Great idea, poor execution, and yet for some reason you will want to finish it.
This promised to be a great title. I played the demo, and thought YES! At last they have made a game that was as great as the original. She is raiding tombs!
And for alot of it, you will get that feeling. What made the original so great was not the combat (so the noise made about the improved combat did not interest me) but the LACK of combat, and the platforming and puzzling. This is why when the original Tomb Raider came out, as odd as it seemed, comparisons were drawn between it and Mario 64. When this game is working, it is just like that. It is just you, a puzzle, some hand holds and platforms, and the prospect of a 150ft drop. And then the set pieces where you have to do all that, but do it quick or you will die anyway.
The problem is that as graceful as Lara is, in trying to take the block style limitations off her movements, the game is more clumsy than it has ever been, and you will, trust me, die and die and die and die and quite often through no fault of your own. You can do an action twice, and it can result in two complete different movements from Lara because the margin for error is zero, and even at times the game doing things you didn't ask it to do. I cannot explain in words how infuriating it is, or how easy it is to screw up. If I am hanging from a ledge, and I push left and jump, I should jump left, not back on myself into the abyss.
And the combat is not brilliant. Tomb Raider's never was. You can, as always, beat any enemy by aiming, holding fire, and jumping around randomly like a kangaroo on cocaine.
The thing is, as angry, physicall angry, as I was getting at the game, I HAD to finish it. And I will be getting the Shadow Of Lara DLC pack. Make of that what you will.