(This is a repost from this blog and therefore the times mentioned in this review are appropiate to when it was originally posted.)
I picked up Tomb Raider on Monday last week and I’ve been playing it
pretty much nonstop and have managed to get the game’s storyline wrapped up
mostly on Normal Difficulty, but there were a few places that I struggled with
and had to lower the difficulty to Easy.
Overall, as my first experience with the kickass Lara Croft I now
consider myself a fan of the character – even if I did at first pick this game
up only so I could be ready for Gail Simone’s tie-in comic coming in February
from Dark Horse Comics. I ended up really loving it as well – it’s actually the
first game that I’ve played with a female protagonist and I couldn’t stop
playing it. Lara’s a well rounded and awesome character and the storyline is
mostly a success as well, with several awesome set-pieces.
The flashbacks in Arrow are frequently the best part of
the CW’s hit superhero series and Tomb
Raider is basically a giant big flashback, rebooting the continuity and
telling the origin story of everybody’s favourite female archaeologist (aside
from maybe River Song). When we first meet Lara she’s still young, naive and
inexperienced. The opening chunk of gameplay leading up to her first kill is
handled very well indeed delivering
some great emotional impact, from the moment that the ship that Lara and
company are on is wrecked to the moment that she kills. The first hour is
mainly set pieces and multiple incidents of repeatedly
button-smashing-and-hoping-for-the-best moves but it’s all leading up to
something big once you are capable of exploring the Island proper. This is made
all the more convincing by the strong performance of Camilla Luddington,
showcasing a Lara that’s out of her depth and clearly struggling with what
she’s thrust herself into. Her character is so well fleshed out and developed
however that the supporting cast feels like two dimensional in comparison –
Reyes, Dr. Whitman, Roth, Grim, Sam etc all being defined throughout the story
in a few simple words – Reyes is the one who is at odds with Lara, Dr. Whitman
is the eccentric fame-seeking explorer and Sam is the damsel in distress, with
both Roth and Grim taking over roles of being to Lara what Obi-Wan Kenobi was
to Luke Skywalker, and Dumbledore to Harry Potter. However, you don’t really
attach to these characters as much as you do to Lara – but thankfully, that
doesn’t rob the plot of its impact, with its awesome ability to switch from
survival epic to more action than you’d find in your average summer blockbuster
within seconds.
The narrative is mostly a solid
success but there is one point worth bringing up. The build-up to Lara’s first
kill is handled exceptionally well and one of the highlights of the entire game
– but following that, she pretty much descends into your standard action hero
and can shoot and kill multiple times with little pause. When you see Lara go
from being horrified over a kill to have gone through multiple men with arrows
– this leads to a break in the narrative. It’s one of the main problems that I
had with Tomb Raider as a whole but
aside from that – the rest of the game pretty much hits every angle spot on. I
don’t have Xbox Live so I can’t comment on the multiplayer aspect – however
from what I’ve seen this is one of those games that like Assassin’s Creed, it doesn’t really need it.
The open world adventure
of Tomb Raider is amazing. As Lara,
you get to explore the entirety of the Island that the character is based on
and whilst I made a mistake in just doing the campaign and not going back to
explore previous areas It’s certainly something that I see myself doing in the
future to try and get my completion score up from 61% to 100, because I’m
certainly going to be interested in playing as Lara again even though the main
storyline is over and done with. There’s a whole wealth of side missions off
the beaten track including plenty of side missions with various rewards. I did
a few of them – and even found a few of them but failed to beat them, so it’s
certainly something that I can see myself revisiting over the coming weeks in an
attempt to get 100% completion.
The overall gameplay of Tomb Raider is pretty solid. There are a
few moments where it’s hard to distinguish between the cut scenes and the
actual action – more than once I died because I still thought I was in a cut
scene and not in the actual gameplay. However – the combat is done pretty well
with a variety of weapons to choose from. You don’t start with everything on
the weapons loadout – indeed, it’s a while before you even pick up your first
pistol – but once you unlock everything the game becomes pretty awesome to play
as indeed. The gameplay feels like a blend of Assassin’s Creed and Batman:
Arkham Asylum/City with a bit of Gears
of War thrown in for good measure – and all of these three franchises I
enjoyed so it was with no surprise that I found myself fully invested in the
game. There are moments where it veers too close to Call of Duty for my liking however – with several press “Y” not to
die moments found inside. That’s a small element of the gameplay that I wasn’t a
big fan of, but the overall narrative and the many other awesome action and set
pieces was more than enough to justify the price that I paid for the game.
The soundtrack is
something that this game has in its favour as well. Most modern game
soundtracks rely on what’s happening on screen, but Tomb Raider has taken particularly good care of its music
department with some great new additions. There’s loud music for action
sequences and quieter music for stealth. So far, so average right? Well, for
good measure, why not have the music switch depending on what tone/genre the
storyline is in at the moment? Why not have the music switch depending on the
change of the environment? Jason Graves does a great job with this so of course
it’s worth noting in the main review.
Whilst I can’t speak for
diehard fans of Lara Croft, I can certainly say that I thoroughly enjoyed this
adventure for the character. It seems like Batman and DC Comics before it, Tomb Raider continues to follow the dark
and gritty take on the character’s origin story that’s newcomer friendly
serving as a hybrid of several gaming types. There’s 3rd person with
a linear narrative – but we also get plenty of flashbacks, as well as an open
world to boot – allowing the user to explore scenes like I’ve already mentioned
above. Whilst some may not like the main storyline switching from a survivalist
take to a fantasy epic – which did bug me a bit, by and large, the game remains
a positive success that certainly has me on board for any future Tomb Raider
games – and Gail Simone’s new comics series from Dark Horse Comics may have
just become one of my most anticipated titles for next year.
Highly recommended. Out of
the three games that have come from 2013 that I’ve had the chance to play – Grand Theft Auto V and Injustice: Gods Among Us, Tomb Raider is
very good. I’m still not sure whether it beats GTAV or not but it’s certainly one of my favourite games that I’ve
played in a while.
VERDICT: 4/5
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