I had high hopes for Lara’s latest adventure. Eidos and Crystal Dynamics promised the latest graphics and the latest in gameplay to bring Lara Croft’s adventures bang up to date in 2006, considering the huge disappointment that was the lacklustre and frankly buggy as hell previous game.

At least Eidos and Crystal Dynamics can pat themselves on the back for making the bang up to date graphically with the option of something called the Next Generation features option. On any card which ranks as a Nvidia 7800GT and above the game will be playable with the next generation features. Anything less and the best you can hope for is an 800×600 experience with all the pretty features on, and resolution that makes it look a bit wishy washy.

Even without the Next Generation features, the game does look rather decent, however, decent is about as far as I would go. Intially the graphics will impress, but on closer inspection you’ll notice that the game simply looks like a souped up version of the original Lara titles.

Sure, the pixellation has gone, everything looks and is smmoth as silk, but in all that time is this as far as gaming has come? Fancy graphics aside what has the game to offer? Well the first level offers itself as a tutorial of sorts, and it’s rather easy, which is very much a given.

Later levels improve but the puzzle element that made the first game so enchanting is simplified beyond belief for this sequel-cum-prequel. In terms of story, the game drifts back and forth between Lara’s present and her past, and you get to play her in various guises to that effect, in different parts ofthe world.

My biggest gripe is that the game has barely moved on. Now you have a grappling hook, and a lock on button during combat, plus she can throw grenades and get involved in other rather simple shenaningans.

The vehicular elements of the game are simply atrocious as to be disturbing. I can’t fathom why such levels were put in, perhaps to break up the monotony of what becomes all too familiar, but even so they offer nothing that can be considered interesting nor entertaining. To be honest, Legened doesn’t seem to far advanced from Angel of Darkness, and the repertoire of moves for Lara have been reduced to those from the original game. Sure she has a new grappling hook, but this is so limited in its use that’s simply a pointless exercise.

If you’re looking for a game that will offer something new and refreshing then Tomb Raider Legend is certainly not that game. It’s not the leap frog everyone was expecting, nor is it the reinvention that was required. Tomb Raider has not moved on, the game graphically may be rather plush, but graphics are only part of a game.

I would expected something more from the creators of the excellent Legacy of Kain titles, but so little innovation and originality is offered in this title that it’s certainly not worth 8gb’s of your hdd space nor is it worth £49.99 of your hard earned cash. Sorry Lara, but looks alone won’t cut it in today’s saturated games market.

Verdict: Lara is a has been, and this game does little change that fact. A tired platformer