Old Tomb Raider sucks. I tried. I really did. But old Tomb Raider games, all the way up through Legend and Anniversary, suck. They have bad and awkward controls and just aren't fun. Then they rebooted it with Underworld, which is much better, and the modern trilogy of games that are fantastic. I didn't think it would go this way, to be honest. Today's game is Tomb Raider Legend and it's stinky. Read more and watch gameplay right here.
I started off with a plan that I would play all of the Tomb Raider games that I could. I've grown quite fond of doing themed weeks / months of similar games - can bang out lots of content fairly quickly and it's usually pretty fun to do - but my Tomb Raider plan failed pretty spectacularly. I started with the 5 PS1 games - nope, they all have terrible tank controls and are awkward and awful and I hate them. Then I tried Angel of Darkness - nope, it has it's own unique set of egregious issues. Then I settled on "Well, at least I can do the PS360 trilogy of Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld because I liked them when they came out." Nope, Legend plays shockingly bad. Bad enough I just gave up on doing any others entirely. Maybe I'll get back to Underworld and the modern 2013 / Rise / Shadow trilogy, but not for a while.
Tomb Raider is such a weird franchise to me. Even as a kid I thought the PS1 games looked stiff and awkward and not fun, so I never bothered to play them. I played Legend / Anniversary / Underworld to review them and enjoyed them. And then I played the modern trilogy and really liked all of them. The modern games in particular are funny to me because hardcore Tomb Raider fans complain that they're too different from the classic games, but that's exactly what I like about them. Would I like more actual tombs? Sure! Do I want anything else from the classic games? No!
Tomb Raider Legend is, looking back at it now, pretty obviously a first step towards being a modern game series. The tank controls are finally gone, and it does control much better overall, but it is still extremely stiff and awkward and unforgiving. I didn't have fun.
Also, calling her Laura Craft to trigger weird morons is fun, so I did that a lot.
