Review - Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider

Crystal Dynamics

Windows (reviewed), PS3, Xbox 360

Action-Adventure, Survival, Platformer

March 5, 2013




The Preamble

My introduction to the Tomb Raider games was on the original Playstation, fighting bears and doing cartwheels through massive caves and tombs. I played the first two Tomb Raider games when I was young and absolutely loved them. Since then, I've dabbled with some of the interim Tomb Raider games (Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light), but wasn't sucked in like I had been what I was younger.

I wasn't able to get around to playing the game until now due to the number of big releases during March. But I've finally gotten around to it, and since I waited, I was able to get the game for just about $15. This just goes to show, unless you really need to play a game at release, you're likely much better off waiting for a month or two after the release date to pick up PC games, you can often save a ton of cash.

The Overview

Crystal Dynamics has taken the reins in bringing us a brand new reboot of this classic series keeping the same name as the original: Tomb Raider. A lot has changed since our busty friend was raiding tombs back in 1996. The 2013 Tomb Raider gives us a different look at Lara Croft, as a person, and how she stumbled into this tomb raiding life.

The game begins on an exploratory vessel, the Endurance, where Lara and a group of colleagues are in search of the lost kingdom of Yamatai. After much deliberation with her crew, Lara convinces the group that they should head toward the Dragon's Triangle. As they venture into this mysterious place, they are thrown into a violent storm by unexpected weather, forcing them to crash land on a stray island in the triangle.

This is where the real adventure begins. Lara must find her lost comrades, survive the tumultuous island, and find a way home. You'll utilize Lara's innate survival skills, climbing expertise, and weapon handling to accomplish this task, all the while uncovering the secret that the island holds within.

The Good

• A Lara Croft you care about. While Lara's story arc doesn't provide a whole lot of realism, with the help of spectacular graphics fidelity and voice acting, we're able to see and relate to a much more human Lara Croft than we saw in previous games.

• The graphics are spectacular. Crystal Dynamics' Crystal Engine is downright beautiful. Lara and the environments with all the different particle effects look spectacular. Like BioShock Infinite or Far Cry 3, this was yet another game where I was constantly snapping screenshots for desktop wallpapers. The first thing that popped into my mind every time I started this game up was: "God damn, this looks great."

• A big part of what makes the graphics shine so much are the masterfully executed animations. Lara's movement is as fluid as can be. You can literally see the effect of every change in the environment on her actions. This type of polish and precision with characters and environment animation definitely makes this title shine.

• The voice acting is flawless. The voice acting for Lara is done by Camilla Luddington. While this beauty doesn't resemble a cart wheeling, rock climbing, bow wielding badass like Lara in real life (to me, at least), she does a great job of voicing her character.

Complete and utter badass.

Voice of... complete and utter badass?!

            

• Crystal Dynamics did a great job with the environment and set pieces in this game. Walking out into a brand new area of the map and seeing a great landscape of old structures and ruins to scale and explore is a great feeling. You will definitely appreciate the level design in this game.

• What's a Tomb Raider game without Lara's signature double pistols?? Well, those pistols aren't as prevalent in this iteration of the series, but with the addition of the bow, combat is better than ever. Bow and arrows seem to be extremely popular now for some reason (Far Cry 3, Crysis 3) and Tomb Raider aims to carry that torch a little further. They accomplish it with flying colors in this release. While the double pistols and various other firepower is available for Lara to use throughout the game, the bow is by far the most satisfying, and makes every combat experience a joy to jump into.

• As I mentioned before, the environments are massive and very well designed. There are often times numerous paths to an objective, and the openness of the areas make for a great feeling of true exploration. While most of the exploration isn't necessary unless you want to find the plethora of collectibles that are made available to you, traversing the environment alone is enough fun to compel you to explore every inch of the map.

• So what about the actual tombs?! Well, they're awesome. Just like the large, open areas of the game, the more confined tombs that contain intricate puzzles are an absolute blast to figure out. I just wish there were more of them!

• Minimal HUD and intuitive controls. Tomb Raider properly introduces you to controls by flashing the button indicators on your screen at first, but after a while, they disappear. While this may sound annoying, it's actually not. Less 'gamey' stuff on the screen makes for a far more immersive experience, and you are trained in such a way that the first button you go for in these situations is more often than not, the correct button. Great design in this respect!

The Bad

• What happened to hunting?? In the first mission, you are introduced to your bow by being tasked to take down some deer that are roaming the area. Outside of a couple scripted wolf encounters, you are basically never threatened by an animal again. One of my favorite parts of the old Tomb Raider games is having to deal with bears, moutain lions, cougars, and the like. Unfortunately, there is far more human killing than animal killing in this game.

• Tomb Raider has been transformed more into a third person shooter than a puzzle platformer. While the combat, especially with a bow, is really well done in this game, there's an awful lot of it for a Tomb Raider title. While combat sort of took the back burner in a lot of former titles, for better or worse, it's much more in the forefront in this release. This is fine with me, except for the fact that I was craving more puzzle content (see below).
• The puzzle tombs were great, but there needs to be more of them. These were one of my favorite parts of the game, but there were not nearly enough of them in this release. I remember there being countless platforming puzzles in prior Tomb Raider releases and in this game you can probably count all of the puzzle tombs on your two hands.

The Verdict

Tomb Raider is one of the best games that I've played this year. If I had to pick a GOTY right now, it would be a tough pick between BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider. Even with it's flaws, this reboot is a must play for any fan of the franchise, or even the third person/platforming genre in general.

To set the hook even further, the price of picking up Tomb Raider on PC has dropped significantly since release. Keep an eye on Steam sales and sites like Green Man Gaming for amazing deals (in the past week I've seen it on sale for less than $20!).

All in all, if you want to see one of the more impressive games of this generation, do yourself a favor and pick up this game!