Tomb Raider: Legend -- Lara still needs work

Almost all professional game reviews leave me with the sense that they are ultimately governed by something other than a completely honest assessment of the game in question. Occasionally, the slavering over a game coincides with actual quality, as in the case of God of War or Grand Theft Auto or Ico. Other times, the leash seems all too visible, as in Halo and more currently, Tomb Raider: Legend.

TRL and its predecessor Angel of Darkness are great examples of reviewers sounding like well-trained, albeit lucid, pupils. AOD was not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be, and it irritates me more every time I hear someone now talking about how TRL is a fitting apology for AOD. First, AOD needed no apology, and second, if it did, TRL is a poor candidate for it.

AOD was not perfect or great, but it didn't nearly deserve the ignominy it will undoubtedly now have to suffer for eternity. AOD was a fun game (which I proudly and happily own) with its share of problems. Legend is much the same, but much, much shorter. It is not, in fact, as much better than AOD as most claim.

A few minor improvements have been made, but the most glaring thing still in the dark ages is how Lara controls. She is definitely improved over her predecessors, but not by nearly as much as she should have been, and not nearly enough to warrant the praise heaped upon Crystal Dynamics. Where Core bore an ill-deserved amount of criticism for AOD, Crystal Dynamics reaps equally ill-deserved accolades for TRL.

CD did a nice job, but they are still playing catch-up, and Lara really needs to go to a developer who can find more imagination to devote to this series in all its facets. Looking at an old title like Drakan, which met an untimely demise after only two games, I'd like to see Surreal (The Suffering, Lord of the Rings) take it on, especially if they insist on keeping Rynn a thing of the past.

In many ways, AOD has the sort of imagination that is lacking here -- the variety of locales, more interesting secondary characters, more engaging character interaction, longer campaign, to name just a few. Core has no reason to hang its head over AOD, much as the industry seems to demand it should. AOD isn't the promised land for Lara, but TRL is only another small step itself in that direction, and not a glorious return to the promise that we all saw in the series from the beginning.

One of the great improvements in Lara herself is some new combat moves, a couple which look neat but ultimately take a back seat to one in particular where she can leap at a foe, give them a kick to the head which launches her into a mid-air, slow-mo flip that not only looks and executes in stunning fashion, but also gives her weaponry a boost that comes in handy for quickly taking out multiple baddies.

One of the areas that TRL regresses from AOD is in the supporting cast. AOD had a very nice sort of "Broken Sword" feeling to it that helped flesh out the adventure, where TRL drops back to giving Lara a more isolated feel, despite the attempt to alleviate this by adding her two ops helpers that talk to her occasionally over a headset. That can't make up for or hope to match the dimension that solid character interaction can bring, which AOD made a great first stab at.

In short, I echo to some degree the prevailing sentiment that TRL sports some nice improvements, but, contrary to most reviews you'll read, it is not the Tomb Raider we've been waiting for. Updated graphics, improvements in Lara's control and abilities, and some classic TR locales, are enough to tide us over until someone can really do this series justice. It's another barely respectable title (an adventure that was at least half again longer than it's 10-12 hours would edge it out of the "barely") in the series that will leave fans with a nice taste but a little empty -- sort of like eating half a doughnut.