Tomb Raider is a solid reboot that deserves attention from old fans aswell as newcomers.
Having never played any Tomb Raider game through, but a mother who loved the series, and had completed everyone in the series, i felt it was my time to dive into this franchise, now that it finally got a reboot. We have had all the installments lying around at home, but it's no secret that the dominating platformer with shooting elements and treasure hunting were the Uncharted series. At least in our home. I was a huge fan of the Uncharted series, still am, but felt a little thrown off by the third installment. It was by no means bad, but the shooting elements were... well they were bad to be honest, and enemies were cheap. So i had felt a little needy as of lately, and Tomb Raider had definitely caught my attention, so we got it, i slapped it into the PS3, and what do you, it was great!
Tomb Raider has you put into the feet of the franchises main character Lara Croft. This is not like the old Lara by any means. She's good looking yeah, but the pure sexualization of her is gone! Instead you get an insecure and careful Lara, a vulnerable and naive Lara - a human Lara. You're looking for the land of Yamatai, where treasures and myths has its home. When you draw near a storm rips apart your ship, and you and your team: Alex, Grim, Roth, Reyes, Jonah and last but not least Samantha are the only survivors.
After having survived a few challenges, Lara manages to find a radio, and this is basically the game, well at least the main part: find your friends.
To do so, Lara must go through troubles and terrible things to find her mates. The enviroment is hostile, but as if it wasn't enough, there's more lurking on the island than wolves and mean cliffs. I will do my best to avoid spoilers, and so i can only say one thing: the story writing is good, but not great! While it performs as a more than suitable story for a game, it's basically a good Hollywood movie. Unlike Uncharted, there's no humor to be found. Unlike Uncharted, this means that the other characters of the game are all abit bland, and while i tried to like them, they didn't really do much for me. Lara was without a doub the main character, and i would have loved abit more badass attitude at some point, but to keep it real, i think they did do a good job of showing a challenged character, that does what she must, but fear if can't.
The gameplay is rock solid. The platforming was really good, it feels natural, and in my view is actually a lot better than Uncharted. It feels abit faster, even though you can't even sprint with Lara. The momentum you gain in the areas without enemies feel real good, so the pace isn't dragging - this is good!
The combat is very well done too. To begin with, you don't have much to make use of, but it doesn't take a long time before combat gets abit nurished and there's variety. Though it doesn't make the biggest difference in combat of itself, i could feel a difference in my own choices regarding weapon swaps and dodging enemies, even going in after a melee attack. It seems like a game that does a good job of having YOU choose your style of combat. But don't think anything innovative, this is a 3rd person shooter, all though a solid one at that, and to me, this game isn't worse than any dedicated shooter in regards to combat. It has it, and it does it well. The AI can be a challenge, but for the most part, a little cover and timing will do good, don't be too courageous though, you go down quickly if you're being stupid!
Luckily platforming is still the dominating gameplay, which is find proper for a Tomb Raider game.
There's an upgrade system, but we're not talking RPG upgrades, it's a lot like Assassin's Creed, it's not required i wouldn't think, but it's a good idea to make use of, and you will likely have most of the upgrades by the time you're done, or at least a good 3/4 of every upgradeable item. It might not have been needed, but i like the addition, seeing as it did feel like it made a difference at least at the beginning of the game, so i wouldn't dismiss it.
Being a Tomb Raider game there has to be puzzles of course, and while a lot of them were easy, they felt reasonable at the same time. There wasn't any stupid puzzles are braintwisting once. Whenever i froze up, it didn't take long before i discovered the solution and of course it had me go "duh you idiot", but at the same time i was a little proud! For some reason i didn't find there to be enough puzzles, or at least not as varied as i had hoped. Most of them had you use your equipment throughout the game, and while it sounds all right, you don't really have a whole lot of different equipment, so some a lot of the puzzles were basically the same. Those that were well thought out was nice though.
Last but not least the graphics! The graphics are gorgeous! There's no way of explaining the scenery as such, the Island itself is just nice! It keeps a theme all throughout the game, but manages to push in some new stuff along the way. Imagine a game like inFamous, it's more or less the same city you're in for most of the game, but there's still new areas to be seen, and while the theme stays the same, some "levels" change colour scheme either through fire or snow, just to mix it up! (mind you it's open world, but you still keep within zones that feel like levels)
My only major complaint are as follows:
Some cutscenes had you focusing on the bad guys, but Crystal Dynamics didn't even bother to give them there own models, so while you're listening to some bad guy jabbing away, having some personality actually, you just know he's gonna get shot in a minute, since he shares the same exact look as previous guys you have slaughtered.
Secondly is that 'slaughtering' thing. Lara is highly upset the first time she takes a life, but not the 500th time. Mind you, she does say this in a conversation between her and Roth: "i've taken a life. It was easier than i thought"... a little psychopath are we Lara? But then again: it's about survival, so it can be forgiven.
Tomb Raider is a good reboot of a once great series. Lara isn't a total badass yet, but her courage is there, and the next installment are sure to give us a matured Lara with skills and perhaps a personality a lot like the old one. It was fun to discover her origin story through the 12 hours it took me to finish to story! All though there are similarities to the Uncharted series, they are widely different on a lot of aspects. These are as follows:
Tomb Raider has a lot better shooting mechanics, while Uncharted definitely dominates the melee aspects.
Uncharteds platforming is mainly dominated by climbing or hanging off of something, and while this is the case with Tomb Raider too, the pacing is a lot different, and there's a lot of varieties in the platforming elements, which is very cool.
Tomb Raider has a very gritty and dark atmosphere, and it doesn't force any bad jokes down our throats. The character of Lara is precisely as you would want. At the same time, this means that there isn't any comic relief in the game, or the bonds between characters can seem abit... boring. We know who Lara holds dear, and who she doesn't trust, but it's never really delved into the way you would want. She sure as hell don't have a 'Sully' or a 'Chloe' like Nathan has.
All in all, my point is: if you loved the old Tomb Raider, get this! If you didn't love the old Tomb Raider: get this. If you loved Uncharted: get this, if you didn't like Uncharted: get this. Crystal Dynamics has done a great job, and it goes to show that there's still a lot of power in the franchise that's left to be discovered!
I give it a 9/10 !