Tomb Raider is a fantastic reboot of the beloved Tomb Raider-series, and a great origin to the future Lara Croft.
...but today I love her for other reasons than I did when I played Tomb Raider 2 and Tomb Raider 3 "back in the days". I still remember playing the earlier games, and how my computer barely ran the games. I couldn't fight the final boss of Tomb Raider 3 because my computer would lag like crazy. I enjoyed the run-and-gun John Woo-like action feel of the game, how you could perform awesome stunts while firing your guns. Like many boys at the time, I did notice and enjoy (NOT like that!) Lara's figure, but I was not one of them that had her crawling into walls to hear her make those moaning sounds or watch her behind. I was a boy in my teens. The games back then were just what I wanted; a lot of action, dual-pistols, some cooldown-sections with puzzles, and an awesome heroine.
15 years later, I still love Lara Croft. This is the story how Lara becomes the Croft people like me (older gamers) used to know her like. How does she develop into this gun-toting, strong and smart survivor? She must've been an ordinary girl at some point? Tomb Raider (2013) will show us the origin of our beloved Lara Croft. Lara is a crew member aboard the ship Endurance. The ship is on a geological or archeological mission to find the lost Japanese nation of Yamatai. Lara appears as a side-kick/intern/assistant to a Dr. Whitman, a famed archeologist, and acompany him with the search. Early on, Lara proves her dedication to being a scholar by arguing with Dr. Whitman on the whereabouts of the Yamatai. The captain decides to follow Lara's directions and they head towards the Dragon's Triangle. The ship is hit by a violent storm. Lara is captured by some unknown assailant and this is when the game begins.
Plot,story and immersion
The story and plot are typical to Tomb Raider-games: an old civilization that has a supernatural power of some sort. By the time of writing this review, I have not yet finished the game, but... I could, but I don't want to yet. I want this game to last longer... but I digress. There are character twists and story/narration changes that fit well towards creating the future Lara Croft. The game is pretty linear, but there are various ways of moving on and sometimes you can backtrack to gather more information about your crew or the civilization on the island (through documents). These function well towards creating a better understanding of the characters and further exploring the Yamatai island. Throughout the game we learn to love some characters and possible loath some others. The narration and story focuses on the hardships that Lara has to suffer-- I sometimes find myself baffled by how much pain Lara has to go through, but these are the elements that drive Lara forward and eventually make her the hardened survivor we all know she is.
Graphics and animation
The graphics are good. Lara looks as lovely as ever, and so does the environments. Through the game, we get to control 3 Laras; the first one is simply called "innocent Lara", the second is "Lara Croft", and the last is "Survivor Lara". The only difference between these Laras is the skin. For every skin, she has more marks/scars, bandaged hands and clothes are torn and dirty. What I love about videogames are the little things-- the small details. It makes the game so much more immersive. At least to me. This game is filled with them! Here are a bunch of small details I have noticed and love:
• I really enjoy how Lara reacts to the environment. When Lara is walking in caves or close to a wall, she will reach out with her hand that is closest to the wall and support herself. Also Lara will shield her face when strong winds or hot fires are close by. Awesome!
• Lara will be spending a lot of time in dirty environments, and these environments will color off on her. E.g Lara will get smeared in mud when walking in mud, after a close execution of a bandit she will get covered in blood. These effects will be washed away when Lara spends time in water
• When Lara has just got out of water, she will eventually start to shiver violently and cough.
• Lara takes a lot of pain! Nothing about her style is finesse-like. Just look at the violent, gruesome animations when Lara is falling, sliding down slopes, or thrown from explosions. It's not a pretty sight...limbs flipping everywhere. I'm glad they didn't make these incidents look "pretty"-- It works well with the "realistic", survival'esque theme of the game.
• Lara will eventually be hurt so that she won't be able to climb or jump very well (I think this happens at scripted events about 2-3 times through-out the game). Lara will hobble about, looking weak and poor, drenched in blood or mud, her vision impaired-- I like this because it reminds us that she is not a superwoman...she is just a young adult (21).
