Tomb Raider: Legend (Xbox 360, 2006)

Tomb Raider: Legend follows the exploits of Lara Croft as she tries to solve the mysteries of her past. Specifically, she's investigating the death of her mother several years earlier. One thing leads to another and somehow the legend of King Arthur becomes involved, along with a magical sword that has been broken into fragments and scattered throughout the world. The story is barely coherent, but it serves its purpose in that it gives Lara an excuse to travel from one exotic locale to the next in search of these artifacts. The game takes you to places such as Ghana, Peru, Tokyo, England, and Kazakhstan, and all of the locations look great. And while Lara sticks mostly to tombs and ruins, she also spends time exploring a deserted research facility, hopping about atop skyscrapers, and shooting up bad guys in a rustic village. The variety of levels is great, although you'll end up seeing pretty much the same platforming and box-pushing puzzles wherever you go. The puzzles in Tomb Raider: Legend can be a bit deceptive at first, but once you learn how the game works, the puzzles become very simple. Most of the game is spent solving basic switch puzzles as you work your way through each level in search of the next artifact. Aside from dragging around boxes to weigh down switches or jam traps, there are a lot of fun platforming sections that let you take full advantage of Lara's affinity for high-flying acrobatics. You can hang on ledges, swing on ropes, swing between platforms (via a magnetic grapple), and vault off conveniently placed beams. The controls are a lot more fluid and responsive than they have been in previous Tomb Raider games, which makes Lara movements feel much more natural than before. The controls are precise, but not punishingly so. You often only have to jump in the general direction of the next platform and the game will compensate by automatically connecting Lara to the intended surface. Once you get the hang of it you can effortlessly overcome even the most imposing obstacles without difficulty. It's also always abundantly clear which ledges you can hang on or jump between, so the only challenge is positioning the camera so you can see where you're trying to go, which can be frustrating. In tight spots it can be difficult to get a good view of the ledge you need to jump to, and sometimes it's easy to misjudge a jump if you don't have the camera aligned just right. The camera problems are intermittent though, and most of the time you have a fairly good view of the surroundings. And even though the platforming is fairly easy, it's still satisfying thanks to some great-looking animations and level designs that convey an excellent sense of peril. Of course, Lara is skilled with weapons and is more than willing to serve up some hot lead when the situation calls for it. You'll have to shoot up plenty of generic enemy goons and a few leopards here and there. You can lock on to an enemy by holding a button, and then you mash the fire button until the enemy is dead. You can also throw grenades, as well as perform slide tackles or aerial assaults. When you run up to an enemy, you can jump off his head and flip through the air in slow motion while shooting him. It's a neat effect, but not especially useful or necessary, since it takes more time to get in close to an enemy than it does to just blast him from afar. Sometimes you can shoot at certain objects in the environment, which are clearly indicated with a large button icon. Y

I have always been a fan of the original Tomb Raiders and this game is a worthy addition even if it has a few things that could be improved. First of all the graphics are great, the character model of lara is spot on, the environments and lighting are stunning and the water is amazing. But there are some problems like the shadows on Lara are not done very well, they flicker and don't look all that real also the enemies, other than the bosses, are repetitive. I hate seeing enemies that look like clones, even down to the clothes being the same. Game developers need to stop this. Also the game is pretty short. You can beat it in about 8 hours. The difficulty is toned down alot from the originals too and leads to the easy completion of the game. It is alot of fun during that time with clever physics based puzzles, climbing and jumping and some shooting with lara's trade mark dual pistols. There are also grenades, machine guns and even a new magnetic rope that is used to swing and pull objects, its a good addition. Whats not so good is the motorcycle you get to ride, the motorcycle segments reminded me of the James Bond driving levels, there just so-so compared to the adventuring. Hopefully the next version will focus more on the Tombs and puzzles and ditch the driving. Overall this game is very good and anyone looking for a good adventure should get it. There are plenty of unlockables to find after you beat the game witch adds to the replay but i really wish the game was more challenging and alot longer with larger areas to explore. I give Crystal Dynamics a Big thumbs up for creating the best looking and playing Tomb Raider to date now if they just focus on the good parts for the next version they will have the total package. Like the awesome Lara Croft.

