Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend
Encyclopedia
Tomb Raider: Legend is the 7th entry in the core Tomb Raider
franchise. Published by Eidos Interactive
, this is the first game in the series not to be handled by British
-based Core Design
, developed
instead by British-owned U.S.
studio Crystal Dynamics
.
The PS2
, Windows
, Xbox
, and Xbox 360
versions were released in Europe
on 7 April 2006 and in North America
on 11 April 2006. The North American PSP
version was released on 20 June 2006, the Nintendo GameCube
, Game Boy Advance
and Nintendo DS
versions were released during November 2006 and the Mobile
version was released in December 2006. The Windows version was released in 2006 and it was also made available for download to GameTap
subscribers on 31 May 2007. In 2009, Eidos announced Tomb Raider Legend sold 4.5 million copies making the game the most commercially successful game since Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
. A version for the PlayStation 3
is included in The Tomb Raider Trilogy collection released in March 2011.
travelling with her mother, Amelia Croft. The private jet carrying them catches fire and crashes into the Himalayas
, apparently leaving them as the only two survivors. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery, Lara discovers an ornate stone dais
holding a sword while searching for firewood. She then activates the ancient artefact by touching the giant stones surrounding the artefact. Very soon after, her mother comes into the room as a giant circle is rising from the floor. When Amelia hears something in the light emitting from the circle, she suddenly gasps and pulls out the sword. The dais explodes and Lara watches in horror as her mother vanishes before her eyes.
Years after the plane crash, Lara, now an adult, travels to the cliffs of Bolivia
after one of her friends, Anaya Imanu, mentions a stone dais located in the ruins of Tiwanaku
, a pre-Incan civilisation. After climbing the cliffs, following a twisting rocky path, encountering a jaguar, and almost getting run over by a boulder, she runs into a group of mercenaries who are under orders to attack her at sight. After disposing of them, she proceeds to a temple encountering more mercenaries and dangerous native wildlife along the way. On the other side of the temple, she sees the dais mentioned in the call from Anaya and finds James Rutland, a rich American socialite and self-proclaimed adventurer. Rutland, holding an unusual sword fragment, mentions Amanda Evert, a friend of Lara's who supposedly died years before in an excavation that turned into a tragedy. He then orders his mercenaries to kill Lara. She overcomes them and reaches the dais, confirming that it was the same as the Himalayan one.
Lara then returns to her mansion. She then asks her friend and computer specialist, Zip to find out where Rutland will be going next. She plans to confront him later, and hopefully get a hold of that familiar sword fragment.
Lara meets Anaya in a village in Peru
, and after yet another battle with Rutland's mercenaries, and a quite exciting motorcycle chase, they reach the tomb in Paraíso, where the tragedy befell them years ago. A flashback sequence shows Lara on an archaeological excavation with her university colleagues, where she and Amanda witness an unknown demonic entity kill the rest of the team. Lara and Amanda run from the unknown monstrous being before being trapped in a large room. The monster gets in and is just about to kill Lara when Amanda pulls a glowing stone, later known as the Wraith Stone from the wall, causing the creature to disappear into it. However, the room then starts to flood, causing several gates to close at the same time and when they try to escape, Amanda's shoe becomes trapped under a pile of rubble. Even though Lara reaches out to keep one of the gates from closing, she still watches desperately as Amanda is being buried alive from the falling cave. Lara still holds on to the door until she runs out of air, swimming away impotently after her failure to save Amanda from her death.
Back in the present, Lara goes down into the caves of the excavation site, the site that contains the tomb of the Queen of Tiwanaku
and discovers the artefact she is seeking may be linked to Excalibur
– part of the King Arthur legends
– and that Amanda may have survived the cave-in and is looking for the sword, which reportedly had been broken into four fragments that are now spread across the globe. Lara, now realising what she is looking for, recalls that one piece is in the 'care' of Yakuza
boss Shogo Takamoto, who had it stolen from Waseda University
. Lara escapes the excavation site, and finds that the surface of the site is raving with mercenaries. she successfully kills them, and then travels back home to plan a trip to Japan
.
When Lara arrives in Japan
, she meets her friend in the Japanese media, Toru Nishimura at a party he is hosting. Lara plans to meet Takamoto to negotiate for his sword fragment. When Lara comes out of Nishimura's office, she finds the party guests scrambling to the elevator, and Takamoto's heavily tattooed Yakuza henchmen gesturing for them to go upstairs. Lara starts talking to Takamoto. Takamoto refuses to negotiate, claims he has no idea what she is talking about, and orders his goons to kill Lara. Lara disposes of the goons and chases Takamoto across the rooftops of Tokyo
all the way to the roof of his penthouse apartment. Takamoto uses the power of the fragment to attack Lara but she kills him and recovers it. Lara is then picked up in a helicopter by Nishimura, who says Zip has found Rutland, deep in the Ghana
rain forest.
