Tomb Raider (2013)

Tomb Raider is a reboot of a franchise that seem to have become formulaic. Tomb Raider attempt to break the franchise's formula. However, Tomb Raider has become more of a action shooter than an adventure title leaving no justice to Tomb Raider title.

Tomb Raider starts off really slow. This is not the kind of game for player who just want rush right into the game play. The game has many dialect sequences and scripted event. Tomb Raider eventually picks when the game starts to focus heavily on combat. The exploration of Tomb Raider seems to diminish when after combat is introduced. While there is a ton to collect in the somewhat open environment, the player is likely to return for exploration upon finishing the game. The only reason to explore the environment the first time is to search for salvage. While the game starts off as an exploration game, it will change course to an action shooting game.

Tomb Raider uses a generic combat system in which the player must hide behind cover. There are also new game play mechanics such as sniping and even stealth which certainly changes the combat compare previous Tomb Raider titles. In the past, the combat used auto-aim in which the player only choice of action is to attack and dodge bullets. The combat improved in Legend but was still very simplified. In Tomb Raider, there are much more options in the combat system. While the combat feel just the same as other popular games such as Gears of War, the combat has been expanded upon.

The stealth mechanics in Tomb Raider are broken. Stealth only works from long range but strangling an enemy from behind only works when the player is introduced to it. There no possibility of executing stealth kills since enemies are often accompanied with another. Player can try to lure enemies from each from with distracting sound but I find that never works. If  you are looking for game like Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid, you will not find it in Tomb Raider. If there is any benefit from the broken stealth mechanics, the enemy AI is pretty smart.

Three enemies together; don't expect to perform a stealth kill.

Early in the game, hunting is introduced as a game play mechanic. This mechanic is not well utilized. Yes, hunting does earn the player salvage which can be used buy skills but salvage can also be found everywhere, from enemies and crates. There is no really need to hunt if the players desires not to.  Metal Gear Solid 3 utilize hunting better in which Solid Snake's stamina drains overtime if he does not eat. This is exactly what Tomb Raider should of done. The only reason to hunt is to obtain skills only obtainable by hunting.

Some skills don't effect the game play much while others prove to be quite useful. For example, there is a skill that allows animal to be more numerous for hunting which would be useful if hunting was well utilized. Lara can also obtain some useful skill such throwing sand in enemies faces or using an ax to combat them in close quarters. Some skill will also be required throughout the game, usually upgradeable weapons such the crossbow which will be used to create a zipline. Some skills are useful and other, not so much.

Lara's movement really does portray how a new adventurer should be. From the start of the game, Lara struggles to hang on ledges and instead of preforming some fancy flips to dodge enemies, she ducks  to scamps across the ground. Unfortunately, Lara can grasp ledges well too soon but on the other hand; if Lara struggled at every ledge, the pacing of the game would slow down drastically so this problem in character development is can be easily forgiven.

Tomb Raider holds the player hand almost all the way through. Throughout the game, there are hints displayed on screen in case the player forgets what to do. I would not have a problem with this as long there is a way to disable it via the options menu but there isn't. Veteran players such as myself will probably will be annoyed with this. Tomb Raider fails to challenge experienced player.

There controls work as they should. When player dies, it is his or her own fault not the game. The combat is very fluid. The buttons are laid out where they should be. Ever button does something. However, Tomb Raider does not take advantage of the trigger button analog feature. So, if player already press the right trigger button, he will not be to withdraw the shot by slowly releasing the button. Thankfully, a  held shot can be canceled by simply letting the left trigger to lower the weapon.  For combat, there no cover button. If Lara needs to take cover, she will automatically just hugging against a cover wall of some kind. There isn't really much to say about the control other than they are fully functional with no major issues.

Tomb Raider looks great. There isn't many places indistinguishable from invisible walls. The path is clear cut with minor exceptions. There is no lag or screen tearing. I have not come across in any graphical errors. Tomb Raider goes for gritty style which I don't care for. I prefer colors in my games. The gritty style does however match the tone of dark plot. Tomb Raider takes place at night for most of the game so expect a lot of darkness. Most of light player will see is fire and explosions and there is a lot of it. Expect to be looking at a lot of grays and many hues that make fire. 

Promotional art does indeed represent majority the game well.

Lara Croft for once looks like a real person compared the inappropriate exploitable Croft we knew from the Playstation games. She feels legitimately strong than her Playstation counterpart in which she looked exaggerated. Even in Legends, Anniversary and Underworld, Lara looked unappealing to take seriously. In Tomb Raider, I can respect Lara as a strong character. On the PC version of Tomb Raider, there is some new hair physics using TressFX. while the texture looks great but altogether, Lara's hair seem to flow unrealistically. Even if the hair physics did work, I feel this was an unnecessary graphical change. The money for the technology could been used for development of the game play rather than hair physics...or even improving TressFX for something that more worthwhile. Though I am not currently not a fan TressFX and the gritty style but the presentation overall is well done.

My gripe biggest gripe with Tomb Raider is that it does not feel like Tomb Raider. The plot and the environment of game present itself well as a Tomb Raider title. The enemies however feel generic with exception of the cannibals and samurais. There no other unique enemies such as dangerous wildlife, mythological monsters or anything like that.  We got our  demonic enemies near the end just like previous titles although the game seemed like it was setting up something bigger than what we got. Needless to say the end boss was disappointing. Tomb Raider also lacked tombs. The takes place mostly on the island with only only one major tomb. There are optional tombs but for Tomb Raider game, there needs to be more to do to merit this game as Tomb Raider.

There is a ton of downloadable content, and sadly, most if not all are not worth your money. The content range from alternate outfit and weapons to multiplayer maps. There is even DLC for in-game unlockables for the single player modes so players would be paying to cheat in the game. Tomb Raider: Underworld got two single player campaigns. I don't know if those DLC are worth it because I never played those but at least they are something more than extra costumes and cheats. Square-Enix should feel ashamed for releasing this kind of content.

I know that I harped on Tomb Raider a lot, but I do like this game. The platforming and combat is well done. Lara Croft was portrayed very well as an inexperienced explorer despite minor issues in her character development. While the world is not quite open, there is much to explore and to collect. If development went on longer to flesh out some of the game play mechanics and options as I mentioned above, Tomb Raider would of been a much better game than what was released. Overall, Tomb Raider gets a recommendation. It is far from what I call a Tomb Raider title, but it is still worth a play as a solid action-adventure game.