Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend Preview

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It’s a sad fact that the past Tomb Raiders have lacked what the first brought to the table. Tomb Raider Legend looks to be a very nice change of pace. Lara is back with fluid animation, great camera angles, and creative tomb-ish puzzles. After seeing a live demo of a level from the game I am anxious to see more.

First off, Lara’s character model has been through an overhaul. She is now very smooth and each piece of equipment she carries actually shows up on her body. For example, as she uses grenades they disappear off her belt, and as she picks them up they are added. Other new gadgets Lara plays with in this one include a sleek new headset, a small flashlight on her shoulder, and a very useful magnetic grappling hook.

The art direction in the demo level was also done extremely well. The temple ruins that Lara was exploring were beautiful, and very creatively put together. Many of the puzzles I witnessed throughout the level were environment based, and using a brand new physics engine opens up many ways to solve each one.

Upon entering the ruins Lara ran into some opposition. A nice new combat move I saw in use here was a sliding kick, which threw the villain into the air allowing Lara to juggle him a little with her guns while lying on the ground. It all looked very stylish and very cool.

A little further in and we are introduced to one of the more open rooms within the temple. Here Lara used her new binoculars to scope the area, where you can notice a very cool depth of field effect. The binoculars will focus on the center object, blurring out the background (or foreground) surrounding it.

After disposing of the enemy Lara used many Prince of Persia style platforming elements to reach her next destination. This all played out very smooth, and if you know exactly where you are going it can be entirely seamless. Shimmying ledges, jumping large gaps, and swinging on ropes or pipes all smoothly translate into each other. That magnetic grappling hook I mentioned earlier comes into play a lot as well, not only to swing but to also pull on objects to aid in travel. With the new physics engine many things are possible.

The camera has also been vastly improved. The player has full control over it during play, but it also places itself in the best possible angle for the trials ahead. Near the end of the demo it was pointed out that the player had not once moved the camera on their own.

Tomb Raider Legend looks to be the best of the series, so definitely check out content as it’s revealed. It will be available on PC, Xbox, and PS2 this winter.

For All E3 2005 Previews