Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
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Lara's latest riveting adventure plays like her others, and if you're a fan, you'll be instantly hooked. The control and severity of the puzzles will drive you insane at times - but no one said it would be easy.
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It Came from Outer Space
Lara's newest quest starts in present-day Antarctica as a research group comes across a peculiar find. Embedded deep within the ice lies the remnants of a rock with gene-altering power. Soon after locating it, the team discovers the body of a European sailor, perfectly preserved, and a log that describes a journey involving the excavation of four artifacts. Now, the team must locate these lost artifacts.
As fate would have it, Lara is in India searching for one of the artifacts, unaware of its true history. That's where you start--but it's certainly far from where you'll end. Lara's hunt will take her into five international locales, including Area 51, London, and the South Pacific. And you'd better believe that TRIII contains more moves, weapons, enemies, and challenges than ever before.
Brains, Beauty--and Smoking Guns
Tomb Raider has always been more about deliberately paced brain-teasing adventure than run-n-gun action, and TRIII is definitely no exception--you'll have quite a fine time solving the game's many intricate puzzles. TRIII's gameplay is also non-linear: After escaping India, you'll be able to tackle the other three main levels in any order you want.
And you needn't worry about a lack of action. TRIII is chock-full of vicious enemies, including tigers, monkeys, and even six-armed sword-swingin' statues. To tackle these dastardly dudes, Lara has at her disposal an arsenal that includes her trusty .45s, an Uzi, an MP5, and a shotgun, just to name a few. There are even new vehicles to commandeer, like a kayak, a quad bike, and a mine car.
Lush and Dangerous
As for the graphics, Core (the game's developers) has fine-tuned TRIII's overall appearance. Lara looks even more impressive than before because of cleaner, smoother hi-res graphics. Lara's surroundings have also been spruced up with atmospheric lighting and greatly improved water effects: Now you'll actually notice rings of water circling around objects rather than pixelated octagons and you'll clearly see ambient creatures such as fierce piranha. Plus, the interiors of the many ruins and buildings are cleaner and sport much better fine details.
Unfortunately, there are still some graphical miscues, including flat 2D foliage and pixelated terrain. And like the other Tomb Raiders, the camera angle is not always optimal: You'll often view Lara from the side when she needs to make a difficult jump straight ahead.
Dashing Heroine
On the control side, Core has added more moves to Lara's repertoire and made the game compatible with the analog joystick. Aside from her usual running, jumping, climbing, and swimming, Lara will now be able to duck and crawl into hard-to-reach areas, swing from ropes, and sprint past time-released traps using a cool and totally new dash technique.
Configuring Tomb Raider to use the analog stick was only logical, and for the most part, it's effective. However, because all of Lara's movements are assigned to the stick without having to use the triggers, there's a very fine line between, say, hopping forward and turning in a full circle. Until you spend a significant amount of time practicing with the stick, you're going to be frustrated. If you're able to master the stick's precise movements, playing through the adventure will be that much more satisfying. And if you prefer, you can just use the directional pad, which works just as solidly as in the previous games.
Locked in the Tomb
When it comes down to it, if you're a diehard Lara fan, you're going to dig this intense game. But if you haven't experienced Tomb Raider before, be warned that its mind-bending puzzles and tense action will challenge even the most seasoned gamers. Be prepared to spend many hours in isolation: Tomb Raider III will keep you playing for days--maybe even until next year's holiday season.
GRAPHICS 4.5 SOUND 3.5 CONTROL 4.0 FUN FACTOR 4.0
