Reviews - Tomb Raider: Legend

I think that the legend is great than most of the games out there but not the best. It needs more work and fix stuff that is wrong. Legend should be whole lot longer. I want to play for long time but it is just too short. the checkpoint made it shorter since you go back to the last checkpoint and you could keep trying the part where you did wrong and where you died. It will not take that much time to figure those out. First time when I had controled it, it was difficult. I really couldn't play the game because control is totally different. I wasn't even use to control lara with my left hand. I wasn't use to camera view either but I got use of it. It is great game. top 10 in my gaming list, like I said it is not that good as the time passed. The better game will come out and those will have better graphic and all.
Legend had few problem the camera view on the ledge was horrible. I am much use to the anniversary. Guns are really good but it is hard to find them on the ground when people drops them because it is so small and it does not glow like ammo in annivesary. the human enemy was tooooooooooooooooooooo easy for me. other tomb raider series had better one that attack constantly and strong and also does not die easy. When you get to slow motion, you can kill them in 3 shot!!!!!!!! that is too easy for me. I didn't like that cinematic stuff. you have to press the key and you could watch it. I just want to watch it straight through without stopping, without dying and without pressing anything. She also lose her balance alot and that is problem they had fixed in anniversary. the binocular was conpletely useless even though it is cool to have one. you only have 1 kind of health pack, i forgot it was large or small, and you can only hold 3. you really don't even use them though. there is too much cutscene and i have to skip them every time once i heard them.
what i about it is that you can interact with the background more.such as kicking a small object, shoot the stuff down and the rock roll to the ground and kill some guy, blow some stuff and shoot the tall about to be broken rock and it fall down and kill some enemy and all. I like when zip and alister talk to them because it is interesting and funny. i liked the vehicle and you get to ride them for long time. i like that kicking an enemy and slow motion. i like the grenade instead of grenade launcher. grapple was good but in anniversary, it is much smoother. in legend, you use grapple and when you passed about half way, you suddenly acclerate too fast. and i can't predict i could make or not because i hate swinging twice. and most of time i fall. but the idea was great. i like that 1st person shooting kind, the manual aim or whatever. you could not do any combat but it is more fun. her voice changed. it is much lighter or should i say higher pitch than angle of darkness or any tombraider, i like the new voice then the old one. you have stuff like unlock thing so you can play again after you finish the game. I like the unlocking idea. Before this, all the reason i play again was refresh my memory how to finish them, finish faster, secret which does not unlock outfit but sometimes extra level, new item thats hidden. now i have more reason to play again but i will get bored with it someday. that is why i am hoping this tomb raider series will continue until like when i am 40s and 50s. It is so fun to play and you need to use your brain sometimes and that is more fun than you don't use your brain and just pressng the controls. i wish that later on they put more skill to the game to solve the puzzle which makes the puzzle even harder. legend was easy so they should work on that. other than all the problems i just mensioned, i think it is worth to buy them, it is like 2/3 price of anniversary or unless the market reduced down or up.

Score: 9

after that garbage AOD, this is new cheer for tomb raider player.
though graphic wasn't that good as anniversary, the legend was pretty good. kicking and punching an enemy of whatever combat she has was good. the slow down thing people call it the pounce and roll was good but not much in use unless you are really out of health and health pack. I wish you could slow down when ever you want like stranglehold because then if you want to slow down, you could do that anytime you want. Gun is better but while you are playing you cannot really tell the difference fast unlike the anniversary which is coloured. the ammo and the gun and the health pack was hard to find after people had dropped them. They don't glow like anniversary. The human enemy was tooooooo easy to fight with. they shoot like 3 times then rest for like 5 second for them to shoot again. Which is enough time for you to shoot and once you hit them, they kind of shake there shoulder and that time you shoot again and you keep doing that you could kill them with the 1/10 of the energy down or less. health pack, you only can take 3 of them which gets on my nerves somtimes. she lose her balance so easily and that is the most annoying part of this game. and the camera view. It is ittle different from anniversary if you played them both. legend is much annoying because for instance, you turn back on the ledge and jump but camera view is side view so you actually jump to the left from your camera view but jump back from the ledge. Anniversray, you press back button and press jump. in legend, you have to press right and then press jump. so it is bad. you get hang of it later but annoying at first if you played the anniversry before legend. Another example is that when camera view is diagonal, legend it gets annoying if the view is diagonal but not in anniversary, few times that happens. the legend has too much those rewards. I like good hidden one and few of them not all over the place! it is harder to memorize all of them where they are if you freshly play the game again. it is too short. I like long game play because now it has checkpoints. That is why i didn't like the 4th tomb raider. bosses are too easy especially the last one with that sword was easy. i liked the zip and alister was fun to listen so i liked that but it make little cinematics and i have to keep skipping them when i am in hurry. things to unlock was much more than anniversary such as outfit. cheat weapon wasn't that good but it was ok it was much exciting because it had some traps though you could easily find how to solve them because of he check point. but it was good game


