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Tomb Raider (PC)

Reviewed by: soundtech Gold Global Trader (11) Has Written 91 Reviews
Reviewed on: 17-Apr-2006

Description

In Tomb Raider you play Lara Croft, a girl who loves searching for ancient artifacts, and in this game, the first of many more to come, she travels from the jungles of Peru to the Great Pyramid, and many locations in between.

Lara sets off to find a thing called the Scion, and it is rumored to be lost with the destroyed city of Atlantis. She is hired by Natilia, a rich business woman, to find this Scion, but before the adventure is over with, Natilia ends up turning on Lara Croft, and tries to use the device for her own evil plans.

Tomb Raider is an action/adventure game in which you will be doing allot of swimming, climbing, jumping, and shooting a wide range of creatures. You will be using the keyboard for everything in this game, from movement to firing your weapon. The directional arrows will be used to move Lara, and CTRL, ALT, and the Space bar will also be used very often. CTRL is used to fire the selected weapon, grab onto ledges, and pick up items, ALT will be used to jump and swimming maneuvers, and the Space bar will be used to draw/put away your weapon. The ESC key is used to bring up the "rotary" menu, which is used for selecting weapons, other objects, and game options that can be adjusted. One option on this menu is to go to the main menu, which is where you can save and load the game.

The controls can be very tricky sometimes, and I admit when I first played Tomb Raider many years ago, I got frustrated with the controls, and seemed to constantly fall or miss things. But when I played it this time, I seemed to do much better, and I think that is due to being more used to the controls, and taking my time. So my advice for anyone having a problem with the controls, is to take your time, and have patience. Once you master them, then it will be a very enjoyable game, with many interesting locales to explore.

The graphics in Tomb Raider are dated, and are NOT anything like what is out there now. But, if you keep in mind when this game first appeared, than you should understand that at that time this was about as good as it got !!! As I mentioned in the summary, there are many locations to explore, and each one had their own unique appearance.

There was an option on the main menu that helped considerably with the learning curve. It is called Lara's Mansion, and it was basically a training course set-up in her home. You could go to it anytime during the game, and it did not effect anything you were doing during the game. She guides you through everything you need to know in order to play the game, from moving, jumping, grabbing ledges, and anything else that is important.

This is the second time I have played this game, so I consider the replay value to be significant. I think one of the main reasons that you are drawn to play Tomb Raider again, is the secret areas. Many times when you do find such an area, you are rewarded with extra goodies, such as med-kits, or much needed ammo. There is a Strategy Guide for this game, that I am currently trying to obtain, and it will point out every secret location, and how to get to them. Once I get this guide, than I will probably play Tomb Raider yet again, and find ALL the secret areas.

There was really not much in the way of sound with this game. There are some movie cut-scenes in between certain locations, and that is when you hear Lara's voice most often. There are couple of other times during the game that you hear her voice, but mostly during gameplay it is weapon sounds, or ambient environment sounds, such as jungle noises or water sound effects. There is NOT any background music, and many times during the game it can be very quiet.

In conclusion, I would say that you need to get to know Lara Croft !!!!!
If you are a male, I am sure you will quickly see why so many boys have been secretly lusting over this computer generated babe !!!!!!!!! LOL !!!

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