Tomb Raider (2013) is a prequel reboot of the classic game of the same name. It is an action-adventure/platformer. Survival is the name of the game & you will do plenty of it as you traverse an uncharted island in Japan’s Dragon Triangle. Running, shooting, incredible acrobatic feats & more you will find here.
The opening cutscene has young Lara & crew on an research expedition ship, in search of an old Japanese kingdom of Yamatai, which quickly turns to hell & sets the tone for the rest of the game. About 10 minutes in you will already be fighting to survive, hanging upside-down swinging your analogue stick as Lara does the same on screen. This “tutorial” area sets you up with the basics of controls & what to expect in terms of mechanics & tone for the rest of the game. Needless to say, it does a pretty good job at it. Lighting flammable objects, platforming & light physics puzzles to mention a few.
The plot focuses Lara’s rather abrupt birth into what will be her future career of choice, I certainly don’t the rather grim survival situations she is put through. You will be exploring this mysterious island, its history & your captors meanwhile dealing with said captors, rescuing your friends & ultimately getting off the island. It was an enjoyable story, though I don’t also sing it praises. Characters for one, were lackluster & save for a few were on the annoying side. Most felt like they were there to fill a role & not much else, growth was small at best & yet again, a few only showed any actual motivation for escape outside the obvious “not wanting to die” part, which is understandable really. Yet considering the plot focuses on Lara, she much like the rest felt lackluster. Needless to say, the character part of the plot was not something I enjoyed.
Backstory is filled by the scattered journals & logs thing that is so prevalent nowadays. They do a decent job at feeding into some of the history of the island & its inhabitants, past & present. Besides journals, there are a fair few other things to find & collect, like relics or GPS devices or small challenges per area like burning X amount of flags pertaining to a certain faction or whatnot. All of these don’t particularly add much to the game, at best unlocking concept art & the once again, prevalent experience point RPG mechanic… that thing that was for nerds back in the day & now is hamfisted into everything.
Collecting a certain amount rewards you with skill points that are used to unlocked various things such as being able to carry more ammo, insta-kills, increased EXP rewards for each of the 4 weapons when performing said kills, etc. Sadly, all of these things would matter more if the game were more combat focused, which is not. While is certainly has it shooting & explosions, it is not exactly a constant affair, thought there will be some combat heavy sections that end just as quickly as they start. You have 4 weapons at your disposal, each you while unlock as you play. These are the bow (shocking, yet another fad), assault rifle, shotgun & pistol. Not are particularly impressive, even with upgrades & they are oftentimes used as tools rather than their intended purpose save for the pistol. The shotgun can destroy wooden barriers, the rifle will do the same for metal ones & the bow is the multi-tool of the game, being able to shoot fire arrows, create ziplines, pull objects, take care of your kids & bake you a cake.
The island is divided into sections which will consist as your playground for all your parkour needs for whatever current mission/plot point is at hand. These environments are pretty damned amazing to look at & explore. Ranging from a few forests or high up in the mountains to name a couple. You will revisit most of them a few times throughout the game which will let you explore them in a new light, either due to a plot reason or just plain re-exploring & using whatever new tools you might’ve gotten to unlock a new bit for some loot.
Visuals are outstanding for the most part, some robotic looking animations in regard to characters but overall top-notch, especially as mentioned, in regards to the environments. The sound department is where the game takes the cake, while the weapon sounds are not standout, it is the ambient sounds that shine & made Tomb Raider a trip to play. A notable one to me was a tiny detail at a certain point in the tutorial area, where Lara is splashing about neck deep in water in a tiny tunnel, she puts her hand to the wall for balance & hearing it as it scrapes against the rock was certainly something for me. Another notable one later in the game is hearing your footsteps in a certain moment of tension, everything is burning & you can hear the crackle as the fire rages & to top this high tension moment, hearing the echoes of gunshots & voices as try your best not to get caught. Lastly, lets not forget being thousands of feet up in the air & hearing the wind rushing by & having the fear of heights set in. Needless to say, soundwise, this for sure has it & definitely recommend playing with headphone or a headset.
All in all Tomb Raider I found to be a visually & sound-wise a top-notch experience, even if some aspects I felt were not something I would personally sing praises for. For example the plot & above that, the characters & average combat, movement & lack of replay value. I am possibly jaded by “been there done that” syndrome but by no means is this a game to miss & for sure I had my fun exploring & looking at the amazing areas. So regardless of my jaded demeanor, a game for sure to play at least once.
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