The Tomb Raider franchise, created by Toby Gard and Core in 1996, gave gaming one of the most iconic female characters in Lara Croft. The franchise was an instant success both on the PlayStation and in popular culture. Many games were created and two films were made starring Angelina Jolie to huge commercial success. The videogame franchise which started strong became stagnant over the years with many games being critically panned and commercial failures. Eidos, currently who holds the license, decided a change was necessary and outsourced the Tomb Raider franchise to Crystal Dynamics, they debuted their vision on Lara Craft and the Tomb Raider franchise with Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006.
The Tomb Raider reboot was a critical and commercial success and they followed that release with Tomb Raider: Anniversary in 2007 and Tomb Raider Underworld in 2008. Crystal Dynamics was able to re-invigorate the series with a fresh new look; streamlined controls; and a deeper look at Lara Croft, her life, and her past. With another new refresh of the series coming later this year the three Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider games have been re-packaged, Legend and Anniversary given an HD paintjob in the process, and distributed as Tomb Raider Trilogy.
The trilogy is available as a single blu-ray disc exclusively on the PlayStation 3 and as mentioned has HD re-masters of Legend and Anniversary (originally designed for PS2 and Xbox). The trilogy also has Tomb Raider: Underworld which was released for current generation consoles and required no upgrade. The Tomb Raider Trilogy has a slick and serviceable front end for all the games and also features Trophy support added for Legend and Anniversary. Starting the disc results in a well done splash screen with an option to launch any of the three games, once a choice is made the game loads (very quickly) and you have a unified menu screen (in look and feel) for all the titles.
Tomb Raider: Legend
Launched as a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise in 2006, Tomb Raider: Legend is a terrific entry into the series by new developer Crystal Dynamics. The game features an established Lara Croft character investigating a site that holds the secret to her mother’s disappearance many years ago. This newly redefined Lara Croft is treated as more of a James Bond-style heroine. She has style, resources, athleticism to spare and a thrill seeking manner that is perfectly suited to the characters style. Over the course of the game Lara fights in an evening gown, races a train on a motorcycle, and traverses an arctic wasteland. The varied environments, outfits, and scenarios are more than appreciated and a way to add some appeal to a series that had stagnated for a while.
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