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Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Review
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
Lara finally makes her way back to where she began, on a Sega format.
It's been nearly four years since Lara Croft first strutted her stuff. Since then the woman has made her trade on PC and PlayStation making herself, as Mike Garvey CEO of Eidos put it, ''one of the most successful brands in our industry's history''. The great irony is that Lara's first appearence came on Sega's dreadful Saturn. It was one of the few titles that owners of the machine enjoyed and it was rewarded with a long stint at the top of the Saturn charts. Since then an exclusive deal with Sony has kept Lara away from Sega. Until now, that is. Eidos' contract with PlayStation ended in January 2000 and Lara is now itching for some 128-bit action. Cue The Last Revelation for Dreamcast.
As always, the reasons why Lara has decided to jet off and invade yet another lost temple of the ancients is a bit of a mystery. As far as we can make out, it's all been nicked from Raiders Of The Lost Ark-- take one ancient artefact of great historical importance, mix in a dash of evil Egyptian god bent on earthly destruction, add one German archaeology mentor out for revenge and voila! It makes for some rather breathtakingly beautiful locations-- it's not like Tomb Raider would ever be the same if it was set in somewhere like Cavan. Not that Cavan isn't breathtaking...
The game begins with a training level featuring Lara at the ripe young age of sixteen, accompanied by her former mentor, soon-to-be nemisis, Werner Van Croy. Entering an ancient tomb in Cambodia, he guides her through the ever-increasing hazards, showing her how to use her vast array of moves. Needless to say that by this fourth instalment she can perform a lot of tricks, from running jumps and shimmies along walls, to rope-swinging and monkey dangling.
The controls are structured so that you can learn the basics reasonably quickly, but for the more experienced Lara handler there are stylish alternatives. For example, any two-bit idiot can leap - or fall - into the water, but a real master will perform a run-up, hitting the right trigger with the jump button to execute a perfect dive. Meanwhile, back in Cambodia, Professor Von Croy has got ahead of himself. Having challenged a now reasonably adept Lara to a race to the artefact they seek, he accidentally triggers a fatal trap that collapses the tomb around him, leaving Lara unable to rescue him.
Leaping forwards to the present day, we now see Lara performing an almost identical error as she takes a sacred artefact from an ancient tomb, awakening the evil god Set, who intends to destroy the world unless Lara can undo the damage in time. Unlike the globetrotting nature of previous Tomb Raiders, The Last Revelation stays in the number one holiday spot for all archaeological adventurers, Egypt - a result of Core's intention to keep the game linear and strengthen the story element. Not to mention the graphics.
Indeed, thanks to the power of the Dreamcast every stage of Last Revelation looks jaw-droppingly amazing. Forget the days of walls you can see right through and badly textured scenery - this is pretty much as close to the real thing as most of us will ever get. From the sandy wastes of the desert to the canals of Alexandria and the many dark passages within the various temples and pyramids, it's all rather lovely to watch. If you want to get technical then check out the lighting effects for starters - the shadows cast on the walls and the flickering illuminations offered by those flaming torches really up the atmosphere. Mind you, being technical is really boring... so we'll stop that then.
If you like full-motion cut-scenes, there are some impressively lengthy ones here, offering dramatic 'revelations' that further the story: flashbacks to the burial of Set in Ancient Egypt, and Lara escaping from an army of mercenaries James Bond-stylee, by boat, are particularly stunning. But when they feature real human characters, even Lara, the illusion can be shattered a bit. Aside from their lips not moving in sync (hey, we all like martial arts videos, so that's no great shakes), they all move around quite stiffly.
It's not all just pretty graphics and fancy moves you know-- Last Revelation has actually got quite a bit of depth to it. With 35 levels to work your way through it's going to take you quite a while to get through it all. It's not exactly easy either... and that's where we've got to have a little gripe. Although in many cases it's patently obvious when you're in danger of being killed, it's still possible to compare Last Revelation to older gaming classics like Rick Dangerous where the task was to repeat various jumps until you get them just right.
We're not saying Last Revelation is quite that bad but it certainly gets to a point where the game slows to a crawl as you check every inch in front of you for some hidden spikes, falling boulders or man-eating monkeys. This can be a real pain when all you want to do is pull levers, shoot stuff and have a bit of a laugh. The same can be said of the reverse though - in other places, Last Revelation is a bit too open. Yanking on a lever, only to see a door open in a place you've never even been before is one thing; running around trying to find that place for hours is quite another. Still, that's always been the nature of the Tomb Raider games so we guess you'll just have to get used to it.
If you're an old Tomb Raider player who's been following the series, you'll have a good idea of what to expect; you'll know that the series hasn't evolved a huge amount since the first episode. There are many of the same faults, the same quirks. You know whether you like the games or not. If you do, then there's no doubt that part IV is the best of the series. And the Dreamcast version is the best of the part IVs. If you've seen the PC version, the extra bump mapping and real-time shadows here bring an impressive sheen to the whole affair, especially when running through caverns filled with torches.
Swiftly dispatching enemies with minimal self-abuse requires strategic assaults - especially when facing below-eye-level irritants like scorpions and rampaging wild pigs. Likewise, racing around like a lunatic with a rocket up your arse soon concludes with Lara falling into a spike-filled pit or running into a load of deadly retractable scythes. Puzzles? Simple ones? Are you the kind of person who likes pulling a switch and running through a newly opened door? Then this is your bag, baby. And that's about as hard as the puzzles get.
Some require you to find an amulet or other arcane device to stick into an obviously matching hole, others require you to move a block on to a suspicious-coloured tile, but the overall effect is 'find device + activate switch = nearby door opens'. However, even with the relatively small levels here you can still find yourself wandering around, frustratingly convinced that you've spooned it up beyond repair, not realising that the switch you need is on a shelf right above your head.
The levels are some of the best things about The Last Revelation. They've got all the convincing flavour of a good adventure yarn. The opening Raiders Of The Lost Ark-esque training stage is very atmospheric, complete with blow darts firing from one wall, or a trigger activating a floor trap. And some of the bigger Egyptian tombs are fantastically designed. You'll catch your breath when stumbling into a large cavern filled with a huge, half-buried sphinx; you'll tense when a switch opens a load of sarcophagi and you can see the sleeping mummies within - are they going to suddenly wake up? And the rotating room is a brilliant concept.
There are extra goodies too, including a gallery section where you can view different pictures of young and 'mature' Lara, playing on Dreamcast, draped around her house, lazing around in swimsuits... Even if you've read every publication Lara's been in, you won't have seen a lot of these pictures before. Then there's the accompanied soundtrack by Paul Oakenfold, one of Europe's finest DJs. It brings a whole new concept to the game.
The Last Revelation is a very entertaining game, but in a very old-fashioned way. It comes from the old school of platform games when there were strong limitations to prevent you doing anything that would screw it up. But despite looking absolutely spanking gorgeous, running smoother than a greased Linford Christie and having more levels than the world's biggest multistorey car park, Last Revelation is NOT the best Tomb Raider ever. Truth is nothing much separates it from the PlayStation version. Which just isn't good enough when you think about the extra power that could have been utilised from Dreamcast. Ultimately, The Last Revelation just seems outdated. It's good, solid fun, and for PlayStation it's great, but Dreamcast is a different standard, and we expect more.
