Review-LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER LEGEND PSP

[martok2112]

VIDEOGAME: LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER- LEGEND
DEVELOPER: CRYSTAL DYNAMICS
PUBLISHER: EIDOS
SYSTEMS: PLAYSTATION PORTABLE
RATING: T (Teen for Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence)
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 (or 2 via Ad Hoc WiFi mode)

Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Control: 4.5/5
Story: 5/5
Endorphin Factor: 4.5/5
Frustration Factor: 4/5

Scoring system:
Average: 4.7/5

GAMES IT COULD BE COMPARED TO: PS2 version of LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER -LEGEND

DETAILS: Lovely Lady Lara Croft has made appearances on portable platforms before. Game Boy Color (which kinda limits her adventures to 2D sidescrolling action), and even the Nokia N-Gage, which supposedly did a good job of somewhat recreating the Playstation One experience of playing the first Tomb Raider game from the 90's.

Throw 'em all away. Lara has finally arrived in true form on a portable system, and that system is the powerful Playstation Portable. Although the graphics are diminished on this port as compared to the PS2 version, they are only SLIGHTLY diminished. Lara and her environments and enemies look GREAT on this little system that can. The reason I gave the graphics full marks on this is because if you've never played the console versions before, you would be simply blown away at how gorgeous the graphics are on the PSP.

And like in the other console versions, have Lara take a dip...her clothes look wet for a short time, and her skin glistens. It's simply beautiful.
Of course, unlike the PS2 version, you don't see water dripping off her when she comes out of the water..but that's forgivable. It's the same with the Xbox 360 version.

Sound is perfect...and you oughtta hear it through the special "sound rocker" seat that I bought a week ago. Turn up the subwoofer, and BOOM!

Control is pretty intuitive, and actually, if you've played the console version, you will have little to no trouble adapting to the PSP's control scheme, which (despite only having one analog stick) still makes the best use of the available buttons. The camera is pretty good too, and you can correct it to behind your character with a touch of the L button...or you can free look with a combination of holding down the Square button, and moving the analog stick.

Even a lot of her special maneuvers I was able to easily adapt to. Hell, I guessed how to do a swan dive without even requiring instruction from the onscreen prompts. Same with her aerial assault maneuvers. That's just how intuitive the controls are.

I've only played a small portion of this game, but I've played enough to know that this is a damn near-perfect port of an awesome console title.

The reason I've said that the frustration factor is not so bad is because I've played the console version to completion before, so I pretty much know what to expect. Your actual mileage may vary depending on your own past experiences with Tomb Raider Legend on other consoles.

Also for the first time on ANY version of the Tomb Raider series, there is a multiplayer mode. Two players can go head to head in three different game modes, but I have yet to try them out to see how they work. And since it is Ad Hoc, that means I'll have to find another local player with a copy of this game to play in the same room. No Infrastructure (Online) mode was programmed. But still, this is a FIRST for the Tomb Raider series, and I am impressed that it was implemented on a portable system as opposed to a console. I think it lends itself to this platform.

BOTTOM LINE: If you've played the console versions of Tomb Raider Legend, there really isn't a pressing need to play or own this version, unless you simply wish to see just how powerful the Playstation Portable really is, or if, like myself, you like your Lara Croft fix on the go as well. If that's the case, then you cannot go wrong with the portable version of this powerhouse title.