Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend

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Tomb Raider: Legend
Cover of PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend.
Developer(s) Crystal Dynamics
Nixxes (Windows, Xbox, GCN), Buzz Monkey (PSP), Human Soft (GBA, DS), Fathammer (Mobile)
Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive
Latest version 1.2 (May 10, 2006)
Release date(s) PAL: April 7, 2006 (PS2, Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360)
NA: April 11, 2006 (PS2, Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360)
June 20, 2006 (PSP)
November 15, 2006 (GC, GBA, DS)
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen
PEGI: 12+
OFLC: M
OFLC: PG (GBA/DS)
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Mobile Phone, PlayStation 2, PSP, GameCube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Xbox
Media DVD (1)
Input Keyboard, Mouse, Controller

Tomb Raider: Legend is the seventh game in the Tomb Raider series. Published by Eidos Interactive, this is the first game in the series not to be handled by British-based Core Design, developed instead by British-owned U.S. studio Crystal Dynamics. The PS2, Windows, Xbox, and Xbox 360 versions were released in Europe on April 7, 2006 and in North America on April 11, 2006. The North American PSP version was released on June 20, 2006. The GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions were released during November, 2006. The Mobile version was released in December, 2006.

The DVD-ROM is protected with SecuROM 7.

Contents

[edit] Story

The story of Legend is essentially a reboot of the franchise and makes no references to any prior games.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

When Lara Croft was just nine years old, the plane carrying her and her mother crashed into the Himalayas leaving them as the only survivors. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient temple, Lara discovers an ornate stone dais holding a sword. Unwittingly activating the ancient artefact, Lara watches in horror as her mother vanishes in front of her eyes.

Years later, Lara travels to the ancient civilization of Tiwanaku in Bolivia, searching for a similar stone dais. However she is not alone as she soon runs into James Rutland and his mercenaries on the edge of Lake Titikaka, where the dais is situated. Old memories are brought back to haunt Lara as Rutland implies that her deceased friend Amanda Evert is still alive.

Lara meets up with university friend Anaya Imanu outside the tomb in Paraíso, where a tragedy befell Lara and her friends many years ago, leaving her as the only survivor. She returns to the tomb and a flashback reveals the events leading up to Amanda's "death". While as a student on an excavation of tomb similar to the one in Bolivia a demon was released and killed most of the team. In their dash to escape the cave fills with water and Amanda is left behind. Then in the Present Lara discovers that her old friend had escaped and the legend of Tiwanaku's Queen who rose to power after meeting a shaman and staff weapon (and was shortly brought to paradise by a woman in a lake). The tomb of the Queen of Tiwanaku is linked to Bolivia and also the incident in Nepal when she was a child (as well as the Arthurian Legend). To her surprise she realises that the artefact she is hunting has already been discovered, and is in the 'care' of Yakuza boss Shogo Takamoto.

Lara's journey takes her to Japan, where she meets with the murderous Takamoto and demands a stolen sword fragment from him. He refuses and retreats to his penthouse, leaving Lara to deal with his cronies. She wipes them out and follows Takamoto to the roof of his penthouse, where she witnesses for herself its terrifying power. Nonetheless, she manages to overcome Takamoto and retrieve the second artefact.

She leaves for Ghana to chase Rutland. He too possesses a sword fragment and he tells her about something called the Ghalali Key, believing Lara to own it. Lara has no idea what he is talking about and this frustrates him and he saves her. She beats him and takes his sword fragment.

Lara now chases Amanda, who attacked her manor whilst she was in Ghana. She traces her to a Soviet lab in Kazakhstan that performed experiments on a sword fragment that led to their peril fifty years ago. Lara catches up with Amanda, who is clearly still angry with Lara about being left behind in Paraíso. Amanda now controls, to Lara's horror, the demon which killed their friends in Paraíso. She fights it off and recovers the sword fragment from the machinery.

Surprisingly, Lara's adventure brings her home to England, where she discovers the real King Arthur's tomb in Cornwall hidden under a corny King Arthur tourist attraction, along with the fourth and final sword fragment.She realises that Arthur and his knights brought the fragments of Excalibur to locations across the world influencing the destinies of various civilizations .After battling a sea creature hundreds of feet underground, Lara returns home to try and figure out how to put the sword back together. Lara realises that the previously unknown Ghalali Key was in fact a pendant that was given to her mother by her father and also the one that her mother took to the Himalayas with her.

Lara is thus forced to return to her past once again, as she tracks the plane wreck she was on and recovers the key before the plane falls off the cliff. She then returns to the temple where her mother lost her life and there she reassembles the sword, Excalibur, and uses its awesome power to escape.

