great game! explodes with action and amazing graphics. a great new take on the tomb raider series.
Tomb Raider is an exhilarating action adventure that serves as a terrific origin story for the iconic Lara Croft.
Lara eventually finds powerful new tools like a grenade launcher and fire arrows, and uses the salvage she constantly collects to improve her weapons, so combat offers more flexibility and becomes more intense as you progress through the game. Throughout it all, great sound design drives home the impact of your actions; delivering a shotgun blast into the face of a nearby enemy is made all the more powerful by the resounding report the gun lets loose, and the conversations you overhear between cultists create a feeling that they're not just enemies who spawn into the environment to hinder you, but are people with histories on the island and tasks to accomplish.
As great as the combat is, it's the quieter moments in Tomb Raider that are most affecting. The simple act of moving, of shimmying along ridges and climbing up craggy rock walls, is a pleasure, thanks to the excellent controls and the fantastic environments. Once in a while, Lara appears to get a bit of divine assistance and float through the air to successfully land a jump you botched the timing on, but with these rare exceptions aside, the controls let you experience a wonderfully physical and agile relationship with your surroundings.
Lara's been making desperate leaps and grabbing on to faraway ledges since her earliest game, but it's never felt quite as good as it does here. And just as Lara acquires new weapons over the course of the game, she also gets her hands on gear that makes her more a more versatile adventurer. Particularly nifty are the rope arrows and rope ascender, the former of which enables you to create rope bridges to certain areas (among other things), and the latter of which lets you rapidly zip up ropes from a lower position. This gear gives you more freedom, and makes Lara seem like a progressively more capable and confident explorer.
The game is at its best when you're fully in control, when you feel directly connected to Lara as she runs and leaps and clambers. But when the game does take some of that control away from you, it usually does so with skill and assurance. A number of semi-interactive scripted moments require less from you as a player, moments when the building Lara is standing on starts to crumble in spectacular fashion, or when she's being swept down a perilous river. What these sequences lack in interactivity, they make up for in spectacle. There are a few missteps; the quick-time-event-focused final confrontation ends the game on a slightly underwhelming note, for instance. But for the most part, these moments bring Tomb Raider a lot of cinematic thrills. When it comes to jaw-dropping setpieces, Lara's adventure rivals those of Indiana Jones and Nathan Drake.
Lara is still an explorer at heart, and although there aren't vast open spaces to frolic in on the island, there are plenty of reasons to look around and venture off the beaten path. There are relics to find that offer clues to the island's history and journals that lend some insight into the experiences of the island's residents, past and present. Best of all are the numerous optional tombs you might happen upon during your journey. These chambers always consist of an environmental puzzle that you must solve, and these are generally just challenging enough to make you stop and think for a moment, but never drag down the pace of your adventure. Completing tombs earns you experience and sometimes parts you can use to improve your weapons, as well as maps that reveal the locations of the collectibles scattered around that part of the island. These tombs also function as character building through gameplay; as you guide Lara through these challenges to the rewards that await, it's easy to understand how she develops a taste for the tomb raiding and treasure hunting that will shape her future.
In addition to the excellent campaign, there's an enjoyable but unremarkable competitive multiplayer component. There are four modes, all of which are pretty typical: a team deathmatch and a free for all, as well as two modes in which teams score points by completing basic objectives. It feels great to land a headshot on another player with a bow from across a map, or to activate a snare trap and then see another player heedlessly walk into it. But for the most part, it's standard fare, with the sorts of unlockable weapon upgrades and perks that are now par for the course.
But no matter; the single-player campaign here is the main attraction, and it is excellent. It doesn't try to rewrite the book on third-person action adventure games. But with its excellent controls, engaging heroine, thrilling combat, and fascinating setting, it doesn't need to. Lara may be covering some previously charted territory here, but Tomb Raider is so well-crafted, you won't mind at all.
Carolyn Petit has been reading GameSpot since 2000 and writing for it since 2008. She has a particular fondness for games of the 1980s, and intends to leave the field of games journalism as soon as she hears that her local Ghostbusters franchise is hiring.
2 Like The perfect balance between uncharted and farcry3. Awesome game! Reminded me the very first time I played RE4. A truly unique gem in gaming, on of the best titles this generation has to offer.
@Damino92 RE4? really? for me that was one of the worst RE to that date, I really hope this TR has nothing to do with RE4
DO NOT MISS THIS GAME!!!.... this is actually a game i'll call super fun , well they got everything right ...,its an uncharted ripoff but again it was the original tomb raider that started it all , i;ve played almost all those TR that came before and never finished any of them (that mean i didnt like them) , but this one is AWESOME , sometimes its a little repetitive , and for example puzzles are so simple and totally game is really easy , But hell , im stating again - THE FUN Factor of this game worth all that , good story , good graphics(X360) , good mechanics,the environment is polished and really good, sound is superb and ofcoz! The most BEAUTIFUL Lara Croft with the most reasonable cup size!!!!!!!! , totally liked it from top to bottom . A survivor is truly born (refers to how miss.croft turns to THE (BAD AZZ! ) Lara Croft ;) , ENjoy Solid 9/10 , (waiting for the next installment in the TR franchise)
EDIT : Im not saying that this is a perfect game , coz its obviously not , but i think its one of the best that current-Gen consoles can offer... :) :D
what is really but in this game,are the QTE...they are quite cinematic,but so lamely executed from a gameplay aspect that is getting tedious...i never died in this game in a gunfight,yet i lost 10 times a QTE event with airgliding...seriously?
http://www.ebraincity.com/ebraincity/categories/Shop-Multimedia/Shop-Games/
Original Games are available
5 Like I have to say I'm enjoying this Tomb Raider game. I wasn't too enthused with the old adventures so the TR series wasn't one of my favorites but now it is. I don't know why they added multiplayer. Game developers need to realize that not every game that comes out needs to have a multiplayer feature just for the sake of having one, it makes no sense.
