazis or evil child-slavery guys and Bond has a license to kill. In this game, Lara is basically killing other archaeologists who are after the same thing she is. Even before knowing exactly what the main antagonist was up to, she was killing everyone who had a gun. I'm finding it difficult to find Lara Croft likable as a character; she seems just as greedy and ruthless as everyone else in the game.

Her main mission, I think, is to put together some kind of artifact to bring her mother back from the dead, which seems kind of pointless now, since Mama Croft has been dead for 20 years or something. We don't know much about what the antagonist characters are planning to do with the fragments they find; I think I'm supposed to assume that they want to take over the world or something, but it has yet to be fully explained. Still, do you think Mama Croft would want to come back to life at the expense of hundreds of other human lives? I know my mom would disapprove of such a thing.

I literally just exited the game due to frustration with the control scheme. For the boss I'm fighting (a giant sea serpent), I have to be able to shoot at a giant bell to distract the beast, put away my guns, throw a grappling hook at a device, and then pull on the line. The sequence of actions is completely logical, but the controls are temperamental enough to make it very difficult to pull off. Each action takes so long that once I throw the grapple, the monster has forgotten about the bell and is trying to eat Ms. Croft. This game needed some extra streamlining.

I beat the game. It took around 9 hours total, making it really short, but I suppose I wouldn't have stuck with it for too much longer than that. Things were already starting to get repetitive. I'm not totally done, of course; I still plan to play around in Croft Manor a bit more and find all the hidden things there. I don't plan on going back through the levels to find all the secrets, though. I really don't need to unlock all of Lara's fancy outfits.

The ending, though surprisingly easy (probably the only boss fight I pulled off in one try), was pretty good story-wise. It left off with a pretty good cliffhanger. I'm sure I'll play its sequel in the future, although not right away, I think.

The story overall was okay, but not great. The characters were poorly developed so I wasn't sure why things were happening all the time, but I was happy to ignore most of that and just jump around solving ancient puzzles. The story had a lot of stuff about Arthurian Legend in it, but they took a lot of weird liberties with it.

I don't think I need to say anything else about the gameplay elements. I'm pretty sure I ripped those to shreds in my last few posts. It just bothered me that the game was difficult mainly due to poor game design and not actually difficult situations. I made it through, though, even after shutting the game off multiple times due to frustration. I just hope Tomb Raider: Underworld made some improvements.

I'm not sure if anyone actually read this, but I think it helped me enjoy playing the game more. It's like watching a bad movie; you like it because there's so much there to make fun of.

I agree with you on almost every point save for controls. I never had much problem with the control scheme mostly because I played it on the 360. Might I recommend getting a USB control pad for your computer? It could make things far more fun and I know it helped me when I played Need for Speed 2.

Chubbalumpakis wrote:I agree with you on almost every point save for controls. I never had much problem with the control scheme mostly because I played it on the 360. Might I recommend getting a USB control pad for your computer? It could make things far more fun and I know it helped me when I played Need for Speed 2.

I have considered getting something like that in the past, but the thing is, most games get ported to the PC pretty well. Besides N64 roms, I've never had this much trouble with keyboard controls. I generally prefer a keyboard and a mouse, but if I run into many more games like this, I'll consider such a device.

gnurd wrote:

Chubbalumpakis wrote:I agree with you on almost every point save for controls. I never had much problem with the control scheme mostly because I played it on the 360. Might I recommend getting a USB control pad for your computer? It could make things far more fun and I know it helped me when I played Need for Speed 2.

I have considered getting something like that in the past, but the thing is, most games get ported to the PC pretty well. Besides N64 roms, I've never had this much trouble with keyboard controls. I generally prefer a keyboard and a mouse, but if I run into many more games like this, I'll consider such a device.

Understood. For the record though, Logitech makes several good ones. Might I recommend this?