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Review
Last time on Tomb Raider Baywatch....Lara told Mitch about the baby, Larson realised just in time that a swimmer wasn't waving at him but drowning, and Sophia Lee's outdoor backstroke class decended into chaos when someone spotted a shark fin.
The days of shorter levels and Lara going on the run from the old bill are almost upon us, but first up comes this one hour (if you're quick!)behemoth set somewhere under the polar ice caps. Lara is so close to capping Willard's miserable and traitorous little ass she can practically smell it. Not far now. One last mile.
The City of Tinnos is not one my favourite levels in the game because it doesn't really contain anything to make it stand out. Like Xian before it, the entire place seems almost entirely without plausible structure. Lara must bound from one mid-level challenge to the next without ever having to backtrack for anything or take any demanding choices in direction. Every room has an exit and an entrance. Kill the monsters, jump the gaps, dodge the fires, and move on to the next section. Eventually you'll reach the end. Too narrow in concept?
So what does the place have worthy of mention? The huge room with the broken bridge is epic in scale, looks spectacular, and feels eerie. So far so good. It also has unique invisible blocks leading to a cleverly concealed secret. However, you just know there's going to be a vine on the wall for Lara to get convienently around the gap, or an abnormal rock-face sticking out into thin air she can use somewhere. I'd have much rather seen the invisible blocks integrated into the essential gameplay, or am I just in a misery-guts mood today?
Lost cities and hidden temples are always full of giant scorpions, giant spiders, and various other nasties magnified to look meaner. This time it's the turn of the wasp. Several of them charge out of a crack in the wall to try and sting you during the broken bridge episode. They might even stand a chance of hurting you were they to come out in groups.
Wasp leader: Right guys! We're charging out in a "1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1" formation. That way Croft can probably knock us all off even with the pistols.
(Now if Wasp Leader had bothered to watch The Dambusters, he might have been more tactically equipped to deal with someone like Lara Croft)
The other monsters festering around mainly consist of those weird mutant type things like what you saw back in the Rx-Tech Mines. They take a fair few bullets to nail but aren't nearly as annoying as the seemingly inexhaustible wasp population. Use a grenade launcher to get rid of them quickly.
I've already talked in length about the whole earth/wind/fire/rainbow elemental thing. Still, if you didn't catch it the first time around, I've got a thread somewhere in the TR-Legend forum which will only be about a week old. The only thing I'll say here is that this particular quad-elemental section isn't too bad. It's not as good as the St Francis' Folly one, but does at least hold considerable weight over that tedious affair in the mid-section of AOD. Mind you, even Donkey Kong on the NES holds weight over AOD, so it's not saying much.
Highlight of the Tinnos ordeal is definitely the tower room with all the fake ledges, timed runs, and multiple levers. This is a real head-spinner, the stuff TR was invented for. I'll even go back on my claim there's nothing spectacular about the level in order to talk up just how effective this bit is.
The fight with Willard is not as good an ending to the game as the ones in TR1 and 2. Instead of an enormous dragon's lair or a suspended platform containing a giant egg, we're now presented with a tiny little cavern no more vast or intimidating than all the other boss fights in TR3. Willard himself trots around the walkway looking pretty useless once the fight gets started. It's almost as if he hasn't quite worked out whether he's a spider or a human. Killing him isn't a big deal once you realise you have to fetch the artifacts from the corridors.
The unexpected bonus of fighting a few more flamethrower guys post-Willard is good fun, but the climatic FMV showing Lara's escape is a bit paper-thin and more than a little rushed. Still, there's All Hallows yet to come if you're not in the mood to end the game yet. It's far better than Lud's Gate so make sure you give it a go some time, even if you need to cheat to get there. Getting 59/59 secrets from TR3 is no easy thing.
Ratings - 7/10 for Tinnos. 7/10 for All Hallows. I'm not going to bother rating the Meterorite Cavern because it's too small.
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