Lara returns to the stone dais of Bolivia and within moments has cut through Rutland's remaining mercenaries and Rutland himself. Furious, Amanda releases her demon once again and merges with it. With the help of the sword, Lara defeats the creature once and for all. Then she approaches the dais...

At last, Lara understands how her mother died, as she looks into the mirror of light and sees her mother. Lara realises that the mirror spans time and what she is seeing is her mother just moments before she was killed by the artefact. Her mother tells Lara (apparently not recognising her) to leave her daughter alone and that she "meant no harm". Amanda wakes up and tells Lara to pull out the sword otherwise the dais she stands on will explode. Believing that Amanda's advice was meant for her, Lara's mother pulls out the sword, the same as she did all those years ago and Lara runs from the dais just before it blows up. Furious, Lara shoots her gun at Amanda, accusing her of killing her mother, but Amanda tells Lara that she is not dead but has gone to Avalon. Lara knocks Amanda out, saying that she will allow her to live, despite what she has done. Lara then makes arrangements to make her finds known worldwide.

[edit] Locations

The locations of Lara's latest adventure have been revealed as (in order):

  • Tiwanaku, Bolivia - A pre-Incan civilization currently in ruins. Lara arrives there by scaling the rocky cliffs of Bolivia. Lara is in search of a stone dais, very similar to the dais where Lara's mother mysteriously disappeared.
  • Paraíso, Peru - Lara meets an old friend, Anaya, in the town square, but they soon find themselves under enemy fire. They then revisit the dig site where Lara once lost many friends and she uncovers the secret they had been searching for all those years ago.
  • Tokyo, Japan - A piece of the sword, stolen from Waseda University, is in the hands of the Yakuza boss and Lara wants it back.
  • Ghana, Africa - Another piece of the sword is in the hands of James Rutland, who is currently in Ghana. Lara uncovers a phenomenal temple, set in a lake and hidden from sight by roaring waterfalls.
  • Kazakhstan - Lara's search brings her to a secret KGB testing facility called Project Carbonek, abandoned since the 50s - or is it?
  • Cornwall, England - "As in take the M5 to the A30 Cornwall?" asks Lara dubiously. Could King Arthur's tomb really be hidden beneath a tacky tourist attraction based around the Arthurian legend?
  • Himalayas, Nepal - The artefact that can re-forge Excalibur lies in the plane wreck where Lara and her mother once crashed. Lara revisits the crumbling Buddhist monastery where her mother disappeared.
  • Bolivia Redux - The final confrontation between Lara and Amanda and the truth is revealed about Lady Croft's death.
  • Croft Manor (training level), England - Croft Manor contains a number of puzzles in the form of hidden passageways, lyrical codes and concealed switches.

[edit] Characters

  • Lara Croft: Countess of Abbingdon and archaeological wunderkind. The new game has Lara searching for a mystical sword that may hold the key to the disappearance of her mother.
  • Amelia Croft: Lara's mother. After surviving the crash with her daughter, Amelia mysteriously disappears in an incident in a Himalayan temple and is presumed dead.
  • Richard Croft: Lara's father and Earl of Abbingdon. After his wife's death he taught his daughter archaeology and raised her alone.
  • Anaya Imanu: A South American civil engineer and friend of Lara's. She was with Lara at the tragedy near Paraíso.
  • Amanda Evert: An old friend of Lara's. Her (apparent) death was witnessed by Lara at Paraíso.
  • Kent: One of Lara's university peers. He and his team were mysteriously killed in Peru.
  • James W. Rutland Jr.: A Westpoint graduate, and rival of Lara's, Rutland also grew up in a bubble of wealth. His motives, however, are a little more self-centered.
  • Winston Smith: Lara's butler. He has served the Croft family for generations. He became a live-in servant after his wife passed away.
  • Alister Fletcher: An archaeologist who provides advice and allows for Lara to bounce ideas with via her headset.
  • Zip: A reformed computer hacker who aids Lara on her journey from her mansion in England alongside Alister.
  • Shogo Takamoto: A Yakuza Kamicho, easily identified by his large number of tattoos. His past encounters with Lara have been unsavory.
  • Toru Nishimura: One of Lara's friends. Once a daring investigative reporter, now a wealthy media mogul. Always happy to meet Lara and fulfill her adventurous desires, but has become more cautious as a result of his new found responsibilities.

[edit] Voice cast

[edit] Versions

Screenshot of the PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend.
Screenshot of the PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend.

This is the first game in the series that has been available for the PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, or Nintendo DS.

[edit] Differences between versions

The Xbox version does not include the introduction movie with the opening titles. According to Xboxic, the manager of the Xbox development team genuinely forgot to include the intro video on the final build disc when sending it off for the final game testing with Microsoft's Quality Assurance team. When the mistake was discovered, the QA department told Eidos they would need to resubmit the game for re-testing from scratch. Due to time restrictions, Eidos chose to release the Xbox version without the intro movie.

