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GAME REVIEWED: Tomb Raider 3
RELEASED BY: Eidos Interactive
PRICE: £44.99
REVIEWED BY: A.K.
REVIEW: -
Lara Croft returns in her third and most daring adventure yet - Tomb Raider 3. This time round, the (even more) beautiful Lara has to search for four mysterious artifacts, which arrived on earth when a meteorite crashed into Antarctica millions of years ago. Lara has to find the four artifacts for Dr Willard and take them to him in Antarctica. We are given these updates by Cut-scenes and FMV's at the end of each level, the same as Tomb Raider 1 and 2, although the FMV's are much more realistic and movie-like. The FMV's in TR1 and TR2 were critised because they were a little too flat and 2D-like, but the core design team have found the answer to having realistic 3D FMV's. Well done Core!
In this game, Lara has three new moves which are: The monkey swing; Crawl, and the short sprint, as well as the usual jumping rolling and swimming. More additions to this outstanding game include Lara being able to drive, ride, and row vehicles to complete certain tasks such as getting from one side of a river to the other by riding a quad bike up a steep part of the terrain, enabling Lara to land safely on the other side, without getting eaten by the piranhas (also a new addition to the game!). Other new vehicles included are a Kayak, an underwater propulsion unit, a boat and even a minecart. New animals included are Bengal Tigers, Monkeys (which attack in packs and can steal your supplies and weapons, although some of them do help you - more of that later) Gibbons and King Cobra's. You even get to find more new weapons to kill your assailants, which include a harpoon gun, desert eagle, grenade launcher and rocket launcher, as well as the good old reliable pistols, shotgun etc etc.
Before you start the proper game, you again get to run around Lara's home to practice some of the new moves, and this time there is a hidden quad bike racetrack, but you will have to find the key to the gate first, or enter this cheat while playing (R2 L2 L2 L2 R2 L2 L2 L2 L2 L2 L2 R2 L2 L2 L2 L2 L2 R2 L2 L2)
The place where you start the game is in India, which is divided into four levels, which have to be completed before you can move on. Once you have completed all four levels, you then get to choose the next destination which you explore next. You have the choice of exploring London, Nevada, and a South Pacific Island, in any order. Once you have finally completed all the levels in these stages, when you actually think you have completed the game, you find out that there is one more huge area to visit, Antarctica, which requires a lot of exploration and killing of assailants, pretty much the same as the other levels, but who would ever get bored of guiding the beautiful Lara Croft around the world in search of these valuable objects.
A good tip for this game would be to not shoot every person or animal you come across, instead wait and see if they attack you first. I know it sounds stupid, but some people and animals will lead you to secrets, medipacks or even weapons. But if you do shoot at these allies, they will then attack you. This help show the great improvement of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the first two games when assailants just ran straight at you. They now also hide from Laras volley of lead, and shoot back as well, making the game much more of a challenge. This doesn't always happen, as its mainly in the London and Nevada levels, when the guards have laser guided guns, but its still a great improvement on the previous games.
When you start in India, in the Jungle, you'll discover a scientific base where the rock has driven a researcher mad, resulting in him killing his colleagues with his newly acquired telekinetic powers. In the FMV sequence after you've completed the area (four levels), Dr Willard explains the story of how and when the rocks were discovered and offers Lara the job of finding the three other artifacts and delivering them to him in Antarctica
To find the rock in London all you have to do is walk along a few rooftops and then descend into St Pauls cathedral then through the sewers and an underground network, where you can gain access to a skyscraper, which is home to an evil corporation, where you shoot all the bad guys and get the bit of rock. Easy! So you think, the London area is split into 5 levels, which all must be completed before you can get the rock, and move on to your next destination.
When you start in the area of Nevada, all you can see is sand, rocks, blue sky and vultures (which you have to kill). But it's not long before you have to find a way into the top secret military base, that most people know as Area 51, home of the near mythological crashed flying saucer. After you've guided Lara around the compound, you then have to take out some of the base's guards, who have hi-tech laser guided guns.
On the gorgeous and incredibly detailed island, known as the South Pacific Island, you start the first level with Lara in the water outside, with lots of sunshine and sand. You then progress through the dense undergrowth of the islands interior. As the Jungle becomes denser, things become murkier, and then a beautiful waterfall and a huge network of chambers is discovered.
In the Frozen wastes of Antarctica, after exploring a base camp, there is a gigantic deserted ice-breaking ship for you to discover, and pillage before setting off across the deadly ice flows and even deadlier icy water, to find Scott of the Antarctic's hut, and entrance to a lost city, home of the meteorite and where you have to defeat a spider-like creature with a humans head before you can complete the game.
For this game you can see the design team have put a lot of work into this game just to make it a winner. For example just take a look at St Pauls Cathedral. This time shapes were made from triangles rather than blocks to make the game more realistic, and it certainly has worked, even Lara looks more realistic than ever before. Every level has it's surprises to keep the players concentration fully on the game, but how could you drift off with a beautiful woman on the screen, surrounded by scenery with all its magnificent detail.
Overall, this is one of the best games that will ever be made for the Playstation. It is everything the first two games were, TR1 was puzzley, TR2 was shooty, TR3 is puzzley-shooty with numerous graphical enhancements, including multi-colored lighting, rippling water reflections, fog, changing weather effects and much much more. Even the levels on this game are a lot bigger than its predecessors to keep the player playing for hours on end. If you're a Tomb Raider virgin I'd suggest you play the previous games before you attempt this because if you don't it could take you about a year till you get anywhere near the end of the game.
Definantly the hardest and best Tomb Raider (so far anyway!). The Tomb Raider critics won't have much work at the moment, as the only thing wrong with this game is that it's a tad too hard for the beginner. Hi-res graphics (512 x 240) were used to make the game more realistic and easier to see things in the distance. One of the best games on the Playstation at the moment, and it probably will remain that way until the next Tomb Raider comes out. A must buy game. Absolutely brilliant.
SCORE:
96%
LINKS: www.virgin.com