Lara proceeds to Ghana
and follows a path to a temple site her parents worked on before she was born, where she finds Rutland again, who is also in possession of a sword fragment. She follows him into an ancient temple hidden behind a waterfall. Halfway through the temple, Lara finds a locket
. She remembers that her father had bought a new one for her mother because of a locket
she lost. This must be the one that she had lost! When she reaches Rutland, he mentions an artefact called the Ghalali Key, believing that Lara's father found it and it is now in Lara's possession. Lara appears to have no knowledge of the key and this frustrates him. Rutland then attacks her using his sword fragment but Lara subdues him and grabs the second fragment. She then receives news from Zip and Alister that Amanda raided Croft Manor looking for the Ghalali Key only moments ago; that explains why she was unable to reach them during her climb. She offers to return to the Manor to see if they are alright, but they persuade her to try and beat Amanda to an abandoned lab in Kazakhstan
, the apparent location of the third fragment.
When Lara parachutes into Kazakhstan
, she finds soldiers struggling against Rutland's men. After she helps them, two soldiers tell her that their command centre has maps that might help her get to the lab. When Lara get's there, she finds satellite maps that show a train runs past the lab. Lara hurries to the train station, only to find the train leaving, with Amanda's mercenaries aboard. She jumps on a motorcycle, prepared to follow the train. She succeeds, but the train catches fire and explodes in the lab, making her the only survivor. But Amanda was already safe inside. After she has turned on the power from the lab's generator room, she discovers that Rutland's men have taken over the Soviet Union
laboratory where experiments on a sword fragment were conducted by the KGB
fifty years ago. But the experiment turned into tragedy with an unknown cause. Lara catches up with Amanda, who is still bitter about being left to die in Paraíso. Lara goes after her and finds her conducting experiments on the third sword fragment. Amanda is also using the glowing stone she pulled out of the wall in Paraíso to control the unknown entity that attacked them. Lara avoids the entity since it cannot be defeated yet, while she recovers the third sword fragment, and an eleventh century knight's shield which will supposedly lead her to the next sword fragment.
Following a map on the back of the shield (supposedly Lancelot
's) also found in the Soviet lab, Lara's search brings her home to Great Britain
. She discovers the real King Arthur
's tomb hidden under a tacky and now-derelict King Arthur tourist attraction in Cornwall
, along with the final sword fragment. Inside the tomb, Lara discovers that after Arthur's death, four of his knights – Lancelot
, Percival
, Galahad
and Bors
– took fragments of the sword to locations around the world (inspiring the myth of the Grail Quest
), while the final fragment was left with Arthur by Bedivere
in the hope of resurrecting the Once and Future King. After slaying a sea serpent
that lives in the underground sub-terrainian lake surrounding the tomb, and a group of mercenaries that have followed her, Lara returns to her home, Croft Manor to figure out how to put the four sword fragments back together.
Lara realizes that the Ghalali Key was in fact a pendant given by her father to her mother to replace the locket
that she had lost in Ghana. And her mother had it with her when their plane crashed in the Himalayas. Lara returns to the crash site in Nepal
to find the Ghalali Key. After traversing high ledges to reach the ruins of the plane, she finds the key in the wreckage, then narrowly escapes as the plane topples over the edge of a cliff. Lara then proceeds, emotionally shaken, to the temple she and her mother found after the crash. She runs into Rutland's mercenaries, quickly defeats them and enters the temple, using the Ghalali Key to restore Excalibur back to its complete form. She hesitatingly tries to reactivate the dais but it merely collapses when she places the sword in the stone. Knowing where she must now go, Lara escapes the temple as it begins to collapse and departs.
Lara returns to the stone dais in Bolivia, where Amanda, Rutland and their mercenaries await. Lara uses Excalibur to kill the mercenaries and inadvertently kills Rutland as well. Amanda rushes over to him, and he dies in her arms. Lara apologises and tries to patch up the rift with Amanda, suggesting they use the sword together. Amanda angrily refuses and releases the entity again, this time merging with it to become more powerful. With the power of Excalibur, Lara defeats the Amanda-Hybrid creature, destroys the entity, and separates it from Amanda. Lara uses Excalibur on the dais to reopen the portal and discovers what happened to her mother. Lara realizes that the portal spans time and she is seeing her mother moments before she disappears. Amanda gets up and shouts at Lara to pull out the sword or the dais will explode. Lara's mother hears this through the portal, pulls out the sword, and the dais explodes. Amanda berates Lara for her actions: however, Lara is unconcerned, furious at the realisation that Amanda was responsible for the apparent causality loop
that claimed Lara's mother. Lara fires a hail of bullets around Amanda and places her gun to Amanda's head, threatening to kill her if she doesn't explain. Amanda states that Lara's mother isn't dead, but in Avalon
, the mythical resting place of King Arthur, where Amanda herself wanted to go. She hisses that she is wasting her breath, that Lara will never understand. Lara spares Amanda's life, but settles for knocking Amanda out with her pistol, snarling that "From this moment, your every breath is a gift from me". The game ends as Lara, determined to find answers, tells Zip and Alister they still have much work ahead of them.
