Column: 'Critical Reception: Eidos' Tomb Raider: Legend'

This week's Critical Reception takes a look at Eidos' last-chance effort to return the storied Tomb Raider franchise to glory with Tomb Raider: Legend, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos, and available on the PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360. Suffering from somewhat of a public drubbing some three years ago for Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, which earned a dismal 56% average (according to game review compilation website GameTab.com), Tomb Raider: Legend returns the franchise to respectability, if not glory, with a compiled 78% rating over all major review sites. The consensus seems to be that Tomb Raider: Legend returns Lara to her roots, and is thankfully reminiscent of the first and second Tomb Raider, rather than later iterations, as Yahoo! Games' Justin Leeper relates: "The series returns to what made it such a big hit in the late '90s, while adopting some of the better game design philosophies that have surfaced since. As a result, Tomb Raider: Legend will appeal to most anyone with a taste for adventuring." You can read the full Gamasutra column, including further game criticism from Eurogamer's Kristan Reed and 1UP's Jeremy Parish (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).