Tomb Raider 3 Review

Welcome to Dumpsville, Lara. Population: You.

First off, some added features of Tomb Raider 3: The levels are much

larger with huge areas to explore. Snakes and darts are able to poison Lara,

meaning she’ll continue to lose life until a medipack is used. Quicksand will

also suck Lara down to a watery grave if you don’t watch your step.

Lara

benefits from two new moves, crawling and dashing. These she can use to get

into tight places and to give her a speed-burst in combat. Lara also has a larger

arsenal that includes the trusty shotgun, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher,

the silly harpoons, an MP5, and Uzis, of course.

Now that the new stuff is out of the way, there’s really no other way to describe

Tomb Raider 3 other than to say it’s an inferior game in an otherwise

solid series. Although it looks and plays very similar to TR2, this newest

installment has lost all its soul. It offers very little in terms of innovation

or decent gameplay. I’ve tried to like it, forced myself to like it, but, for

all intents and purposes, 40 monkeys and a game developing kit could’ve done

a superior job.

The biggest problem in this game is that the designing team confused challenging

gameplay with irritating gameplay. Trust me, you’ve seen this game before in

a million inferior platformers. Lots o’ instant death? Check. Falling off ledges

and dying? Check. Trying to kill a boss while jumping around little islands

in a fire pit? Check, check, and double check. The latter is (so far) the most

pathetic example of game design.

True, the previous two titles had some of the same elements, but here’s how

they differ. Usually, instant death came about if you were trying to rush through

an area and you did something stupid. In TR3, every step is a potential

threat of instant death, no matter how careful you’re trying to be. Falling

off ledges in the previous two games usually meant you had to start the whole

climbing thing over again with little or no loss of health. This time around,

however, falling off a ledge means one of two things: 1) Death or 2) significant

loss of health.

After

playing through several levels of TR3, I got the feeling that I was fighting

the game every step of the way. Most of the creative energy in this rushed-out

game was put into new and interesting ways to die or get stuck. Unlike the previous

two, this time there are plenty of false paths intended to mislead. Although

this adds to the realism of the game, (archaelogists shouldn’t expect to follow

bright neon signs reading, “This way to treasure!”) this really just makes every

level an over-glorified maze.

In my book, implementing too many mazes in a game merely hides a weak game-designing

mind. Traditionally, the Tomb Raider series was never about this nonsense. You

knew more or less where to go and you could see where you wanted to go. The

puzzle was how to get there, which usually made for some very interesting gameplay.

You want more irritating gameplay? You got it.

The programmers have implemented new lighting and shading techniques which

make the graphics dazzling, but the gameplay crap. This game is dark, folks.

There’s about twice as much darkenss as in the first two installments, and the

flares last about half as long. Every single crucial item, switch, or path is

shaded so heavily Lara could literally stand right next to it and you won’t

see it unless you light a flare. Maybe Lara should invest in a flashlight.

Just for the record, hiding things in obscurity instead of putting in some

real creativity and effort in the game design is a big cop-out. Can you picture

yourself enduring heavy eye-strain, searching every inch of every level with

pathetically short-lived flares? If you can, you’ll be wearing Coke-bottle lenses

by the end of the third level. I guarantee it.

I’ve

never been a big fan of the camera in any of the Tomb Raiders, but this one’s

by far the worst. Obstructions between Lara and the camera happen way too frequently

and at inappropriate times. In one area, Lara has to outrun a boulder (in darkness,

of course) and jump over a pit of spikes at the bottom of the hill. Naturally,

the boulder is between Lara and the camera the whole time. And that ain’t even

the worst part. Not only does it select the absolute worst angle before a crucial

jump, but also bugs in the programming make it jerk and shiver so violently

you’ll be getting migraines well into the next century.

Tomb Raider 3 isn’t a game, it’s a marketing concept. Rather, it’s a

thousand and one reasons why you should shell out twenty more of your hard-earned

dollars on a strategy guide. I don’t condone the use of such cheating devices,

but this game is impossibly difficult without one. On top of that, add the Lara

action figures, the shirts, the breakfast cereal, and the upcoming movie. Wait,

didja hear that? That was the sound of all the Eidos fat cats laughing all the

way to the bank.

Amid all of the darkness (pun intended) surrounding Tomb Raider 3, there

are a few bright spots. Enemies either sneak up on Lara or are placed around

dark corners providing for some Resident Evil style jump-out-of-your-underwear

surprises. The levels look great when they are lit, and the textures are much-improved.

After successfully completing the first mission, you can now choose which area

Lara will explore next; London, Area 51, or the South Pacific. Choices are always

good.

But, if you need more proof that Tomb Raider 3 sucks, check out the

back of the CD box. “Lara Croft is our kind of action hero!” proclaims Rolling

Stone. Uhhh, what? Last time I checked, RS reviewed music, not games. Plus this

is the exact same comment that’s on the back of the Tomb Raider Greatest Hits

edition box. Fishing for praise anywhere you can find it, eh?

If you’re fiending for some more Lara, and I mean absolutely jonesin’… then

I guess you could pick this one up. For the other 99.9% of us, go play TR

or TR2 again or even for the first time. Or better yet, forget about

Lara Croft altogether. I know, I know, you’ll be moping around the house for

weeks humming “Hard Habit to Break” with visions of the buxom beauty in your

head.

Trust me, man, there’s plenty of other fish in the sea.