A reboot that evolves the combat, platforming and puzzles with powerful results
Lara's journey begins on the ship Endurance with a small crew in search of the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Lara's intuition sends the Endurance through a mighty storm that breaks the ship in two. While some of the crew escape on lifeboats, Lara washes up on a mysterious island and is taken captive by crazed inhabitants. The Solarii inhabitants have been trapped on the island for decades. Lara's adventure will unearth a sordid past of gruesome sacrifices and remnants from World War 2. Anyone who tries to leave the island is killed by powerful storms. Lara and her friends must find the source of these storms before they can escape.
The atmospheric beginning of the game centres on survival. Lara escapes the Solarii before isolation drives her to shelter. She is tasked with finding food using a newly acquired bow. After apologising to a dying deer, she skins the creature for its meat. This is the only time in the entire game, spanning several days, where Lara needs food or water. Her ankle even gets caught in a bear trap, yet she moves freely minutes later. There is massive schism between the survival narrative, told through cut scenes, and the action game design. The engrossing atmosphere is preserved until the conclusion, but survival aspects are mishandled or tossed aside. Tomb Raider is not a survival game and rarely tries to bridge the gap that indicates otherwise.
You may become attached to Lara through the hardships she faces and not because of her subdued personality. Lara gets battered and bruised more than any other hero in recent history. She endures a monastery exploding in flames, buildings collapsing, zip-lines breaking, planes falling and winds ripping walls apart. There is very little revealed about Lara beneath her scratched, muddied exterior. The back story is limited to a handful of flashbacks that don't lead anywhere. Lara's campfire journals offer brief, predictable insights into a character that you desperately want to know. Camilla Luddington has a great voice, but her timely moans are more prominent than her conversations or monologues. Lara stands tall during adversity but you are seldom exposed to a deeper personality.
The design of combat is separate from the survival themes. It is the most improved aspect of this reboot and very different from previous Tomb Raider games. It clearly takes inspiration from the Uncharted series with fast aiming, nimble movement, close over the shoulder view and melee importance. Platforming during combat is carefully managed and exploited by foes. You take cover behind boxes and walls automatically. You crouch behind cover and peak out naturally when you aim. Exploding red barrels are found almost everywhere and enemy grenades force you from cover. Your arsenal is fairly balanced and you'll rarely need to worry about ammo. The vastly different combat is a wholesale improvement over the previous games and matches many modern shooters.
When enemies get close, you can use Lara's agility to perform sneaky moves. Your melee weapon, a climbing axe, is not a great option unless enemies are weakened. Instead, you scramble on the ground to avoid attacks. You can throw dirt at nearby enemies to make them vulnerable or give yourself time to retreat. It is possible to counter melee attacks and carefully plant an arrow in an enemy's knee. Certain skills produce horrific finishing moves on injured Solarii. The scramble and melee counters make the action even more fun when enemies get close.
Stealth occurs naturally when nearby enemies are oblivious to your presence. You can get close to foes, as their vision is very fair compared to the size of levels. You are able to silently choke enemies from behind and avoid detection without firing a weapon. The bow is most useful during stealth; silent headshots are easy to achieve and arrows distract enemies. Certain scenarios craft wonderful stealth experiences. One such scenario has you moving through a forest under darkness while Solarii guards scour the area with flashlights. You can use the trees for cover, wade through the central river or use the zip lines to come from behind. Most sequences don't give you the chance to sneak around. Given the quality of the stealth, it's a shame there wasn't more of it during the game.
Platforming is more forgiving and pleasurable than its predecessors due to its brevity. Lara can scale ledges, slide over zip lines and swing on banners. A climbing axe is used to latch onto visually unique rocks and clamber around perilous cliffs. Zip lines allow for faster movement between areas and often replace tedious back tracking. Lara's movement requires less ruthless precision, unless you are dropping from one zip line to another. You won't be redoing many long platforming sections because the game saves frequently. There are no lengthy sections where Lara uses her upper body strength while you stare at walls. The platforming is less important, but Lara is still nimble and strong when she needs to be.
Most puzzles have been relegated into the optional, basic Tombs. The campaign has puzzles, but they rarely hold you up for more than a few seconds. The puzzles in Tombs are not dissimilar from those in Half-Life 2. They might involve weighing down a seesaw to leap towards climbable rocks. Or you may need to drag a pontoon across electrified water. Tombs only take a few minutes to complete and much of that time is spent crawling into them. Completing Tombs is not very fulfilling partly because you open identical chests which provide treasure maps of nearby collectables. Tombs are optional and easy, but they should have been more involving to give a sense of accomplishment. Crystal dynamics have proven themselves proficient in puzzle design, so it's a shame the puzzles are brief and hidden away.
You have access to varied tools that are used to progress or find hidden collectibles. From the opening sequence, a torch is used to set objects on fire to create explosions or release salvage. Salvage is then used to upgrade weapons with more damage or faster reloading. Once you get the shotgun, it can tear down barricades exposing hidden relics. The rope arrow can latch onto objects and create zip lines. The ascender provides rapid movement on zip lines or a way to pull heavy objects. These tools are steadily exposed to you so you can unlock areas you may have spotted minutes before. Having the entire tool set makes exploring the beginning areas quite liberating.
Tomb Raider is a pleasure to continue playing after you've finished the game. You are free to fast travel to campsites in each of the areas. It's not an open world game but you can explore to finish tombs, find relics or do other side tasks. Some areas, like the beach, are brimming with visual splendour and wildlife. The game repopulates areas with oblivious enemies that you can shoot or stealth your way past. This increased opportunity for stealth will make you wonder why there wasn't more during the campaign. Instinct mode highlights collectibles but isn't required. Tomb Raider is a relaxing game to play, even on the hardest difficulty, and returning to the world is more fun than you might expect.
Tomb Raider is a good reboot because it reinvigorates a constrained and predictable series. It's a shame the survival aspects are not perpetuated when the premise is ideal for it. Lara's personality is also hidden under her toughened and beaten exterior. It's fortunate that the game is so delightful to play, whether you are jumping, shooting or exploring. The brevity of puzzles and platforming is the special recipe that pulls the series from it's over reliance on those aspects. Puzzles could be more prominent though, especially when most are optional. The combat is smooth and stealth is the perfect complimentary element. Tomb Raider might not be a game about survival, but the changes it introduces will keep the franchise alive for years to come.