Lara Croft, that rich heiress with questionable, err, 'authenticity', is
back and this time she's made her home on the Gameboy Advance in Ubi Soft's
Tomb Raider: The Prophecy. The graphical quality of this game is it's
strongest point. Unlike the Gameboy Color
Tomb Raider titles, this
one features a fully 3-D playing environment, something that is quite
essential for an authentic Tomb Raider experience. So not only can you walk
fully around that pillar, but chances are you can climb on top of it too.
The character sprites themselves have the sprite based pseudo-3D look that
we've come to expect from the Gameboy Advance. The animation is all very
fluid and looks very nice. Since a large part of the fun of playing Tomb
Raider games is seeing Lara Croft in action, they put a lot of effort into
making sure her movements were very fluid.
The sound effects in Tomb Raider: The Prophecy are pretty much
standard fare for Tomb Raider games. You have your creepy, scary, and loud.
It's all pretty good here, everything adding a bit of flavor to the
experience. If you're gonna go through ancient ruins, they might as well
feel ancient, right? Lara's footsteps, howling wolves, gunshots, it's all
here. As for the music, well, there isn't any, at least not while you're
playing. Some cutscenes and the title screen give a smattering of music
throughout the game, and it's all just a definitive, 'ok'.
