Tomb Raider Chronicles Reviewed

Tomb Raider Chronicles (ps)
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Core Design LTD
Release Date: 11 / 14 / 2000
Reviewed by: Chris Canfield

Longtime gamers remember Tomb Raider for a few things: blocky levels, millions of switches, and that feeling of being really, really lost. In their latest and last playstation resurrection of the series, Eidos addresses many of the gamers' complaints. While far from perfect, Tomb Raider Chronicles offers up a varied 20+ hours of mostly switch-free game play.

Chronicles shines in many areas. The first thing that most people will notice is that Chronicles looks and sounds extremely good. After three or four revisions to the game engine one would expect a nicely immersive environment, and Eidos delivers. While the ambiance in Chronicles would benefit greatly from more music, the segways that are present really heighten the mood.

The good graphical engine used in Chronicles is complimented by good characterizations and a nice variety in levels. Every two or three hours, when you have completed three more areas, you are taken to another time in Lara's life, with another set of missions, another set of objectives, and different dangers. This variety is a welcome change of pace for a Tomb Raider game, hardly ever slipping into that feeling of "been there, done that" for which the series is known. One scene Lara is avoiding a crane arm on a nuclear submarine, the next she is a little girl swinging over gaping chasms on a deserted island. And while Chronicles lacks an overarching plot, the variety of game play situations this type of narrative allows as well as good short storytelling and characterizations will more than keep any jaded gamer's attention span.

Unfortunately despite all the polishing Eidos has put into Chronicles, it's luster is greatly tarnished by a few extremely frustrating problems. For one, the camera seems to love Lara's high-res, mit-mapped face. This can be quite troublesome when you are trying to see a jump in front of you. Anytime she faces away from a wall, or walks into a tight corridor, expect to keep tapping the camera button to see anything. After so many years, they should have it right. Furthermore, the player's control over the character is truly terribly. Thanks to some overly precise controls, she can turn slowly, jump only at designated steps, etc. This worked perfectly in the old Tomb Raiders, which were all about careful jumping. But Chronicles is more about action, and her tremendous turning radius combined with her extremely slow sidestepping make the experience feel like driving a school bus.

But the most frustrating part of the game is how difficult it is to interact with objects. The player is guaranteed to lose many hours to the manhole they have to crawl down or the handle they have to yank off which won't respond to repeated button presses. Thinking that it is just background detail the player will move on. At this point the player will either spend hours wandering aimlessly, will consult the strategy guide, or will abandon the game altogether. This one flaw takes a huge bite out of any overall enjoyment of the game that one might derive. Knowing full well that I had to steal a coin from an underwater demon, and having plenty of time to swim to it, it still took nearly ten tries to actually be able to pick it up. If I didn't know that was the objective, I would have dismissed it as background and moved on. In this day and age, such a glaring mistake is unforgivable.

Despite its flaws, Tomb Raider Chronicles manages to be an overall fun, if frustrating, experience. Hopefully the next generation of systems will give Eidos the power to do something truly unique with Lara, and solve all of the control issues [Editor's note: it didn't]. In the interim, Chronicles is the best Tomb Raider has to offer, and by now you should know what that means.