PSP players have received some exclusive extras. While the textures and polygon count were significantly reduced to run on the portable, some new gameplay modes were introduced. The Tomb Trials, three multiplayer modes and six additional outfits were not available in any other version of Legend. The Tomb Trials put the player against a series of traps and acrobatics to be dealt with before the assigned time is over, based on locations of the regular levels.

The GameCube version has had a couple of cuts, most likely due to disc space. The rolling demos that would normally play if the game was left inactive while in the title screen have been removed, and the Unfortunate Mishaps video is also missing. The game runs at a slightly smoother framerate than the PlayStation 2 version, and it also loads faster and has a cleaner look than that version. But at some specific points there are some noticeable framerate drops (such as in the train chase, in Kazakhstan). The many filters used for explosions and motion blur are also gone, rendering the game with crisp textures and less remarkable explosions.

The versions for Nintendo handheld consoles are different. Despite following the same storyline and featuring all the levels and key moments from the bigger counterparts, the game is a sidescroller on the GBA. The levels have been broken down into several smaller segments, probably due to technology limits, and feature a lot more platforming than the original versions. The progression of the storyline is told via comic-strips during key moments. The rewards are also present and they unlock simple minigames. Lara also changes outfits in this version, though she's limited to only three - the regular outfit, the Tokyo dress and the Winter suit.

The DS version features a 2.5D gameplay.

The Mobile version presents a compressed version of the story, featuring only three levels (Tokyo, Ghana and England) based on the original levels from the consoles version, and has a far more limited gameplay style. It features, however, three gameplay modes: corridor combat, room combat and platform exploration.

[edit] Demo

The PlayStation 2 demo was made available in some regions in the Official PlayStation Magazine, as well as on Jampack Vol. 14. A PC demo was released on March 31 and an Xbox 360 demo was released on April 5. A demo will be downloadable to the Nintendo DS via the DS Download Station.

[edit] Reception

Tomb Raider: Legend was released to widely positive reviews by the media:

[edit] Trivia

  • Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness was to be the first episode of a new Lara Croft trilogy called Next Generation. The game was not as successful as hoped by the developer, but with the large success of Tomb Raider: Legend, further Tomb Raider games are likely.
  • On the unlockable costume Goth, the symbols on Lara's vest and belt buckle are for another Crystal Dynamics/Eidos series, Legacy of Kain. They are the symbols for Raziel and Kain's respective clans. Also, in the main hall of Croft Manor, a painting can be seen of the human Kain, the same one that Raziel sees in Kain's Mausoleum in Defiance. Lara's blue sport outfit uses the Soul Reaver symbol of the sound glyph on the shoes. The unlockable Soul Reaver weapon is also a nod to these games.
  • In the last level, Bolivia Redux, the crates bear the Natla Industries logo. Jacqueline Natla was the main enemy in the original game, and Natla Technologies was her company.
  • The game topped the UK game charts at number 1 and remained there for three weeks. [1]
  • As of June 30, 2006, the game has sold over 2.9 million copies worldwide, has become the fastest selling Tomb Raider game in the series and has helped the series sell over 30 million units. [2]
  • The main hall of Croft Manor is nearly identical in layout and ornamentation to its counterpart in the first movie.
  • Following the success of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game on the Nintendo GameCube, Eidos announced their decision to port Tomb Raider: Legend to that platform, marking Lara Croft's first appearance on a Nintendo console. [3]
  • In the first Bolivia level, in the corridor after the interactive sequence, skeletal corpses can be seen in a hole in the wall. The corpses are similar to those that can be seen in certain areas of the first Tomb Raider game, such as Peru.

[edit] Edited Legend

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Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since December 2006.

It has come to the attention of many Tomb Raider fans that, having tracked Legend from early on, the game seemed to be missing some aspects which featured in the original trailers and official screenshots. There could be a number of possible reasons for this, none of which have been confirmed, only speculated. The inclusion of Toby Gard in the Legend project is one explanation for the exclusion of the anticipated scenes and levels. Some believe Crystal Dynamics had already created a story and some levels for Legend before Gard was invited onto the project. Gard apparently didn't like the original story for Legend and opted to change it, scrapping some levels that could not be worked into the new storyline. Another explanation is that Eidos wanted the developers to make Legend a multi-platform game, rather than restricting it to the previous three platforms (Windows, PS2 and XBOX). A heavier work load would have required Crystal Dynamics to drop aspects of the game. On the other hand, Crystal Dynamics might have just wanted to "test the water," so to speak, with Tomb Raider: Legend. They were completely new to the franchise, after all, and another commercial failure like Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness may have ended the series for good. Thus, the developers would have been concentrating on the quality of the title and not its length.

