Tomb Raider: Legend details

By Ellie Gibson Published 6 April, 2005

Lara returns with relatively normal-sized breasts, but tiniest t-shirt ever. Oh and a new game.

Ah, Lara - how we've missed her athletic exploring and ancient artefact-appropriating antics. But now Eidos has found time in its busy schedule of being taken over by SCi to reveal a few more details about her next adventure.

Tomb Raider: Legend is the latest in a series of games which can be individually summarised as Good, Nearly As Good, Too Hard, Quite Good, Dull and Rubbish. It's being developed by Crystal Dynamics, the people behind Legacy of Kain, and will be their first TR title.

"In setting the stage for the Tomb Raider franchise moving forward, we took ourselves back to Lara's origins, asked ourselves the hard questions and challenged ourselves to think differently," said Eidos bigwig Chip Blundell.

"Who is Lara Croft? What makes her tick? How is she relevant today? Only by answering these questions could we ensure that gamers get the experience they deserve." Let's just hope they also remembered to ask "Why was the last game so shonky?"

To make sure things go right this time, Crystal Dynamics set up "the biggest and most diverse development team in Tomb Raider history" and even got Toby Gard - Lara's Dad - on board as lead character designer.

"Even before the first title launched Lara Croft had to fight her way into the Tomb Raider franchise, since at the time most game characters were muscle-bound blokes," said Gard.

"The Lara Croft character is resilient and totally unstoppable. In Tomb Raider: Legend, we explore these core personality traits and reveal the Lara Croft gamers have been waiting to see." We know what you're thinking, now stop it.

Crystal is promising intricately animated expressions, moves and abilities, with a character model that features a natural structure and detailed facial features. All of this "makes her part of a living environment", apparently. You can find renders of Lara here.

For gameplay they've gone back to Lara's roots - exploration, puzzle-solving and general adventuring. And she's got a healthy selection of guns and gadgets to play with, including frag grenades, binoculars, communications equipment and a magnetic grappler - all designed to "allow gamers to experience tomb raiding as never before."

Tomb Raider: Legend will appear on PS2, PC and Xbox. No release date yet, but Eidos is promising to reveal more details on the game's official website from April 12.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Blerk #1 7 years ago

    Sod all that bilge, just deliver us a decent game like the first one!

    What happened to the previously announced Xbox 2 version?

  • drumbaby #2 7 years ago

    I hope that Crystal Dynamics are all playing and studying God of War EXTREMELY intently.

  • ChrisOTR #3 7 years ago

    Should read in my opinion:

    "Tomb Raider: Legend is the latest in a series of games which can be individually summarised as Excellent, Nearly As Good, Too Hard, Quite Good, Dull and Rubbish."

    After all, when it came out, the first one was absolutely legendary.
    Edited by ChrisOTR at 06/04/05 @ 13:04

  • El_MUERkO #4 7 years ago

    I was crap at tomb raider 1 so I've not played any of them since :p

  • markypants #5 7 years ago

    I want to wrong the new Lara up the meat pipe...

    Is that bad?

  • Blerk #6 7 years ago

    When released, everyone agreed the second one was much better.

    Yes, they did. And they were totally, utterly and completely wrong.

  • daveo #7 7 years ago

    The Lara Croft character is resilient and totally unstoppable
    I have stopped her on a regular basis by throwing her off cliffs, drowning her , getting her cut in half by swords, run down by tube trains.......

  • drumbaby #8 7 years ago

    "Yes, they did. And they were totally, utterly and completely wrong."

    Mais non!

    :)

  • Frogger #9 7 years ago

    I think I already read this article a few days ago...

  • Ranger101 #10 7 years ago

    Hence the addition of the 'details' tag.

  • joephish #11 7 years ago

    Damn, she must have to shave to get into those "shorts".

  • Machiavel #12 7 years ago

    Second one got really good from about halfway through for me - wasn't wowed by the real-life locations but loved the monastery and onwards. Loved the start of the third one too, sense of exploration and all that, until it all got tedious at Area51 and such.

