Tomb Raider: Legend Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

Lara returns to mobile in all her 3D heavenly glory.

Lara Croft has been out of our minds for a while now, her last foray into mobile gaming was a couple of years back when the games took the form of horizontally scrolling platformers with a few puzzles thrown in. That was back in the day when a colour handset was almost as rare as one of the diamonds Lara was looking for.

Lara has acrobatically leaped into 2007 with a three dimensional bang. The latest game, Tomb Raider Legends, is naturally tied in to the console game and is more of an action shoot 'em up than anything else. The graphics are great and so they should be considering the game weighs in at nearly 2 Mb.

3D mobile gaming is slowly coming into its own. There are still a few issues with certain polygons appearing where they shouldn't. But like the early days of consoles, the next leap in graphics and programming will iron out the little bugs. For the time being Tomb Raider Legends is as good as it gets (which is still pretty damn good).

The game is split into three main levels (each with 3 sub levels) as you go on a hunt for Excalibur and its various shards. The sub levels are a little repetitious and usually take the form of a standard jump and run level or a quasi-first person shooter. This is not a game to be played for its intricate plot and cunning level design. Follow the yellow brick road and you will reach the next level.

The platform levels can be quite tricky and some nifty work on the keypad is needed to shimmy Lara along the collapsing planks. There are checkpoints but they can be far and few between on some of the levels. There are no enemies to worry about just a few long jumps and rotten planks. There is no time limit either and a map is not required as you can only go in one direction. The levels do just seem an excuse to showcase the mobile's and Lara's talents. The graphics are excellent all the way from Lara herself to the far distant backgrounds. It does manage to recreate Lara's acrobatics whether its swinging on poles or performing a backward somersault kick against a hapless omega male.

The action/shooter levels are much more fun and it's not just because the camera is positioned facing Lara's back. You can be sure of plenty shooting in these levels but again the repetition soon sets in. The levels usually involve you having to fight your way through various corridors and rooms and once you stumble on a successful tactic, the gameplay is very samey. There's not that much you can do apart from shoot. Fair enough, you have a revolver in each hand and you can jump sideways off walls while shooting and cartwheel while shooting but there's no subtlety about it. If you find a table, you can crouch behind and just pop up to fire a few shots but it wont be long before either the table is blown up or the throw a grenade and you blow up. The best tactic is to just shoot, shoot and shoot some more while mixing it up with a few jumps and tumbles to confuse the enemy. One corridor looks pretty much like the next and it soon becomes a case of just finishing for the sake of it.

The graphics are impressive and is definitely worth checking out on your rich mate's phone.