Tomb Raider Review
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The Good
Tomb Raider PS3 is a very good game, I really enjoyed the experience and the effects they created within the game.
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.
By
Carolyn Petit, Editor
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.
26 comments
After playing games like resident evil 6, i had given up hope on expecting anything good, when it comes to major genre overhauls to the classic games ive loved for so long. Though i met this game with much anticipation, much like metal gear rising as well, it was mostly negative anticipation. That being said, once i played this game, much like metal gear rising again, it completely convinced me that genre overhauling in games can be done right, and reboot isnt exclusively a dirty word. very very impressed. more of an action game than traditional TR titles for sure, but maintained enough of the desirable elements from the originals. Ive been a TR fan since the beginning, besides that i tend to greet ANY reboots with initial skepticism. I was made a fool by this title. I truly havent been so enamored in a game since the late 90's when zelda ocarina of time came out, which ironically enough i actually saw this game as TR meets zelda in a lot of instances. its been a great first quarter this year for games, TR tops the list for me, its on my top 5 best games of this generation list easily. fantastic game all around. i gave it a 9. I just hope capcom is taking some notes from the likes of this masterpiece when it comes to making big changes in gameplay to games like RE. This is how its done.
1 Like This is a great generic action game, not a Tomb Raider game. Square Enix should deliver the franchise to another producer that bring us a sexy Lara again and exploration.
@ErickPS4 A sexy lara? are you saying you want a torpedo breasted moron of a girl with skin tight clothing like the past Tomb Raider games instead of one like this where Lara is shown to be a human being with realistic proportions and normal clothing? Talk about having bad priorities.. i'm all for more exploration in future Tomb Raider titles , but i liked the fact that Lara was made to be a real women instead of a walking pair of breasts like all the past games. I'll stick with a flawed but realistic Lara Croft from this new Tomb Raider over the shallow one from her past games thank you very much.
@ErickPS4 I don't agree with you, but i can absolutely understand where you're coming from. I feel the exact same way about RE6 when 9/10 other people loved it. Reboots are rough for us enthusiasts who hold dear to the classic titles in a series that are still clearly better. I thought it was good, but not the best. I still hold TR2 in the highest regard. I do however agree with the exploration, felt too linear for an open world game at times, and the tombs were SERIOUSLY lacking.
1 Like Lack of T rex and other cool enemies keeps this from getting a 9. i really love how they made this game more violent. The old Tomb raider games could of used some gore.
Tomb Raiders deception...err I mean Uncharted Tomb Raider. Ahh hell, its Tomb Drake. I miss some of the old elements and I'm not at all upset its crafted after the best adeventure series in the last 10 years - you know the one. really glad to see this rebooted. Carolyn Petit, there are numbers in the alphabet other than 8.5...there is 8, 9, 9.5, 7.5....you get my drift. 8.5 is like your hammer - you use it on every problem!.
"Carolyn we'd like you to review Tomb Raider" Carolyn "8.5...er wait what? sure i'll get to it this weekend"
Comecei a jogar ontem, só fiz a primeira fase, a primeira impressão é de que visualmente o jogo tá lindo demais, mas a parte que requer itneligência tá boba, só vi um puzzle, mesmo assim cheio de dicas pra ser resolvido em 10 segundos. Essa primeira fase tem uma razoável área de exploração da ilha, achei um pouco menos linear do que os TRs antigos, joguei no estilo Tr que curto, não terminei a fase enquanto não achei todas as coisas que tinham pra ser achadas. Nesse ponto, muito ruim (péssimo mesmo) o lance do salvamento automático, fica inviável jogar um jogo de exploração dessa forma, sem a gente poder guardar pontos estratégicos pra poder voltar atrás no jogo, um porre essa meleca, pra mim o grande defeito do game. Essa primeira fase não tem combate, Lara só é atacada por lobos, então lembra ainda os TRs antigos, não sei se isso vai mudar depois, mas parece que sim pelos comentários que li aqui e em outros lugares, isso me preocupa, pois TR Legend começou lindo, cheio de desafios, mas depois caiu numa chatice insuportável de combates e corridas de moto, espero que esse novo TR não caia nesse mesmo problema, pois a exploração e os puzzles precisam conduzir o jogo, e não os combates. Pra essa primeira fase, dou nota 9, pois mesmo sendo uma fase fácil (normalmente as primeiras fases dos jogos são mais fáceis mesmo), tem bastante exploração e quase nenhum combate, o arco é focado apenas na sobrivência da Lara na mata, ou seja, lidando com animais, com gráficos maravilhosos, som de alta qualidade, uma Lara linda demais e muito realista, sem contar que os controles estão muito bons de mexer, só não gostei do "quadrado" agora ser o botão de ação pra pegar objetos, preferia quando era o triângulo, já tava acostumado.
1 Like Have no idea why everybody is upset by the multilayer its way way better then any CoD game and I am having a blast with it.
Great game well worth the 60$
I've Watched The Pulse advert for over 1000 times and I still cant figure out what is it for and i could not care less.
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Got the game yesterday .. Played for about 7 hours
Overall the game is cool .. Graphics , sound acting , action and adventures are very good
But
I think it is far from Lara's biography .. I felt like playing a good game but not Tomb Raider as known from previous games ..
Moreover for the first part which i player till now i feel that the enviroment is over messy .. Over loaded with graphical details which will cause dizziness for long session players
The game is worth playing .. Highly recommended .. My score is 8 due to the lack chalenging combats till now
It is a good game in my opinion. Got the game and played a few hours yesterday and I love it. I think they did well developing the game and don't know if possible but I look forward to possible sequels with the same style. I recommend this game
Also no offense to the Gamespot team and reviewers but it does seem that your reviews and game scoring is a lot stricter? I understand because its compared to other games around and that are coming out and you can't give all games a 9/10 I guess.
Thank you for giving a review for the PS3 version as well, with actual PS3 game footage in it.
Just got this game yesterday...And it is great......I love the style of gameplay and the graphics.....This is a must play game....
I'm loving this game. Need to play it on hard though for the proper challenge. Tomb raiding is ok, but nothing special. Graphics, game play, voice acting, controls/mechanics, story all top notch. I gave it a 9.0 and could be talked into a 9.5. Very on par with UC3...
Hmmmmmmmmmmm! Still not convinced! :/
It looks like a good game yeah, but i'd rather they just launched it as a new IP and left the Tomb Raider trademark out of it. The franchise was one of my all time favorites, re-launching it from a new angle wasn't necessary in my personal opinion, it was great as it was.
They've made a nice job of it at least.. Bonus points for that.
I sure was hoping that the new DLC will be for single player in-game too ! too much content is offered to multiplayer all the time ! GREAT JOB GUYS ! I DO LIKE THIS GAME !
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Tomb Raider
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Square Enix
- Developer(s): Crystal Dynamics
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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