| Early on in my reviewing career, I did something a bit daft. I reviewed Tomb Raider and was possibly the only person in the business to somehow miss the fact that it was the greatest thing to ever happen in gaming. Not only that, I failed to award it the ninety-percent-plus score that Eidos expected.
Words were had. Adverts may have been withdrawn. I didn’t care. I liked Tomb Raider a lot, and expected it to become an extremely hot property thanks to Lara Croft, but to me it felt cumbersome to play in too many places.
Now that’s just showing off. Fine by us.
Galleon’s the game that Tomb Raider should have been, and here’s why: it just works. It’s not going to win any prizes at all for its graphics – which look like they were designed for the Dreamcast, then someone forgot to update them – and it’s not the biggest game you’re ever going to play. By the time I completed it, the in-game clock stood at a shade under fourteen hours.
Doesn’t matter. Those fourteen hours have been great. Some of it comes down to the technology – inverse kinematics (something you’re going to hear a lot of in the future) mean that swashbuckling good guy, Rhama Sabrier, gets around the game with more style and panache than any other gaming hero, ever. He runs, jumps, swims, climbs, hoists himself up small walls that you obviously wanted to get on top of anyway, and does it without falling to his death every five fucking minutes. You know, the stuff that really got on your tits in Tomb Raider.
Like I said – it just works. So much so that it’s a drag to put it down and go back to similar games that don’t do all of this.
So, you think this is cool, do you? Do you? Do you think this is cool?
It also has a combat system that relies on practice rather than bigger weapons. The more you play the more you suss the timing and the right moves to pull off, and those near-impossible battles become weighted a lot more in your favour. You get a couple of neat tricks that you can pull off to even the balance even more, but mostly it comes down to finesse. And again: it just works.
No. This is cool, actually.
Attention to detail – that’s the thing. Remember discovering that, if you pressed the right buttons while hoisting yourself up in Tomb Raider, Lara Croft would do a graceful handstand? Galleon’s full of stuff like that. Neat little touches that tell you the game’s a labour of love rather than a hack job. I’m loath to spoil any of the surprises, really.
Speaking of love… Diddly-dit-dit-dee.
It also explains why the Tomb Raider series got progressively more shit. The bloke who knew what he was doing had left Core and was working on this. It’s been time well spent.
JEDBURGH, June
2004.
RODENT CASH RATING -
Five pieces of eight. Me hearty.
"Splendid!"
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