Game Review - by Brian Lastrom
Tomb Raider is a game that takes adventure games to a new level. You are Lara Croft, an avid adventurer that is out to discover the many artifacts of the world. As you go on these treacherous adventures you will encounter a wide variety of enemies and traps. So watch your step.

Storyline:
Millions of years ago a meteor survived the plunge through the Earth's atmosphere impacting the then warm Antarctica. The first people to discover this land were a tribe of Polynesians. Whom worshiped the meteorite crater for the powers it appeared to hold.

Today the same area is being excavated by the research company; RX Tech, who are picking up unusual readings from the meteorite's impact zone. It is in this zone that they discover the body of a sailor from Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle. It seemed a few of these explorers had explored the interior of the crater.

Following the story from one of the sailor's journal, RX Tech has taken a particular interest in the crater as well as other places around the world that the sailors had been to.

One of the places is India, where we find Lara who is currently searching for the legendary Infada artifact. Unaware of its true history, she only knows that in local beliefs it was supposed to hold great powers and has been revered by tribes there throughout the years. And soon she will discover a lot more than originally planned.

Features:
Tomb Raider 3 has the exact same features as the previous versions of the game with the addition of support for the dual shock analog controller. The game provides an excellent training course that takes place at her mansion. And to make the training course more fun, the programmers have put in a few secrets and interesting new places hidden within a mansion.

And for the first time you will be able to crawl and climb on ceilings (like monkey bars). With these new additions finding places to go becomes more and more interesting. Also new to the game is the addition of a world map. Which means you can choose which place you would like to go to first. I have heard rumors that the story is different depending on which path you take.

Graphics:
For PlayStation these graphics are simply spectacular. I was really pleased with the improved water effects. Like ripples in the water and around Lara, as well as blood that dispenses out the water if you get injured.

One thing that could have been done just a little better is the quicksand. I found difficulty in identifying it throughout the game. But other than that it's great, plus Lara has a bunch of new outfits, which helps add effect to the realism within the game.

Tomb Raider 3 has some stunning new weapon effects as well. My favorite is when you launch a grenade into the water and you can see the bubbles emerge to the surface, as water will be launched up out of the water. Some other graphical tid-bits are that the guns actually smoke after being fired and Lara actually makes footprints as she walks through certain areas.

Sound FX:
As always the music was done to perfection in the game. Just like the other two, the background music sets the perfect mood within the game. Like the others Tomb Raider 3 has great room effects, different step sounds as well as gun sounds depending on the type of room that you are in.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is done fairly well. It gets a little difficult looking and walking if you don't have the analog controller. I actually went out and bought one just for this game. It works very nicely with it. The different shocks depending on what happens is great.

The new addition of crawling and hanging should not take long to get used to, if you have played the other versions. Those two features add new depth to game as a whole.

Overall:
I love this game. The Tomb Raider series in my mind is one of the greatest adventure games ever made. Some people might say that there isn't much different from the rest, but why change something that is good? With the different areas and vast levels, any Tomb Raider fan will be entertained for hours on end. If you haven't gotten it yet, go out and do so or just ask Santa really really nicely and he might just put it under the tree.