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Tomb Raider: Legend

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7.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
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Based on 47 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Developer: Crystal Dynamics

Genre(s): Third-Person Action, Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: April 11, 2006

Summary

Tomb Raider: Legend revives the athletic, intelligent and entertaining adventurer who won the hearts and minds of gamers worldwide. Lara comes alive with intricately animated expressions, moves and abilities. An arsenal of modern equipment, such as a magnetic grappling device, binoculars, frag grenades, personal lighting device and communications equipment, allows gamers to experience tomb raiding as never before. Eidos and Crystal Dynamics shaped Lara's look and movements to be an inherent extension of her skills, motivation and personality. Lara's character model features natural structure, realistic textures, detailed facial features, reactive eyes and fluid motion, all of which make her part of a living environment. New character animations and controls allow her to move through stunning environments with grace and precision, while an understanding of the game's original appeal reinvigorates the fundamental explore-and-solve adventure experience. [Eidos Interactive]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Tomb Raider: Chronicles Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Adrenaline Vault

There are people that say a good game must have good graphics and some that say its gameplay is the most important. TRL has both. Great graphics and a superb gameplay make this game a true jewel.

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Game Chronicles

Whether this is your first or ninth adventure with Lara, it is one you won’t soon forget. With perfect controls, intuitive gameplay, stunning graphics, majestic music, and a totally engaging story, this is the type of adventure game Legends are made of.

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Gaming Age

Between the plotting, level design, and gameplay, Tomb Raider: Legend does an admirable job of rescuing the franchise. Crystal Dynamics have torn down the franchise, consulted with the creator, and rebuilt it from the ground up as something significantly different…Something great.

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PC Gamer

Legends boasts plenty of new elements, including a grappling hook fro swinging from lamp posts and cornices, interactive cutscenes that require fast reflexes to spare Lara being squished beneath a rock, and clever physics-based puzzles. [July 2006, p.54]

ActionTrip

A solid title from the ground up. It has a nicely written story, with lively characters and a charismatic and sexy protagonist in Lara Croft. It has great voice acting and music, and the artists have done a marvelous job of creating beautiful and diverse locations for the game's backdrop.

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Cheat Code Central

Tomb Raider: Legend is the definitive sequel/prequel/quadquel to the Tomb Raider series. It's hard to imagine where it can go from here.

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Gaming Horizon

Tomb Raider: Legend is not only the best Tomb Raider game in years, but as far ahead as one can possibly get from the disaster that was Angel of Darkness.

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Pelit (Finland)

Tomb Raider: Legend successfully brings the legend back in a movie-like experience. Great on atmosphere, tempo and diversity, but a bit short on content. The gunfights are passable, but the bike levels are just plain weak. [May 2006]

The New York Times

While it has modernized the gameplay mechanics, Legend feels like a walk down memory lane, recreating the feel of the original games. This is somehow comforting; no matter how many times Lara misses a ledge, is crushed by a boulder or dies in a hail of bullets, you feel she will always be there for you.

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eToychest

While the gameplay is serviceable, fun and current, the art design and visual production are head and shoulders above similar games in many respects.

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PC Gameworld

A refreshing change from the dull Croft games of late, jam packed with a varied assortment of fun puzzles, interesting locales, and an interesting story.

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2404.org

A fun game with a very high level of polish but not a great deal of depth. It’ll cast its spell on you early with its beautiful visuals and agile main character, and it’s a fantastic experience while it lasts, which isn’t nearly long enough.

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IC-Games

What it does have is quality rather than quantity though and the excellent Croft Manor level will add hours of fun to the value.

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Gamer 2.0

The changes Crystal Dynamics have affected means it’s easily the most polished, well-rounded package of the seven.

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Computer Games Online RO

In this regard, Crystal Dynamics deserve all the praise, but if they will continue to ignore certain aspects in the next Tomb Raider game and will choose to go down the simplification road, there are very good chances that the next Tomb Raider will end up like "Angel of Darkness."

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

A crisply executed adventure that alternates among third-person shooting, platform-jumping, and environmental puzzles, Legend doesn't excel at any one in particular, but it rotates the elements smoothly and regularly enough that it compensates in variety.

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IGN

The cliffhanger story is well put together. The action is simple and effective. The controls not only work, they're fun...Best of all, the sense of discovery and adventure is captured with a fresh sensibility.

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Deeko

It's certainly not a perfect game nor does it completely break new ground in the series, but it's nice not to smell the stench of failure as soon as you open the box. For Lara fans, Tomb Raider: Legend is a step in the right direction.