• when her handgun-magazine is empty, the slide stops by the slide-stop.
• When Lara is wading in water, she can't jump.
X In one cutscene Lara gets a new handgun and we see a short clip of her pulling back the slide of the handgun, except the slide doesn't get pulled back. The sound is heard and Lara's fingers are animated to do this action, but the slide remains stationary.
Tomb Raider (2013) is a great looking game. It is also a very brutal game with lots of decapitated bodies and gore. Me, personally, have no problem with this -- I think it adds to the realism, desperation and isolation of the game. It is also a nice contrast to the beautiful environments (blood and guts vs. tropical paradise'ish).
Characters look decent, and there are more than one or two body "archtypes". Lara and Sam don't share the same "body type", and the same goes for the other characters (Jonah, Alex, "Fixer", "Scavenger"). Lara, the lead lady herself, looks very good and her movements are animated fantastically. Lara has that drenched look when she emerges from water, and reflections from water and sunshine -- it all looks good on characters.
Tress FX is not included with the console versions (atleast not PS3), but this does not bother me; looking at the GameSpot-footage-- it looks weird. I understand the idea of it-- I've always felt that hair looks stiff and awkward in videogames, but Lara's hair looks great as it is. Give Tress FX a few practice runs, tweak it a bit so it doesn't look...odd, and maybe they will make it work (my opinion).
Combat and gameplay mechanics
The gameplay is often structured into two parts; exploration and action. First, when you encounter a new "map", there will be a break from action and Lara has the opportunity to explore the location, gather gps caches, documents and discover tombs. The maps feature camps where Lara can rest and upgrade skills and weapons using 'salvage' that is found in crates, by looting dead bodies and elsewhere around the island. There is no life bar or energy bar for Lara; the screen goes mono-colored when she is in danger of dying. Some players might find this annoying, but I don't mind it. Most of the time the hud stays hidden -- this I like. When certain skills have been unlocked, searching for collectables becomes easy by using [L2].
The game features lots of quick-time events. As Lara levels up her 'brawler'-skill, she will be able to apply QTE's in real-time which can be a stressful task. Still, I find these QTEs have lots of charm-- they make the games look more movie'ish. "Press a button at the correct time and you will see what you will do". There isn't much skill involved, but they look cool. Combat itself is awesome. The game has pretty decent sneaking/stealth mechanics that allows Lara to sneak from cover-to-cover without killing guards. Often when enemies are encountered, there will be a kind of set-piece e.g. small outposts with lots of ways to kill the guards. I often stay behind cover and look for a way to kill everyone with one attack.
The game is your basic third-person cover-shooter, though cover WILL get destroyed if you stay there too long, and cover is no guarantee that you won't get hit! The AI is great! Guards talk to each other, flank you, flush you and sometimes rush you. They also banter and shout at Lara: "Give up, girl!" , "Damn, where did she get a shotgun?!" , "Don't rush her, she has a machine gun!" , "I see you!" etc. The AI sometimes screw up: two guards where standing in the same corridor, I only saw the first one. I shot him with an arrow. Just at that moment, the other guard came into the corridor and walked -over- his dead friend to whom he recently talked to. Lara isn't as acrobatic or elegant as earlier games, but she still has some good moves: this game focuses more on the realistic aspect of Lara. Her bow has many abilities that will get more powerful as the game progresses.
Lara is best when she gets to be stealthy (I feel). You quickly get exhausted when too many enemies crowd the room. A part from jumping and shooting, Lara can also "scramble" or dodge. This action I find very useful when advancing from cover to cover. When dodging at the right time, Lara gets an opportunity to insta-kill the attacker which is quite nice. The puzzle parts are great, and some can take time to get right while others you master right away. Great use of physics like force and weight.
