During my sweaty rant on missing the once light-hearted and adventurous galavanting of our favorite femme fatale, Miss Lara Croft, I got back into playing Tomb Raider Legend. It started off as a means to get some screen grabs and gather some evidence of her awesomeness, when I found myself getting sucked back into her globe-trotting, puzzle-solving escapades once again. I ended up playing it all the way through.
Upon completing the game, I heard that familiar Xbox 360 “achievement unlocked” chime kick in. It was rewarding me for completing the game. “What the hell is wrong with you, silly machine?” I scoffed. “I beat this game years ago.” Then I started to really think about it.
Did I? Did I really?
I mean, I remember playing the game quite a bit back in the day. I remember playing through these tombs, and solving these puzzles. I remembered King Arthur’s tomb, hidden safely underneath a roadside attraction. But then the snow level in Nepal was a little fuzzy. And I didn’t really remember swinging a giant magical sword. Could it be, that after all my posturing about missing the old Tomb Raider, it would turn out that I’d never actually beaten Tomb Raider Legend?
I’ve never owned any other version of it than the 360. I’ve never had any other gamertag or account. It seems as though, out of the dozen or so times that I’ve played around in the game, that I had never actually played through to the end. What the fuck kind of hypocrite was I? I felt I needed to address this immediately, lest my journalystical integrities be questioned. Merle’s a stand-up guy, after all.
In order to make sure I do this shit right, I’m going to go through and play the other two “recent” TR games I own, Underworld and Anniversary, just to make sure I practice what I preach. I don’t normally contribute to the Backlog Barbecue, as I apparently have a hard time remembering which games I still need to get to, so I’m not real keen on how these go. But I’ll give it a try anyway.
Bam, screenshot. Of the good ol’ Lara flipping off the top of a truck, shooting the driver, and then landing safely on the back of a jeep as the truck crashes and explodes for no real reason behind her. That’s the shit I’m talking about. That’s a Lara that doesn’t have to stab a dude in the face to show she’s a badass.
The game holds up pretty well overall. Controlling Lara wasn’t too bad, though there were a few times the camera would wonk out or there would be a little bit of a question as to where you were supposed to go next. A lot of times I thought I was going the right way, only to find secret treasure. Finding the secret treasure was fun, I was like, “Yay awesome secret treasure!” but then I’d be left scratching my head because where the hell was I really supposed to go? And there was also this one place where I died like 15 times in a row and the checkpoint was right before one of the guys in her earpiece tells her something. I’d remember what it was but I had to mute the tv after the eighth time in a roll I had to listen to him. That was annoying.
The graphics aren’t bad considering it was made well over a decade ago. It’s no Uncharted, but the environments are simple and clean and don’t get in the way of doing what you need to do. Overall I still think it’s worth giving a playthrough. Especially on Easy, because it’s not like the combat was anything gratifying to begin with. I mean, you’re not stabbing guys in the neck or hanging them alive or anything, so you’re not missing out on much in that department.
In all, it’s still a very enjoyable romp around the world. Since it’s backward compatible on Xbox One, and can be bought for literally pennies on the dollar, there’s no reason not to check it out.