See also: Tomb Raider: Underworld
or Tomb Raider: Anniversary .
, on the Nintendo GameCube, Eidos announced their decision to port Tomb Raider: Legend to that platform, marking Lara Croft's first appearance on a home Nintendo console. Legend was also the first game in the series available on a Microsoft
console: Xbox
(and later the Xbox 360
).
with Microsoft's Quality Assurance
team. When the mistake was discovered, the QA department told Eidos they would need to resubmit the game for re-testing from scratch. Due to time restrictions, and the expense of a new QA test, Eidos chose to release the Xbox version without the intro movie.
PlayStation Portable players have received some exclusive extras. While the textures and polygon count were significantly reduced to run on the portable, some new gameplay modes were introduced: the Tomb Trials, three multiplayer modes and six additional outfits that were not available in any other version of Legend. The Tomb Trials put the player against a series of traps and acrobatics to be dealt with before the assigned time is over, based on locations of the regular levels. Note: on the last level, "Bolivia Redux", the "Natla Industries" crates are not present, and you cannot destroy the statues scattered around the level.
The Nintendo GameCube version has had a couple of cuts; the rolling demos that would normally play if the game was left inactive while in the title screen have been removed, and the Unfortunate Mishaps video is also missing. The game runs at a slightly smoother framerate than the PlayStation 2 version, and it also loads faster. But at some specific points there are some noticeable frame rate drops (such as in the train chase, in Kazakhstan). The many filters used for explosions and motion blur are also gone, rendering the game with sharper textures but less remarkable explosions.
The Nintendo DS and GBA versions were also released on 14 November 2006. Despite following the same storyline and featuring all the levels and key moments from the bigger counterparts, the game is a sidescroller on the GBA. The levels have been broken down into several smaller segments, and feature a lot more platforming than the original versions. The progression of the storyline is told via comic-strips during key moments. The rewards are also present and they unlock minigames.
The PC and Xbox 360 version includes exclusive "next generation effects", which can be toggled on the PC version. When the next gen effects are off, the game is visually identical to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of the game. In the PC version, players can save their progress anywhere but loading a game will take the player back to the last checkpoint.
The mobile version presents a compressed version of the story, featuring only three levels (Tokyo, Ghana and England) based on the original levels from the console versions, and has a far more limited gameplay style. It features, however, three gameplay modes: Corridor Combat, Room Combat and Platform Exploration.
, as well as on Jampack Vol. 14. A PC demo was released on 31 March 2006 and an Xbox 360 demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace
on 5 April 2006. A downloadable demo was available for the Nintendo DS
via the DS Download Station
for a short time.
declared "It's now safe to return to the game you once loved. Crystal Dynamics successfully resurrects an old franchise from the tomb." GameSpot
said that Legend "finally brings the series into the 21st Century while staying true to the adventurous spirit of the early games." They stressed the game should have been longer and therefore referred to it as a "brief but fun adventure that just about anyone can enjoy." GameZone
awarded it an 8.5/10, and noted that gameplay had improved, saying "Lara is a dream to control and her moves come off as more natural and more acrobatic." They included that the game could have been longer and the combat system improved, and rounded off their review by saying "It’s good to see Lara back in top form and while her adventure is a bit on the short side and combat could have been handled a lot better, it’s hard to say no to a pretty girl that still has what it takes to show us a really good time. Fans of the series will certainly not want to miss this one."
Upon release, Tomb Raider: Legend topped the UK game charts for 3 straight weeks and it is now part of the PlayStation 2 Platinum Range.
' in-house composer Troels
to finalize the composing process. Over three hours of raw material resulted, becoming four and a half hours of in-game music via the microscoring process, including looping cues and individual accompaniments to cinematic scenes. All material is produced using software and Folmann's personal soundbanks.
All levels in the game were scored individually. When Folmann began composing the soundtrack much time was spent investigating the native sounds and instruments of the different locations' environments and cultures. He wanted to have a specific musical timbre for every level, so he had to understand the musical influences of each individual part of the game. During the Tokyo
level the player will hear roaring Taiko drums
and the Japanese shakuhachi
flute, while playing in Bolivia
pan flute
s are prominent, and Ghana
presents a variety of African percussions. Use of Nepal
ese instruments in the first Tomb Raider film
's soundtrack by Graeme Revell
also influenced Folmann's music for the Nepal level
All the cinematics are scored with a symphonic orchestra in a more classical fashion; however, instead of recreating the atmosphere of a real orchestra, Troels employs the use of echoes for the orchestral sounds applied to his rendered software instruments.
Legend's title track starts off with the iconic Tomb Raider motif composed by Nathan McCree
in 1996, played on an ancient middle-eastern ethnic flute known as the duduk
. McCree's motif is incorporated frequently throughout the soundtrack. Following is a Celtic female voice, full choir and orchestra and a variety of different percussions. The main theme female voice sings a Scottish Gaelic traditional folk song named Ailein duinn
, mostly known by Capercaillie's
lead singer interpretation for the Rob Roy
movie.
