Dating back to 1996, Tomb Raider is one of video gaming’s grand old franchises. It has never quite played by anyone else’s rules, and has always been a bit of an “also-ran”; garnering lots of fans, but never quite hitting the staggering successes of other similarly well-known franchises. But it’s always been interesting to see what the latest set of experiments have been; when you dive into a Tomb Raider game, it’s probably not going to be a lot like what all the currently trendy games are doing. So let’s take a look.
Okay, this is interesting. Right away they move into awkward territory; let me first explain that the black and white landscape image which is visible here is a static image; it doesn’t animate. However, it does slide left and right on the screen. Assigning a base score for this is awkward; According to our scoring standards, if the loading screen has a flat black backdrop, that’s worth one point. If it’s a static image, that’s two points. If it’s smoothly animated, that’s four points. So how do we score this screen which is mostly flat black, but has a static image that smoothly slides around on it?
Since this type of loading screen has never come up before, I’m going to set a precedent for rating this type of screen in the future: this loading screen has a flat black backdrop, worth one base point. Virtually all of the screen is taken up by the flat blackness. The floating static image is a mobile sprite drawn on top of the black backdrop. The sprite isn’t animated (apart from sliding around), and isn’t particularly interesting. If it was interesting or entertaining, I might have assigned a bonus point, but in this case, that doesn’t seem warranted.
Additionally, the screen has a “Loading” text (0.5 penalty points), and that circular object next to the Loading text pulses for the duration of the load (0.5 penalty points).
Tomb Raider Load Screen
- Flat black background: 1 base point.
- “Loading” text on screen: 0.5 penalty points.
- Circular load pulser: 0.5 penalty points.
Rating: 