Lara’s first adventure is far from easy and requires skill, patience and a will of iron. She has been called upon to retrieve lost artifacts, but for unknown reasons is being hunted by a mysterious man in black. She must travel to far off places and uncover secrets long buried within the earth. In order to advance through each level, Lara must find keys, pull switches and move blocks. This form of game play can be frustrating, but leaves you with a sense a satisfaction in the end. A Little Too Late? Unfortunately, Tomb Raider Gold’s graphics reveal the game’s age. Low-resolution textures give the environments a chunky, pixelated appearance. Character motion is a little choppy and Lara lacks the bouncing ponytail found in the game’s sequels. Additionally, the QuickTime cut scenes are woefully low quality, looking almost as if they were video taped and redigitized. Game play is fairly smooth and consistent except for the occasional pause due to content being loaded from the CD. This is at times is frustrating, sabotaging your well-calculated jumps.  Controlling Lara with the keyboard can be a little tricky at first. The action keys are spread far apart requiring some quick finger work. This leaves your wrists arched for hours, putting a heavy strain on your tendons. Be sure that your wrists are in shape before you start playing or you may need therapy. If you feel comfortable using the keyboard, do yourself a favor and get a good quality wrist support. Otherwise it’s probably a good idea to set yourself up with a good joystick. Tomb Raider Gold works with a wide variety of Mac joysticks, and while they may not be as comfortable as the Playstation controller, you will easily adapt.Tomb Raider Gold’s audio has been well orchestrated and really grabs you. The three-dimensional sounds that echo through the numerous creepy levels pull you into the game and help you to forget its flaws. There are new and exciting sounds with every step. The music changes to match the mood, heightening in intensity when danger is near. This, in turn, gives the game that added edge, which keeps you interested throughout the adventure. Aside from the poor textures and choppy game play, Tomb Raider Gold has been skillfully crafted, keeping you engrossed in each of its challenging puzzles. However, it’s certainly not on par with modern Mac games. It offers no where near the visual stimulation of beautiful landscaped games such as Unreal and the bizarre keyboard controls may ruin the fun for many. Overall It was a novel idea to bring Tomb Raider Gold to the Mac, but all things considered, it might have been wise to let this one rest in the past. So before you rush out to your local Mac retailer to buy the game, maybe you should download the demo and check it out for yourself just to be sure.
|