In 2006, Troels Folmann was awarded a BAFTA in the category 'Best original Score' as well as the GANG award, 'Music of the Year' for his work on Tomb Raider: Legend.
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
franchise. Published by Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
, this is the first game in the series not to be handled by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based Core Design
Core Design
Core Design was a British video game studio best known today for creating the popular Tomb Raider series.-History:Based in the city of Derby, England, Core Design was set up in 1988 by Chris Shrigley, Andy Green, Rob Toone, Terry Lloyd, Simon Phipps, Dave Pridmore, Jeremy Heath-Smith and Greg Holmes...
, developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
instead by British-owned U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
studio Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris...
.
The PS2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
versions were released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on 7 April 2006 and in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on 11 April 2006. The North American PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
version was released on 20 June 2006, the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
and Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
versions were released during November 2006 and the Mobile
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
version was released in December 2006. The Windows version was released in 2006 and it was also made available for download to GameTap
GameTap
GameTap is an American online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System . Dubbed by TBS as a "first of its kind broadband gaming network", the service provides users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content...
subscribers on 31 May 2007. In 2009, Eidos announced Tomb Raider Legend sold 4.5 million copies making the game the most commercially successful game since Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is the fourth video game in the Tomb Raider series. It was developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released on PC, PlayStation and eventually to the Sega Dreamcast with exclusive graphical and sound enhancements...
. A version for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
is included in The Tomb Raider Trilogy collection released in March 2011.
Story
The plot opens with a flashback sequence showing nine-year-old Lara CroftLara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
travelling with her mother, Amelia Croft. The private jet carrying them catches fire and crashes into the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, apparently leaving them as the only two survivors. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery, Lara discovers an ornate stone dais
Dais
Dais is any raised platform located either in or outside of a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary....
holding a sword while searching for firewood. She then activates the ancient artefact by touching the giant stones surrounding the artefact. Very soon after, her mother comes into the room as a giant circle is rising from the floor. When Amelia hears something in the light emitting from the circle, she suddenly gasps and pulls out the sword. The dais explodes and Lara watches in horror as her mother vanishes before her eyes.
Years after the plane crash, Lara, now an adult, travels to the cliffs of Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
after one of her friends, Anaya Imanu, mentions a stone dais located in the ruins of Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...
, a pre-Incan civilisation. After climbing the cliffs, following a twisting rocky path, encountering a jaguar, and almost getting run over by a boulder, she runs into a group of mercenaries who are under orders to attack her at sight. After disposing of them, she proceeds to a temple encountering more mercenaries and dangerous native wildlife along the way. On the other side of the temple, she sees the dais mentioned in the call from Anaya and finds James Rutland, a rich American socialite and self-proclaimed adventurer. Rutland, holding an unusual sword fragment, mentions Amanda Evert, a friend of Lara's who supposedly died years before in an excavation that turned into a tragedy. He then orders his mercenaries to kill Lara. She overcomes them and reaches the dais, confirming that it was the same as the Himalayan one.
Lara then returns to her mansion. She then asks her friend and computer specialist, Zip to find out where Rutland will be going next. She plans to confront him later, and hopefully get a hold of that familiar sword fragment.
Lara meets Anaya in a village in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and after yet another battle with Rutland's mercenaries, and a quite exciting motorcycle chase, they reach the tomb in Paraíso, where the tragedy befell them years ago. A flashback sequence shows Lara on an archaeological excavation with her university colleagues, where she and Amanda witness an unknown demonic entity kill the rest of the team. Lara and Amanda run from the unknown monstrous being before being trapped in a large room. The monster gets in and is just about to kill Lara when Amanda pulls a glowing stone, later known as the Wraith Stone from the wall, causing the creature to disappear into it. However, the room then starts to flood, causing several gates to close at the same time and when they try to escape, Amanda's shoe becomes trapped under a pile of rubble. Even though Lara reaches out to keep one of the gates from closing, she still watches desperately as Amanda is being buried alive from the falling cave. Lara still holds on to the door until she runs out of air, swimming away impotently after her failure to save Amanda from her death.
Back in the present, Lara goes down into the caves of the excavation site, the site that contains the tomb of the Queen of Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...
and discovers the artefact she is seeking may be linked to Excalibur
Excalibur
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...
– part of the King Arthur legends
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and its legendary kings, particularly King Arthur...
– and that Amanda may have survived the cave-in and is looking for the sword, which reportedly had been broken into four fragments that are now spread across the globe. Lara, now realising what she is looking for, recalls that one piece is in the 'care' of Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
boss Shogo Takamoto, who had it stolen from Waseda University
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...
