Interactive environments
Lara has been propelled into the 21st century with a fine array of high tech gadgets. The busty heroine now carries a magnetic grappling device which can be activated when you spy an action spot, enabling you to swing your way across a cavern floor, or pull heavy objects out of the way.
She also carries a pair of high-tech binoculars which can be used to scan the environment for pathways and action spots. When you scan across an action spot you’ll hear a beeping sound and immediately know where to shoot or aim your grappling device.
It’s not only these funky binoculars that aid Miss Croft on her quests, she also carries a PDA. You’ll use this device for communicating with your allies, reviewing your objectives, and checking out your latest items and stats.
Click for larger imageLara also carries med packs, a personal LED, and frag grenades.
The menu to use these items is simple to use. It’s a simple press of the d-pad to bring up the relevant device or to take a med pack
The dodgy camera angles of previous games have also been overhauled, you’ll still occasionally need to re-check your surroundings, but overall it’s a much smoother experience. You’ll still miss the odd ledge jump and frustratingly have to make your way all the back to the top over again, but it’s far less frequent.
Click for larger imageThere are a few new additions, notably the interactive environments. At times you’ll be able to trigger actions, such as bringing a pile of rocks crashing down onto an enemy, or shooting a pile of rocks to bring them tumbling down a cliff face. These actions are fun, and provide a bit of a breather from all of the jumping and swinging that’s embedded into the soul of the Tomb Raider games.
The action sequences, however, are fairly unremarkable. You’ll stumble across a group of enemies on your way to find the stone, and you’ll need to shoot your way through these guards. The enemy A.I is erratic, they won’t run to shield themselves from your gun-fire, but will just shoot at you. They’re easy to take down and don’t provide a significant challenge in the slightest.
Lara once again wields a dual pistol by default, although she can pick up weapons dropped by an enemy, and not much has gone into enhancing her shooting style. Her arms are once again stretched out like a zombie, and she can strafe, dodge, roll, and lock onto targets like always. The combat sequences are easy to execute for any casual gamers. Luckily these action sequences are said to take up around 25% of the overall game.
Some would say though, that the beauty of the Tomb Raider series lies in the puzzle solving. Tomb Raider: Legend is littered with physical and logical puzzles. From the simplicity of systematically trying different paths in order to find an exit, to moving a concrete block over a certain spot to open a door, the puzzles promise to be varying. The initial level doesn’t particularly offer much hope; the puzzles on offer are just variations of those puzzles we’ve already seen. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, but I’d hoped for something different. Of course, it’s not to say that there won’t be numerous fantastically mind boggling puzzles later in the game.
