Tomb Raider: Legend marks a return to respectability for one of gaming's most memorable leads, and is highly recommended
Then Eidos cut Core off from the franchise, upset at their inability to make a relevant, or even competent Tomb Raider installment. Then they handed the reigns over to the very capable Crystal Dynamics, who developed the acclaimed Soul Reaver series and basically said "fix this". To say the least, Tomb Raider: Legend could not afford to fail. Lara's legacy would undoubtedly suffer its final blow if Legend was not of high quality. After being delayed a bit, Tomb Raider: Legend is finally here, and it greatly pleases me to say that the game is not only good, it's fantastic... while it lasts.
Tomb Raider: Legend does away with the ridiculous "innovations" that AoD added, and goes back to the roots of the series. While this may sound like a very bad idea... it isn't, because they went back to the good roots of the series, and ditched what didn't work before. The first thing you'll notice is that Lara controls very well. She's nimble, can turn on a dime, and can even adjust her trajectory somewhat while in the air. The left analog is relegated to moving Lara, while the right analog controls the camera, very similar to Splinter Cell. It feels very modern and intuitive, which is probably the first time you could say that about a TR game.
Then you'll notice how truly gorgeous the environments you're moving around in are. While the game does have its moments where you can tell it's an upgraded version of a current gen game, there are times when Tomb Raider: Legend is just astonishing and looks like CG sequences from the original games. This is mostly due to the amazing lighting effects seen in the game. I don't know of another game that makes light look more natural, not even G.R.A.W. The texturing is generally of high quality, the water is lovely and features nice reflections, the color is very tasteful and realistic, and the physics are impressive. Lara looks pretty good too, and isn't quite as ridiculously proportioned as she was in previous games, though she is still "generously" proportioned. One downside to Lara, though, is that she looks kind of like a plastic doll sometimes. The enemies feature a decent amount of detail, but nothing impressive. The framerate is lower than most people would like, but is still very playable. The art direction is strong though, and the places you'll visit are extremely well designed and interesting. You'll visit a crazy amount of locales, such as mountains, mines, and even King Arthur's tomb. You just can't help but feel good when you've been running through a cave for a while and you follow the white light to the exit to find yourself staring at what could be Niagara falls. There is the occasional bad looking object, but when taking into account the level design and the impressive graphics engine, Tomb Raider: Legend is one of the most luscious visual experiences on the 360.
The sound design matches the great graphics to make the presentation really cinematic and epic. The voice acting ranges from decent to pretty good, and a beautiful orchestral soundtrack with distant vocals punctuates the experience at all the right moments. Sound effects are generally good, and the checkpoint "jingle" is very comforting and pleasant. Overall, the game just sounds great.
Of course, it's not just graphics and sound that make a game, but thankfully Legend has Lara doing what she does best: going into tombs and hop/flip/jumping around until she finds good puzzles to solve or arcane objects to collect. The platforming elements are rock solid and fun, if a bit similar to Prince of Persia. But then again, PoP and TR have always been borrowing ideas from each other, so I suppose that's to be expected. You'll also be shooting stuff for some of the time in Legend, and while this aspect is also pretty simple, it generally works decently and provides a mild amount of action thrills, though it's certainly no Resident Evil 4. You get a few different types of guns, one of course being Lara's standard dual pistol setup. You also get grenades which can be thrown by pressing the left bumper, because grenades are popular in post-Halo games. Overall, this isn't a particularly strong or emphasized part of the Legend experience, but it does offer a few good moments.
The puzzles in the game rely heavily on physics, which is surprising but also nifty and fun. The puzzles are never too hard, though a few will stump you for a minute or two. Unfortunately, a few puzzle archetypes repeat and just aren't as interesting the second time, the most obnoxious offender being the puzzle where you have to push an object in between two enclosing walls/bladed walls. Still, there are new and fun puzzles to look forward to throughout the duration of the game, and combined with the platforming they make the general gameplay in Legend a joy to experience.
Until you get to one of the boss battles. Unfortunately, boss battles are generally pretty weak, with only one or two being any real fun (the leviathan is fairly cool). Also, during boss fights, the bosses repeat hyper annoying lines every second or two for the entire duration of the fight, so it's not so much a feeling of accomplishment at the end of one as it is a feeling of relief that you don't need to listen to them anymore. One or two of the bosses prove to be downright annoying in the way that they play out, and boss fights are generally overly simplistic, which is a shame considering that most of the game is otherwise of very high quality.
Also unfortunate, is that the game is too short. While it is, in a way, a compliment to say that the game leaves you craving more, it's partly because it ends about two levels short of where it should have. Also weird is that while most of the levels take over an hour to complete, the last three took me 45, 30, and then 9 minutes respectively... as if the game just over-accelerated through the final gameplay sequences instead of fleshing them out a bit more. It's too bad then that they put some of that gameplay time into stretching out the somewhat lame motorcycle segments, which could have used trimming. The first one isn't so bad, but the last one is way too long and features a lot of repeating scenery. They're generally overly simple, and end up being kind of like one big straight stretch with the same two bad guy archetypes coming at you over and over again. Not exactly a sparkling example of a good time.
Thankfully, when Legend is playing to its strengths, which is most of the time, it's a sublime experience, especially for fans of the series who had probably all but given up on Lara. It's almost as if Lara is raiding her own tomb in the game, searching for treasure amongst the ruins of her own tarnished legacy. Indeed, there is gaming gold to be found here. With great graphics, wonderful sound, and sublime tomb raiding/puzzle solving, Tomb Raider: Legend serves up some of the best action adventure gaming seen in some time. It's sad that it's held back by a few snags like mostly lame boss battles, mediocre bike sequences, and a short overall playtime... but when it works it does so quite well, and it leaves you wanting more. One can only wonder what new adventures the developers have in store for a likely follow-up. Welcome back Lara.