Reviewed: December 11, 2006
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Eidos Interactive

Developer
Human Soft
Crystal Dynamics

Released: November 14, 2006
Genre: Action-Adventure
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen

5
6
6
5
5.0

Supported Features

Imagine my further surprise when I found this game was a fairly substantial port of the console game, not only bringing over the CG cutscenes (highly compressed of course), but much of the dialogue (also compressed), and many of the signature gameplay moments of the console original.

But the surprises kept on coming when I realized that Human Soft, the team in charge of the NDS version, had actually made use of the exclusive features and abilities of the NDS system to bring even more interactivity into Lara’s world.

But the biggest surprise was my disappointment when the entire experience fell totally flat with some truly bad choices in game and level design, saving and checkpoints, ruined the entire game and for me, made it an unplayable and unbearable experience around the third chapter. But I get ahead of myself.

Tomb Raider: Legend is a fairly impressive and ambitious project. For those who have played any of the console versions you will instantly recognize the locations and many of the puzzles and even the treasure locations ripped straight from the console. It’s pretty interesting to see Lara’s massive 3D world turned into a unique 2D/3D hybrid and have it all still work.

“Legend” is an appropriate title in that we not only explore the legend of King Arthur and Excalibur, which is apparently much bigger than popular lore would have you believe, but we also explore the legendary history of the Croft family as told through a series of flashback cutscenes revealing much of Lara’s troubled past.

The story is totally captivating and maintained even during the adventure with real-time communications between Lara and her support staff (Zip and Alister) back at the mansion, or possibly in the van parked out back in the alley. Of course the real storytelling is delivered in some great cutscenes, compressed for the NDS but still impressive for the screen size and storage space of a DS game card.

Lara runs and jump, grabs and climb, and does her complete repertoire of moves with the D-pad and various buttons. The levels appear to be 2D but have a bit of depth to them and you can actually walk toward and away from the screen. At times the levels will rotate around as you round a corner or change directions.

The main areas where Legend differs in gameplay is the functionality of the DS’s touch screen and microphone. This first reveals itself in combat where you press the A button to ready your weapon and lock onto any target in the top gameplay screen. Once you get a red target lock the lower screen turns into a 3D forward-facing view of the immediate area and you actually tap on the dodging enemies to fire your shots.

Yes, it’s somewhat of a light gun game at this point, but if you have a machine gun and two nimble thumbs you can actually take on two enemies at a time with ease. It certainly adds a whole new level of skill to the combat, which would otherwise be traditional lock-on and fire until dead.

The touch screen also comes into play when you stumble across partially concealed treasure and you must rub your finger across the screen to brush away the dirt and reveal the artifact. It’s the same concept as sifting through the sand in Lost in Blue.

The DS microphone furthers this concept by having you blow into the microphone to blow dust and dirt off of partially concealed treasure, again, like starting a campfire in Lost in Blue. These added touches are few and far between but they add a whole new level of interactivity and even some realism into the gameplay.

For the most part, the entire game is played in the upper screen with the exception of the 3D touch screen shootouts. The bottom screen is usually a pie slice menu where you have one-touch access to any weapons, PDA, or med kit. There is one very cool exception.

Whenever Lara dives into some water the lower screen become the part of the level that is under water, so while you can still see the surface and area above, you will swim down into the depths of the lower screen.

They even managed to work the motorcycle into the NDS version. The motorcycle action scenes on the console already had their own problems and they are even more gimmicky on the NDS. The first one is way too short and easy and the one on the rooftop in Shanghai is entirely automated.

Another new move is directly related to a new gadget, the Magnetic Grapple, which basically turns Lara into Peter Parker. Anytime you are near an item or grapple swing point an X will appear on the screen indicating you can fire your grapple and move the object or swing from it.

Even the “Super Actions” have been carried over from the console, even though these are much shorter in sequence. These are triggered at certain spots during the game and require you to press a button or the direction at just the right time to continue an action sequence. Timing is pretty forgiving so it’s hard to lose these, but they do offer up a nice interactive twist on what would otherwise be a standard cutscene.

Enemy AI is pretty non-existent and even the bosses don’t offer much of a challenge. They move around a bit but the touch screen offers instant hits if your have any sort of hand-eye coordination.

Now for the bad news and the reason this game dropped from an 8 to a 5 in score. Legend has some horrible checkpoints that are either too few or improperly placed within these long and dangerous levels. When a game offers so many opportunities to die with a single missed jump you need to have a better checkpoint system in place.

I managed to tolerate replaying large sections of these levels all the way until Shanghai and then, what was my favorite level on the Xbox 360, turned into the moment where I put this game away, never to play again for fear I will throw my NDS into the wall or out the window.

For those that remember the Shanghai level, there is a checkpoint after you swing and grapple your way to that small rooftop patio with the dogs (dogs aren’t on the NDS version). From here you must kills two guys then go inside, go downstairs for a gold idol and upstairs for another then back down to enter an office area. Kill two more guys, grab two more idols, pull down the giant monitor and go outside.

Now on the console version you get a checkpoint before making the difficult climb to the roof. This was tricky on the console but nearly impossible on the DS, thanks to a whole lot of blind jumps since your 2D view is obscured by colored neon and glass. If at anytime you miss a jump you die and return to the patio where you get to do it all again.

Timing is unforgiving, especially when trying to swing from pole to pole before they break off the building, as is trying to make accurate jumps from a weird perspective with a blocked view. I’m pretty good at these games but after 10-15 attempts, which all required replaying a good 5-10 minutes leading up to the outdoor sign climb, I just gave up.

It’s a shame because I’d really like to see what other fun stuff the designers managed to work into the second half of the game, but I simply don’t have time for bad game design and poor checkpoints.

The overall design is fantastic and they managed to bring over all the key elements from the console game so if you have played any of those you will already have a head start on where to go and what to do. Even though the perspective may have changed the game unfold just like the console.

The cutscenes are admittedly compressed, but still look better than most other games on the system and they are all intact, complete with speech.

Sound effects are pretty standard and stick to the action like gunfire, rumbling stones, splashing water, etc. Dialogue from the console is intact for both the cutscenes and the intermittent com chatter of Lara and her support staff, although some of the less important lines have been turned into text-only.

Assuming you can come to grips with the flawed checkpoint system and don’t mind replaying huge sections of the game over and over again, you can probably finish this game is a week or so.

It took me about 2-3 hours to get to Shanghai which is about a forth of the game, and that was with a lot of reloading and replaying. I’m not counting the hour I wasted trying to climb the Shanghai sign before giving up on the game.

If you have the patience of a Buddhist monk then give Legend a shot, otherwise avoid this annoying title or you might just hit someone or something important when you throw your DS across the room in frustration.