An Under-Raided adventure
Good:
Solid graphics. The temples to which Lara travels are impressive in their design and scale. Very nice rendering of the city of Japan in one stage's backdrop as well. Lara looks hoooot. Nice touch the way her skin glistens when she steps out of water.
Gameplay. It's derivative but fun. You get through each stage by platforming, puzzle solving and enemy killing. Within each stage, you can search for hidden treasures which unlock outfits, concept art ...yadda yadda yadda. It rarely strays far from the formula but the platforming puzzles save the day. Lara can scale, climb and swing from many things in the environment and doing so is a blast thanks to a helpful control scheme and fluid animations. Those who've played Prince of Persia might feel at home with this. The environmental puzzles are right out of the Zelda series though not nearly as challenging or thought provoking. Push this ball onto this tab to open this door you know the drill. They become a little more complex but not much more. Yet despite this lack of originality, the package manages to come together nicely.
Lara: Voice acted quite well. And she's hoooot. Did I mention the water on her skin? A nice piece of eye candy as your avatar will never ever make a game. But in a good game it hardly hurts. Though I'm sure it could if you ask her nice.
Bad:
Combat: There's no hand to hand combat. Why? The shooting packs zero impact. Never do you feel powerful while wielding anything in Lara's arsenal not attached to her physique. Spit balls would have more impact than the bullets in this game. It doesn't help that there are maybe 3 different kinds of enemies throughout the game and they're all brain dead. And the hybrid shooting and driving motorcycle sections are annoying and not at all fun or exciting.
Graphics: Facial animations during cutscenes smack of early 360 limitations. No where near expressive even for the otherwise stunning Ms Croft. Does this hurt the game too badly? No but it's worth noting.
Camera: Of all the things to drag down a good game this infuriates me the most. In a game such as this where precision and timed jumps are critical to success, the camera absolutely must not impede. And yet it does...grievously! It just will not get out of your way or provide beneficial views sometimes. In many ways it's your toughest enemy throughout.
Indifferent:
Story: A good story can be convoluted (Final Fantasy XII ahem) and that's forgiving so long as you feel invested in the characters and their plight. But I've spent a lot of my time with this game not knowing Lara's motivation and even more not caring. Something about a sword...or Lara's mother I really don't know. Essentially it has no impact on you while you're playing the game.
So there you have it. It's not perfect but it is, at times, impressive thanks to some nice animation, well rendered backdrops and fun platforming. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a lengthy adventure if they'd be willing to forgive the janky camera and uninspiring combat.