Tomb Raider: Legend
| Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio | Crystal Dynamics | ||
| Publisher | Eidos Interactive | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 7, 2006 | ||
| platform | Nintendo GameCube , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation Portable , Windows , Xbox , Xbox 360 , Nintendo DS | ||
| Game engine | Crystal engine | ||
| genre | Action adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard + mouse , gamepad | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German English | ||
| Age rating |
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Tomb Raider: Legend is an action adventure game and the seventh part of the Tomb Raider computer game series . It was released in April 2006 for the PlayStation 2 , Xbox 360 , Nintendo GameCube and Windows game consoles . In the PlayStation 3 version Tomb Raider Trilogy , released in 2011, Legend also includes the Anniversary and Underworld parts .
action
The first level leads Lara to Tiwanaku in Bolivia. There she is looking for a stone estrade . When she finds this, she meets an unknown man who shows her part of a sword and in conversation drops a place called Paraiso and the name "Amanda", an old friend of Lara, who is supposed to be a student at an excavation site in Paraiso was killed. The stranger turns out to be James W. Rutland Jr.
Then Lara travels to Paraiso (Peru) to find out whether Amanda really died there. Lara remembers what happened back then: You suddenly play Lara years earlier, who leads a group of archeology students with her friend Amanda. And there a tragic accident happens: an unknown creature, which was accidentally resurrected, kills almost all research members. While Lara and Amanda try to save themselves, the underground cave begins to collapse and prevents Amanda from escaping. A gate falling shut and water flowing in, Lara can no longer save her friend. Now back in the present, Lara tries to find out whether Amanda could somehow save herself and whether this cave holds a secret. Because the sword fragment that Rutland held in her hands is part of the legendary Excalibur sword . She finds out that her archenemy Shogo Takamoto has a fragment; Furthermore, she finds Amanda's open shoe, an indication that Amanda may have survived, but Lara doesn't believe it. Now a race begins against James W. Rutland and the possibly alive Amanda, who both seem to do everything to put the sword together.
When Lara searches for another fragment of the sword in Kazakhstan, her suspicions are really confirmed: Amanda was able to escape the cave and save her life through the power of the monster that killed all her colleagues at the time. She just didn't get in touch with her because she found something there that she wanted to keep to herself: She is now in control of the eerie creature. However, it can only unleash it, it cannot decide its actions. This causes Lara extraordinary difficulties to get to the fragment, while she fights against the being. But she reaches the fragment, sees Amanda as she is on the run from the collapsing building and makes her way home.
During her search for the fragments of the sword, the legend about the sword Excalibur and its owner King Arthur becomes more and more real, because Lara finds one of the sword fragments in Arthur's supposed tomb. In addition, Excalibur seems to be the key to a kind of intermediate world, namely Avalon, the legendary refuge of King Arthur after his wounding, which probably really exists. Based on Alister's research and Lara's instinct, they find out with Zip that there may not only be an Excalibur sword, but that this legend and world between the two is conveyed only slightly differently in many cultures.
Here the disappearance of Lara's mother becomes more and more important: At the beginning of the game it is shown how she was supposed to have died back then: The nine-year-old Lara and her mother crashed their plane in the deepest Himalayas, but were able to save themselves in a cave . While her mother was looking for some firewood, Lara explored the cave closer: she found a rock formation with a sword stuck in the opening. She pushed the sword into this opening, whereupon a huge ring rose from the floor, in it the two saw a green light and Lara, who embodies the player in Tomb Raider: Legend; however, young Lara and her mother did not recognize them as this. Lara in the mirror told her mother not to touch the sword, another voice shouted that the sword would explode if she didn't pull it out. Lara's mother did as she was told, pulled the sword and disappeared forever in a flash of green light.
Lara finds out at home that the so-called "Ghalali key" puts the sword back together. Her butler Winston mentions that her mother wore a brooch that looks extremely similar to the Ghalali Key and that she wears in the painting over the fireplace at Croft Manor. Lara's mother got this from her husband, Richard Croft, on an expedition in Ghana before her death. Once again, Lara is forced to rummage through her own past and flies to Nepal, to the plane with which she and her mother crashed in the middle of the Himalayas many years ago. After she can barely save herself from the falling wreck onto a platform, she can finally put the sword together, but the mirror through which Lara's mother disappeared is no longer usable.