Score: 8

I liked how she interacted with the game such as pushing a stone to make a horizontal pole, and actually follows the rule of gravity!
Unlike other games TR1-6 she has more interesting challenges instead of stuff like just switches, a whole lot of mechanism invovled with it, but the mechanisms don't look realistic.
It is my game but there is lots f places for improvents, some made in anniversary. The manual aim should be done with movement because the autoaim is just not good enough. But instead of grapple gun in Chronicles, you have a real grapple. I liked the PDA because the menu that keeps appearing out of nowhere, is not realistic, but the PDA is mush more realistic. Graphics are so good!!!! I give this 9.5/10

Score: 9

I think that tomb raider legend is a brilliant game.It has interesting levels, good graphics and an engaging story.The only main drawback(for me anyway) was the difficulty level.But that no way means you should avoid this game, it is still greatly enjoyable to play.It's more about enjoying the journey than fretting about how to get past an array of lethal traps.It's a little on the short side, but there is lots of things to unlock and plenty of goodies to go back and find.A great game that deserves your attention.

Score: 8

After playing the Angel of Darkness (actually the first Tomb Raider Game I've ever played on my PC-then), I didn't have great expectations from Legend. And I was wrong.
When I first played a demo of TRL the feeling was really incredible! The graphics were amazing; the first level was beautiful- but seemed a little small; the combat was well organized and the target system made me want to never stop fighting those "mercenaries"!
When I finally bought the game, (I wasn't one of the first- shame on me!) I was proven right. Legend was one of the first action-adventure games I really loved. The state-of-the-art graphics and the fantastic sound (I'd like Lara, even by only listening to her voice) were only the start. The levels were well-designed and exploring them was not very difficult. The interactivity with the environment was very good and generally, the "platforming" was extraordinarily enjoyable.
Then came the action part of the game. Combat was one of the best times in the game. The target system was kind of unmistakable and the bullet-time effect was amazing! The interactive sequences' quality was on the top, they gave a more cinematic view of the game (especially the jump in Tokyo) and they helped the evolution of the storyline. The bosses weren't as difficult as I first thought, although the Unknown Entity was quite difficult for me to defeat.
The new items in this game were cool, although except the magnetic grapple hook and the headphones, all the others seemed a little unnecessary.
The only negative I could find, after completing the game about 7-8 times is that it's very short. An experienced player can see the credits in about three to five days, while playing loose. Oh and all those treasures, which can take a really long time to find out where (the f...) they are hidden.
After all, Legend had all those changes, in each sector, from graphics to gameplay, the series needed, so they could regain their potency. For me, even after the release of Anniversary, it remains the best of the series (although it has an equal "opponent", named TRA )


Score: 9

One things for sure, this isn't a great game. They didn't think about remaking AOD!!! I Was hoping for the whole story. The levels were to easy, limited amount of levels, lame outfits, but great movement but that is not going to change about how pathetic this thing is. I wasted my RM10 for that thing man!!!

Score: 3

At the start of Tomb Raider: Legend, we see nine year old Lara in a plane with her mother. The plane crashes in the Himalayas and leads to the present day.... We find Lara scaling clips in Bolivia. One of her old friends tells her there is a stone dais in Bolivia, relating to the death of her mother. Lara finds some mercenaries, and is wondering who they work for. She realizes she is not the only one trying to find the artifact... I think Crystal Dynamics did a great job with this game. The story line was awesome, as well as the new moves, gadgets and the awesome control system. I'm going to give this game a 9/10. I thought it needed a bit more of a challenge. The puzzles only took me 10 minutes to get past. Overall, I thought Crystal Dynamics did a great job!

Score: 9

Legend was one of the best tomb raider games at the time of release. It’s new look from the change of Core to crystal dynamics gave it some spicing up. The weapons were great, Lara and her outfits were fabulous and her enemies were easy but challenging at the same time. Her new grapple was great and the way it was used all the time gave the game more good responses. What I didn’t like was the amount of levels. There was only seven. They were long enough but maybe Crystal D could have had about 20 levels with the same length and then it would have been a better game. But overall it was a great game and I have enjoyed playing it and getting all the rewards. Definitely one I will play again and again. I give it a 9/10!!!

