Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Release Date: April 11, 2006

With Tomb Raider: Legend, first-time Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics went back to the drawing board and set out to restore the series to its former glory. They did their homework, and based on extensive research from reviews, bulletin boards, and community feedback, they stripped the series to its bare bones and rebuilt it from the ground up. Well-received features remained, while problematic elements were corrected. They also brought on the original creator, Toby Gard, as the lead character designer, which should speak volumes about this title's potential. We recently had some hands-on time with the X360 version, and the results look mighty promising.

Legend resembles the Prince of Persia series in its platforming and the prevalence of environmental puzzles, with a heavy dose of Indiana Jones (it must be the whip … err, grapple). As adventuress Miss Lara Croft, you zealously jump, grapple, swing, and shimmy along ledges in a globe-trotting quest for a priceless South American relic. Known locations thus far are Bolivia, Peru, Japan, Ghana, Kazakhstan, England, and the Himalayas. Not much has been revealed about the plot, aside from Lara meeting up with an old friend-turned-foe, Amanda Evert. Many years ago, Lara had led an archaeological dig, and Amanda was believed to have been killed when a tomb excavation went terribly wrong. Apparently, she's still bitter.

Unlike Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the controls for Legend were precise, responsive and immediately intuitive. There is no delay between you moving the thumbstick and when Lara begins to run in the specified direction. When one initially views the control scheme, it's a little overwhelming – every button, trigger, thumbstick, and d-pad direction has a function. I almost screamed and ran in the other direction, but getting familiar with the controls turned out to be a lot easier than it looks.

Save points occur frequently and automatically, so you'll never have to interrupt gameplay to hunt through the menus just to save your game. If you die, you return to the last save point, which is never too far back. If you get so immersed that you forget to save, and you happen to become the meat in a boulder sandwich, you'll only have to make up minutes of gameplay, rather than hours.

As another example of how Crystal Dynamics paid attention to consumer feedback, the grip meter, ever-present in TAoD, is nowhere to be found in Legend. The grip meter would immediately start dwindling as soon as Lara caught onto a ledge, but now, Lara can hang on for quite a while, as long as your jump was strong enough to afford a secure grip. If the grip is tenuous, you'll be prompted to press a button to strengthen it, but that's the extent of it.

Lara's pistols are short-range weapons, so any gunfights will have you going toe-to-toe in close-quarter shootouts. You can pick up guns dropped by defeated enemies, but Lara can only keep items on her body – no more magical shorts with infinite storage capacity – so if the inventory is full and you obtain another weapon, she'll drop a pistol to accommodate the addition. Given the close-quarters combat, it's a godsend that the levels contain health packs aplenty; Lara can carry up to three health packs at a time.

Small statues are also strewn throughout the levels in Legend. Although they're available in bronze, silver and gold varieties, we only encountered bronze statues during our session. Quite logically, the silver and gold statues will be more difficult to find – most likely in locales off the beaten path – and they'll no doubt be another way to earn achievement points.

The camera angle can be changed if you want to, but the developers intended that you would never need to. During our time with the game, the camera kept up with Lara's athletic feats with no problems at all. This was a definite improvement over TAoD, in which the camera would occasionally flip-flop from one scene to the next, causing controls to switch around as well. Sometimes, upon arrival at a new location, the camera pans around the environment and highlights your ultimate destination. It's reminiscent of Prince of Persia, and it helps to jumpstart the cognitive process so you can figure out the best possible solution to the environmental puzzle.

It should come as no surprise that the X360 version of Legend sports impressive visuals. Lara's motions are fluid, the animation set is diverse, and her polygon count has gone through the roof. When emerging from swim sequences, her skin takes on a wet sheen, which fades as she begins to dry off. Swimming puzzles are complicated by Lara's need to come up for air, and while this is certainly understandable and realistic, one might think it's all a ploy to show off the glimmer of her wet skin. Whatever. It works.

With its vastly improved gameplay, intuitive controls, and gorgeous graphics, Tomb Raider: Legend will be a delight for fans old and new. Those who have been soured by previous titles in the franchise should definitely give Legend a shot. If this title doesn't reinvigorate your interest in the series, then nothing will.