. Lara escapes the excavation site, and finds that the surface of the site is raving with mercenaries. she successfully kills them, and then travels back home to plan a trip to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
When Lara arrives in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, she meets her friend in the Japanese media, Toru Nishimura at a party he is hosting. Lara plans to meet Takamoto to negotiate for his sword fragment. When Lara comes out of Nishimura's office, she finds the party guests scrambling to the elevator, and Takamoto's heavily tattooed Yakuza henchmen gesturing for them to go upstairs. Lara starts talking to Takamoto. Takamoto refuses to negotiate, claims he has no idea what she is talking about, and orders his goons to kill Lara. Lara disposes of the goons and chases Takamoto across the rooftops of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
all the way to the roof of his penthouse apartment. Takamoto uses the power of the fragment to attack Lara but she kills him and recovers it. Lara is then picked up in a helicopter by Nishimura, who says Zip has found Rutland, deep in the Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
rain forest.
Lara proceeds to Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and follows a path to a temple site her parents worked on before she was born, where she finds Rutland again, who is also in possession of a sword fragment. She follows him into an ancient temple hidden behind a waterfall. Halfway through the temple, Lara finds a locket
Locket
A locket is a pendant that opens to reveal a space used for storing a photograph or other small item such as a curl of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as Valentine's Day and occasions such as Christenings, weddings and, most noticeably during the Victorian Age,...
. She remembers that her father had bought a new one for her mother because of a locket
Locket
A locket is a pendant that opens to reveal a space used for storing a photograph or other small item such as a curl of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as Valentine's Day and occasions such as Christenings, weddings and, most noticeably during the Victorian Age,...
she lost. This must be the one that she had lost! When she reaches Rutland, he mentions an artefact called the Ghalali Key, believing that Lara's father found it and it is now in Lara's possession. Lara appears to have no knowledge of the key and this frustrates him. Rutland then attacks her using his sword fragment but Lara subdues him and grabs the second fragment. She then receives news from Zip and Alister that Amanda raided Croft Manor looking for the Ghalali Key only moments ago; that explains why she was unable to reach them during her climb. She offers to return to the Manor to see if they are alright, but they persuade her to try and beat Amanda to an abandoned lab in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, the apparent location of the third fragment.
When Lara parachutes into Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, she finds soldiers struggling against Rutland's men. After she helps them, two soldiers tell her that their command centre has maps that might help her get to the lab. When Lara get's there, she finds satellite maps that show a train runs past the lab. Lara hurries to the train station, only to find the train leaving, with Amanda's mercenaries aboard. She jumps on a motorcycle, prepared to follow the train. She succeeds, but the train catches fire and explodes in the lab, making her the only survivor. But Amanda was already safe inside. After she has turned on the power from the lab's generator room, she discovers that Rutland's men have taken over the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
laboratory where experiments on a sword fragment were conducted by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
fifty years ago. But the experiment turned into tragedy with an unknown cause. Lara catches up with Amanda, who is still bitter about being left to die in Paraíso. Lara goes after her and finds her conducting experiments on the third sword fragment. Amanda is also using the glowing stone she pulled out of the wall in Paraíso to control the unknown entity that attacked them. Lara avoids the entity since it cannot be defeated yet, while she recovers the third sword fragment, and an eleventh century knight's shield which will supposedly lead her to the next sword fragment.
Following a map on the back of the shield (supposedly Lancelot
Lancelot
Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
's) also found in the Soviet lab, Lara's search brings her home to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. She discovers the real King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's tomb hidden under a tacky and now-derelict King Arthur tourist attraction in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, along with the final sword fragment. Inside the tomb, Lara discovers that after Arthur's death, four of his knights – Lancelot
Lancelot
Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
, Percival
Percival
Percival or Perceval is one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. In Welsh literature his story is allotted to the historical Peredur...
, Galahad
Galahad
Sir Galahad |Round Table]] and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. Emerging quite late in the medieval Arthurian tradition, he is perhaps the knightly...
and Bors
Bors
Bors circa 540s-580s, is the name of two knights in the Arthurian legend, one the father and one the son. Bors the Elder is the King of Gaunnes or Gaul during the early period of King Arthur's reign, and is the brother of King Ban of Benoic. Gaunnes is the Fredemundian dynastic kingdom of Neustria...
– took fragments of the sword to locations around the world (inspiring the myth of the Grail Quest
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
), while the final fragment was left with Arthur by Bedivere
Bedivere
In Arthurian legend, Sir Bedivere is the Knight of the Round Table who returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. He serves as King Arthur's marshal and is frequently associated with Sir Kay...
in the hope of resurrecting the Once and Future King. After slaying a sea serpent
Sea serpent
A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today. Cryptozoologist Bruce Champagne identified more than 1,200 purported sea serpent sightings...
that lives in the underground sub-terrainian lake surrounding the tomb, and a group of mercenaries that have followed her, Lara returns to her home, Croft Manor to figure out how to put the four sword fragments back together.
