Tomb Raider Legend

Developer/Editor: Crystal Dynamics / Eidos

Plattforms: PC / PS2 / PS3 / PSP / XBOX / XBOX 360 / GB Advance / NDS / Wii

Release Date: April 1st 2006

PS3 Release Date: March 25th 2011

Game type: Action, adventures

Official Website: www.tombraider.com

This time, Lara Croft will be on the trail of an ancient artifact of English origin, visiting temples and tombs in Bolivia, Peru, the Himalayas, Africa, and the waterfalls of Ghana, as well as cities such as Tokyo and a military base in Kazakhstan.

Throughout the story, Lara will encounter an enemy whom she believed had been buried and forgotten forever.

As the adventure unfolds, everything will connect and relate to the plane crash in the Himalayas when she was nine years old, accompanied by her mother.

She must return to solve the mystery and prevent her enemies from achieving their goal.

Features

These are the main features included in Tomb Raider Legend.

Features of Tomb Raider Legend

Lara and her clothes get dirty when she falls or comes into contact with mud or dirt.
Animations are much smoother and more natural than in previous installments.
Lara’s model consists of 9,800 polygons (compared to 4,400 in The Angel of Darkness).
Automatic movements when she is inactive (adjusting her gloves, belt, stretching).
Greater realism: tendons in the neck, leg muscles that flex when running or walking.

Equipment and Supplies

New weapons and tools: magnetic cable, binoculars, fragmentation grenades, etc.
New, more modern look: backpack, boots, and more detailed modeling.
Portable lighting system integrated into the backpack straps.
Ropes are back.

Scenes and Environment

Trips to Tokyo, Bolivia, Peru, Ghana, Kazakhstan, England, and Nepal.
Highly detailed environments featuring natural phenomena such as snow and dust particles.
Destroyable environments (walls, glass).
Improved graphics on Xbox 360 and PC compared to PS2 and Xbox.
Grand and visually stunning environments.

Gameplay and Mechanics

Built on the Soul Reaver engine, modified to include vehicles and improved lighting effects.
Back to basics: physics-based puzzles and plenty of action.
Autosave points.
Three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard.
Approximate playtime of 10 to 12 hours.
Incentives to replay the game and unlock secrets and extras.

Story and Characters

Lara will have teammates who will help her via her headset.
A new female character appears, with whom she will clash over the artifact.
More details are revealed about her accident in the Himalayas and her origins as a tomb raider.
Much more personal backstory than in other Tomb Raider games.
Winston and Zip return after a long time.

Bonus Content

Croft Manor returns after being absent since Tomb Raider III.
Lara can contact her team at the manor at any time.

Artefacts

Learn more about the artifact featured in Tomb Raider: Legend: the legendary sword Excalibur. While many cultures initially saw it as a simple weapon, the truth is far more intriguing. In reality, Excalibur acts as a powerful device that opens portals to dimensions connected to the underworld, including realms such as Avalon and Helheim. As a result, the sword plays a crucial role in understanding the deeper mysteries behind Lara Croft’s journey.

Excalibur

Over the centuries, various peoples preserved fragments of the weapon without fully understanding its purpose. However, they all contributed to the same global myth, which, over time, gave rise to the legend of King Arthur. In this context, Excalibur consisted of four separate pieces, held together solely by the power of Ghalali’s key—an amulet essential for restoring its original structure.

Lara’s father, Richard Croft, found Ghalali’s key during an excavation in Ghana and decided to give it to his wife, Amelia, who always wore it as a brooch. Years later, during the plane crash in the Himalayas, the amulet was lost among the wreckage as Amelia tried to rescue a young Lara.

During the Arthurian era, people revered the artifact as a sacred sword. Once the sword in the stone vanished, Arthur received Excalibur as its replacement, and thanks to its immense power, he rose as an almost invincible figure. Even so, his death created a decisive turning point. As a result, the Knights of the Round Table scattered the fragments across the world to ensure they never fell into the wrong hands.

Weapons

In Tomb Raider Legend, Lara can carry up to eight weapons: dual 9mm pistols, a shotgun, the Desert Eagle, Uzis, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, a harpoon gun, an MP5, and King Arthur’s legendary sword, Excalibur.
In addition, she has other tools and items that are useful for progressing through the adventure, such as binoculars, a magnetic grappling hook, a PDA, a flashlight, and flares.

Tomb Raider Trilogy

This collection, known as the Tomb Raider Trilogy, contains Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld (the last one without graphical upgrades).

The first two titles received HD remasters with enhanced textures, lighting, and shadows, and they were released on PS3 on March 25, 2011.

Moreover, the addition of trophies makes progressing through the objectives more rewarding.

The pack is exclusive to PS3 and can be purchased in stores.

Outfits

In Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara has the largest wardrobe in the entire series. Throughout the adventure, she has numerous alternate outfits in addition to the main outfit she wears in the areas of Tiwanaku (Bolivia), Paraíso (Peru), Tokyo (Japan), Ghana, Kazakhstan, Cornwall (England), the Himalayas (Nepal), and Croft Manor.

Below is a gallery of images showing each of them in both Next Gen and normal modes.

Covers

Below, you can view and download the European and American versions of the Tomb Raider Legend game covers, which are available for the following platforms: PC / PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Xbox / Xbox 360 / Game Boy Advance / Nintendo DS / Wii.

In addition, you can also see the official cover art for the exclusive PS3 “Tomb Raider Trilogy” bundle.