Thankfully Eidos and Crystal Dynamics have pulled Lara Croft out of the sewer in one of the best comebacks in gaming.
While the game is eons more evolved than some of the others in the series, it's not without it's share of problems. Camera oddities are kind of a drag sometimes, but nothing too serious. Thankfully, the camera was the only thing I encountered that was really "buggy" with the game. Sometimes it would work fantastically, others It would be stuck underneath me while I needed to make a precise jump...You'd think with about 10 years of 3-D platformer/adventure games they would have perfected the camera control by now.
The game itself isn't really anything new, in fact, it's almost a reiteration of the first game in some ways...which is a good thing. The story is actually pretty good, which surprised me, and the levels are all distinct and memorable. The puzzles that are encountered all make you think. There was not a single puzzle where I knew what to do based on years of video game experience. Above everything else in the game, this is what made me love it. The enemies didn't pose much a challange, and there weren't that many to begin with. Tomb Raider is about solving puzzles. Even the boss fights had some puzzle elements to them, which makes for a fun, but oft frusterating, time.
There are some distinct things that are borrowed from other great games of recent memory. The cutscene button pressing from Resident Evil 4 was a nice touch. I was also reminded of God of War on more than one occasion. The boss fight in England was the most notable God of War "reference", the entire thing was played like Kratos with guns. Again, not a bad thing by any means, nothing felt out of place or stolen. Borrowing ideas from great games could have been horrible, but those games were great for a reason, and it turns out borrowing from them helped.
My main gripe with the game is the trial and error portions of it. Especially later on in the game (Nepal, especially) there are parts where you have to jump from A to B to C to D and so on....But sometimes getting from A to B will be trial and error...Then from B to C might be trial and error...This doesn't happen so often that you just have to memorize your way through the level, but there were some parts that were kind of just too much. Thankfully, the game has an autosave feature that saves right before these parts. I never had to muck my way back through a level...Which is a huge plus in these situations. These parts of the game are almost inevitable given the context of what you're doing, but I still wish there were some better ways around it.
Overall, the games ending is not satisfying...compounded with the fact that I beat it in 7 1/2 hours and I took my sweet time through most of the levels. This game makes for the perfect weekend rental. It's got everything that makes a great game, except for longevity. The only reason to play back through is to get the rewards, which unlock outfits and other goodies, but other than that, there's not much left to explore. At least we know there is a sequel on the way, and I would be surprised if it doesn't go even further in making this series worthwhile again.