Tomb Raider Legends (Preview)

Chris Stead, GamePro Australia

12/07/2005 10:32:21

Ok, forget the movies - they sucked, we all know that - and forget 2003's Angel of Darkness too, Lara is set to swing her way back to the forefront of gaming with a new look and a new vision. The aim is to head back to Lara's roots, rediscover what made her such a well-endowed phenomenon and redefine her and her adventures for the current and next generation of gamers.

Developer Crystal Dynamics are certainly going about it in all the right ways. They've spent the last eighteen months re-establishing their connection with the Lara mythology, thumbing through old surveys, reading reviews, playing through the games again and hitting message boards to get the word straight from the consumer's mouth. The result is a deeper understanding of what made Lara so cool in the first place and what her audience is demanding in the year 2005 and this dedicated research will ensure an adventure unlike any we have enjoyed thus far.

We will also enjoy a Lara like any we have seen before - well, depending on your tastes. So let's just get it out there: Lara's tits are smaller. Now calm down fellas, god knows Aussie GamePro enjoys a full-bodied love cushion as much as the next gamer, but her old school bazooka's must have been giving the poor lady terrible back pain. And Crystal Dynamics have compensated with tighter shorts and a more fiery shade of hair colour. In fact, the new Lara has grown from 4,400 polygons to 9,800 and that's before she straps-on weapons and equipment - so you know, you're still getting plenty of pop, for your buck.

Seriously though, Lara will be a far more alive model than her previous visions and be more visually representative of her adventurous lifestyle and her mischievous personality. She will feature a natural, muscular structure, visually noticeable equipment, realistic textures and skin, detailed facial features, reactive eyes and fluid motion, the latter thanks to a host of ground-breaking new animations - she'll even get wet and dirty (sounds good to us!) in tune with her environment. Further more, she will be better actor - with high-quality lip-syncing and emotive facial animations - sure to make moments like shark punching that much more believable.

Little is know at this stage about the gameplay, other than it will stick to the 3rd-person perspective and remain part of the action/adventure genre. And also that Lara's backpack of goodies has been modernised with the likes of a magnetic grappling device, binoculars, frag grenades, personal lighting device and communications equipment. There's promise of a new, refined control system too, that allows Lara to be even more graceful and acrobatic in what Crystal Dynamics claim will be the most action orientated Tomb Raider game yet. So, getting excited? Absolutely, and in more way than one!