Lara realizes that the Ghalali Key was in fact a pendant given by her father to her mother to replace the locket
Locket
A locket is a pendant that opens to reveal a space used for storing a photograph or other small item such as a curl of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as Valentine's Day and occasions such as Christenings, weddings and, most noticeably during the Victorian Age,...
that she had lost in Ghana. And her mother had it with her when their plane crashed in the Himalayas. Lara returns to the crash site in Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
to find the Ghalali Key. After traversing high ledges to reach the ruins of the plane, she finds the key in the wreckage, then narrowly escapes as the plane topples over the edge of a cliff. Lara then proceeds, emotionally shaken, to the temple she and her mother found after the crash. She runs into Rutland's mercenaries, quickly defeats them and enters the temple, using the Ghalali Key to restore Excalibur back to its complete form. She hesitatingly tries to reactivate the dais but it merely collapses when she places the sword in the stone. Knowing where she must now go, Lara escapes the temple as it begins to collapse and departs.
Lara returns to the stone dais in Bolivia, where Amanda, Rutland and their mercenaries await. Lara uses Excalibur to kill the mercenaries and inadvertently kills Rutland as well. Amanda rushes over to him, and he dies in her arms. Lara apologises and tries to patch up the rift with Amanda, suggesting they use the sword together. Amanda angrily refuses and releases the entity again, this time merging with it to become more powerful. With the power of Excalibur, Lara defeats the Amanda-Hybrid creature, destroys the entity, and separates it from Amanda. Lara uses Excalibur on the dais to reopen the portal and discovers what happened to her mother. Lara realizes that the portal spans time and she is seeing her mother moments before she disappears. Amanda gets up and shouts at Lara to pull out the sword or the dais will explode. Lara's mother hears this through the portal, pulls out the sword, and the dais explodes. Amanda berates Lara for her actions: however, Lara is unconcerned, furious at the realisation that Amanda was responsible for the apparent causality loop
Predestination paradox
A predestination paradox is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveller is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" or "predates" them to travel back in time...
that claimed Lara's mother. Lara fires a hail of bullets around Amanda and places her gun to Amanda's head, threatening to kill her if she doesn't explain. Amanda states that Lara's mother isn't dead, but in Avalon
Avalon
Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged and later where Arthur was...
, the mythical resting place of King Arthur, where Amanda herself wanted to go. She hisses that she is wasting her breath, that Lara will never understand. Lara spares Amanda's life, but settles for knocking Amanda out with her pistol, snarling that "From this moment, your every breath is a gift from me". The game ends as Lara, determined to find answers, tells Zip and Alister they still have much work ahead of them.
See also: Tomb Raider: Underworld
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Tomb Raider: Underworld is the eighth instalment of the Tomb Raider series. The story continues from the events in Tomb Raider: Legend as a direct sequel, but also addresses unexplained plot elements by association with Tomb Raider: Anniversary; the 2007 remake of the original Tomb Raider...
or Tomb Raider: Anniversary .
Locations
The locations of Lara's seventh adventure are in order of play:- TiwanakuTiwanakuTiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...
, BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
– A pre-Incan civilization, currently in ruins. Lara arrives after her colleague Anaya Imanu mentions a stone daisDaisDais is any raised platform located either in or outside of a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary....
similar to the one that made her mother disappear. Lara climbs through rocky ledges and ruins to find the dais, then meets James Rutland, who hints at knowing one of Lara's old friends, supposedly dead for years. - Paraíso, PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
– Lara meets Anaya in the town square of the small town, but they soon find themselves under fire by Rutland's mercenaries. After the attack, she takes a motorbike to the old ruins near Paraíso, where years ago, an unknown creature ambushed Lara's amateur archaeological expedition and killed most of her university colleagues. She returns to find out if the woman Rutland mentioned, Amanda Evert, survived the slaughter. - TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
– A piece of the sword, stolen from Waseda UniversityWaseda University, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...
, is in the hands of a YakuzaYakuza, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
boss and Lara travels to Tokyo to acquire it. She arrives at a corporate party hosted by her friend in the Japanese Media, then traverses the rooftops of Tokyo to get to the Yazuka boss's penthouse. Lara then discovers that the boss, Shogo Takamoto, can use the fragment to obtain supernatural powers, so she kills Takamoto and takes the fragment from him. - GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
– James Rutland is discovered to be on the trail of another sword fragment, in Ghana, near an archaeological site that Lara's father and mother worked on before Lara was born. Lara follows Rutland and discovers a temple hidden behind a large waterfall. She finds a locketLocketA locket is a pendant that opens to reveal a space used for storing a photograph or other small item such as a curl of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as Valentine's Day and occasions such as Christenings, weddings and, most noticeably during the Victorian Age,...