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Sydney Morning Herald

The best new addition is a magnetic grappling device that allows Lara to move faraway items and swing across chasms. Puzzles are beautifully integrated into the environment and frustration rare.

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VideoGamer

Most players probably able to breeze through in less than eight hours, but there's never a dull moment.

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Edge Magazine

Some may argue over what the series should have become, but what’s important is that it has made that tough decision for itself, and established a rock solid foundation for inevitable, now justified successors. [May 2006, p.86]

Games Radar (in-house)

Every second of this game screams skillful design and the result is a liberating game world that feels open and responsive.

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Times Online

Most importantly, the puzzles are back on track. Traps, levers, pulleys, chains, chasms, secret passges, underground lakes, rotating knives — there’s a cunning solution to each, designed to keep you puzzling for just long enough to gain satisfaction in the solving, but not long enough to make you want to hurl your own internal organs at the screen.

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PC Gamer UK

It's not a rehash, nor a reinvention, but instead an appropriate incarnation in a post "Prince of Persia" world. [May 2006, p.74]

3DAvenue

While you'd think the Tomb Raider style of gameplay would have expired by now, Legend really rejuvenates the series back into the realms of play-ability.

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PC Format

A successful resurrection, but not quite worthy of legendary status. [May 2006, p.92]

GameSpot

A good return to the roots of the series. It doesn't do anything new or different, but it has a great blend of action and adventure that will always keep you moving and interested.

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games(TM)

Legend is the best Tomb Raider game that has yet been made. Despite the game’s few grating problems, that’s quite an accolade. [May 2006, p.102]

GameSpy

It's far from revolutionary, but as a mélange of elements that have proven successful in other action/adventure games, it's certainly entertaining and gratifying on many levels.

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AceGamez

It's fun for a bit, and fans of Lara will welcome the new addition as a breath of fresh air.

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Computer Games Magazine

All that appeal is present in Legend, but it's attached to only half of a brilliant game. And in the end, half of a new Lara Croft game adventure turns out to be better than none at all. [July 2006, p.55]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Eric O. gave it a3:
Typical port, poor reaction times to keyboard.

weevil k. gave it a7:
Graphics great - controls great- cinematics great, controls like a dream - but it is just too easy. too many hints. fighting is easy. bosses are easy. puzzles are very linear and lots of hints everywhere - things glinting, stupid guys on the headset - HEY LARA WHATS THAT BIG LEVER FOR.....HEY LARA TRY TO CHARGE UP THE CORE WITH THE TESLA DEVICE....I started off thinking - wow, this is awesome, but ended up feeling slightly cheated at how easy it is. even the binoculars have a built in ability to tell you what you do with objects on screen - AI binoculars? please..... little cut scenes which sort of guide you through a set piece - YOUI HAVE TO GO HERE......THEN HERE>>>>>THEN HERE......or big neon icons flashing up telling you where the grapple has to go, or whn to press down, up etc.....idiots guide, id say. They make a play on the fluid motion, but what that means is you can be very sloppy and still make the jumps etc - i suppose on balance, having to be too exact could get enraging, but its almost impossible to get it wrong with this one. 100000000 times better than the last effort mind. i guess nothing compares to the wonder of the very first TR 1 and 2 - they were so excellent in their day that they will not be beaten no matter how life like her outrageous ...ahem...boobies....become.

Tristan W. gave it a9:
Pros: Loved the game. Tomb Raider is alive and well. Next Gen graphics enabled made for a fantastic visual experience. Cons: I can't help but feel that the Tomb Raider series is drifting away from what made it great. It was way too short. The constant chatter from Zip and constant music detracted from the overall experience. I felt the game held my hand way too much, can't people be trusted to figure out things on their own anymore?

Leonardo F. gave it a10:
The Tomb Raider games are the true adventure games. Nothing is equal those excellent masterpieces of the modern action game. And now the technology allow Eidos to create a more complex, exciting and fun new Tomb Raider game.

Alena gave it a10:
Excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed the well-thought out storyline, stunning graphics, and beautiful surroundings. The interactions with Zip & co is brilliant, and Croft Manor a delight.

Ben gave it a5:
i think the graffics where alot better yes but im only giving it a 5 because the reasion i liked the tombraider games was the puzzles. what happend to the bloodly puzzles?

Evid gave it a9:
Great fun game, with amazing graphics (with the next gen effects on). do need a fast PC to run with next gen effects however... Need more games that are actually fun like this for PC, instead of all the war simulation and fanstasy strategy games for geeks that make up 90% of PC game releases. would be better though if the tomb raider franchise wasnt ruined by that whore Angelina Jolie.

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Tomb Raider: Legend

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