Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend
- June 20, 2006 11:04 AM PST
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Lara Croft tries her hand at adventure on the PSP, but falls prey to too many "booby" traps along the way.
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Laura Croft sure has it rough. Not only is she tasked with bringing back a franchise that could arguably be said has become outdated and unoriginal, but she has to do it all while avoiding using her biggest "assets" as the main attraction. Even with such a tough job, she did great with the release of Tomb Raider: Legends on home consoles, proving that a fresh approach, good graphics, and improved controls can make a world of difference.
But what about on the PSP; do those elements translate well onto the portable version of Legends? The unfortunate answer is that they do, but not very well. The game is almost an exact replica of the console version, content-wise, so the story, characters, locations, moves, weapons, and everything else have been essentially ripped from the PS2 version and placed in the PSP. In the process, however, much of what made the game fun seems somehow lost.
The biggest offender is by far the controls, which simply don't do an adequate job at moving Laura in her surroundings. The PSP's analog nub directs her, but the sensitivity you find on the PS2 just isn't the same here, so you end up either running or not moving at all. Jumping and dodging work well enough, but with Laura's imprecise movements, even they become somewhat of a chore.
Much of the game's control flaws could be forgiven if it was made up with the impressive graphics found on the game's console counterparts, but we're given far more of a mixed bag than a visual powerhouse. Cinematics look very good, and the open areas of the game feel adequately expansive, and there's even ragdoll physics on your enemies, but besides Laura and a few areas in the game, many of the textures look a bit muddled and rather unspectacular.
Visually the game isn't bad; it's more the slowdown it faces that detracts from the experience. Gun battles with more than a few enemies drop the framerate noticeably and it gets even worse in larger, more open parts of the game. Add in the difficult camera controls - it follows Laura from behind but can be shifted, as long as Laura stands still, with the square button - and the wonky targeting system and the game can certainly turn frustrating. But the responsibility of porting a game that stretched the resources of the PS2 is no easy task, and Crystal Dynamics at least shows to have put an effort into offsetting the limitations of the PSP.
Still, the console version of Tomb Raider: Legends was an above average game that deserved praise as a new beginning to the franchise. In the process of being brought to the PSP, Legends changed into an occasionally enjoyable though altogether disappointing title that mimics much of Laura's older works than the material it supposedly draws from.
See how the PSP version stacks up against the PS2. Xbox, and Xbox 360 versions by reading these reviews!
