Tomb Raider: Legend

A legend or a lettuce in the making...

It's difficult not to get all cynical about Lara Croft and the whole Tomb Raider thing these days. She sold us out to mainstream gaming, she sold her pointy polygons to all those cultural magazines, and then she sold out to the movies. Super Mario did that once, we forgave him - but it took a while.

Lara on the other hand was videogaming's first modern celebrity - instantly adorable, quickly forgotten. She came, she bedazzled and then ICO came along. All right, so ICO's not exactly a direct genre competitor to Tomb Raider, but it's loved for having character, not because of a character. It is a true videogame of exceptional beauty and finesse, yet its audience is only a fraction of Lara's mass horde of binary perverts. It's a funny old game this, well, gaming business.

Time has not been kind to Lara Croft. She has literally grown up and faced the harsh realities of the world. The bubbly, bright innocence of the first two titles evaporated as a stroppy, adolescent brat of a game evolved. She wouldn't listen to anything anyone told her and stubbornly kept to the same formula, irritating everyone with her controls.

You could blame the parents I suppose. Eidos Interactive, the once crowning-jewel of the UK games industry, currently resembles a recovering but very shaky (Championship Manager 5, ahem) alcoholic. Its troubles have ranged from bankruptcy to attempted repossession by famous rock stars. Eidos' beautiful days definitely appear to be behind them. And while they worried about their own problems Lara turned herself into a commercial prostitute. Do we really want her back?

I must admit that I lost track of the whole Tomb Raider franchise after the third instalment so it surprises me to see that there have been a total of six Tomb Raiders so far. We're into Police Academy Territory here - while Jones' voices will always be ace, we tired of everything else long ago. The game with the sexiest legs in the business, ironically, needs a facelift. Even Lara's new legal guardians, Crystal Dynamics, admit this much. We're being told they have embarked on their own quest to rediscover Lara Croft - put simply they realise they're attempting to flog what many see as a dead horse.

Like I said, it's difficult not to get cynical about Lara Croft.

But let's cast those dispersions aside. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and the very gorgeous Nell McAndrew helped to put gaming on the map that we follow today. Who knows, without Tomb Raider Nintendo may have continued to rule the roost and we might all still be using bloody cartridges. Without Tomb Raider we may never have had the Xbox, without Tomb Raider we, the gaming community at large, may never have earned cultural respect. And while the sex on legs may be one aspect of the game, Tomb Raider was one of the pioneers of next generation gaming we all enjoy today. Although it may be somewhat of a slight insult to place Tomb Raider in the same bracket as Mario 64, it did embrace the 3D world of gaming with the same energy and creativity. With a tasty mix of adventuring, platform dissection and pesky-hound culling, Tomb Raider confirmed the potential of the future we now take for granted. And if Crystal Dynamics wish to return to Lara's roots then maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt. In Tomb Raider: Legends the gaming public places its faith.

The pleasing note we begin with is that Crystal Dynamics appear to be sticking to their word. To capture the sparkle of the original Tomb Raider, Toby Gard, the original creator of Tomb Raider, has been enlisted for lead character design. To this end it appears that the game will delve deeper into Lara (forgive the rapidly expanding collection of puns) to reveal more of the character that is Lara Croft. The game will focus on the events that defined the Lara Croft character and, in particular, the Himalayan incident that will address a major component of Lara's past.

However, Eidos are remaining tight-lipped about the plot outline of the game leaving us to second guess where and what Lara will be doing. Screenshots suggest a mix of urban landscapes (such as the high tech Malaysian skyline) and classic adventure playgrounds such as a jungle location featuring a giant waterfall that parts (rule 67 in adventure gaming so I'm told). As for characters, again Eidos are keeping their cards close to their chests, although they did let slip at the recent E3 show that Lara will face a female antagonist.

We're assured that Tomb Raider: Legends will return to its core values: the explore-and-solve adventure experience. It is a proven point that while platform games can be encouraged to have what we would call combat engagements - whether it be gunning down some baddies or stomping on a Koopa Shell - platform games thrive on discovery. Discovery of new locations, discovery of new character-enhancing items and, most importantly, the discovery of progress. The satisfaction garnered from completing a particularly tricky jumping section or solving a rather fiendish puzzle is an experience unparalleled throughout gaming. Mario 64 did this, ICO exploited this to its fullest and Tomb Raider: Legends promises to do it again. Perhaps the most optimistic comparison we should hope for is a contemporarily staged Prince of Persia - one of the finest benchmarks for gameplay anywhere, if we politely ignore the absence of any actual challenge. If we replace swords, sands of time and wall-running antics with frag grenades, grappling hooks and Lara's climb-a-wall grunt then we have something approaching where we would like Tomb Raider: Legends to be.

In addition we are promised all the usual refinements including new animations, textures and superfluous extras such as reactive eyes that allow Lara to follow events around her - the idea being that this will create a natural, live environment. This is the sort of PR mumbo-jumbo that concerns me. To be honest I take such subtleties as moving eyes for granted these days since every game boasts it, and is there really any need to advertise such minute details in preference of mentioning interesting gaming concepts that might actually inspire well-attuned gamers?

Disturbingly, during my research into this title I found more information about the Jeep Commander (presumably an in game product placement) than I did about the game's plot. What we need are assurances that Tomb Raider: Legends will actually push the Lara Croft legacy forward. There are strides towards this such as a completely new control system, a shift in gameplay emphasis and an attempt to give the character of Lara Croft more depth. But these are merely vague hints rather than true explanations. It is as though Eidos and Crystal Dynamics either have something to hide or lack self-confidence in their latest Tomb Raider offering.

The jury isn't out on Tomb Raider; it was convicted and tried years ago. Tomb Raider: Legends is its first and only parole hearing. Fail now and the series is dead.

By Rob Wilson