I don't have too many 360 games so i picked this one up on eBay for 35 bucks.
The game does a good job of puzzle solving and gameplay is fun and dosn't get to repetitive. The only problem is you can beat the game in 6-7 hours. Other downsides like collision detection sometimes ain't that great, for instance you jump from the ledge to grab the rope, lara jumps right in front of it but dosn't grab the rope then you fall and die ;(

Burned me up alot on tht note. Another downside is that if you enemy isn't close enough you gun will fire in totally retarded directions. I know your probably thinking, well a gun can't be that accurate. Trust me, at 20 feet away the bullets shouldn't stray 5 feet away from the target.

One of the coolest element of the game to me was it's interactive cutscenes. You have your normal cutscene but when lara is escaping something your prompted to push certain buttens in sequence to dodge, jump or roll. Although the randomness of these cutscenes may catch you off guard and you may fall to your doom.

There are some cool unlockables but some were too hard to get that they may not be worth your while. You find rewards in levels to unlock them. There's the croft mansion like previous tomb raider games where you can run around your house and discover secrets. The game shows some intresting levels and the story is kinda confusing. Theres sort of a hint of da vinci code in the "King Arthur's Tomb?" level. Don't attempt the time trials the're impossible. I'll say this, Tomb Raider: Legend IS a fun game, but also a quick one. I suggest you buy it for 35 to 45 bucks on eBay rather then settling for the 50 to 60 dollar price tag.

Everything you loved about the old Tomb Raider games and more is included in this
high detailed graphic game. The first thing I have to point out are the graphics. They look so detailed and breath taking. Never had one game had such releastic backgrounds and surroundings. The graphic designers really worked hard night and day to give you the best graphics out there. In most games there are the areas you can wonder through and there are the ugly "blocky" backgrounds, but not in this game. Through this game you will travel through arctic weather, desserts, rainforests, waters, ancient city, ruins, foreign cities, and more.

Another thing that surprises me about TR:Legend is that it actually has a good story line unlike some of the others. It gives you twists and turns till the very end. And you will never know what to suspect.

Some new features they added was the new interactive movie clips. There are more things you can explode, more upgrades and you even get to unlock some new clothes that you want Lara Croft to wear. Ther are man other new things also

STORY LINE
Lara Crofts search for an ancient south american artifact changes course dramatically when she meets a dangerous figure from her past, and she fiinds herself in a race to recover one of history's most famous artifacts.

This is byfar the best Tomb Raider game yet, and its only going to get better!

A long standing fan of the Tomb Raider series, Tomb Raider: Legend – the latest installment to date – was a moderately enjoyable, and short, experience.

The color and the frame rate on this game are amazing, and the big world environments cannot be done justice on other systems as it was on the 360. As to be expected, Tomb Raider: Legend, like its predecessors, had big puzzles with big cut scenes to follow. The puzzles, if familiar with the other games in the series, are familiar with their own new spin of difficulty.

The fighting and action in this game was below mediocre, and there was little challenge in the in level fighting. I died more due to missed jumps than the bad guys in the game, which leads me to my next grievance. The camera work in this game is bad, and cannot be relied upon to judge critical jumps at key points of the game. Still lacking the player in mind, the camera benefits the round more than anyone. Still with all of the dying, this was not a difficult game.

The most difficult part of this game was collecting all of the in round achievements, which took more time than beating the game. This gamer beat the game in three sittings… THREE SITTINGS - and not for exurbanite amounts of time!

A the technology of gaming increases, budgets and game lengths will continue to shorten due to studio costs and persistent deadlines, and Tomb Raider: Legend falls victim here. This game had a GREAT ENDING (compared to recent games I played), though was not worth buying due to in game issues and sheer length.

My recommendation is you either get this game cheap on eBay or rent it for a week, other than that, it is not worth the $59.99+tax price point.