Here are some examples of scenes that were originally intended to appear in the game. Many of these have been spotted by fans at Tomb Raider Forums.

  • Missing levels - Early footage and screenshots indicate an entire level was removed from the finished title. It appeared to be a level set deep in the rainforest of Central America and featured three pyramids, possibly from a pre-Colombian civilization. Images of a puzzle room have also been mentioned. These feature a large chamber including large stone faces set into the walls and a large platform with rope bridges in the centre. Part of what appears to be a puzzle is situated on the far wall, consisting of three rotating stone plates. It's possible that the player was required to crack a combination with these plates or something much more elaborate. According to Tomb Raider: Legend producer Morgan Gray, this level was taken out because they felt that there were too many levels set in South America and by cutting this level they had space for the Kazakhstan level. [1] Also, there are images (partly sketched) that suggest that there were more levels intended to be made. These include an image of Lara diving from a rooftop, with one of the Petronas Towers clearly visible on the right-hand side; a picture showing an assault inside the walls of a castle (Carbonek?); Lara running along a small walk-way above water, leading to the entrance of an impressive tomb or temple. The original concept art depicted areas unlike those in the final game. However, these images may just have been inspirational to the developers and there is no evidence they were intended for production. There was also a rumoured additional chase scene spanning across an English Motorway. [2]
  • Extended or replaced level - This is believed to be an extension of Kazakhstan level or the original Nepal level. Early footage and pictures showed a large chamber covered in stone debris and ice. The deep blue colour to the room indicated a cold climate. Objects in the room included shelves which swayed when Lara ran on top of them, boxes with Japanese calligraphy and, the most prominent feature, a large statue of a many-armed warrior demon.
  • Bike sequence in Tokyo - At about 00:33 into the original trailer, released in May last year, a very promising motorcycle sequence where Lara was required to jump from one roof to another in Tokyo is shown. She jumps off the bike, notably a more futuristic bike, and up-ending it. Lara lands in a man-made pond, probably part of a rooftop garden, and the momentum causes her to fall backwards and slide across the water. The motorbike strikes a wall, exploding, sending a tire flying, which narrowly misses Lara.[3] This was possibly part of the immediate action sequences which appear in the finished game, where the player is required to press the correct sequence of buttons to save Lara from immediate peril. However, no such scene appeared in the game. It seems it was replaced in favour of a much shorter, less elaborate roof jump scene.
  • Cutscenes in Ghana - There were several videos showing her swan dive into water in the level, Ghana. She did it more smoothly, and slower, just like in the previous sequels. Whereas in Legend, it was faster, and it wasn't part of the cutscene. After her dive off the cliff, Lara needs to solve a mechanism to part the waterfall, and at 00:20 into the second trailer, Lara was featured jumping onto the mechanism, remaining there momentarily and jumping back off it and landing on her knees.[4] In the final version, Lara swings and kicks it before the parting cutscene starts.
  • Missing weaponry - One known weapon that was excluded from the finished game was the rocket launcher, videos and images of Lara being attacked and attacking with a rocket launcher were shown. Recently, a code for Action Replay has allowed the rocket launcher to be used in game. Old pictures from the Ghana level show Lara using a revolver. Also in the second trailer, Lara had the ability to crouch and shoot at the same time, like with previous games, however Lara can't in the final game.
  • Alternate item setup - Early images show a different item setup in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. The items were largely the same as in the finished game but had different appearances and a different controller configuration. However, it should be noted that Lara was intended to have flares throughout the entire game and not just in the flashback section of the second level.
  • There was a light blue icon of Lara shooting, located at the bottom right of the screen. It appeared 4 times in the game. The manual hadn't mentioned what the players were supposed to do when that icon showed up. When this icon appears, Lara must escape whatever immediate peril she is in very quickly, such as when a helicopter is destroying the bridge she is on or when a boulder comes at her Indiana Jones style.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boyer, Crispin (2006-06-25). Afterthoughts: Tomb Raider Legend. 1UP. Retrieved on 2006-12-24.
  2. ^ Daujam, Mathieu; James Price (2006). Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend Complete Guide. USA: Piggyback Interactive, pp. 189. ISBN 0-7615-5324-X. 
  3. ^ Crystal Dynamics. Official Trailer 1 [Download]. Eidos Interactive.
  4. ^ Crystal Dynamics. Official Trailer 2 [Download]. Eidos Interactive.


[edit] External links


v • d • e
Tomb Raider video games

Tomb Raider • II • III • The Last Revelation • Chronicles • The Angel of Darkness • Legend • Anniversary
Tomb Raider (Game Boy Color) • Curse of the Sword • The Prophecy
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (film) • The Cradle of Life
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