Score: 9

Ever since I first heard about this game, I had been jumping arround at home waiting for it, preorderd it and got in on the release date, and played untill my mom pulled me of my chair away from my PC! (literaly, I'm not joking!)

It was the best game I had played in a long time, and I loved it!
The gameplay was much different though, wich I'm sure youv'e all noticed. Gone are the aquard controls and we see a new more agile and elegant Lara. (Liquid animation CoreDesign calls it, she can run upto 11 animations simultaniously, giving her a more realistic moving pattern) Wich I think she needed if she was to survive the new generation of gamers. Allso she is more graceful and beautiful then before, with new stunning graphics, wich makes the gameplay so much more fun and interesting! I absolutley love the Bullet-time, and her new moves!

It's like a whole new game, but adding realism to one part, removes it from another, Lara nolonger bends down to pick up, for instance; ammo and other items, only the rewards and guns when she changes them or the first time she picks them up. I didn't like this. I also miss the menu with items, health, and different weapons, I much prefered the old layout for this. However the granades she now can carry are nice, except from the red/orange trace from them when they are tossed. Me not like that!

Although we got to learn more about Lara's past, and her parents, we start to understand what drives her foreward in life. The focus on Lara combined with the fact that the game is quite short, takes away the depth from the other characters, such as Amanda wich we dont get to know alot about in the game, or Rutland, Takamoto, or anny of the other characters.

Also I think that the challanges througout the game were to easy, like Takamoto for instance, he was a good figth, but Rutland was disapointing. So were the gun figths with Amandas mercenarys. Lara only meets on humam challangers appart from the Unknown Entity, and I must say, I do miss the walking dead, and the GIANT complicated puzzels that we all love so much! The ones that make you think so hard and someimes you'l get stuck and get very frustrated. I feel that Legend is to direct and that it allways leeds you one way, you never ask youself where to go, and the gameplay gets a bit automatic and boring because of that, however I did not have anny trouble with the grapple as CS mantioned. No, the metal objects should not be shining, but because I played it on PC there were no obvoius signals for it, just a little arrow, wich I didne't find distracting. And the rewards, are wery well hidden I must say!

The ending was surprising too, just when Lara says to fix transport to the next location, BAM!-> End Credits! I got surprised there, I didn't think Amanda/Unknown Entity was the Final Boss...

There are manny small details like theese, wich I'm sure will be fixed in TR-8, wich I'm looking wery much foreward to! :D
Because of theese things I wont be able to give the game 10 out of 10, but I hope I will be able to with TR-8!

HOWEVER! I will still have to say that this is my favorite Tomb Raider game, despite a few lacks here and there. And I strongly recomend,.. no.. I ORDER you to BUY IT, PLAY IT, AND ENJOY IT! (over and over again..)

Score: 9

Well I must say that was soooo cool. Nice work!!!! For me I say 10 out of 10 stars!!! great work!!!!! The guns were very good. But the bad words didn't need to be there. Amanda was a good person to put in the game. The game looked life like. I could do anything that Lara could do. Every time I prest I butten she would jump or fire her pistols. It was a good game. But it was short. I played the game and got all of the outfits. I was shocked of how many outfits there were. Croft manor was very big, It was just like the movie. I was also shocked that Lara would talk to the people on the head thing that Lara wears. And if you wait to see what the bad people say they will talk. And if Lara jump in the water she would get all wait!!!! So that was the best Lara croft game for me.

Score: 10

WOW thats all I can say about this game, they have changed tomb raider so much they still have the tombs and everything but with the control. The games really short with a really good story line and the mansion even though they have changed it its still really good just need to add more rooms and let you outside. Not much I can say about this game because CS basically said everything for me lol but this game is just WOW.

Score: 10

After four sequels that did little to push Tomb Raider forwards, a disappointing PS2 debut and two weak movies, there was a lot resting on this game. Eidos made the understandable but controversial move of shifting Tomb Raider from Core (developers of TRs 1-6) to new and fairly inexperienced developer Crystal Dynamics. Three years later, we have Tomb Raider Legend.

The changes in this new game are clearly big. The game uses an entirely new engine, has a new look and ditches any previous storylines. This makes it hard to know where to start, but the most obvious improvement is the graphics. The new look Lara is fantastic, she looks much more realistic and this has a big effect on the game as a whole. The scenery is also much improved, not only because it is more detailed, but also because it has a much bigger scale. Take Tokyo for instance, a massive section of the city has been modelled even though only a small amount is played in. This gives the game a much more impressive feel than the sewers and streets on Angel of Darkness, making it finally look like a true evolution of the original game.

