1996 was a great year. Got a pay rise, borrowed more from the bank, house almost burnt down, and Lara Croft, the girl with the sweetest curves around, first bounced her way onto our screens. With boobs, brains, brawn (and a nice butt) she stole men's and women's hearts everywhere with her daring escapades and graceful moves. The last time I played a Lara Croft game wasn't an enjoyable experience. Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was the release that should have killed off the series, but thankfully, smart types over at Eidos came to their senses and forced a change in developers that has resulted in a very refreshing change. With one of the original co-creators of Lara Croft on the team, Crystal Dynamics have thankfully shown the balls to dump a lot of what was wrong with the series, at the same time bringing back the energy and excitement that was evident in the first few Tomb Raider games.

Lara's cousin is Superman

The game starts by showing a cut-scene of Lara Croft as a child and how she stumbled upon her unique vocation. Traveling with Mumsy over the wild mountains of Nepal, the plane trip takes a turn for the worse (of course) when it crashes into said country. Thankfully, only those useless pilots are killed, leaving Mumsy and Lara to explore the surrounds. What happens next is for you to find out (mwhahahah), but I will mention that King Arthur gets a mention (wink wink, say no more). It's a beefed up story line in comparison to the earlier hit and misses, but still one that travels a familiar plot line. Finding stuff, wrecking havoc and still looking oh so glamorous. How does she do it?

The plot takes Lara to a few interesting spots around the world, such as Japan, England and Kazakhstan, and accompanying her are two likable sounding chaps based at the Croft manor house who feed her relevant information regarding people, objects and places she stumbles upon. This is handled convincingly enough via a communication headset, (which must be surgically grafted on). It's an interesting way at collecting intel and the dialogue between the three give added depth to Lara's character (which we all suspected she had) and more importantly, lets us hear that sultry voice more often.

Gymnastics with a critical audience

The most refreshing part of Legends is how easy everything is. Gone are the days of lining up jumps with such a degree of accuracy that failure to do so would inevitably spell doom. Also gone are those damn camera problems, repeated locations, and most importantly of them all, those damn annoying puzzles.

Puzzles within Legends are fun while still being challenging enough that it will not make you do a parade of yawns. With a host of new moves – which are thankfully as simple as hitting a few buttons - Lara will be the envy of every pill-popping Olympic gymnast. Figuring out the puzzles may on the surface look hard, but you will end up feeling like a jackass for not doing solving them sooner (fine fine, so I'm a jackass). To help you feel like a puzzle-solving champion, Lara has a nifty trick or two tucked away in her backpack, including binoculars that have a built-in feature called RAD (Remote Analysis Device). It's a cheeky way to progress, for those not-very-observant types, at highlighting the important bits of each puzzle, and it's based around the binoculars she carries. I could pretend that I didn't use it often, but readers should know by now that I'm a lazy bastard and given the opportunity to take the easier route, I will, and I did. Another helpful device is the ever-handy torch, for those hard to see scary places. There is one other useful item that helps Lara navigate the dangers with ease, but I won't ruin the surprise.

Of course, what's a Tomb Raider game without the combat, but this is where Dorothy grabs Toto in fright. So far you have been reading how user-friendly this incarnation of the Tomb Raider series is, but after fighting your way past the first bunch of mercenaries, you'll soon realize combat's been brought down to an almost irrelevant side-act. You see bad guys, you hold down button and shoot, while occasionally changing targets. Not much of a challenge. If it was a deliberate act by Crystal Dynamics to shift the players focus away from combat and enjoy other aspects of the game, then it worked. I wasn't overly concerned about it though as I've always enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the game play within the series more so than the combat.

Graphically, the PS2 does an average job of showing off Lara and her surrounds in sufficient detail. I might say that other platforms might have looked and performed better, but that would serve no purpose for this review. The only smallish issue I had with the PS2's graphics was how dark some of those tomb-based levels were: it became a bit difficult to progress through the game by not being able to find that next handhold or ledge. Nothing major, as persistence was the key and in no time at all, you'd be back on track, ready to face the next encounter. Jungles looked lush, downtown Tokyo at night sparkled with intensity and England, well, looked like England. In general, a decent performance handed out by the PS2.

Whilst on looks, I'm not sure how correct this is, but I do believe that Lara's cleavage have reduced in size. Whilst Lara may now sport a more proportionally believable look, her boobs were something that should not have been trifled with. If I ever meet the guys from Crystal Dynamics, I'll be sure to have stern words on behalf of all of the guys who were fond(le?) of the old duo. Lara, get off that diet, please. For the old married farts out there, I'll be starting a hotline so we can cry our anguish together. Regardless of that small issue (cough), Lara does seem to have been given a good spit 'n' polish, with great facial expressions and some good-looking threads. Yes, you will be looking at her clothes, not her butt, right?

Nice...bellybutton

The sound in Legends was better than I expected. The fact that I was mainly using my lounge room speakers, compared to the shallow TV cones normally in use with the console, made it an even more enjoyable experience. Each sound had a good sharp edge, which gave a good emphasis to what was happening on screen. Musically, Legends had a very good selection of up-beat, driving tunes that complimented the on-screen antics quite well. Some of them were so snappy, I'd occasionally catch myself shaking the ole booty whilst playing the game. Vocally, Lara's voice work was great as its sultry as a belly dancer's stomach rolls, yet firm enough to give her character a commanding presence throughout the game. Therefore, from the boom of the shotgun, the butt swinging beats driving the action on, to the mellow ambience of the varying locations Lara found herself in, it was an enjoyable acoustic journey.

If you're an old fan of the series but are hesitant at having the fingers burnt once again, or a new gamer interested in checking it out, then fret not as Lara Croft has undergone a stressful, yet necessary nip 'n' tuck that makes her latest entry to the gaming stage a fun and enjoyable experience.