Despite how fresh Legend was at that time, it was a downfall after the classic series.
Let's start with stories and dialogues in Tomb Raider games. They were always bad and cring. But the good thing about classic games is that there was almost little story, they were mostly about the gameplay and levels. Legend, like any other modern game, tries to show as much movie as possible. So it is not just bad sometimes anymore, it is bad almost all the time!
Of course, the gameplay was also simplified for a new generation. It fixed many issues of the original game but also lost the core: now it is just a linear action game with some one-room puzzles instead of adventure where every level is one giant puzzle you have to investigate and solve.
For sure, many people will like dumb action more but as the successor of previous games it was a large step backward.