The heart of the new game is the improved physics engine. It's hard to say just how much better it is until you actually play. Now things dont just move around set paths, you have full control over the surroundings. It gives the game a much more realistic feel, and also gives scope for much more interesting puzzles. The controls have been completely redesigned for this game, now Lara can do most of her actions just with X. She also autograbs ledges, so you don't need to worry about jumps any more. This may sound too simple, but it lets you concentrate on things that are actually a lot more fun, such as the puzzles themselves. Even if you just miss a jump, you get a chance to make a last second save by pressing triangle. This feels quite pointless though, and it's distracting having the symbol pop up on the screen. But otherwise movement feels perfect, and when you discover some of the cool new stuff she can do, it's a hell of a lot more fun.

Lara has a lot of new equipment to help her out. Firstly there's the personal lighting device, which is far less annoying than flares, although it requires charging which doesn't seem necessary. You still get to use flares in a flashback, but it might have been a nice feature to have them in the main game as well for lighting up the area ahead. The other key new piece of equipment is the magnetic grapple, which plays a big part in the gameplay. It's a great new feature, and makes a lot of new puzzles possible. I do have two problems with it though. The first is the way metallic objects shine, it looks very unrealistic and just makes things too obvious. The other is the way X appears when a metallicd object is off screen, again this just makes things too obvious and the game loses a lot of challenge as a result.

Another piece of new equipment is the headset which lets you communicate with your friends back at the mansion. I was pesimistic about this, but I think it was just about a success. The characters at the mansion are well chosen and the dialogue produced is very fun to listen to. They give away some of the puzzles which is annoying, but it's nice to have them describe the historical elements of the levels.

The new combat system is a tricky one to comment upon. On the one hand, it works better than the previous games and action sequences are fast and furious. I especially like how you can shoot scenery and make it fall on the enemy, or shoot explosive items to take them out. There's some great new combat moves, the slow motion is cliched but looks far to cool for anyone to care. Enemy AI is much improved, although human enemies still fall too easily. The main problem with combat is the targetting, its very hard to change the target and that gets infuriating when Lara is aiming at a lesser threat and you can't get her to switch. I'd be interested to see what would happen if TR8 ditched autoaiming and went for a completely first person combat style. This would lose a lot of the movement in fights so it may not be the best solution, but either way something needs to be done.

The new weapon system doesn't work. The idea is that you can hold one large weapon on your back, but this means that you end up sticking with the same weapon throughout as if you picked up a new one it would have no ammo. I appreciate the realism, but I much preferred the old system. Vehicles make a very welcome return, although you only get motorbikes and a fork-lift truck. I never thought I'd have said it, but I had more fun on the fork-lift truck. The motorbike section in Tokyo is fine, you just have to jump over buildings. But the other motorbike sections are a weak point of the game. There's nothing wrong with them as such, the bike controls fine and they are fun. It just feels like they are too plastered on to the game, two pointless minigames to stretch out the games length. In TR8 they should have vehicles fit in with the game more fluidly instead of being completely separate sections.

The new story is very well put together, and is far more enthralling than any of the previous games. Amanda is a perfect enemy, very much the anti-Lara, but personal connections between the two lead to a better nemesis than the usual 'pure evil' enemy we're used to. James Rutland is less exciting, but his part is minor. There was a lot of controversy over the changed details on Lara's parents, which is understandable, but after playing the game it's clear that they were only made to help the story and create a deeper Lara Croft. That said, I see no reason for certain changes such as Lara's fathers name. The new story has some great twists, particularly at the end, so I'm really hoping that we actually get to see what happens this time, unlike with Angel of Darkness.

A lot of critics have marked the game down for being short, and they aren't wrong. I completed it in three days, and I'm slow. It goes without saying that the next game should be longer. But it isn't a complete disappointment, because the new secret system is much better than before. Now you can just go back to levels to grab the secrets you missed the first time, and some of them are in very good hiding places. Best of all is the huge amount of unlockable extras from object models to pistol upgrades to cheats. There's also over 30 outfits to unlock, which can all be played in the game and in the new Croft Manor. I admit being a little disappointing that they completely scrapped the old Croft Manor design, they could have just expanded it. But otherwise it's a fantastic extra and there's a few hours gameplay in just collecting all of its secrets. However there's still a lot more that can be added for the next game, such as a garden and timed events like in Tomb Raider 3.

I really loved this game, it is by far my favourite Tomb Raider so far. Crystal Dynamics have done a fantastic job, and I hope they do just as well on creating the next one. I'd like to give this a 10/10, but there are far too many areas for improvements that I have mentioned (combat, vehicles, length etc). But they're not enough to stop this being a truly great game, and a highly recommended buy.

Score: 9