Tomb Raider: Legend

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.

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.

Gamezilla!

If there were a few more hours here, it would’ve been a really A+ title, but as it stands it’s still a good purchase.

Kombo

Incredible controls, solid gameplay, beautiful graphics, and an engaging storyline.

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. Nearly every object in the game reacts to Lara's influence, and this applies to the gamer holding the control pad as well - it's impossible to play this game and not fall under its tempting spell.

Play Magazine

Tomb Raider: Legend is about as good as games get right now. [May 2006, p.43]

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.

Next Level Gaming

Tomb Raider fans finally once again have that must-have.

Game Over Online

I wouldn't complain if they'd given us a little more, though, but this is definitely a stellar start.

PGNx Media

The biggest knock against the game is the length. The single-player game is only seven hours long. You’re able to unlock movies and outfits, which are fun, but may not be worth a play through.

Game Informer

Tomb Raider: Legend fails to be a reinvention of any genres, but succeeds in every way at reinventing itself. [May 2006, p.96]

XboxAddict

A challenging game that takes a lot of mental ability. It can be frustrating at times, but is always engrossing. I found that I could not wait to see what secret was lurking behind the door I'd just opened.

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.

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.

Gaming Target

It might not be the same sort of revitalization that "Resident Evil" got last year, but make no mistake, this is a very good game with plenty of thrills, twists, turns, and thanks to some great stages and tons of personality, Legend doesn't just bring TR back, it will make you forget everything about those old, dusty PlayStation games as well.

AtomicGamer

While Lara's adventure this time around is pretty short, the exploration elements, great visuals that the Xbox 360 can produce, and even the surprisingly interesting story all come together to make a pretty solid game anyway.

Xbox World Australia

If you can ignore the sloppy motorbike sequences and often unsatisfying combat, you'll have no trouble fitting into Lara's skimpy outfits and immersing yourself in the most enjoyable action-adventure on the Xbox 360 to date.

Planet Xbox 360

It’s combat may be unoriginal and the game may not be revolutionary, but it’s a truly solid adventure, with a good story, good controls that leave you with a yearning for exploration, and also discovery that is yet to be achieved by any other Xbox 360 title.

GamerNode

When all is said and done, this is the Tomb Raider experience that fans have been craving since the series faltered: platforming action mixed with intense firefights and grand puzzles.

Play.tm

A wonderfully crafted videogame that chooses to retrace fonder times should shame the critics into waves of apology.

ZTGameDomain

If they continue to deliver this caliber of game I really don’t think the fans will miss Core Design too much.

XGP Gaming

From early on in the game, it becomes very apparent that Tomb Raider: Legend has the heart of the previous games at its core.

GamingTrend

Developer Crystal Dynamics has done a fantastic job with a very damaged property.

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.

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.

MS Xbox World

I still feel that although enjoyable, the puzzles weren’t as fiendish as previous games and offered only a mild mental challenge. I also felt that the linearity of the levels lost some of the exploration elements found in previous titles especially as not once did I lose my bearings.

1UP

For the first time ever, Lara Croft controls fluidly -- her world isn't divided into little squares, and she can perform complex series of acrobatic maneuvers without a pause (and often has to, later in the game).

Yahoo! Games

With the jump to Xbox 360, Lady Croft feels right at home in a more beautiful world with better control and the same brain-twisting puzzles and level designs that made you drool over the series in the first place. Oh, and she's still smokin' hot.

GamePro

If you value gameplay over graphics, there's no just beating the standard Xbox version of Legend -- it's just much, much smoother than its Xbox 360 counterpart.

TeamXbox

With a renewed focus on adventure and the inclusion of a less restrictive control scheme, Crystal Dynamics has managed to rekindle the fading flame of the Tomb Raider franchise. Although it is a bit on the short side, a multitude of extras and the tough Time Trial mode will extends the Croft experience.

GameSpy

It took me just under 8 hours to complete 90% of the game, and it's not a terrible stretch to imagine someone rushing through it in 5 or 6. It's a good sign for a game when players want more, and it's further proof that the Tomb Raider series is back in a big way.

GamerFeed

My main problem with Tomb Raider: Legend is that Crystal Dynamics made it a wee bit too accessible for the public. The game, while a lot of fun and adjustable for difficulty purposes, is still pretty easy to beat.

Gamer 2.0

If anything, Legend succeeds in assuaging frustration. Puzzles never encroach on the aggravation of yester incarnations due to a RAD (“Remote Analysis Device”) that identifies objects of note. It’s reminiscent of "Grim Fandango" in the sense that you’re not left to hunt around wildly for the key elements in a conundrum.

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.

Official Xbox Magazine UK

At the end of the day, you'll be left feeling warmer and happier than if you were in the heaving bosom of Lara herself. That's got to be worth the asking price. [May 2006, p.70]

Official Xbox Magazine

So Legend on the 360 remains an 8.0, just like the Xbox version--there's no other game that gives you quite the rush that Tomb Raider has in the past and does now with Legend. [Jun 2006, p.85]

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.

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]

3DAvenue

A brilliant game that no 360 gamer should ignore.

VideoGamer

Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC owners certainly get better value for money, but the Xbox 360 version signals a strong next-gen future for Lara.

GameBiz

The balance of action and puzzles is near perfect. The working controls are easy to pick up and the adventurous storyline keeps you wanting to play.

AceGamez

While Crystal Dynamics have quite clearly produced a competent package that will delight the previously melancholy fanbase, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend doesn't endeavour to innovate the genre that its predecessors laid down the foundations for, which strikes me as being rather odd.

DarkStation

After her horrendous PS2 debut, Lara gets back into top form on the 360 with a back-to-basics exploration-based gameplay and tasty puzzles.

My Gamer

Finally Eidos has given the series the attention it deserves and the fans the experience they’ve been craving, minus the nudity (you can’t have everything).

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. The problem is that it moves a bit too fast, and it's all over way too soon.

Eurogamer

It's fairly obvious that Legend game wasn't designed for the 360, but even against the best action adventures of recent times (like "God of War" or the "Prince of Persia" trilogy) it falls some way short of matching the standard we've become accustomed to in recent years - both on a gameplay and on a technical level.

Boomtown

If there is to be a sequel, and I join the rising chorus of voices demanding one, it is going to have to properly develop the core (design) gameplay that Tomb Raider: Legend gets back to.

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]

Extreme Gamer

A good game worth your investment of time, although I would weigh the option of renting over buying mainly because of the games length.

X360 Magazine UK

We expected big things from Lara's first next-gen adventure and while Legend doesn't quite live up to expectations it still offers a slick, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable experience. [Issue#6, p.88]

Gamestyle

Legend is a good, solid game, but it's a short-lived experience that suffers from a wonky storyline and combat/platforming sections that don't really gel together.

360 Gamer Magazine UK

If Crystal Dynamics had built the 360 version from scratch, complete with excellent graphics, huge awe-inspiring environments, varied enemies and better cut-scenes, we’d have fallen in love with Lara all over again.

Game Revolution

Feel free to take Lara out for the weekend, but don’t go looking for a long-term relationship.

Detroit Free Press

The graphics are old-school blocky, the puzzles are tired and many of the acrobatic moves are straight out of other games before it, most notably "Prince of Persia," but also even older "Indiana Jones" titles.