One word springs to mind straight away when playing this game.. Awesome! The demo we have from Bolivia may only be one level but it shows this new game in it's true light. Game play is so fluid, with every movement carrying straight on from the last in perfect flow.

With the PS3 on the horizon, the PS2 is coming to the end of its lifespan but this game takes the PS2's potential to the max, giving superb graphics and sound throughout. With such open environments its fantastic how such highly graphical and detailed areas in the game are played with no loading part-way through levels.

It is only now that we are seeing the true elegance of this game, even down to the tiny details of Lara looking around, checking her boots and checking her clothes when you're not playing. The controls are quite different from what classic raiders will be used to but you soon pick these up, especially with the help of onscreen prompts when you first start playing.

The surroundings and actual level design is stunning. Nothing stands still, you're in a totally active environment with birds flying around, grass blowing in the breeze and the sound of nearby streams.

Lara Croft's in-game model is as stunning as we expected, attention to detail has been made here to ensure we see Lara in as much detail as possible.

Some may have seen the pictures of controller buttons coming up in some screenshots, this is a fantastic way of telling you that with an extra key press you can actually make it across there even though you fell a little short or landed a little funny, hanging on with one finger!

Puzzles are very cool! The new physics engine allows a whole new array of puzzles to be created which means you have to think more along what you would do in real life to solve the problem.

Legend is set to be ground breaking even if the levels are as exciting as this demo level and I expect the rest of the game will be even better!

Bring on April 7th.



Chris Ridgeon