Womb Raider: Legend Overview

Availability:

Womb Raider: Legend is banned in the UK, Australia, and Germany. It is, however, available at Wal-Mart for $19.99, in the same shelf space from which Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was pulled due to the hot coffee controversy. It even comes with a coupon from the Southboro Baptist Church for 10,000,000 hours of free internet access after your death.

Graphics:

Like with most video game heroines, Sarah Daft is designed to appear sexy to teenagers, or badass at times, rather than realistic. In the real world, nobody could run, climb, or swim in that dress or in those heels. Certainly not with a rifle slung over her back. Plus those twin pistols would of course be impossible to aim.

Personally, I'm annoyed by the fact that Sarah's a brunette. Well, you can't have everything. And that beehive hairstyle looks stupid, but must have been easier to animate than a braid. Honorable mention for challenging teenagers' assumptions about sexiness by giving Sarah those butt-ugly glasses. Plus she's somewhat less busty than the competition.

Otherwise, the graphics are impressive, like those wide open spaces Sarah can aimlessly ramble and even get lost in. The non-linearity, and sometimes sheer psychedelic surrealism, is beyond sane imagination. Only two words: turkey scene.

Cast of characters:

Sarah Daft

Sarah Daft is an adventurer, big-game hunter, and biblical scholar who seeks out sin and vice, fuelled by an obsession to execute the will of the great, ancient god. She is a superb athlete, fluent in a dozen hillbilly dialects, and will stop at nothing to get ahead.

When Sarah was crowned Miss Potato (she was the only contestant to have some teeth) in Womb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, and her adventure archeologist mentor Warmer von Cry continued to ignore her anyway, she murdered him and framed some weirdo Freemason/Shriner/Elk/whatever by the name of Elkhart for it. Now she's out to apply the final solution to all homos — and to all abortionists, drug fiends, fornicators, adulterers, and perverts, too.

McAllister:

An ex-Navy pilot that crash-landed one too many jetfighters on his carrier, McAllister now is Sarah's personal pilot and general right-hand (job) man. Always in contact with Sarah via her headset, he is able to instantly provide her with a wealth of misinformation by accessing spurious electronic reference resources, like Wikipedia and other online collateral misinformation databases. In his spare time, he tinkers around with electronics, developing new technology that might prove lethal to Gov. Daft in the field. In addition to being a savvy purveyor of all kinds of air disasters, McAllister is also a distinguished chef that has roasted whole bulls at some of the best barbecues in Arizona.

Shrub:

Shrub is Sarah's timid research assistant and a repository for a fantastic array of detailed biblical information. He confines his research to libraries and museums, however, concentrating on understanding and explaining what has already been found, as opposed to Sarah's search for new Sodoms. He's a fifteenth-year elementary student in special education and hasn't received his elementary school diploma because his belief that everything is connected to the great, ancient god makes it impossible for him to draw the boundaries required to stay in touch with reality.

Ollie:

Ollie's family has been with the Dafts for generations, and he has been the family butler since he was dishonorably discharged from the military in the eighties, just as his father before him. He moved into Daft Manor to stay as the only live-in staff when his wife died, before Sarah fell out of the idiot tree. He tends to all Sarah's household needs, going far beyond the duties of a traditional butler given Sarah's unusual lifestyle and pursuits, but he has never disappointed her. His loyalty to Sarah, her parents, and Daft Manor is beyond question.

Guns 'n' Gear:

Weapon-wise, Sarah starts out with just her twin pistols. Over the course of the game, she can acquire long guns, but she can carry only one long gun at a time: assault rifle, submachine gun, shotgun, or grenade launcher. If she picks up another long gun, she drops the one she had. She's got infinite ammo for her pistols, but she can carry only 150 rounds for her other gun. She can also acquire hand grenades (up to four) and health packs (up to three) which partially heal damage. What's more, Sarah starts out with binoculars, a flashlight, a magnetic grapple, and a headset to communicate with Shrub and McAllister.

Saving:

The game auto saves every time you pass a checkpoint. You can also save manually. However, when Sarah dies, or you reload a savegame, the game resumes at the previous checkpoint, so any progress past that point is lost.

Rewards:

Throughout each level there are hidden a number of bronze and silver statuettes, along with a single gold one. The more valuable rewards are of course harder to find. Once you have collected enough rewards, you can trade them for upgrades, like high capacity pistol magazines. Cheat codes can only be unlocked after you beat the "presidential election" minigame.