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Should your DS make a date with Lady Croft?

Tomb Raider Legend finally hits the DS after sleeping with virtually all the other consoles out there, but is it sloppy seconds? Despite what would appear to be plenty of extra development time Legend arrives on the DS with numerous flaws and an unpolished look, yet despite all this still remains to be an enjoyable and engaging experience and also one of the better third party titles on the system. "But How?" I hear you ask! Read on to find out...

Legend on DS follows the same story as its multiplatform brethren, following Lara across multiple continents and various locales as she explores the mystery behind her Mother's death and tries to bring together fragments of a legendary sword. In fact, surprisingly the DS version sports the same high production value FMV's that were featured on the consoles, so HumanSoft (The team behind the DS version) bucks the usual trends and refuses to sacrifice story on its handheld iteration.



This is certainly something to be admired, but don't get too excited just yet. In order to fit all those cutscenes into the tiny DS card they have undergone serious compression, leaving them grainy, blurry and reducing the sound quality significantly. This is to be expected, I suppose, and is merely the result of the medium you are choosing to play the game on, but it does foster some mixed feelings as you enter the game. In fact, this is the way you will feel about much of the Legend experience on DS- On the one hand you can see Eidos and HumanSoft have gone the extra mile in many ways, bringing a decidedly console-like presentation to this portable rendition; On the other, glitchy blemishes and and an overall compressed quality will have you longing to be sitting at home in front of your favorite wired console. As a stand alone product barring comparison to its cross platform cousins Tomb Raider Legend still finds many ways to impress.

You'll be controlling Lara on the DS through closed off 3D environments with relatively simple controls. The first level successfully acts as a tutorial, and visual cues pop up to let you know when an action is possible, repeatedly reminding you of the controls for those that play their handheld in small doses. For instance, when you leap onto a ledge you will automatically grab hold, but if Lara slips as on occasion she does, a 'Y' will pop up next to Miss Croft prompting you to press that button to get a solid grip. Similarly when an item can be grappled an 'X' will appear near the grapple-point alerting you to that option.



In this way the title remains at an accessible level even for casual or younger players, but do not then presume that they are going to be able to get through to the end. Despite the visual cues, easy controls, and relatively simple puzzles scattered throughout, you will get stuck in certain sections of the game. In fact, in some areas you will be tempted to hurl your DS across the room after you've carefully worked your way up to the top of a complicated series of ledges only to have Lara yet again miss her mark when jumping for a pole. Luckily checkpoints are a regular occurrence and act as automatic save points, meaning you can happily switch off the power at any time when on the go. This handy addition fits perfectly for the handheld medium, allowing for play in short bursts of an adventure/action game which is rare to find.