22 Mar, 2011
Title Tomb Raider Trilogy
Platform PlayStation 3
Developer Crystal Dynamics/Buzz Monkey Software
Released March 25th 2011
Lara Croft is no spring chicken. In fact she’s unrecognisable from the cocky 1996 newcomer to the gaming elite; a character so compelling to the masses that she effortlessly pulverised holiday season competition into submission on a yearly basis. Nothing could touch her.
Of course, it all had to end eventually. Lara’s appeal began to wear off part-way through her reign of the PSX-era; by the time Tomb Raider Chronicles had come out in 2000 (a hastily tacked-together whistle-stop mish-mash of Croft’s many adventures and misadventures, created solely to fulfill the remainder of Core Design’s development contract) a fair chunk of the fanbase had begun to lose interest.
Any still clinging on for dear life were ultimately finished off with the dreary, bug-ridden insult that was Lara’s first next-gen outing, The Angel of Darkness. Within the year, Core had thrown in the towel and publisher Eidos had drafted in Crystal Dynamics – the team behind Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver – to rescue the flagging series. It’s a testament to their talents, together with the charm and appeal of Croft as a character, that the Tomb Raider franchise still exists today. This collection chronicles their first three entries into the series – Legend, Anniversary and Underworld.
While Underworld is a direct sequel to Legend, Anniversary – a next-gen remake of Lara’s very first adventure – has its own ties to Underworld. The first two games have been given a lick of high-definition gloss and run at 720p. Legend and Anniversary have been available for Xbox 360 for many years, but they actually ran in up-scaled “sub-HD” so these new versions do look slightly cleaner and more detailed, though not especially noticeable on smaller displays.
Tomb Raider: Legend introduces the new-look Lara, on the hunt for Excalibur. Don't ask.
But that’s enough geek-speak. Legend, originally released in 2006, was Lara’s glorious return to form and Crystal Dynamics first foray into the franchise. Lara gets a call from a friend, with info on the whereabouts of a stone dais, deep within a pre-Incan civilisation. This dais may well be linked to the disappearance of Lara’s mother in the Himalayas, some twenty years ago. Lara travels to Bolivia and locates the dais; however, her past comes back to haunt her when a “friend” she had presumed dead reappears, determined to make her quest as difficult as possible.
Anniversary revisits Lara’s original adventure to the mossy peaks, damp caves and decadent palatial ruins of Peru, Greece and Egypt, retracing her virtual first steps and dragging a true classic kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Sent on an expedition by shady executive Jacqueline Natla, Lara travels to the four corners of the earth to recover the Scion – coincidentally the very same artifact her father had gone searching for many years before. Natla furnishes Lara with the location of the lost Peruvian city of Vilcabamba and sends her on her way.
Bringing the collection up-to-date, Underworld serves to tie up the loose ends from both games, continuing to explore the mysterious disappearance of Amelia Croft and once again pitting Lara against her arch-nemesis. Another blast from the past, back from the dead – it would seem Lady Croft needs a lesson in picking her friends a little more wisely.
Underworld is a low-point, but there’s no denying that the three adventures packed onto this single Blu-ray disc are solid titles. The superb Legend and Anniversary are now available to PlayStation 3 users, not only in high-definition, but also armed with an all-new collection of interesting and varied trophies, providing plenty of that all-important replay value. The Xbox-exclusive DLC for Tomb Raider: Underworld clearly remains exclusive three years on, as it doesn’t appear here, but friends, let me assure you – you’re not missing much.
Anniversary gives Lady Croft's seminal adventure a well-deserved modern facelift.
Combat is as atrocious now as it was fifteen years ago and none of the games featured in this trilogy may be excused. However, the fluid platforming sections, heavily inspired by Ubisoft’s vision of Prince of Persia, merrily engulf the combat. Not to say the many jumping and climbing sections aren’t without their flaws – this trilogy continues the frustrating trend of countless and often-inexplicable deaths that the series is infamous for – but thankfully, these issues are counteracted by the perhaps overly-generous checkpoint and autosave systems.
If you haven’t played one or more of the games featured in the Tomb Raider Trilogy, this collection is great value. Anyone else can take it or leave it, but having all three games in one comprehensive package is nice, while the various improvements and extras (an exclusive XMB theme plus some new outfits for your Home avatar) make it all the more worthwhile. Either way, the Tomb Raider Trilogy is the perfect reason to slip back into your micro-shorts and dust off your dual pistols, in eager anticipation of the next series reboot expected later this year. Long live Lara!
The Good
+ Fantastic platforming action.
+ Great value for money.
The Bad
- Gunplay is still absolutely bloody dreadful.
- Not exactly fully loaded with extras.
[rating:3.5]
The Tomb Raider Trilogy is released on March 25th, exclusive to the PlayStation 3.
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