Sound and music
The sound effects are fantastic! When I play games, I have my audio set-up volume to 8. I know this might not tell you much, but it is semi-loud. The weapons sound so massive and this is something I like. I actually cringe when shooting the shotgun because it makes such a great booming sound. All weapons sound great, from the pistol to the turret. I also like how the upgrades done to the weapons make them sound different. Thumbs up!
I never knew who Camilla Luddington was, and I guess she does a good Lara. I think Lara can sound a bit weird at times (when talking to others), like she's not totally in-tune with her emotions. This could be the way they wanted it to be. The rest of the voice-actors are decent-- nobody sticks out positive or negative. The funny banter between the guards adds to the immersion. All in all, the sounds are great.
The music is decent, but nothing that stands out. The music builds-up when Lara is in a fire-fight, and typical "island music" can be heard (emphasizing on rhythm instruments -- drums, beats, bongos), and yes, it is "atmosphere'ing".
The only problem I have with the sound is this: I use a basic stereo set-up for my gameplay. I don't know if the game doesn't recognize this because the direction of sounds can be hard to decide. When I hear guards talk, I immediately turn the camera around to give me the direction: where does teh sound come from? This I cannot do with this game as sound seems to be mono, or 5:1 jammed into a stereo set-up. There are no way of changing this through the audio options either.
The bad vs. the good
I Love Lara Croft. This game oozes brilliance and I actually feel the need to quit the game because I am afraid that it will end soon... so I am prolonging the near-end of the game. The AI is good, Lara's movement acts and feels right, the game looks gorgeous (so does Lara! BAM!! There... I said it!), guns sound awesome, story and plot are typical for Tomb Raider-games. Lara starts of as this innocent, young girl ("Please come and help me!" she sobs into her walkie-talkie early on) but finishes off closer to her bad-ass survivor-killer Lara Croft we all know from the earlier games. This is the story of a girl becoming a woman...*cliche*.. but it is true.
The multiplayer is decent, nothing new. 4 vs. 4 in different maps doing different tasks -- it's okay. Only thing that annoys me with the multiplayer is that the controls are slightly different than the single-player experience. I hope they make another game resembling this for the PS4.
Final notes:
This game is a great reboot, and it answers questions concerning Lara's past/origin. It is a bloody, gory, realistic portrayal of the future to-be Lara Croft. The alleged rape-scene (I feel I must address this) DOES NOT bother me. I honestly don't believe how much controversy that surrounds this scene. The scene features a bound Lara that is escaping the Solarii. She hides in a small hut, but is soon discovered. Instead of shouting out "I found her!", the guard grabs Lara by the arm and pushes her against a wall. He slides his hand down towards her hip. A QTE ensues and Lara and the guard end up on the ground fighting over a pistol. If succesful, Lara will make her first human kill. If not, she will die... it is mature-themed, yes, but so what?! I feel this is the next natural evolution-- taking that step towards a mature audience. It has nothing to do with sexism or saying that rape is "fine" in videogames... it is simply realistic. It shows a weakness of man, it makes the game immersive. These Solarii men are trapped on this island, there are no other women there and along comes a bound female. The game is rated M for Mature! Don't buy it for your kids! I see the game for what it is presented as being; a survival experience of a young, stranded, isolated woman and how she copes with the physical and mental strains that these elements give. Lara is just out of school, and suddenly she has to hunt for food and kill or be killed!
Ok...I'll leave it at that. Maybe I don't understand the arguments AGAINST this scene. I honestly think this scene is important to this game and to videogames, just as I thought the sex-scenes from Mass Effect was equally important to videogames. Sorry for this if you are offended.
Game Name:Tomb Raider (2013)
Played on: PS3
Hours played: 30-40'ish?
Trophies Achieved: About 70%
Main story length: Hmm... 10 hours maybe?
Similiar games:
The Tomb Raider-games
-similiar adventure-puzzle platformer. Same protagonist different maturity.
"Hitman: Absolution"
-dealing with set-pieces, stealth, combat.