Tomb Raider Chronicles is the 5th in the series of games featuring Lara Croft. This one is the best yet with harder puzzles, cool weapons, and much better graphics, just to name a few of the improvements.
Installation:
The install for this game is quite elegant, to a point. It will launch natively in either a classic OS, or OS X, depending on what you are running at the time. It will allow full customization of the Install, and install classic and X versions of the game. However, one caveat remains, in OS X, the progress bar doesn't move. It installs everything just fine, you just can't tell how far into the install you are.
Usage:
The first big change in this installment of the Tomb Raider series is the updates in the graphics engine, and cut scene movies. While the graphics engine may just be updated from previous Tomb Raider games, the overall look and feel of the game is much more smooth and better looking. The developers have taken to detail with such things as when Lara exits the water after swimming, water drips off her body for a short time.
On top of the in game graphics, the cut scenes are beautiful. While some of the movies still use the old block style figures, many of the main movies were definitely made with a 3-D rendering engine (pre-rendered), which has made them look near real-life.
I was also impressed with the quality of the sounds. Of course there is the normal Tomb Raider style shooting, jumping, climbing, and music clips, but a whole new layer of sounds has been added to Tomb Raider Chronicles. If you listen closely, you may here birds chirping in the distance, oncoming obstacles, and various other ambient sounds. A great touch that puts you more into the game than ever before.
What would a Tomb Raider sequel be without new weapons and moves. Weapons have taken on different forms in this game. Besides just being used to kill enemies, you can combine them with other items, and sometimes use them as items themselves. New weapons include the revolvers, chloroform soaked cloth, a crowbar, and the HK. The HK can be used is three different modes, rapid fire (like a machine gun), burst fire (a couple quick shots), and sniper mode (with the built in laser sight. Other weapons like the crowbar and chloroform soaked cloth must be used with stealth tactics.
The revolvers can be combined with laser sights to lave laser sighted pistols, a very effective weapon. The laser sight goes with many other items which can be used throughout the game. These include the aforementioned crowbar, a pair of binoculars, and a grappling hook gun. Use these items along with other skills to make your way though the game.
But what about those great new moves. Lara has her normal assortment of moves, plus a set of new moves to get her through all sorts of situations. She must have been working out in the off season, because now she can climb ropes and poles, tightrope walk, swing the parallel bars, and use a super cool SCUBA suit. Learn how to use these moves effectively, as you will need them at many times thoughout the game.
Also new to the series is a heavy interaction with the environment around you. Lara will now climb shelves to search for helpful items, she can sometimes shoot boxes to reveal their contents, she open confidential drawers if needed, and pull metal rods from the wall to use as crowbars. If you don't search every nook and cranny, you'll surely miss something.
As with every other Tomb Raider game, puzzle solving takes alot of time, jumping, and sometimes mind bending activities. Most of the puzzles involve simple switch pulling, but some are quite in depth, and take some skills. These skills will only come to you as you play the game, as there is no house for Lara to practice in this time. It's too bad, because that was a great place to get acquainted with what Lara can accomplish, or get reacquainted with the controls if you have been away form the game for a long time. Even though the butler was annoying, I really did like Lara's house.
Problems:
There are a few problems in the OS X version that are outlined on the support website. However, a patch is supposed to come out soon to fix this.
Conclusion:
This game continues the series very well. An assortment of new items to use, moves to master, puzzles to decipher, and more make this a great game. If you are into puzzle solving, this game will keep you up for hours, trying to figure out what to do next.
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Pros: | Cons: |
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Great graphics
Awesome cut scenes
Cool new items & weapons
Hard to solve puzzles
Environmental 3D sounds
Sweet new aerobic moves
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A few glitches
May get boring to people sick of the same gameplay
No house to practice in
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Rating: 8 out of 10 Mac Faces.
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