Lara Croft is off on another adventure after a long break in Tomb Raider: Legend. In it, she tries to solve the mystery of what could have possibly happened to her mother in a floating rock accident.
You play as, you guessed it, Lara Croft, an archaeologist with smooth moves and dual pistols as you traverse several different and diverse areas. There are jungles. There are snowy mountaintops. And there's a broken down King Arthur exhibit.
First thing's first: the gunfights. The gunfights are more prevalent earlier in the game, for as you progress the gameplay becomes more puzzle-oriented. None of the gunfights are particularly challenging (I'm not sure what they'd be like on hard mode though, seeing as I played on medium). Lara can jump, dodge, and backflip, all while firing her pistols. She can also use her grapple hook to pull enemies toward her, and jumping on an enemies head and backflipping off of it will send you into a bulletime sort of mode that lasts for a few seconds. She has plenty of other moves at her disposal but none of them are really worth using as shooting the enemies usually gets the job done. A cool feature of TR:L is that hazardous objects will have the Y button symbol floating above them, and pressing Y will get Lara to shoot at them and hopefully cause an explosion or two to kill baddies faster.
Occasionally thrown into the action are bike sequences in which you mount a motorcycle and speed through an area while other enemies on motorcycles try to kill you if you don't kill them first. These are fun and make the game less repetitive. In one bike area, though, the terrain actual tiles itself (and it's very noticeable), so you'll be driving through the same mountains and hills 4 or 5 times during the course of about 10 minutes.
The main feature of any Tomb Raider game, however, is not the killing; it's the puzzles. And believe me, this game has lots of 'em. During the course of the game the puzzles get progressively harder. However, they are built on logic, and a bit of common sense and reasoning will get you figuring them out. They are very challenging, however, and without a little bit of patience you will be getting frustrated. Not throw-your-controller frustrated, however.
What WILL make you throw your controller is the climbing sequences in which you, well, climb things. You jump, you spin, you grapple, etc. In some parts of the game, platforms you land on will actually break off and slide away, and you only have a split second to make a decision on which direction to jump or you will fall into a mysterious abyss. Making the right decision is mostly based on luck, or doing it over so many times you've finally figured out what the hell to do. People with amazingly quick reflexes will find this part not as hard, but for the normal people out there, you will get very angry. It wouldn't be as bad if there wasn't a loading screen every time you die. Yes, a loading screen. Just to send Lara back to a position she typically was about 10 seconds ago. And the loading screens are about 10-15 seconds each, so if you die and realize what you did wrong, you will have to wait to try again.
Another aspect of the game that takes advantage of ridiculously good reflexes are interactive cutscenes, much like what is found in Resident Evil 4 only slightly more annoying. Each interactive cutscene usually uses the x, y, a, and b buttons on your controller once, and sometimes an analog direction. They're very hard and you will probably have to do them several times to get them right.
The graphics in TR:L are very nice. There are pretty water effects, and all of the environments are extremely detailed. The entire game is pure eye candy and is a good example of what the Xbox 360 can do.
One of the biggest gripes about the game is the overall fact that it is very short and does not have hardly any replay value. The entire game took me around 9 hours to beat, and I take forever to figure the puzzles out, so it is probably even shorter for most people out there. There are several unlockables though, including costumes, models from the game (which are pretty much pointless), and some concept art you get by finding various "rewards" (bronze, silver, and gold) hidden throughout the game. Crof t Manor (Lara's house) is also accessible from the beginning of the game, and within it are several secrets that let you unlock certain things.
Overall Tomb Raider: Legend is a very fun game that can at times be frustrating but for the most part is pretty easy, however it leaves you wanting more as the single player campaign is ungodly short.
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