2 Like Terrific game definitely a solid 9.0,great graphic(PC) and nice gameplay .It's not always the same enemy or pattern to go on there's always surprise and some puzzle to keep you focused.Best game this year so far
I haven' played TR series since TR2. This last one is ok, nice graphics and story, but there's something important missing and it's still too linear for my taste. Average game imho...
2 Like oh and uncharted < tomb raider, drake lacks charisma, lara has all the charisma drake doesnt have
I found a working crack for Tomb Raider. Here is it http://penguinhackz.blogspot.com
2 Like I'm so happy that Tomb Raider is back os its feet. I'm a huge fan of the TR series and couldn't stand another bad game.
This game has only one problem: I actually feel sorry for Lara sometimes. Poor little thing!
1 Like @diogofonseca That was the magic of it, she did some really stupid things at first, but after surviving she got tougher. At some point, I started believing she had what it took to save the day.
A very good game let down by an overemphasis on qte's and maybe a bit too much action. The puzzles are way too easy as well.
But still, a very fine game overall. But we need some proper tombs, not these dull & uninspiring ones. Also, swimming underwater. I miss that.
4 Like Great game, pity they decided to include 15 multi player achievements, forced me to trade it back in while still valuable rather than re-play for the 100%. I must be the last person in the world who does not want multi-player in my story based games.
I just got the game yesterday and i cant believe no1 has said anything about the GODDAMNED quick time events, I died like 10 times in the first hour of gameplay all because of those shitty quick time events, I cant believe that RE6 got mashed to death and got a 6 for the "quick time events lead to unnecessary deaths" but here no1 seems to care about it, WTF GAMESPOT! WE NEED A LIL CONSISTENCY HERE!
@chun-IDGAF-li I'm gonna agree with ya on that. I hate quick time events. I think it severely dumbs down games. Idk why they can't give us action buttons, and let us do the rest when the time comes to use them. I'll break out my old Simon Says if I want that type of bull$h!t. However, I think this game is good enough to where it isn't ruined by them. It's just an annoyance.
1 Like @chun-IDGAF-li QTEs aren't a bad thing, they are just a interactive cinematic. The story/character development of Lara I find is one of the best I can think of outside of RPGs and the cinematics progress her character. I hate long cinematics, so QTEs are the lesser of two evils. Therefore, Resident Evil 6 is no worse for it. Resident Evil 4 started that style of QTEs and I loved it then, especially since graphics were getting so good we wouldn't need full motion video for everything anymore.
@chun-IDGAF-li Agreed.....if you're looking for consistency, you won't find it on Gamespot. Just watching the trailer of Tomb Raider and I knew this was a boring game, can't believe it got the score that it did when RE6 got 4.5. Don't take Gamespot reviews too seriously, it's just a matter of opinion.
3 Like @chun-IDGAF-li LOL, I haven't died ONCE since I started playing, QTEs aren't hard at all....
I usually don't like reboot too much...but Tomb Raider is the best reboot game I ever played so far!
1 Like I've played every Tomb Raider game and this one is unlike any of them before, and that is a very good thing.
Good stuff. I'm just past the halfway point of the game and thoroughly enjoying it so far. Great gameplay, good graphics, slick combat- with a pretty uncompromising feel to it as you smash rocks into bad guy's faces and stab arrows through their necks- and some nice exploration elements- spent plenty of time just poking about some of the open areas looking for every document, relic etc. One complaint is that the optional tombs have been too easy up till now- other than that, great game. Best I've played in months at least.
2 Like Fun action-packed game. However, it is too short and the MP blows so barely worth the 70 bucks. Also, I wanted to see more actual tomb raiding, not a 2 min-puzzle for a sub-par reward chest.
While I did enjoy this game a lot. It was WAY to short. 12 hours is not an acceptable game length for me. Not for $60. Here's to hoping the sequel is much, much bigger.
But it does have a good level of replay value, surely that is worth something? Hell, this game is no worse to the Metal Gear games, you didn't get much for your money in that series either, not that I'm hating.
@TheEveryMan I'm not seeing much replay value, for me anyways. Now that I finished the story, I don't have any desire to go back and do the tombs I couldn't enter before. The tombs were the most disappointing part of the game. I was expecting something like the tombs in the early Assassin's Creed games. Certainly not just a room with a puzzle to figure out. This was a highly anticipated game for me. I'm sad that it was over so quickly. I took my time and explored every nook and cranny, so 12 hours seems cheap to me. I know it sounds like I'm hating on the game, but I really did love it. I'm just really, really sad it's over already.
It's been a while since I played MGS4, but I don't recall it, or any of the earlier ones, being this short. I could be wrong. I don't remember any disappointment on their game lengths.
1 Like @bonander @wavelength121 if you took your time and explored every place it would take you more than 12 hours. I didn't even get everything and it still took me at least 15.
On another note, a new game+ mode would be awesome though!
1 Like @wavelength121 Not really. Game length and the small tombs are my only ones. I would still recommend the game to friends.
5 Like Right i will write this once more so read carefully. Start putting review scores on the PS3 homepage or you will start pissing people off and you don't want to anger the internet.
@spank555 hmmm, weird, I go to both PC and ps3 and they both have review scores. Not sure what you are talking about....
@spank555 : Thank you for posting this. I thought I was the only one who noticed this annoying trend by GS.
