Review: Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (GBA)

After the quite nice platform game that was 'Tomb Raider' for the Gameboy Color, one might expect it to set a precident for Lara's handheld adventures. However, this iteration is anything but impressive to say the least.

From the offset, the game literally fails to engage on anything other than the most basic levels. There is no real sense of involvement or reward at all. Maybe this is due to the premise being so very bland; when a game is based around simple functionality, you want to at least try to make it addictive, compelling, or moderately entertaining. The Prophecy is none of these things.

You control Lara from a top-down/side-on perspective, meaning you can see the sides and tops of the levels you run around. This immediately limits the way the levels look, to only be able to build upwards and forwards, since anything more complex would be obscuring your view of the action on screen. No, it's not this limitation that is the problem, but the way in which it makes it rather difficult to know whether you are lined up for a jump properly, as depth and distance often become the same thing, particularly when a lot of the environments are similar looking walls that appear very flat, with only the occasional shadow to let you know where you stand.

But, problems with the viewpoint are really the least of this game's worries. There is no apparent difficulty in the timing and execution of your jumps at all. In fact, movement is entirely digital. There is no sense of inertia, no force carrying you along. Even if you get a huge run up for a jump it is quite possible to stop and start in mid-air, completely throwing away any challenge in the timing. There is also no way of walking, only running, so if you are unsure about how close to an edge you can step, it is often best just to stay away from it or you'll likely overstep it and fall to your death.

The combat in the game is utterly abysmal, totally mundane, and completely without thrill. You draw your pistols and hold down the fire button whilst walking backwards. The lock-on takes care of the aiming for you, and multiple enemies will be targeted one at a time depending on distance. Any attempt at spicing up the combat by trying to back flip over your enemy will see you facing the wrong direction, leaving you open to attacks. There is also hardly any variation in the enemies from level to level, meaning they are never interesting opponents to fight, just annoying and unnecessary obstacles getting in your way.

As you progress through the different environments it becomes painfully obvious that there is nothing more to the gameplay than simple lock and key puzzles. Some of them will offer slightly challenging elements, but most of the time it offers a linear affair of A to B to open C. If you fail or die, you start back at the beginning of the section and have to try again, mindlessly dispatching the enemies and tracing your routes through the levels again.

Now, onto the presentation. It's pretty bad, and that's being fair. The graphics on the character model are detailed enough, but quite plain, and although there are a few interesting features in the level backgrounds as you progress (water falls, big statues, etc.), there's nothing to make you stop and stare... just generic tomb-like levels. The audio is some of the worst Gamestyle has ever heard. Maybe Ubisoft considered sound to not be such an important feature in a handheld game, but for someone who enhances their GBA audio by using headphones, the sound often verges on the insulting. Tinny noises and disjointed samples make up the game's sound effects, and the same piece of five second drivel plays on a loop when you encounter enemies. There is hardly any background noise at all the rest of the time, which is a missed opportunity to create a sense of atmosphere... not that it would help the game tremendously anyway.

But the most insulting part of this game is that it offers no save function whatsoever, resorting instead to a four-letter password that is presented to you for each new section you enter. Now, it's not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with password saves, but in a handheld game you ideally want to be able to pick up and play whenever you want, and unless you specifically remember every new password you come across, you will need a pen and pad to keep track. With this in mind, it might have been worth featuring a more complex code system that would store data on how much ammo and what weapons you were carrying at the time; but no, instead the four-letter password leaves you with the default equipment for each time you restart the machine. This immediately nullifies any concept of item collection and eliminates your ability to collect new weapons and ammo unless you have the intention of playing through in one go without losing a life. Due to the unpredictable nature of some of the deaths, this seems unlikely, and a huge oversight.

Tomb Raider on the GBA is a totally underwhelming experience, and if you even had nothing else to occupy your handheld time, you'd still probably find yourself thinking twice before sliding this game back into the cartridge slot. Despite the stagnation that the PlayStation versions have suffered over the years, ironically it would still be more refreshing if a basic version of that 3D engine was used for this game, taking the staple gameplay with it. Gamestyle is sure with a bit of effort it would be possible to generate a basic 3D environment, and it would be a far more enjoyable distraction than what this game currently offers.

But if handheld Lara Croft is really what floats your boat, the only recommendation right now is the Gameboy Color version. This is certainly to be avoided.

Rating: 1 / 10

Words by Daniel James