that her mother lost on the expedition. She then confronts Rutland, but spares his life, keeping the sword fragment. - Abandoned Soviet Lab, KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
– Lara's search brings her to an abandoned secret KGBKGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
testing facility where experiments with the sword fragment led to disaster. This level features another motorbike chase sequence, with Lara racing alongside a train, and ultimately jumping on to it. The train stops at the facility, where Lara discovers Amanda to be alive and well, and keeping the unknown entity that attacked the Paraíso expedition as her own pet. - CornwallCornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
– Lara investigates an abandoned tacky King Arthur tourist attraction and unearths the catacombs beneath it which is home to an enormous sea serpentSea serpentA sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today. Cryptozoologist Bruce Champagne identified more than 1,200 purported sea serpent sightings...
and possibly the tomb of the real King Arthur. - HimalayasHimalayasThe Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
– The artefact that can re-forge Excalibur lies in the plane wreck Lara and her mother survived. Lara scales the snowy Himalayan heights and revisits the crumbling Buddhist monastery where her mother disappeared. - BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
Redux – The final confrontation takes place between Lara and Amanda, and the truth is revealed about Amelia Croft's "death". - Croft Manor (training level), EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
– Croft Manor contains a number of puzzles in the form of hidden passageways, lyrical codes and concealed switches. This level can be played at any time for as long as the player wishes – however the first level, Bolivia, must be completed to unlock the doors of the manor.
Versions
Following the success of another third-party game, Lego Star Wars: The Video GameLEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game is a video game based on the Star Wars themed toy line by the Lego Group and the first game in TT Games' Lego videogame franchise. It takes place during the prequel trilogy , with a bonus segment from A New Hope...
, on the Nintendo GameCube, Eidos announced their decision to port Tomb Raider: Legend to that platform, marking Lara Croft's first appearance on a home Nintendo console. Legend was also the first game in the series available on a Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
console: Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
(and later the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
).
Differences between versions
The original Xbox version does not include the introduction movie with the opening titles. The manager of the Xbox development team forgot to include the intro video on the final build disc when sending it off for the final game testingGame testing
Game testing, a subset of game development, is a software testing process for quality control of video games. The primary function of game testing is the discovery and documentation of software defects...
with Microsoft's Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...
team. When the mistake was discovered, the QA department told Eidos they would need to resubmit the game for re-testing from scratch. Due to time restrictions, and the expense of a new QA test, Eidos chose to release the Xbox version without the intro movie.
PlayStation Portable players have received some exclusive extras. While the textures and polygon count were significantly reduced to run on the portable, some new gameplay modes were introduced: the Tomb Trials, three multiplayer modes and six additional outfits that were not available in any other version of Legend. The Tomb Trials put the player against a series of traps and acrobatics to be dealt with before the assigned time is over, based on locations of the regular levels. Note: on the last level, "Bolivia Redux", the "Natla Industries" crates are not present, and you cannot destroy the statues scattered around the level.
The Nintendo GameCube version has had a couple of cuts; the rolling demos that would normally play if the game was left inactive while in the title screen have been removed, and the Unfortunate Mishaps video is also missing. The game runs at a slightly smoother framerate than the PlayStation 2 version, and it also loads faster. But at some specific points there are some noticeable frame rate drops (such as in the train chase, in Kazakhstan). The many filters used for explosions and motion blur are also gone, rendering the game with sharper textures but less remarkable explosions.
The Nintendo DS and GBA versions were also released on 14 November 2006. Despite following the same storyline and featuring all the levels and key moments from the bigger counterparts, the game is a sidescroller on the GBA. The levels have been broken down into several smaller segments, and feature a lot more platforming than the original versions. The progression of the storyline is told via comic-strips during key moments. The rewards are also present and they unlock minigames.
The PC and Xbox 360 version includes exclusive "next generation effects", which can be toggled on the PC version. When the next gen effects are off, the game is visually identical to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of the game. In the PC version, players can save their progress anywhere but loading a game will take the player back to the last checkpoint.
The mobile version presents a compressed version of the story, featuring only three levels (Tokyo, Ghana and England) based on the original levels from the console versions, and has a far more limited gameplay style. It features, however, three gameplay modes: Corridor Combat, Room Combat and Platform Exploration.
Demo
The PlayStation 2 demo was made available in some regions in the Official PlayStation MagazineOfficial PlayStation Magazine
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine is a now-defunct monthly video game magazine, published by Ziff Davis Media. It was a sister publication of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The magazine focused exclusively on PlayStation hardware, software, and culture, covering the original PlayStation, PlayStation...
, as well as on Jampack Vol. 14. A PC demo was released on 31 March 2006 and an Xbox 360 demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Live Marketplace
The Xbox Live Marketplace is a virtual market designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console that allows Xbox Live members to download purchased or promotional content...
on 5 April 2006. A downloadable demo was available for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
via the DS Download Station
DS Download Station
DS Download Station is an in-store demo service launched by Nintendo in early 2006. As the name implies, these are stations that can be used to download game demos and trailers to a Nintendo DS. The range of a Nintendo DS Download Station is approximately 65 feet...
for a short time.
