pc-playstation-saturn
Lara's Resumé
Review of Tombraider for Playstation by PLAY magazine


She's brave, pert, spunky and knows how to handle an Uzi -- she's Lara Croft and
this is the best game of 1996. Remember those Saturday morning cliff-hanger
shows -- the ones made in the Fifties, barely lit so as to disguise the horrendous
back projection? Well Tomb Raider is a whole bunch of these series, jammed
together into one huge game that regularly tumbles its heroine into ever more
gruesome death scenes; only for her to return via the trusty memory card.

Lara laugs
Lara's penchant for near-death experiences began with a plane crash in the Andes.
The sole survivor, Lara's perception of excitement radically changed. Instead of
courting Hugh Grant-like floppy-haired dunces, Lara took to searching for ancient
treasures and fighting evil Nazi archaeologists for ancient relics. Sound familiar? If
Lara was not merely a binary babe, and Indiana Jones more than a celuloid cipher,
they would have jumped each other's bones on sight!

For her first game (come on, there will be others, who are Core trying to kid?), Lara
has been hired to assemble a mystical device called the Scion, pieces of which have
been hidden in locations across the globe. The Scion's keeper will achieve Ultimate
Power, so inevitably there are quite a few 'interested parties' already on route to
the South American location of the first fragment.

Croft original
The first thing that strikes you about Tomb Raider is that it looks unlike anything
previously seen on PlayStation. The sumptuous, texture mapped detail is dazzling,
particularly as it runs through the whole of such a massive game. A highly advanced
3D engine quickly and smoothly represents the scale and majesty of the various
lost worlds. One minute you can be scrabbling along a ledge inches wide, the next
minute you're standing inside a huge antechamber.

Like Magic Carpet, Core has used an engine which cleverly fades away distant
objects, jettisoning the need for unnecessary detail and maintaining a rapid frame
rate. It also underlines the need for exploration: every shadow hides a secret room
or power-up, and you are quickly taught to search every nook and cranny.

Levels range from the initial icy caves, to a huge temple maze, a four tasks of
Hercules sub-game, and even a lost world complete with a huge polygon T-Rex
and raptors! Every level is completely different and offers would-be explorers an
almost unlimited challenge, with hundreds of mini-puzzles and tests of
hand-to-eye co-ordination. Pulling levers that open distant doors is kids' stuff in
Tomb Raider, and there are memory puzzles, death-defying leaps of faith, fire
jumping -- more action than you'll find in the whole trilogy of Indiana Jones movies!

Raiders of the lost art
Lara herself is one of the most agile and capable videogame characters ever
created. She has a huge repertoire of moves to cope with every situation, be it
crawling along a ledge using only her fingernails to leaping chasms, or just whipping
out two pistols and blasting away at chasing lions whilst leaping away from their
claws -- Lara does it all. The animation is so smooth you'd expect it to be
motion-captured -- but it's not. Round of applause please for Toby Gard...

Apart from the obvious temples and ruined ziggurats covered in Inca and Mayan
symbols, many areas have collapsed or become unstable and this makes for an
exciting and completely unpredictable environment. Walls disintegrate without
warning, boulders are triggered from above, and that innocuous switch might not
only open the door in front of you, try looking behind at that previously locked
baboon cage -- arrrrghhhh! In Tomb Raider, you never know what or who is around
the next corner and having died in a number of gruesome ways (hear that bone
shatter when you fall from a great height!), you adopt a cautious pace and never
take anything at face value.

Such multi-layered and fiendish levels could easily confuse players, were it not for
the clever Lara's-eye-view mode invoked when you hold down the L1 button. This
means you can use the D-pad to scan all around your surroundings and get a good
idea of where to go, rather than having to wait for the game's cumbersome fixed
camera angles to show the way. Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil suffered the
same problem in that the camera often points in completely the wrong direction, and
it is therefore highly useful to have something dynamic that you can control for a
change. Well done Core, it worked with Mario 64 and it's a vital addition to Tomb
Raider.

Pointy pointy, anointy, anointy
What really impressed me about Tomb Raider is the complete package. Core could
have been lazy and knocked out a pretty standard maze game, where one lever
opens a door and the gameplay was entirely linear, but instead it has taken the bull
by the horns and produced something which is truly revolutionary. You have 15
levels, increasing in size from massive to completely insane, plus a stately home
training centre to practice your moves and relax with a nice cup of tea. And rather
than give you the option to save willy nilly and reduce the overall challenge, you
must find save crystals -- strategically positioned so that you must earn the
security they bring. Tomb Raider rarely puts a foot wrong, and when it does (such
as the occasional mindless camera work) you forgive it instantly because there are
so many clever touches and tricks up its sleeve. (Besides, where else are you able
to stare at a pair of pert breasts and arse for four hours without being labelled a
pervert?).

But be warned, this game is horribly difficult early on and it will take even the most
capable gamesplayer an age to complete. There will be moments when you want to
sling the TV and PlayStation out of the window, or just throw down the pad in
disgust, but perseverance is the key. You've just got to dust yourself down, and get
back on the saddle. If you have no patience then avoid Tomb Raider because it will
f*ck you up for life. I know, I'm finishing this review from a padded cell because I
couldn't get past the fire leaping room on level seven. Take away the crayons
matron, I think I need to go bye-byes now...

Verdict: 93%