Tomb Raider (2013) Review

Video Review

Intro

Crystal Dynamics developer of the Tomb Raider franchise since Tomb Raider Legend, set out to reboot the franchise with the youngest most inexperienced Lara we have seen.  From a logical standpoint it makes since to start fresh from the beginning, in order to show how Lara turned into the voluptuous-adventuress we know and love.  Simply titled Tomb Raider, this game sets out to redefine the franchise, not only through gameplay, but also Lara's portrayal in general.  While this game succeeds to create a unique, and interesting spin on the series which is expected in a reboot.  That doesn't mean it's done without flaws.

I see youuu

Presentation/Structure/Story

As mentioned this game is meant to be Lara's first "real" adventure.  The one that hardens her, and addicts her to a new lifestyle.  It's obvious from the get go that this new Lara is meant to be more realistic, enabling the viewer to connect with her more as a person, and less of a glorified sex figure.  This is also is shown in her very noticeable breast reduction.  Something that I seriously hope is corrected in this games sequel should it have one.  I mean I definitely wouldn't mind, say if Lara decided to visit a plastic surgeon after this little Island Adventure.  Although I suppose the female gender will be happy that Lara Croft is no longer flaunting a well endowed upper body, poisoning the minds of their boyfriend's into having higher standards when it comes to everyone's favorite "Lady Curves".  All joking aside though this Lara remains my favorite dual pistol wielding, British Accented girl.

Wow! your boobs really are smaller

Graphically this game is a bit hit and miss.  On the plus side it's the best looking Tomb Raider so far.  The reason I say it's hit and miss is because the environments in the game stand-out along with the many explosions.  No, seriously it's almost like this game was directed by Michael Bay because you can't go 20 minutes without an explosion, or some other high octane action scene. The downside of the graphics is mainly seen in the character models, while Lara herself most of the time looks good.  Well, as good as a girl covered in dirt and grime can look.  It's the secondary characters that stand out for their lack of added detail particularly when Lara herself is standing next to them.  Overall I don't really have any issues with the graphics, they're more than acceptable for the game.  At the same time though don't expect this game to as gorgeous as some of the other triple-A titles on the market.  Oh, and occasionally this game did have some graphical hiccups.  Mainly just some collision issues between Lara and the environment.  Where some of Lara's body would enter objects, along with the rare literally going through set-pieces.

Are you sure Michael Bay didn't direct this game?

Dirty Girl

Tomb Raider is set on an Island where Lara, and the rest of the crew winded up ship-wrecked.  Lara must survive on few resources,  while trying to unravel the mystery behind the unnatural storms which caused the characters to become stranded.  I don't feel like the story ever fully came together, despite the intriguing characters, and for the most part good voice-overs.  It probably seemed this way because the ending, was not as satisfactory or mind-blowing as it should've been.  Instead it just came across as a rushed, lame tie-up of the plot.

As I said the game is set on an Island, and this is the location for the entirety of the game.  Which, causes the game to become an extremely cinematic open-world design.  Opposed from the globe trotting, mission based structure which was the foundation of previous installments.  This is a reboot though, so change is both a risk, along with a necessity in order to tread a new path that differentiates from the previous games.  I've never been a huge fan of the open-world design.  I believe this game handles it fairly well though.  The island is split up into different segments, which the player is able to fast-travel between.  New segments of the island are opened up when following the main story.  The story itself is completely scripted, and linear so don't go expecting any real choices to make. The game averages between 6-8 hours on the normal difficulty assuming you do most of the exploring after completing the plot.  By that I mean once the story is finished the player can continue the game with the ability to explore all of the island in order to complete the hidden tombs, find the various collectibles, and kill various random enemies that remain.

BRAAIIIIINNNNSS

The only real issue I had with how the game is set-up has nothing to do with it's new open-world design.  Actually some people may not find it to be an issue at all.  To me it just sort of seemed like the whole game was just too cinematic, with far too many scripted breaking environment segments.  I mean considering this game kind of was trying to be realistic, Lara is the most unlucky girl alive.  Literally everything she touches breaks.  Every time she grabs onto a piece of the environment or passes a certain point, a scripted event will occur.  Whether it be bits of environments breaking from her touch or an explosion to occur.  I mean I'm all for the intense action sequences, but until this game came along I had never seen it so over-used or realized it could become repetitive.  Along with that it seemed like this game used cut-scenes a little too much.  I'm all for cut-scenes I just felt this game didn't need all these short little cinematic moments every 10 minutes.  Some people will love how this game blends all these cinematic moments in with the game play to create more of a movie experience.  Which in turn makes it more pleasurable for whomever may be watching you play the game.  Personally I just felt this game was a little too much of an interactive movie with some game play instead of just large segments of game play.  Like I said though some people are bound to love this, and will be confused when I say it seemed a little excessive.

