A remake of the incredible original, this is a beautiful game with great potential that fails in its execution.
Pros: Based on original Tomb Raider, great story, great graphics, some very clever and challenging puzzles.
Cons: The platforming is incredibly repetitive and feels out of place in almost every level. It is incredibly easy to spot where to go since there are always ledges, blocks, and poles that awkwardly stand out. You never feel like you are exploring old tombs or other various environments but instead that you feel like you are in a playground set up for you by the designers that happens to have a backdrop of a tomb or jungle.
A lot of the acrobatics and platforming, especially wall jumps and grappling, are incredibly frustrating and certain sections can take numerous times of trial and error before getting it right. Lara frequently falls and dies even on jumps that appear to be simple. Invisible objects, poor collision detection, poor controls and bad camera angles further worsen the problem.
The camera is pretty bad and controls at time seem to be inaccurate.
Combat is clunky and frustrating. The bullet time dodging is simply not fun and either makes the combat to easy or too hard, depending on the enemy. The camera constantly moves viciously in all directions and makes aiming and shooting very difficult. Boss battles are very poorly executed.
FRUSTRATING. The game is full of extremely frustrating sections that require countless trial and error. Even when you know exactly what to do there are sections that almost feel impossible due to the unforgiving controls and camera. To top it off 10 to 15 seconds of loading between each reload makes you want to quit the game after the 20th time trying.
Conclusion:
The game is indeed gorgeous and has several good puzzles and elements to it but the gameplay and execution ruin the experience. This game could have been at least a 9 out of 10 but its failures devastate its playability. Only old school Tomb Raider fans who want to see the original classic recreated with newer technology will bother completing this game. Even then, once it's over, you will be very happy it is.