The Post-Game: Tomb Raider Legend

Tomb Raider Legend is a story-driven platformer that is fun to play, but a near-game-breaking bug and some awkward mechanics belittle the overall positive experience.

The story is decent, if a little disconnected. Lara is searching for an artifact that killed her mother years ago. A great excuse to send Lara to a variety of diverse locations, from a sleepy South American town to the frozen mountains of Nepal. Zip and Alistair provide some snarky commentary as she proceeds through the levels – some of it almost breaking the fourth wall. It helps keep the proceedings light-hearted and fun, even if what is happening is quite serious. Lara herself is keen, quick-witted, whip-smart, and always ready with a snappy come-back. TR: Legend was actress Keeley Hawes first time voicing Lara, and she does an absolutely fantastic job.

The platforming is well-executed and slick, with timed movements (move quickly before the platforms collapse) and required momentum (remember to HOLD the spacebar to jump in some places, or Lara won't jump far enough). Gun-play just feels odd; lock on to a target, use the arrow or WASD keys to switch the lockon from target to target. While doing this, Lara can run, jump and dodge. There is a free-aim mode, but once engaged Lara cannot move at all, so the lockon mode will be the one used most often. I rebound the keys to what I wanted, so there is that. There are no waypoints; not really an issue in a game this linear. The climbing puzzles are generally well done; remember to use Lara's binoculars first to scan an area for hints before trying to solve a puzzle. Some bosses can only be defeated with the help of the environment, so if a boss seems like it is taking no damage, start looking around for switches and levers (and things to grapple). Nothing is handed to you in this game, though once you figure out a puzzle or boss, it will be solved or defeated in a matter of seconds.

Now for the issues, and there are more of them than there should be. Lock-on would sometimes result in strange camera movements, and the camera doesn't immediately auto-rotate to the forward direction when riding a motorbike. The platforming direction controls aren't always intuitive. A similar issue plagues the QTEs; the onscreen arrows don't always indicate the correct direction, resulting in multiple fails until finding the right button-press. Disable Next Generation Content in the graphics settings; TR: Legend looks better with it, but this will eliminate nearly all crashes. And there is the near-game-breaking bug in the Nepal temple level. A cutscene, then Lara needs to run to a door, hit it (I won't say with what, because spoilers), the door will open, triggering another cutscene and a platforming section. But hitting the door doesn't always make it open, meaning progression through the game is blocked. Just keep re-loading a save until the game works the way it is supposed to (it took me seven tries the last time I played it). Ridiculous, but there it is.

The saving grace through all of this is Lara Croft herself. Unlike more recent versions of Lara, this one has no lack of confidence. You never hear Lara telling herself, “I can do this.” She already knows she can, and can worry about other things. I still highly recommend Tomb Raider: Legend despite the game's issues, because there is nothing truly game breaking, and this remains one of my favorite “older” versions of Lara. If story-driven platforming and puzzling is your preference, or you just want more Lara Croft, absolutely get this one.

At First Glance - Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

I pre-ordered AC Chronicles: China. It has apparently been a part of the AC Unity Season Pass for a while, but hasn't really gotten much attention. Now being released as a stand-alone title on XBox, Playstation and PC, we have the answer to a question nobody but Ubisoft was asking: can a 2.5D platformer function and feel like an Assassin's Creed game?

After playing the opening mission (about 30 minutes of gameplay), the answer is a resounding YES. There is no illusion of an open world so far - the game feels very linear. That may be its advantage, though: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate tried a larger, choose-your-own-direction style of platforming, and the in-game map was a mess on congested levels. But Chronicles: China has plenty of interactive environment elements and stealth opportunities, married to a great neglected-but-not-forgotten protagonist; add in a unique visual style and setting, and the game feels like a bona-fide Assassin's Creed game.

Definitely playing this one through to the end. I'm hoping for about 4-5 hours of gameplay (more would be better, of course), since AC Chronicles: China is the first game in a three-part series. The protagonist, Shao-Jun, was first encountered in the short film Assassin's Creed: Embers. If you Need MOAR Assassin's Creed, give Embers a watch. Fair warning, though: possible spoilers for Ezio Auditore games (Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations).

Anyway, back to Shao-Jun and Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China.

Some thoughts:
+ Great job on the game's visual style. The design team eschewed absolute visual realism in favor of  a brush-stroke look inspired by ancient Chinese art. At first glance the decision was a great one. The colors a little muted, with a lot of earth-tones. Hopefully there will be a fair amount of variety as the game progresses.

+ Combat feels smooth, fluid and deadly (though you won't use it often - stealth is encouraged).

+ Shao-Jun does not have much to say (at least in the early levels), but her voice actress (is it still Angela Galuppo? Hard to confirm) really hits the "smooth, mysterious, deadly" notes very well.

+ The game is very light on system resources, making this one an easy purchase for those who want more Assassin's Creed, but don't really have the gaming rigs to run Rogue or Unity.

+ The in-game Codex entries, though brief, continue to provide the dramatic and historical backgrounds that have always enhanced the Assassin's Creed experience.

+ Customizeable difficulty levels. Usually Ubisoft presents one level of difficulty and says "have at it." Bonus points for realizing that not everyone finds their standard easy (or hard).

- Some awkward controls. Specifically, press and hold W to raise a gate, release W, gate starts closing, run (direction key + Shift) towards the lowering gate, somehow hold the direction key + Shift and hit the Ctrl key to slide under the closing gate. I regularly run out of fingers. If you get quick at transitioning from the Sprint combo to the Ctrl key, it becomes pretty effortless, but practice is required. And the keys cannot be rebound, so we're stuck with the default key bindings.

- Graphics are great, but there are jaggies everywhere. Unfortunately, there is no option in the graphics settings to set the Anti-aliasing. The jagged edges were even appearing on the button-prompts in-game. It is easy to fix; I just opened the Catalyst Control Center and created a custom graphics profile for the game. But the game would have looked so much more impressive on the first start if every edge had not had saw-teeth.

At first glance, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a fun, more casual game than the massive open world experiences offered by other Assassin's Creed games. The unique lore, characters, and gameplay inspire me with great anticipation for the next two parts of the series: Chronicles India and Chronicles Russia (finally get to play as Nikolai Orelov!).

It's great to see you again, Shao-Jun. I hope it is not the last time.