Tomb Raider - Review

Tomb Raider - 2013
Created by Crystal Dynamics
Published by Square Enix
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

This Tomb Raider is a complete reboot and origin story, depicting how Lara Croft became the 'Tomb Raider'. Surviving on her own, solving puzzles and using her initiative to do the right thing. Many have waited for a chance to be Lara again, here it is.

Story:
A young Lara (21) and her friends go on a journey to explore an island called Yamatai in search of mysteries, the boat Lara is on, the SS Endurance gets torn apart and shipwrecked during the night. Lara and her friends are stranded on an isolated and apparent uninhabitable island within the dragon's triangle off the coast of Japan (much like the Bermuda triangle). Trying to stay alive and find her friends she explores different parts of this island. This island was once ruled by a queen called Himiko, the 'Sun Queen', with powers to control the weather. There isn't much to say about the story as anything I tell will give away major plot points.

Gameplay:
There's a load action, rocks to climb, ropes to dangle from and a lot of ledges to cling to. Save points just happen (auto save) throughout the story and whenever you get to a camp which is nice, because playing the game without saving makes it so simple. Camps can fast travel to other major areas on the island. The hunting part of the game is good, because everything you kill, be it bird or boar you will gain experience, and it's no where near as important as in Assassins Creed 3 or Far Cry 3. It does seem a bit silly that you get more experience killing a rat, than a human though.

In the game you will gain access to a bow, pistol, machine gun and shotgun. They are not overpowered but will be realistic in the way you can get an instant kill with a headshot. The way you upgrade your weapons is also not too taxing, you scavenge for parts in any wooden box, container or chest you see giving you a currency-like amount to then spend on upgrades. Although it's simple to upgrade, how does she do it? Somehow scavenging useless things, even using your imagination I have no idea how Lara creates extended magazines and silencers for her pistol etc. I mean seriously, for an isolated island in the dragon's triangle, with constant deadly storms that smash any aircraft or boat near the island, where it hasn't been accessed in centuries, no way of getting resources. How?

With a tap of a button you can access Lara's survival instinct, making everything you see black and white apart from important objects and loot which is glowing gold. This feature is extremely helpful in certain circumstances because it will show you the pieces of the puzzle, and leaving the rest to you. Colours, graphics, motion capture, the lot are amazing. It plays really smoothly and is really easy to get used to.

Compared to other TR's:
Having played all of the other Tomb Raiders and seeing Lara in a different light this was, rather unexplainable. The action side of the game had escalated with awesome weapons that are given to you on your journey, especially the bow, but the game is completely lacking in story and imagination.

Achievements:
Throughout the game you will eventually get achievements linked to how well you are doing in terms of kills and upgrades. Apart from actually finishing the game, there are no other story achievements which was a bit of a let down, I wanted some kind of 'physical' acknowledged accomplishment. I'm also a bit annoyed that there are 15 multiplayer achievements, since I don't have XBL gold at the moment their inaccessible all together, lame.

Pros: 
Fun action sequences

When Lara gets a hold of a second pistol.. right at the end.

Cons:
Getting home and eager to play with family, we put the disc in, installed the update and got it roaring. Within an hour of playing the game, it froze the console completely. Apparently this has happened to a few people I know on the 360 version, so I think it'd be a bit better to play on PS3 or a decent PC. Not off to a good start. 

Seemingly Inconsistent - In one clip where a friend is in trouble and bleeding, Lara pulls out a bandage and wraps it around his limb. Where did she get this from? She didn't have it, it wasn't on the floor and he didn't have it either. 'kay..

She's climbing a majorly tall broadcasting transmitter, right. And as she climbs, thing are bending and snapping off as she gets higher and higher. When she reaches the top, where it should be the worst as it's subject to weather wear, it shouldn't even hold her but she pushes herself away from the tower on this tiny rusted crows nest, yet nothing happens. And here I thought this game was supposed to be extremely realistic.

Slightly glitchy at the moment. A few times while playing, Lara has froze or moved to another spot on the floor and people have found a glitch that makes her look as if she's not wearing a top!

Blobs in your face. ALL THE TIME. I mean they're not even blood splatters! Just random red, slightly opaque hexagons filling the screen when getting shot, injured or walking through blood pits etc. It gets really annoying and distracting. Like the photo but a tad more.

Characters. They're cool and all but without reading all the journals picked up on your way through, you don't really get to know them. I think this is needed improvement. I didn't feel attached to the characters so whenever something bad happened I wasn't upset.


My Rating:
7.5/10

Notes:
I really thought this reboot was going to be totally re-imagined, but with new publisher Square Enix (formerly Eidos) looking over Crystal Dynamics' back, I think it lacked majorly in the story department, as with most other recent Square Enix games. The game was fairly short considering there are optional tombs to explore, but another major thing lacking in the game, these small majority of tombs will only last around 5-10 minutes each. I finished the game within 7 hours at 78%, all I have left are the other couple of tombs, a few hidden items and 1 upgrade on 2 of the 4 weapons. The game is said to take around 13 hours if you want to gather everything and play a bit of multiplayer too, but ended up a short for me because I skipped a few cut-scenes I had seen earlier on in the day.

If you are considering purchasing Tomb Raider, please do so on PS3. The multiplayer is free, graphics ever-so-slightly better and the game is (Apparently) less glitchy making the game a bit more enjoyable.