Reception
Tomb Raider: Legend gave the series the strongest critical response it had received since Tomb Raider II in 1997, and it remains one of the highest-rated games in the history of the franchise. IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
declared "It's now safe to return to the game you once loved. Crystal Dynamics successfully resurrects an old franchise from the tomb." GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
said that Legend "finally brings the series into the 21st Century while staying true to the adventurous spirit of the early games." They stressed the game should have been longer and therefore referred to it as a "brief but fun adventure that just about anyone can enjoy." GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
awarded it an 8.5/10, and noted that gameplay had improved, saying "Lara is a dream to control and her moves come off as more natural and more acrobatic." They included that the game could have been longer and the combat system improved, and rounded off their review by saying "It’s good to see Lara back in top form and while her adventure is a bit on the short side and combat could have been handled a lot better, it’s hard to say no to a pretty girl that still has what it takes to show us a really good time. Fans of the series will certainly not want to miss this one."
Upon release, Tomb Raider: Legend topped the UK game charts for 3 straight weeks and it is now part of the PlayStation 2 Platinum Range.
Music
Legend has the longest score of the series. It took nine months for Crystal DynamicsCrystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris...
' in-house composer Troels
Troels Brun Folmann
Troels Brun Folmann is a composer specialized in epic orchestral music featured in TV-shows, trailers and video games, such as the Tomb Raider series, and commercial/trailers for films such as Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Illusionist, 10.000 BC, America's Got Talent 2009 and over 50...
to finalize the composing process. Over three hours of raw material resulted, becoming four and a half hours of in-game music via the microscoring process, including looping cues and individual accompaniments to cinematic scenes. All material is produced using software and Folmann's personal soundbanks.
All levels in the game were scored individually. When Folmann began composing the soundtrack much time was spent investigating the native sounds and instruments of the different locations' environments and cultures. He wanted to have a specific musical timbre for every level, so he had to understand the musical influences of each individual part of the game. During the Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
level the player will hear roaring Taiko drums
Taiko
means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
and the Japanese shakuhachi
Shakuhachi
The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
flute, while playing in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
pan flute
Pan flute
The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...
s are prominent, and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
presents a variety of African percussions. Use of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
ese instruments in the first Tomb Raider film
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 adventure thriller film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001. The film was a commercial success...
's soundtrack by Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell is a New Zealand film score composer.Revell attended Auckland Grammar School, where he finished his final year in 7A...
also influenced Folmann's music for the Nepal level
All the cinematics are scored with a symphonic orchestra in a more classical fashion; however, instead of recreating the atmosphere of a real orchestra, Troels employs the use of echoes for the orchestral sounds applied to his rendered software instruments.
Legend's title track starts off with the iconic Tomb Raider motif composed by Nathan McCree
Nathan McCree
Nathan McCree is a music composer and sound effects editor for multimedia projects including computer games, television, live events, and radio. He worked mainly with Core Design, for the first three Tomb Raider games, among others. He worked also with profile names such as the Spice Girls and...
in 1996, played on an ancient middle-eastern ethnic flute known as the duduk
Duduk
The duduk , traditionally known since antiquity as a Ծիրանափող is a traditional woodwind instrument indigenous to Armenia. Variations of it are popular in the Middle East and Central Asia...
. McCree's motif is incorporated frequently throughout the soundtrack. Following is a Celtic female voice, full choir and orchestra and a variety of different percussions. The main theme female voice sings a Scottish Gaelic traditional folk song named Ailein duinn
Ailein duinn
Ailein duinn is a traditional Scottish song for solo female voice, a lament that was written in Gàidhlig for Ailean Moireasdan by his fiancée, Annag Chaimbeul . In 1788, Ailean, a sailor, set off with his ship to Scalpay, Harris, where he and Annag would be married...
, mostly known by Capercaillie's
Capercaillie (band)
Capercaillie is a Scottish folk band, founded in the 1980s by Donald Shaw and fronted by Karen Matheson. They have seen four of their albums placed in the UK Albums Chart, and continue to perform and record to the present day.-History:...
lead singer interpretation for the Rob Roy
Rob Roy (film)
Rob Roy is a 1995 historical drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Liam Neeson stars as Robert Roy MacGregor, an 18th century Scottish historical figure who battles with feudal landowners in the Scottish Highlands. Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, and Jason Flemyng also star...
movie.
In 2006, Troels Folmann was awarded a BAFTA in the category 'Best original Score' as well as the GANG award, 'Music of the Year' for his work on Tomb Raider: Legend.
Soundtrack
7 tracks were released officially to the public in the Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Collector's Edition) Soundtrack. Besides this, the soundtrack to Tomb Raider: Legend is yet to have a commercial release due to licensing issues with Eidos over the ownership rights to the music . In 2010, several pieces of Folmann's music for Legend were recycled in the downloadable spin-off title Lara Croft and the Guardian of LightLara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a fixed-camera 3D platform viewpoint action video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix for the PC, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and the iOS as part of the Tomb Raider series for digital download...
External links
- Tomb Raider: Legend Official website