| Tomb Raider Chronicles Lara Croft, the girl we all know from Tomb Raider, is back in business with the fifth instalment of the much celebrated Tomb Raider series. The fifth instalment you say?! Yes, TR has been aging for quite a few years and its history has had some disappointing bumps: after TRII, Eidos went out of ideas and made the third and fourth TR-games, which, sadly enough, had the potential but which wasn't used at its full capacity; this is why the instalments lost the actual raiding feel of the original Tomb Raider... Anyhow, what's done lies in the past now, but can TR Chronicles live up to great expectations; expectations the previous TR's missed? Can it surpass its predecessors?? Frankly, it can! At first I wasn't excited by the fact of another Tomb Raider, what more could this game offer than say TR IV?? Well, let's see... As many probably recall, at the end of TR: The Last Revelation, good Lara was stuck in a tomb, unable to get out and after some time everybody assumed the big boobed heroine had died, this is where the story sets in... A couple of old, old, very old guys with fake accents come together in Lara's Mansion to hold a memorial in honor of Miss Croft, which they do by recalling all kinds of stories nobody ever heared with the famous Lara playing the lead. This is probably an excuse not to write a decent storyline and a good chance to link episodes together which have no connections with one another whatsoever. But enough about that, what about the gameplay? The gameplay is similar too that of other games in the series, except that Croft has a few new moves up her sleeve such as the abilty to walk on ropes and such, there is also more interactivity with the surroundings allowing the player to search cabinets and closets giving a more realistic feel to the game. Despite the graphics being not so fine as TRIII and IV, everything is well detailed and the game is now packed with all sorts of cool puzzles to solve, adding to the explorer feel of putting the pieces together. Also the music is really nice: when you enter a room or place wich holds something dangerous, an exciting tune suddenly emerges out of nowhere and the camera view changes to give tension to the player at hand, excellent!! Also, gameplay varies form chapter to chapter, as for example in one level while playing as the sixteen-year-old Lara, you have to survive by using her mobility to jump over many obstacles and evade enemies instead of going into a fight with many arms in one of the action-packed levels where it's just kill and move on... Although there aren't too many levels, the constant variaton of gaming styles and a slight difficulty attached to the different chapters give the game a thrill to play and you'll be hooked on the game like a wolf to a sheep. The puzzles and continuous fighting may get frustrating at times, but everything you do is rewarding in the end and getting past that one annoying puzzle in that one annoying level will give great satisfaction... Tomb Raider Chronicles is a beauty and proves that Eidos can still work its magic on Tomb Raider. Start raiding this game as soon as possible, it's well worth it! Rikki Van Gas 9.4 Out-dated concept, but the series just keep getting better |