A new addition to the gameplay is interactive cutscenes which require contextual input from the player. For instance, the view will become cinematic while Lara retrieves an artifact from a plane perched on the edge of a cliff. It of course starts to fall and as Lara dashes to safety you must follow on-screen commands to hit direction keys, making her duck and leap at the right moments. If you have trouble with these, they can always be memorized because they are scripted. When you fail to press a key in time, Lara often dies grotesquely, with rag doll physics that will probably make you laugh and even try killing her again after the game loads your last checkpoint.
When you are able to stay alive traipse about Legend’s worlds, you may notice something—they’re gorgeous. The XBox 360 and PC versions have “next-generation” content, a silly title considering that it’s here today. On my main computer, armed with a NVIDIA 6600GT, enabling this makes the frame rate slog into the mid-teens (although the version 1.1 patch significantly improves framerate with these features on), but I don’t need smooth motion to tell me how good the game looks. Advanced shaders mean realistically rippling water and grimy temple walls, as well as a fairly realistic looking Lara. However, for PCs users to enjoy this beauty, I’d say they need at least a NVIDIA 6800. Otherwise, they’ll join Playstation 2 and Xbox owners in enjoying something that looks more like Max Payne 2. Instead of lush jungles, there is sparse ground and everything shiny looks dull. But hey, if you’ve got the hardware, you get the goods.
The single player game can be breezed through in under 10 hours, but Legend does its best to extend the fun. There is another incarnation of Lara’s mansion to explore and train in. Once you beat a main mission, a time trial is opened that you play on the normal difficulty. Scattered throughout the levels are bronze, silver, and gold treasures to be found. Beating trials and finding treasure unlock extras like cheat codes and character models. This may not add much value to every gamer, but XBox 360 owners also have numerous achievements to earn for their gamerscore.
Tomb Raider: Legend is a bit of a throwback, albeit one with cutting edge graphics. A 3-D platformer, the missions are packed with jumping, puzzles, and mindless shooting. It’s easily better than the previous game in the series, and has the greatest number of acrobatic actions to date. However, the combat is its weakest link, and seems stuck in the past. If you liked the older Tomb Raider games, though, you will probably enjoy this latest adventure and Lara’s next-gen makeover.
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