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Tomb Raider : The Last Revelation
Click Box Art above to
purchase ( Mac version)
It would be a major leap of conclusions to
presume that a Macintosh owner has never heard of Lara Croft, or played one
of "her" games. After all, if you could afford a Mac, you probably
own a Playstation, and if you bought one, you probably got one of its best
games of all time, Tomb Raider. However, that was way back in 1996. A
lot has changed since then, for both Lara Croft, and the entire genre of
third-person action-adventures she spawned. Can this game offer anything
new? Yes...and no.
The
game begins with a prologue, not unlike the third Indiana
Jones film; we get to see a teenage Lara exploring her
first tomb. Along with her is mentor Verner Von Croy, whose "lessons" for young Lara are the
"tutorial" missions for the interface to the game. A young Lara
learns how to explore in this game environment...and so do we. In addition,
we meet Von Croy, who as it turns out is an integral part of the story...
Jump ahead a few decades, when we see Lara as she is
"today," and where the main levels begin. These
missions are pretty easy to "jump into" for Lara Croft game fans; only a few differences are present. For one, Lara can now
climb poles and ropes. While this new maneuver seems more forced-into
the game than Indiana Jones' whip in The
Infernal Machine, this move is used and re-used (and
overused) from the very beginning. Unlike Indy, however, you
can swing on the rope in the direction of your choice.
In addition, while climbing walls and ladders, she can even climb
around corners; a game engine tweak that has been a long
time in coming. Other cool moments include driving a jeep and
a motorcycle.
Level design is typical of the series; very
large, and for the most part, very imaginative. Every one of them is a return to Lara's
Tomb Raiding roots, and that's a very good thing; no racing in
a gondola in Venice or jumping onto construction cranes in London (like
the prior game, in case you wondered). I found the concept of "Egyptian bulls" a bit
much --complete with Egyptian headwear!-- though all other enemies are relevant to the story; mummies,
scorpions, and so on. While other game critics apparently found
the pyramid environments redundant after a while, I found exploring
them intriguing; it's hopping around outside of the
pyramid that I found so annoying (the entrance is on top
of a slippery- sloped pyramid? Why?). Elsewhere, however, the game has a few amusing surprises, such as fighting bad guys
on top of a speeding train.
New
visual effects equally enhance the game. When Lara climbs out
of water, her clothes drip with realistic droplets that slowly
reduce with time; a nice slice of realism. In one scene, Lara
must complete a statue, and instead of having the missing piece
suddenly "appear" on the statue, Lara climbs up and
carefully places it there herself. This is some nice attention to
detail when animating the characters that other games may not have
bothered with. It makes the game far more "real," and fun.
There
are a flew grumbles, however. This might be mere personal opinion,
but I felt that the coolest puzzles were only shown once, while
dull puzzles are overused! In one scene, you see a man
attacked by a giant scorpion; help him out, and a special key
to an armory is yours. If this game indulged in more heroic moments
like this --use your strongest ammo to save a life, get reward--
the game would've had a less redundant, "jump and shoot"
feel to it. Instead, this is an exception to the jumping bean
rule, since the majority of puzzles involve jumping, jumping, and more
jumping. Seriously, how many jumping puzzles can one game have...?
Other so-so puzzles are overused almost as much. Even the cool-at-first
laser scope on your revolver becomes redundant.
It doesn't help --spoilers
notwithstanding-- that the ending sucks. I won't spoil it however,
provided you just trust me when I say: the ending sucks. Is it an open ending? That would be the good news!
Word is that this was intended to be Lara Croft's final adventure. If that
was the case, why the sad swan song? You try so hard to keep Lara alive
throughout the game, for this?!? IMHO, it is pretty annoying to have a game's
final puzzle try to squash poor Lara like a bug six times only to reach a lackluster conclusion. Apparently, the "Infidel" Lara Croft needs to
be punished...as do her fans.
"Bottom Line"...? Okay, I'll give it some
credit for not being buggy upon release (a sad rarity these days),
as well as excellent improvements in texture handling, AI, and FMV. In addition, this is one game that will keep you playing
for a minimum week, even with the best walkthrough in
hand. However, the final game was a bit of a let-down; too many
death scenes, not enough reward. Get it to see Lara in action on the Mac;
get a better game, to cheer you up afterwards.
---Techtite
Click Box Art above to
purchase (Mac version)
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed product, are created by Techtite,
copyright 1999-2002; all rights reserved. Screen captures of program
reviewed are discrete thumbnails, used only for the purpose of
review, and by no means represent any affiliation with Techtite and the distributors of that product. For further "legalese"
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