Gameplay/Fun Factor

This Reboot still retains all the core Tomb Raider aspects but I can't help, but feel that their new cinematic approach.  Along with being more action oriented caused a few of the more fundamental Tomb Raider trademark qualities to be neglected.  First I'll go over the game play elements this Tomb Raider excels at.  That would unsurprisingly be the action which is created through gun-play.  Obviously this game is played through a 3rd-person perspective and the aiming is completely free aim, meaning no lock on button whatsoever.  Lara by the end of the game will become very well equipped in terms of weapons and gadgets. It's got your typical Pistol, Shotgun, and Machine gun that can all be used to decimate your foes.  Possibly the best weapon this game has is the extremely handy bow that can be used to silently incapacitate enemies, along with functioning as a type of grappling hook.  The bow can be used to attach rope to certain areas in the environment to allow Lara to shimmy across chasms, she otherwise couldn't cross with her very impressive distance jumping.  When entering areas where you are undetected by enemies you will be able to choose to approach the game as Sam Fisher approaches every situation, with stealth.  This game has a very basic yet surprisingly satisfying stealth abilities.  It's extremely entertaining to dispatch the natives through well placed arrows.  For those who like their encounters a bit more bloody and personal have the option via Lara's handy little climbing axe which is typically used for, well climbing.  Lucky for Lara though it function very well in the killing department.  She is also able to sneak up behind foes and use the bow for a silent finisher where she strangles her opponents with her bow string.  Everything about the combat is fairly smart and smooth.  There's sort of a built in cover system where Lara automatically crouches behind and hugs walls.  It also has a dodge function that allows for the timing blessed to perform counterattacks on enemies.  Lara's movements at times can feel a little loose during the gun fights, but that doesn't stop the encounters from being any less enjoyable.

Hurry Shoot!

This game is very smart about slowly dishing out the extra equipment for Lara.  Which is something I believe every game should do because it allows the player to constantly gain new toys to play with which makes for a less chance of becoming bored.  Seeing as anytime a player begins to feel tedium, kicking in they are granted with a new piece of equipment.  It also helps that the player can loot bodies and specific objects to gain salvage that can be used for upgrading any weapon.  Each weapon has quite a few upgrades which makes the salvage ability, something the player actually wants to do.

Sadly, not every part of the game play was perfected.  As I mentioned before I feel as if certain areas were a bit neglected.  Sadly these neglected portions used to be extremely fundamental to the whole Tomb Raider experience.  First is the platforming, which in my personal opinion felt way too limited and easy compared to its predecessors.  Platforming in older Tomb Raiders used to feel more free which allowed the certain jumps to be a little difficult.  Now, the path you're supposed to take is very easy, and limited.  Along with majority of the jumps fell as if the game kinda guides your jump.  This makes every jump seem automatic, like there's no risk that your not gonna make it.  To further prove the point I'm trying to make on certain jumps Lara is allowed to jump further then what her normal jump would be.  Showing that Lara's jump distance differs on certain jumps make me believe that they dumb-ed down the whole platforming experience.  Feels kind of like they casualiz-ed most likely to compliment the cinematic approach they had for this game.  I don't want you to think that the platforming is bad, just don't expect it to offer much challenge.  The further you get into the game the better the platforming gets, so keep that in mind also.

The other part of the game play I had an issue with rested in how the so-called puzzles are handled.  I used to feel that Tomb Raider had some of the best puzzles of any game.  I always thought they were cleverly designed, implemented, and also challenging to solve at times.  In this game all of the puzzles are extremely easy with very few exceptions.  They also tended to pretty much all be physics based.  I suppose some people who aren't real fond of puzzles won't really care either way.  Generally I'm not actually a huge fan of puzzles myself in games.  For some reason though I've always really liked puzzles in Tomb Raider, so after having played this game I was a little disappointed.  The best puzzles in the game are actually the ones found in the seven optional hidden tombs.

Puzzles

Online

Aside from the story the only additional content comes in the form of Tomb Raiders lackluster online.  It's quite evident that the online was tacked on simply so they could say they supported an online mode.  The online has 4 separate game modes (all pretty typical), along with a ranking system.  Nothing about the online will make people want to come back for more.  It's a good time waster for about 2-3 hours, and that's all most people will need before moving on.  To be perfectly honest this game shouldn't of even bothered with the online feature, and instead focused all their attention to the story.

Conclusion

Tomb Raider manages to create an interesting spin on the franchise, but doesn't succeed in capturing some of the important fundamentals of previous entries.  The game creates an extremely cinematic, action oriented experience.  This is the most emotional young and relate-able Lara Croft we've seen.  I believe that this is an  excellent attempt at creating a Lara Croft origin story.  One that excels in terms of gun play, slowly dishing out content, and giving the player an extremely satisfying stealth feature.  Various characters combined with their motive makes for an interesting plot, even if it never really fully comes together. The game fails to live up to the standards set from other Tomb Raider games in terms of platforming, puzzles, and *cough*  breast size.  I don't think I'm fully convinced on the direction of this Tomb Raider reboot, and it fails in becoming my favorite Tomb Raider game.  I do think it's a very interesting spin on the franchise one that everyone who has ever been a fan of Tomb Raider should at least try.

Pro's
+ Interesting twist for the franchise
+ Excellent gun play, and  Stealth
+ Realistic Emotional Young Lara is intriguing and creates a much needed origin story
+ Characters and dialogue are well done
+ Great set of equipment and smartly (slowly) dished out to the player
+ Never really got boring
+ Nice implementation of open-world along with extra content at the end

Con's
-Breast Reduction (jk sorta)
-Simplified puzzles (too easy)
-Simplified platforming (too casual)
-Too cinematic with an excessive amount of scripted events (actual becomes repetitive)
-Lackluster Ending, Plot that never fully comes together
-Boring unneeded online