She then returns to Bolivia to try to save her mother through the mirror. However, well-known characters stand in her way: Amanda Evert and James W. Rutland intend to take the sword from Lara and enter the secret world in between, Avalon. After a fight that results in Rutland's death, Amanda transforms herself into the monster from Paraiso in her anger. After an exhausting battle, Lara succeeds in wrestling Amanda and using the sword herself. Now she sees the scene that she experienced as nine-year-old Lara with her mother from a different perspective: She is now the older Lara, who in the past had to keep her mother from pulling out the sword. But exactly what happened then happens: Amanda regains consciousness and brings Lara's mother to remove the sword.
In desperation, Lara threatens Amanda with death if she doesn't tell her how to save her mother. Amanda explains that Lara's mother was not dead, but was transported through the mirror to Avalon, where she would still be living now. Lara then lets her live, not without giving her a few more minutes of darkness with her fist. While she is on her way home, she hires Alaster to drive to the British Museum to find out everything about the legend of King Arthur and Avalon. She promises herself that she will try everything to save her mother and do justice to her father, who, against all objections, even Lara's, always believed that his wife is still alive. As a player, you firmly believed in a continuation of this story developed by Crystal Dynamics in the form of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Underworld .
Game principle and technology
After the sixth, not very successful part The Angel of Darkness , Eidos gave the development of the seventh part instead of Core Design in the hands of Crystal Dynamics , which was best known for the Legacy of Kain series. The developers decided to completely renew the somewhat outdated game mechanics and controls; the proven technology from Legacy of Kain: Defiance was used here.
The levels are no longer made up of large, cuboid blocks, but rather have significantly more realistic corners, curves and edges due to the new engine and are provided with more details. Furthermore, the new graphics engine now displays elaborate light and particle effects, a physics engine is noticeable, for example, when moving boxes or the like.
The play figure has also been redesigned: Since the aim was to create a Lara with which women can identify more easily , she is now a little smaller and has more realistic proportions, but shows a little more skin in her standard belly costume. Her traditional braided braid has been replaced with an open ponytail. The enormous bounce from the earlier parts has also been reduced.
The controls also differ significantly from their predecessors; it is now much more fluid and direct. When falling, Lara often holds on to the edges in good time, inaccurate jumps can still be saved by quickly pressing the action button. These measures reduce the frustration that arose in earlier parts.
Lara's equipment consists of a magnetic hook, the standard pistols, the personal light system (PLS) and Lara's PDA . Besides the pistols, she can only carry one additional weapon in this part of the. You can choose between a submachine gun, an assault rifle, a grenade launcher or a shotgun. To compensate, Lara can now use frag grenades, of which she can carry a maximum of four and which are particularly useful against large groups of enemies. From the end of the seventh level, Excalibur is also available, a very powerful sword that can be used to fire waves of energy.
The movements and the combat system can no longer be compared with the predecessors: With the exception of sprinting, almost all movements are possible compared to the predecessors. In addition to side and back flips and other run-jump combinations, the focus was placed on climbing: Lara can now swing on crossbars, jump up one level while shackling and overcome abysses with the help of the magnetic hook. This also plays an important role again and again, e.g. B. when it comes to using metallic platforms or treasures. In addition, Lara can now defend herself with drawn weapons in close combat, e.g. B. by kicking human opponents in different ways or by pulling them off their feet with a tackle. In addition, it can pull opponents on higher levels with the magnetic hook into the depth.
reception
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Tomb Raider: Legend received positive reviews. Metacritic aggregates 31 reviews to a mean of 82.
- Computer picture games : 1.77 (PC version)
- Bravo Screenfun : 1
- Games current : 86%
- GamePro : 88%
- Man! Ac : 84% (PS2 version)
- PC Action : 90%
- 4Players : 76% (NGC), 78% (Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PC)
Web links
- Tomb Raider: Legend at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ GameStar.de: Tomb Raider: Legend in the test. Retrieved July 15, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Tomb Raider: Legend. Retrieved January 21, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht_fazit/Allgemein/Test/Fazit_WANY/PlayStation2/4551/4470/Tomb_Raider_Legend.html