"I'm falling in love all over again."
That's one of the early clips of dialogue from Tomb Raider: Legend, and a piece of foreshadowing based on what's about to happen to the player. Resurrecting the franchise from utter disasters and slapped together yearly sequels, Legend is the game Tomb Raider wanted to be and should have been all along. You will be falling in love, even before the first level is over.
The leap in quality from the miserable Angel of Darkness to this is an astonishing achievement, and proof that no franchise should be denied a second chance. Gone are the clunky, grid-based controls that prevented any type of natural movement. Lara Croft now moves like a human, and combined with smooth controls, this new engine is a masterpiece. The simple act of moving her around the widely varied environments is enjoyable. The only thing missing would be generous leaping controls since it's not always possible to see where Lara will be jumping.
While many of the trademarked Tomb Raider concepts are here, from moving boxes to hit a switch to shimmying across walls, Lara's new piece of equipment is a magnetic hook, and its game play benefits are enormous. This long piece of rope can do nearly anything, from propelling the player over a pit, grabbing an out-of-reach object, pulling switches, or various other life saving maneuvers.
It also adds an extra layer to the puzzle solving. Each level usually revolves around a giant test of ingenuity and logic skills. The solutions are not obvious, but never buried deeply enough that the player isn't without everything they need right in front of them. There is no running back and forth to grab a missed key card or code to open a locked door.
In fact, all of this adventuring is handled so adeptly, it's a shame there's any combat at all. The targeting system is awful, making every encounter sap precious ammo because the player is unable to aim anywhere but where the game tells them too. The few massive boss battles become aggravating because of this. One of the end level encounters becomes a puzzle though, and that ends up being one of the numerous highlights. It's how each battle should have ended up.
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