    But the first was remarkable - tombs, locations (the trek behind one of those doors in King Midas' level), surprises - definitely my favourite.

  • Feanor #13 7 years ago

    I heard a rumour that there will be a Limited Edition version of TR: Legend which will include a graphically updated version of the original Tomb Raider on a bonus disc. Granted, I heard that rumour after inventing it myself, but wouldn't that be a great idea to boost sales? I know at least Blerk and me would buy it. :)

  • jellyhead #14 7 years ago

    I loved the first Tomb Raider and the second one, then it all went downhill.
    So i'd buy that Special Edition if they did it.

  • Blerk #15 7 years ago

    Hmm.... if true (and if the new game was also good) they might just rope me in on that one. Only if the new game was worth buying, though. And only if it's a very cheap LE.

  • Kami #16 7 years ago

    I liked Tomb Raider, TRII not so much but it wasn't bad. TRIII was appalling, The Last Revelation very nice, then Chronicles and Angel of Darkness just entirely nuked the series.

    And I'm with Daveo on this one... the only enjoyment I ever got from Angel of Darkness was killing Lara in ever more stupid ways. Mind you, TRII had the whole "Exploding Lara cheat" thing...

  • Feanor #17 7 years ago

    "I liked Tomb Raider, TRII not so much but it wasn't bad. TRIII was appalling, The Last Revelation very nice"

    Wow, I thought TR 3 was great, except for when I got hoplessly stuck on Aldwych, but that was my own stupid fault. But the way you had to backtrack thru multiple levels, often with little idea where you should be going, in the The Last Revelation drove me crazy.

  • bionutz #18 7 years ago

    IMO 2nd and 3rd were the best. First one was a bit illogical sometimes, plus the graphics were many many times confusing.

  • jumpdeveraux #19 7 years ago

    Rather than Legend, might I suggest Tomb Raider: Flogging A Dead Horse ... which on reflection might be more fun to play than some of the previous attempts in the series ... if they can model the horse properly.

  • Abscido #20 7 years ago

    "I heard a rumour that there will be a Limited Edition version of TR: Legend which will include a graphically updated version of the original Tomb Raider on a bonus disc. Granted, I heard that rumour after inventing it myself"

    Ha! Brilliant :).

  • Blerk #21 7 years ago

    because the exterior/underwater sections of TR2 were marvellous?

    The ship was excellent. Venice was cack.

  • jellyhead #22 7 years ago

    "I can picture the level designers cackling maniacally as they though that one up, hehe."
    Level designers, heh, do you think they'll ever use them again in a Tomb Raider game?

    / wonders wistfully.

  • Artemus #23 7 years ago

    TRII is my favourite of the series. TR3 was one of the hardest games I've ever played and 4 was actually alright if overly familiar. Never bought Chronicles and then had my hopes almost completely destroyed after that. There was one decent section in AOD and that was the bit where you climb up that massive cavern and er that was about it. I hope this will finally be a return to form.

  • Scimarad #24 7 years ago

    " I hope that Crystal Dynamics are all playing and studying God of War EXTREMELY intently."

    Yes, especially all the breast-related bits :-)

  • siro #25 7 years ago

    I somehow missed the TR2-greatness-Train back then. Though I liked the odd level, I would prefer the exploring of the first one anytime.

  • Nikanoru #26 7 years ago

    TR3 wasn't hard. It was one, big, fat, frustrating memorisathon. Once you'd learned the path by heart through hair-ripping trial and error it'd be a walk in the park.

    Also, TR7 is not on Gamecube because of the bad reputation of the TR franchise these days, they need all the gigantic mainstream userbase they can get if they want to sell any at all.

    That said, I'm very much looking forward to this game, especially looking at that last screen with the snowy cave Terence just posted...
    Edited by Nikanoru at 08/04/05 @ 12:01