Product Description
-------------------
Lara Croft returns once again in the fourth installment of the
popular Tomb Raider series. The newest effort brings Internet
pinup Lara back to the Egyptian tombs that she roamed in the
series opener (the now classic Tomb Raider). Our heroine must
seek out Horus, an Egyptian god that has the ability to capture
the evil soul Set. With a combination of puzzle solving and sharp
gaming skills, Lara will navigate through numerous Egyptian
locations, including Cairo, Karnak, Giza, Valley of the Kings,
and Alexandria.
This game promises to unveil vital background information on
Lara Croft, who has emerged as an Internet cult icon since the
release of the original Tomb Raider in the mid-'90s. At one point
in the game, you will flash back to Lara at age 16 to see the
origin of her adventurous spirit that precedes her full-fledged
career as a tomb raider.
While gameplay remains faithful to the preceding titles in the
series, there are also several new gameplay elements to explore,
including a new inventory system, new weapons, and new moves.
.com
----
The ubiquitous Lara Croft is back. After multiple appearances on
the PlayStation, the aging icon is back to face her "last
revelation" before moving on to the PlayStation2. This
installment has everything that earlier Tomb Raider games had:
physical puzzles, a sufficient arsenal, and lots of exploration,
but this time in Egypt.
Lara returns with her old slate of moves plus a few new ones.
She can climb, crawl, dangle, swing from ropes, and leap.
Revolvers, crossbows, and Uzis are Lara's weapons of choice, and
she can combine these with ammo she picks up along the way. Lara
also will take control of speedy vehicles for some sweat-
wrenching chases through the desert.
The story reveals Lara's roots as a young protégé of Professor
Werner Von Croy. A training level puts players in the role of a
pigtailed child Croft, getting newcomers accustomed to the
controls, after which Lara regains her distinctly grown-up form.
While Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation doesn't do much that's
new, the old formula works well, although the pace still might be
a little too slow for action fans. --Robb Guido
Pros:
* Rich desert graphics
* A nice mix of action, adventure, and puzzle solving Cons:*
Maybe you've played a game like this before
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Review
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They say the third time's a charm in most cases. With each of
the first three Tomb Raider episodes, released one year after
another, there were incremental improvements (some would call
them innovations) added to entice gamers to come back. But who's
kidding who? The reason most gamers came back, aside from a
secret, archaeological desire to spelunk, was to lead buxom Lara
through a never-ending series of catacombs and labyrinths. That's
not to detract from the often near-genius level design, displayed
in abundance in the seminal "part two." Unfortunately, Eidos is
all too well aware of its greatest asset, but now that we've
progressed beyond the difficult part one, the deviously designed
part two, and the
more-of-the-same-but-look-at-Lara's-two-new-moves part three,
what exactly is there to bring us back to the unofficial part
four, The Last Revelation? At the start, things look rather grim.
Via an aggravatingly mandatory tutorial, offered by Professor
Werner Von Croy, you must navigate an adolescent jailbait Lara
through a series of condescendingly trite exercises designed to
introduce you to the controls. Core seems to assume there will be
a bunch of gamers who have never touched a Tomb Raider game
before, as you cannot skip past this seemingly endless ritual
that will have experienced Tomb Raiders dribbling on the action
button. At least in past games, Lara's gymnasium offered a
secluded space to try out the controls at your convenience. Not
so, here. At one point in the opening, which also sets the
storyline, Von Croy challenges you to a race, half-designed to
show you he's not the old fart you think he is, and also to set
into practice your "newly learned" moves in an actual gaming
environment. Unfortunately, Von Croy isn't hampered by the leaden
control, crappy camera angles, and pixilated graphics that you
must contend with. Thankfully, this "race" is merely an excuse to
get you to the next cutscene, in which Von Croy introduces Lara
not to the ways of Indiana Jones, but of Pitfall Harry! Yes, in
Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation, Lara can now swing from ropes!
In your first encounter with a rope situation, the game's faults
immediately reveal themselves. Upon reaching said rope, Lara must
jump to it, pump a few times for momentum's sake, then vault
across to the site platform. While most gamers have at some
point taken the rope-swinging plunge in one 2D platform game or
another, doing the deed in 3D is an altogether different story.
From the very first moment she tries a rope swing she is impeded
by a sideways camera angle, which doesn't let you see the edge of
the platform, let alone the rope; the funky problem of trying to
align herself with the rope, which results in an off-angle
plummet into the pool below; and a lag from when you press the
jump button to when Lara actually jumps. All these problems come
to light within the first, frustrating hour after turning the
game on. After a short CG sequence that sets in motion the reason
for being here at all (this year's adventure is in Egypt!), it's
back to the future for Lara, and the actual start of the game
proper. While the game is actually better than the introduction
indicates, it's still not great. The worst part about this
particular adventure is that it feels as if you have done it all
before. Back in its day, Charlie's Angels was a pretty fun TV
show to watch, but after a while, even thirteen-year-old boys got
tired of watching Farrah Fawcett go through the same-old,
same-old motions. So too does Lara Croft and her tomb raiding
become an exercise of been-there, done-that. Although lengthy,
and designed to be more action-adventurey than mind-bendingly
clever, Last Revelation still puts you through your paces in a
series of find-the-chain-and-pull-it,
put-the-item-in-the-slot-and-open-the-door mechanics. There are
some devilish situations that will require clearheadedness and a
thoughtful mind, but in spite of the odd and oddly frustrating
rope-swinging sequences, anyone who has played any of the first
three episodes has played Last Revelation. The graphics are
grainy as hell, showing the age of the PlayStation and the Tomb
Raider game engine all in one go. But given the game's huge
environments, the frame rate problems and grainy textures are
forgivable. Usually up for debate is whether Lara's s have
been d, reduced, or whether her ass has more polygons for
a smoother, all-natural look. Quite honestly, who cares? As time
goes by, it becomes harder and harder to look at a 32-bit Lara.
More-powerful hardware awaits, and as a result, each new Tomb
Raider game ceases to amaze, despite its pixilated waterfalls and
neato lighting effects. The game's frame rate veers wildly from
acceptable (in closed corridors) to staggeringly bad (usually
when Lara comes out of said corridors into wide-open areas).
Coupled with the iffy frame rates are the occasionally obnoxious
camera angles, which, when combined with the pivot-and-then-go
gameplay, can cause much frustration in a game centered around
various platform elements. The most the game has to offer are
some unnaturally angular environments designed to alert the gamer
that "yes, you can go here," or "no, you cannot." While the
ambience certainly offers a realistic setting, the game can often
revert to that overwhelming feeling of solitude found in the
first Tomb Raider. While the opening moments of the game put a
torch-lighting lackey in your service, he is nothing more than an
AI drone designed to trudge onward as you tackle puzzles and pull
switches. For gamers who prefer a little more company in their
adventures, there is occasionally a scorpion or wolf that will
try to bite you.--James Mielke--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form
or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is
prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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