And Then There Are Your Legends

Part 2 of comparing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings to other games with similar concepts! Today, Tomb Raider: Legend! Prior to this, I'd never played any Tomb Raider games. For a long while, I didn't own the right consoles, and once I did, I didn't have much interest. Legend had pretty decent reviews, and it wasn't pricey by the time I bought, so I figured it couldn't hurt. If it was terrible it wouldn't be the first lousy game I regretted purchasing*.

It certainly wasn't terrible. It's actually a little surprising to me that the Indy games aren't better than they are, since Tomb Raider games could at least be used as a starting point. I know Indy's not quite as gun-happy as Lara Croft, but that's hardly insurmountable. Speaking of the shooting, it works better here than in either of the two games I mentioned yesterday. Lara's aim isn't perfect, but if I don't just hold the trigger down continuously (and if I'm within the gun's effective range) she hits often enough. Plus, I'm usually strafing since there's rarely only one enemy to be concerned about, which would naturally make accuracy more difficult. It can take a few shots to kill someone, but they're wearing body armor, so it makes more sense than when I pump 20 rounds into a Nazi in ordinary clothes and he's still standing. It helps Lara that her .45s never run out of ammo, but during the shooting sequences in Staff of Kings, Dr. Jones has an endless supply of revolver ammo, so it evens out.

Like Staff of Kings, there's a certain amount of interactivity with the surroundings possible during combat. With Staff of Kings, there was usually the whip icon to tell me I could pull something down, whereas Tomb Raider encourages me to shoot at something, usually so it'll blow up. In each case it isn't necessary to utilize those opportunities, but it can make it easier. Tomb Raider has some close combat fighting capabilities, but after the mission early in the game where they taught me that, I forgot until I accidentally kicked someone on the second to last mission. Considering the numbers set against me, I figured it was safer to just keep shooting and chucking grenades. The foes in Tomb Raider have no qualms about all trying to kill me at once, while with Staff of Kings I'd rarely have more than two enemies in close proximity at one time. Others would be in sight, but they'd hang back, perhaps because there was no room to step in. Until I put together the magic sword at the end, the straight up combat was my least favorite part of Tomb Raider: Legend. If I want to run about shooting people, I'll play Max Payne, you know?

Tomb Raider does have boss fights, but they aren't terribly complicated. It's the classic sort of boss battle: Observe the boss' attack style, strike when the opening is there, do whatever you're supposed to once he's stunned. The specifics change, but the general pattern remains the same.

Tomb Raider: Legend's puzzles were more fun, if also more tense, since they were more agility based. Most of the puzzles confronting Indy in Staff of Kings are simple shove this box over here, step on the switches in the proper order situations. There's a fair share of that in Legend, but there's also more swinging from place to place with magnetic grapple lines (or vines), and messing with counterweights, and there's usually a time limit. It was frustrating when I'd keep failing, but when I'd succeed, it felt cooler, more impressive than merely stepping on a switch.

Both games have quick reaction sequences. Indy's involve either tapping the shoulder buttons so he outruns whatever the danger is (bullets, falling statues, a boulder, because yes, they had to include a sequence where Indy flees a massive boulder), or hitting one button before the floor collapses beneath him. For the running stuff, it's always the same two buttons (L1 and R1 on a PS2), but the collapsing floor usually changes which button it is each time you go through. In Tomb Raider, there are certain sequences where Lara has to pull of a series of acrobatic moves to avoid death, each on triggered by a specific button, pressed at the moment indicated. The order's always the same, so unless you get it on the first try (which I rarely did), it's less about good reflexes, and more about memorization. Which is better is probably a personal preference. I know I got annoyed with Resident Evil 4 when it would change which buttons I needed to hit to dive out of the way of the boulder, but I'm old, and my reflexes are gone. If you have the fire of youth, you probably prefer it changes, if it even matters, because you may get it right the first try every time.

Perhaps because I'm less familiar with the Tomb Raider universe than that of Indiana Jones, I preferred the story in the former over the latter. Lara starts out artifact hunting, but has to start delving into her past, and eventually has to confront some painful history. Indy's story was to get the powerful artifact before the rival archeologist working with the Nazis does. Which is fine, there's an element of that (minus the Nazis) in Tomb Raider: Legend as well, but it does feel like a remix of past adventures. Indy is following the notes of an old mentor of his, and is supposed to be concerned for him, but it doesn't come across in the story. There's not much about what the older fellow meant to Indy or why, and they hardly interact, so it feels flat.

The voice acting doesn't really help, as Indiana rarely seems angry or worried, even when his rival has the upper hand. I can see him not being flustered, but he certainly could be angry. Lara is definitely angry at times, when she's not being regretful, reflective, or joshing around with her support staff. The support staff is actually very helpful to the characterization, since it gives her someone to talk to as the game goes along. We can see they care about her, and she cares about them, and it helps to reveal bits of her past and how she feels about them. There isn't any of that in Staff of Kings, probably because they figured we already know Indiana Jones, so they didn't need to provide insights or make us care. And it's true, they didn't need to, but it wouldn't have hurt.

* First Game I Regretted Owning Award goes to Kung-Fu Heroes on the NES. First Game I Regretted Purchasing Myself is probably Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge on the Game Gear. Or Bartman meets Radioactive Man, also on the Game Gear. I must have bought at least one of those with saved up allowance money. Months and months of saved up allowance money.