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[TombCrow]

By Will Tuttle │ May 23, 2005

Lara Croft leaves the streets behind and heads back to the tombs from whence she came.

Like most fans of the oh-so-jiggly heroine in the Tomb Raider games, I was extremely disappointed when I played Lara Croft\'s last game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. In fact, disappointment doesn\'t even begin to describe what I felt while I was sneaking through the streets of Paris. The game featured poor controls, as well as a forced focus on stealth gameplay. Worst of all, it just wasn\'t fun at all, lacking just about everything that made the previous titles so great. A lot of other gamers felt the same way, and nearly everyone figured that AoD marked the end of a once-great series.


Thankfully, publisher Eidos decided that the franchise deserved one more shot, but they weren\'t about to let the same thing happen again. The developer behind that atrocity, Core Design Limited, was shown the door in favor of Crystal Dynamics, the developer of the recent hit shooter Project Snowblind. Now, to be fair, Core was also the developer of the original Tomb Raider games that helped introduced the PlayStation to millions of gamers, and they should be commended for their work. However, it was obvious that the series was in desperate need of some new blood, and Eidos believed that Crystal Dynamics was the team to give it a full transfusion.

From what we\'ve seen of Tomb Raider: Legend, the publisher\'s gamble has paid off in a big way. Seeing the game in action quickly makes you forget about the last title, and not only because it eschews the boring, urban settings that made up much of AoD. The first thing that the development team realized was that the series needed to go back to the tombs (it\'s in the title, after all), so they\'ve set the action in places like Bolivia, Peru, and the Himalayas. All of the levels are enormous, allowing them to load a level once and stream it as you explore the environment.

The second alteration to the series was made to the graphics and animations. The game utilizes the same engine that made Project Snowblind look great, so there are some very cool bloom lighting effects. The lighting system as a whole has been improved, too, as you\'ll undoubtedly notice any time Lara walks past a lantern or when you see light streaming in through an opening in the roof. Finally, fans of her, um ... assets might not be happy to hear that her character model has been tweaked a bit to make it more realistic. She\'s still a bombshell, but now she actually looks like she could perform those acrobatic feats we\'ve been seeing her do for years.

The gameplay has been changed quite a bit, as well. The first thing that the developers pointed out is that you don\'t have to spend timing lining up every jump, as was the case in the other games. Now, you can just run at the edge, press the jump button, and launch yourself into the air. If you\'re close to the opposite edge, you\'ll automatically grab onto it with either one or both hands, depending on how far away you are.


While there\'s plenty of platforming and combat elements in Legend, I was most impressed by the puzzles that I saw. Those have always been an intregral part of the Tomb Raider experience, and the team at Crystal Dynamics has done a great job of changing things up a bit. Instead of simply offering up block-moving or switch-flipping puzzles like we\'ve all seen before, the game now features more intricate challenges that can be solved in multiple ways.

For instance, we saw one in which a pillar had to be knocked onto a jammed waterwheel, and the developer actually pointed out that you could choose to shoot it, knock it over by leaping against it, or you can blow up another nearby pillar, turning the wheel in the opposite direction. We also saw a few instances where Lara used her newest toy, a magnetic grappling hook, to solve puzzles. It\'s a fun little device, and there are plenty of oppotunities to use it.

Even though it\'s still early, there\'s no denying that Tomb Raider: Legend is going to wash the bitter taste of Angel of Darkness out of the mouths of Lara\'s biggest fans. Crystal Dynamics has taken the heroine back to her roots in more ways than one. Everyone was pretty tight-lipped about the story itself, but there were hints that we\'d get to find out exactly what happened in the Himalayas, as well as the reason behind Lara\'s life of treasure hunting. This is one Legend that needs to be explored in greater detail.

[TombCrow]

这篇......给我吧

[TombCrow]

OK了～

[Tomb Raider]

 :crybaby2:古墓丽影中文站，能继续撑下去吗？办的真的不错，我每次上网都会来看下！
我知道＂梦＂古墓丽影，不过现在已经和我们讲＂拜拜＂了！很可惜啊！５５５５５还有其他的古墓网站有很多不过现在都好象已经没音儿了！
我想天天为我们此网站顶帖子！～呵呵，我想我们应该提高一下此网站的知名度！

[古墓之神]

恭喜！由于你和我的努力灌水，中文站已经快不行了～

[Tomb Raider]

ＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤＤ顶

[心有灵犀007]

恭喜！由于你和我的努力灌水，中文站已经快不行了～

[古墓之神]

呵呵，００７贴子过一百啦～～
今天我们不＂醉＂无归～

[心有灵犀007]

呵呵，００７贴子过一百啦～～
今天我们不＂醉＂无归～

嘿嘿，＂鸟＂回来会气的七窍生烟的

[古墓之神]

放心，我和飘飘顶着，那鸟不敢动～

[羽化蝉]

鸟只会一言不发地一篇篇移到水区。鸟是很任劳任怨的好站长。

[古墓之神]

！！！我灌那些精华贴看它怎样！

[s]

！！！我灌那些精华贴看它怎样！

嘿嘿~~现在还没有加精的功能哦~~

[s]

 此贴已移动，报告完毕~

[古墓之神]

嘿嘿,果然是被你个死八路打入水区的~~~